Posted on 09/06/2009 10:04:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Here's your chance to find out who has been visiting the White House
Here's your chance to help figure out who has been visiting the people's house during the early months of the Obama administration.
Although President Barack Obama has announced that he will make public the names of visitors to the White House, there's a catch.
Under the new White House policy, names of visitors during the first eight months of the administration will be released only if the requests include specific names to be checked against the visitor logs. In other words, if you don't know who visited, or can't guess who might have visited during this period, the White House won't tell you.
To make it easier for members of the public and journalists to check the visitor list, we're providing a fill-in-the-blanks request form.
You have three options:
Just click on this link to start an e-mail with your request. Fill in the blanks with specific names, and send the e-mail.
If you prefer to use a word processor to print out and mail your request, here's a Microsoft Word version of the letter.
And here's a plain-text version that you could paste into any word processor.
If you need help with names of lobbyists or campaign donors to check in the White House records, here are two resources: the Federal Election Commission's database of campaign contributors, and a database of Washington lobbyists from the Center for Responsive Politics. The Obama administration announced Friday that it would post visitor logs online, starting with visits after Sept. 15, 2009. They will show the name of the visitor, the name of the person requesting clearance for the visitor, and dates and times of visits.
But there were limits:
The logs will be released after delays of 90 to 120 days, so the first records should be posted near the end of the year.
The White House said that certain "sensitive" visits, such as those by potential Supreme Court nominees, will not be revealed immediately — although the White House says it will tell how many visits are withheld on this basis, and will release the names later, "once they are no longer sensitive." Information on the arrival times of White House stafff, and the names of sensitive National Security visitors, will not be public.
Also hidden will be visitors whom the White House deems to be "purely personal guests of the first and second families (i.e., visits that do not involve any official or political business)."
And information on visitors from Jan. 20 through Sept. 15 "will not be subject to the voluntary disclosure policy." Instead, the White House will respond voluntarily to individual requests, "but only if the requests are reasonable, narrow and specific (e.g., requests that list specific possible visitors)."
That's where you come in. Send in your request to the Freedom of Information office at the Secret Service, with copies to the White House office of general counsel and to msnbc.com.
The White House called the release of information "voluntary," continuing to argue the Bush administration's position that the records are presidential, not agency records, and therefore are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act.
A federal district court has ruled twice that all visitor records belong to the United States Secret Service, not the president, and therefore should be open under FOIA.
In exchange for the White House disclosure, a nonprofit group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington dropped its lawsuits from both the Bush and Obama eras. The group, founded by Democratic funders and former Democratic politicos, had been a thorn in the side of President George W. Bush on issues of open government, then filed similar lawsuits against the Obama administration. When it agreed to drop its lawsuits, CREW hailed Obama for running "the most open White House in history."
A separate request by msnbc.com remains open. The news organization requested the names of all visitors to the Obama White House beginning with Inauguration Day. That request is pending, and msnbc.com has filed an administrative appeal with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
Hugo Chavez.
Vera Baker.
Manuel Zaleya. (for real!)
Bill Ayers.
Newt Gingrich.
Miss Cleo?
Unbelievable...most transparent my arse.
Smoke and mirrors Presidency..lie and obsfucation.
William Ayers, Jeremiah wright
ROTFL!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/obama_inauguration/7843424.stm
Obama pledges ‘era of openness’
Do we find out who was sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom too?
Looter Guy
Ya mean the Rincon Bedroom eh?
Ya mean the Rincon Bedroom eh?
Acccchh, the dreaded double post!!
Armand Hammer
The Joker.
The Grand Wizard.
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