PING! They reveal themselves for the fascist commies that they are yet again. Unfreakinbelievable!
“In late July, President Obama established a behemoth 27-member “National Ocean Council” with the stroke of a pen. Farr gloated: “We already have a Clean Air Act and a Clean Water Act. With today’s executive order, President Obama in effect creates a Clean Ocean Act.” And not a single hearing needed to be held. Not a single amendment considered. Not a single vote cast. Who gives a flying fish about transparency and the deliberative process?”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/19/meet-national-ocean-council
Meet the National Ocean Council
Posted by NOC Team on July 19, 2010 at 03:23 PM EDT
Find out who represents your new National Ocean Council.
Co-Chairs
White House Council on Environmental Quality
Nancy Sutley, Chair
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Dr. John P. Holdren, Director
NOC Members
Department of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack
Secretary
Department of Commerce
Gary Locke
Secretary
Dr. Jane Lubchenco
Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere
NOAA Administrator
Department of Defense
Robert M. Gates
Secretary
Environmental Protection Agency
Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator
Department of Energy
Dr. Steven Chu
Secretary
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (invitation pending)
Jon Wellinghoff
Chairman
Department of Health and Human Services
Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary
Department of Homeland Security
Janet Napolitano
Secretary
Department of the Interior
Ken Salazar
Secretary
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Adm. Mike Mullen
Chairman
Department of Justice
Eric Holder
Attorney General
Department of Labor
Hilda L. Solis
Secretary
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Charles F. Bolden, Jr.
Administrator
National Science Foundation
Dr. Cora Marrett
Acting Director
Department of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary
Department of Transportation
Ray LaHood
Secretary
Office of the Vice President
TBD
Director of National Intelligence
TBD
White House Office of Management and Budget
Peter Orszag
Director
Assistant to the President for National Security
General James Jones (Ret.)
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
John Brennan
Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy
Melody Barnes
Assistant to the President for Economic Policy
Lawrence Summers
Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Policy
Carol Browner
Director
Obama has abolished the position in his White House dedicated to transparency and shunted those duties into the portfolio of a partisan ex-lobbyist who is openly antagonistic to the notion of disclosure by government and politicians. Obama transferred "ethics czar" Norm Eisen to the Czech Republic to serve as U.S. ambassador. Some of Eisen's duties will be handed to Domestic Policy Council member Steven Croley, but most of them, it appears, will shift over to the already-full docket of White House Counsel Bob Bauer.
Bob Bauer (Anita "Mao" Dunn's spouse) is renowned as a "lawyer's lawyer" and a legal expert. His resume, however, reads more "partisan advocate" than "good-government crusader." Bauer came to the White House from the law firm Perkins Coie, where he represented John Kerry in 2004 and Obama during his campaign. Bauer has served as the top lawyer for the Democratic National Committee, which is the most prolific fundraising entity in the country.
Then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., the caricature of a cutthroat Chicago political fixer, hired Bauer to represent the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In the White House, Bauer is tight with Emanuel, having defended Emanuel's offer of a job to Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., whom Emanuel wanted out of the Senate race.
Another Bauer client was New Jersey Sen. Robert "Torch" Torricelli back in 2001. When one Torricelli donor admitted he had reimbursed employees for their contributions to the Torch -- thus circumventing contribution limits -- Bauer explained, "All candidates ask their supporters to help raise money from friends, family members and professional associates."
Bauer's own words -- gathered by the diligent folks at the Sunlight Foundation -- show disdain for openness and far greater belief in the good intentions of those in power than of those trying to check the powerful. In December 2006, when the Federal Election Commission proposed more precise disclosure requirements for parties, Bauer took aim at the practice of muckraking enabled by such disclosure.
On his blog, Bauer derided the notion "that politicians and parties are pictured as forever trying to get away with something," saying this was an idea for which "there is a market, its product cheaply manufactured and cheaply sold." In other words -- we keep too close an eye on our leaders.
In August 2006 Bauer blogged, "disclosure is a mostly unquestioned virtue deserving to be questioned." This is the man the White House has put in charge of making this the most open White House ever.
Most telling might have been Bauer's statements about proposed regulations of 527 organizations: "If it's not done with 527 activity as we have seen, it will be done in other ways," he told the Senate rules committee. "There are other directions, to be sure, that people are actively considering as we speak. Without tipping my hand or those of others who are professionally creative, the money will find an outlet."
This perfectly captures the Obama White House's attitude toward disclosure. Sure, the administration publish the names of all White House visitors, but, as the New York Times reported a few weeks back, White House folks just meet their lobbyists at Caribou Coffee across the street. Sure, they restrict the work of ex-lobbyists in the administration, but lobbyists who de-list aren't questioned.
Did I mention Bauer was a lobbyist? At Perkins Coie, Bauer lobbied on behalf of America Votes Inc., a Democratic 527 funded by the likes of the AFL-CIO and ACORN. The Sunlight Foundation is also concerned about the fact the White House no longer has anyone whose job is transparency, as Eisen's job was.
John Wonderlich, at SunglightFoundation.com, lists a few transparency promises on which the president hasn't followed through, including earmark transparency, a single Web site (Ethics.gov) with all ethics and accountability information, and better lobbying disclosure, among others.
Timothy P. Carney is The Washington Examiner's lobbying editor. His K Street column appears on Wednesdays. Click here to follow him on Facebook http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Obama-closes-curtain-on-transparency-468557-100595914.html