Congress, Constitutional Law, Media, Politics, Society

Obama Adopts Cheney Policy and Opposes Release of White House Logs

225px-official_portrait_of_barack_obama225px-richard_cheney_2005_official_portraitPresident Obama has already adopted or expanded many of the most controversial Bush policies on executive privilege, detainee treatment, termination of privacy lawsuit, and other matters. Now, he has adopted the identical position of Vice President Dick Cheney in seeking to withhold visitor logs to the White House.

While the Bush/Cheney fight to withhold the logs was denounced by liberals, there is relative quiet again over Obama’s position on the very same issue.

The Secret Service has denied msnbc.com’s request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present as well as a request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

There is again a sharp difference between President Obama’s rhetoric of transparency and civil liberties in government and his actual policies, here and here and here and here and here .

For the full story, click here.

179 thoughts on “Obama Adopts Cheney Policy and Opposes Release of White House Logs”

  1. Jack,

    Thank you. That was very interesting. I appreciate that you looked it up and glad it posted.

  4. Dredd,

    I agree that no president can correct all things. That has never been the case. But a president can make things better or worse. There is no good reason behind this secrecy. It’s wrong and is itself destructive of our govt.

    Jack,

    Try posting the link. It would be very interesting to read and contrast the posts.

  5. If you want to see some textbook cases of Cognitive Dissonance, check out the comments at The Huffington Post‘s article about Obama’s White House visitor logs.

    I’d post a link to HuffPo’s article about Bush’s White House visitor logs, but Turley’s blog is iffy about me posting links…

  7. Obama has been a real disappointment on many important issues. Those on the Dem side who do not criticize him are no better than the Bush people in their day. I think part of what makes his Bush-like decisions subjectively less offensive is that he’s obviously not an idiot like Bush was and that he’s a very persuasive speaker. Objectively, his actions are therefore actually worse.

    Greenwald is a national treasure, and the White House supposedly reads him. Too bad they don’t take any action. Frankly, he should have been nominated as attorney general. Or better yet, the Supreme Court.

  8. Obama is carving himself a special niche in the Hypocrites Hall of Fame/Shame.

    What concerns me most is that he has been put under the spell of one of the most pernicious delusions that comes with power which is: “I can see why the other guy would not be trusted doing this sort of thing, but it’s okay if I do it because I’m not him.” One of the reasons we havea republic is so that we are not subject to every whim of the current ruler but that the ruler/rulers are subject to laws, norms and standards that are constant and do not change each time a new ruler or set of rulers comes to power. That Obama obviously doesn’t care about his is troubling indeed.

  9. His popularity is gradually declining. It will continue to fall.

    The bad news is that there is no opposition that would shake him up to where he walks the walk.

  11. I just viewed the 12-minute Greenwald video segment (at Jill’s link above) and I encourage people to view it.

    Greenwald, an excellently cogent speaker, encapsulates a lot in that video regarding FOIA and Obama’s actions and reversals of his ‘direct’ criticisms of Bush/Cheny et al., which are quite astounding.

  12. Posts and direct action are not mutually exclusive and both are beneficial. Thanks for posting the phone number again, Mike S.

  13. This is a mistake on the Administration’s part and I can’t wait to see his answer at the next press conference. not change we can believe in.

    WH phone: 202-456-1111

    Damn, I just called last Friday on “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” It’s a good thing I’ve got unlimited long distance. Posts are one thing direct action is another. They do pay attention to this and their operators do hear your message out and copy it down.

  14. Mr. Greenwald is always prescient with his topics and exceptionally discerning in his detailed coverage of current events.

  15. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent listing of what Obama first said and has now done.

    Here’s what Obama said:

    “A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, ‘sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.’ In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through transparency, is the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open Government. At the heart of that commitment is the idea that accountability is in the interest of the Government and the citizenry alike. . . .

    All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government” — Barack Obama, January 21, 2009

    Here’s what he’s done:

    http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

  16. “There is again a sharp difference between President Obama’s rhetoric of transparency and civil liberties in government and his actual policies,…”

    *********************

    Sort of a Lord Acton moment, I see.

  17. More on FOIA and the bailed-out GM from an informative “journalism in the public interest” site called ProPublica.
    ____________________

    {Quote:

    Business Jet Group Tries to Block FOIA Request

    Remember last fall when the CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler flew on corporate jets [1] to Washington, D.C., to plead for a taxpayer bailout? The resulting bad publicity prompted GM to try to prevent the public [2] from tracking its planes in databases compiled by the Federal Aviation Administration.

    End Quote}

    http://www.propublica.org/article/business-jet-group-tries-to-block-foia-request-616
    ____________________

    Remember that in February 2009, President Obama championed an open FOIA policy for his new administration.

    FOIA is critical for ensuring transparency and accountability in all that the Federal government does. We taxpayers—the U.S. Treasury—now own at least 60% of GM and these documents are clearly subject to FOIA requests.

  18. The White House is the people’s house and Obama works for us – Transparency my ass – change my ass

    The silence on the left is very interesting – if Republicans are in charge the policies are bad and the outrage is very high – if Democracts are in charge the policies must be good and the outrage is non existent

    Here’s my solution – get rid of them all – we need a viable third party option – if this keeps up who can I vote for come 2012 – the Dems – the Repubs – who

  19. I continue to worry that policies once condemned, and rightfully so, by the left, are now ignored or even justified because Obama is the author of them. This is the very definition of a cult of personality.

    Obama works for us. He does not have the right to keep information which exposes the work of the government, from the people. A democracy does not function when people are kept in the dark about it’s inner workings.

    Mr. Obama most certainly did say he was for transparency in govt. He should not be allowed to back off that promise. He got a great deal of mileage out of it when he first came into office. It is rank hypocrisy to deny this information. Transparency isn’t just some gift from the president. It’s our right as citizens. We own this information and it may not lawfully be suppressed.

    If you think it’s an accident that they won’t reveal the names of energy company executives, think again. There is no such thing as “clean coal”, yet it’s big on the energy agenda now. That’s no coincidence.

  20. Four dead and Nixons’ Coming Four dead in Ohio. That’s all I will say. Nah, Narcissist, that fits him better.

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