Really?
Then why are the Demorats fighting transparency?
The Sunlight Foundation has started an effort to get Congress to post bills online 72 hours before lawmakers vote on them.
Additionally, Representatives. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and Greg Walden, R-Ore., are circulating a petition among House lawmakers that would force a vote on the 72-hour rule.
From The Washington Examiner:
Nearly every Republican has signed on (to this petition), but the Democratic leadership is unwilling to cede control over when bills are brought to the floor for votes and are discouraging their rank and file from signing the petition. Senate Democrats voted down a similar measure last week for the health care bill.
Hasn’t Mr Obama, Our Hero, learned anything from the prior administration that he so excoriated? Wasn’t it His idea to demand transparency during His tenure? Wasn’t this idea also mirrored by Speaker Pelosi?
Under Mr Bush:
» $700 billion financial sector rescue package, passed Oct. 3, 2008. 169 pages. Available online 29 hours before vote.
» USA Patriot domestic surveillance bill, passed Oct. 23, 2001. Unavailable to the public before debate.
» USA Patriot domestic surveillance bill, passed Oct. 23, 2001. Unavailable to the public before debate.
And now, under Our Hero:
» House energy and global warming bill, passed June 26, 2009. 1,200 pages. Available online 15 hours before vote.
» $789 billion stimulus bill, passed Feb. 14, 2009. 1,100 pages. Available online 13 hours before debate.
» $789 billion stimulus bill, passed Feb. 14, 2009. 1,100 pages. Available online 13 hours before debate.
All Demorats are urged to stifle this “transparency.”
So: why?
Because Mr Obama wants what He wants when He wants it. Any manner of close examination, rumination and inspection reveals all the dirty little secrets, the dirty little lies that He and His minions do not want exposed to the light of day.
It’s that simple.
“Transparency”?
Hardly.
BZ
Oh BZ paleeeeeze!
“If bla bla bla, the terrorists win.”
Really, it must be a slow newsday.
Hey who does that song “there goes my hero, watch him as he flys”.
I think Obama’s theme song should not be “are you gonna go my way” but “supersoul fighter”, both by Lennie Kravitz.
Soul brotha spaceman, flying thru the sky.
Fighting wars and battles.
Defending you and I”.
Transparency in government sounds so nice until you are elected.
Then do you really want anyone to know what you are doing with your time? How you are representing those who voted for you? Of course not! You have just become a Junior Emir of Incumbistan and letting the poor Vassal Staters back home KNOW what you are doing is dangerous to your new Incumbistani citizenship.
You see when you are elected you are magically made superior and above those who elected you…they have recognized your inward nobility and moved you to your proper station. And to reflect that you need minions to do your bidding for your political whims and Lo! you have the ability to write bills and earmarks and have new lackeys attend your petty needs day and night. Thankfully the Vassal Staters don’t get wind of *that* and how you line the pockets of your friends… they are far too beneath you to ever notice anything but the lovely perfume of your presence amongst them.
That all works great.
Until you run out of their money, of course.
Then you start to smell that tar, see those pitchforks, the open pillowcases, long wooden rails… ahhhh… luckily you have those Congressionally mandated jets to fly you out to Tahiti on a never ending junket when *that* happens. Because these new aristocrats, these nobles, will never, ever, not once, be held accountable for their misdeeds.
Because they ARE our betters, donchyaknow?
Because they WON an election.
They don’t really NEED to represent us, now do they?
Tim: okay, so your point is. . .
AJ: precisely. Politics is what it is. And so it goes with Reality.
But how can we judge you? I submit: by what you CLAIM that you want.
BZ
Tim, I must be missing something. “The terrorists win, blah blah blah.”
Whaaat? I was writing about talking the talk then walking the walk.
BZ
ITS TO KEEP THE PIRANHA LIKE LOBBYISTS FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANIES FROM PULLING FAST ONES YOU MORONS!
THE Sunlight Foundation IS BOUGHT AND SOLD BY BIG INSURANCE
Anon: transparency = honesty in insurance companies??
WTF??
BZ
I guess I just missed the whole point.
Download “supersoulfighter” to your Ipod and see if you think Obama fits it.
Now, more important, which 4 ski resorts are right down the street from you.
I’m itchin’ for the bitchin’ ski runs,,,
Okay Tim I “get” it now.
You’re all about the snow.
BZ
Look, I just cain’t hep it! goin crazy! Jonesin’ for that white snow! I’m a junkie, for the funky white powder! Deeper the better! No. Not Coke! Snow baby snow!
Seriously-listen to super soul fighter. Cheney is the “Lord of the wasteland…
Ok First let me address Tim…You appear to be a lot like the entire libturd base that elected this moron in chief.. BZ posted about the lack of transparency as opposed to what your hero campaigned on. And you comment about terrorists? WTF? It’s a typical libturd tactic, it’s called slight of hand when a magician does it….
Funny, all the stuff the messiah campaigned on has gone by the wayside, but just like a lot of us were with GWB, his base will hang on till their eyes are opened….Hang on Tim, the lights will be turned on soon for you!
It may be time to put Obama on the shelve right next to Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush as one of Americas worst Presidents.
Let’s face it, he’s just carrying on GWB policies and hasn’t changed a fucking thing.
Only a dumb fuck-head would agree with GWB and disagree with Obama, they’re one in the same.
Ranando: they both spent like freaks; Obama spends geometrically more or, correction, he WOULD if he were ALLOWED to do all he wishes.
BZ
When it comes to BHO and this Dem Congress, the very concept of transparency is a crock. That’s the most polite way I can say what I really think about the matter.
Great blog Bushwack. Why don’t go and whack off with the rest of the redneck mafia.
I wasn’t making a serious comment on the post, you stupid dumbass!
What an asshat.
Mr. Z – I tend to go with Walter Russell Mead on this:
“Jacksonians are instinctively democratic and populist. Hamiltonians mistrust democracy; Wilsonians don’t approve of the political rough and tumble. And while Jeffersonians support democracy in principle, they remain concerned that tyrannical majorities can overrule minority rights. Jacksonians believe that the political and moral instincts of the American people are sound and can be trusted, and that the simpler and more direct the process of government is, the better will be the results. In general, while the other schools welcome the representative character of our democracy, Jacksonians tend to see representative rather than direct institutions as necessary evils, and to believe that governments breed corruption and inefficiency the way picnics breed ants. Every administration will be corrupt; every Congress and legislature will be, to some extent, the plaything of lobbyists. Career politicians are inherently untrustworthy; if it spends its life buzzing around the outhouse, it’s probably a fly. Jacksonians see corruption as human nature and, within certain ill-defined boundaries of reason and moderation, an inevitable by-product of government.”
That is why I really don’t like the modern set size of Congress: the members don’t know their districts any more, and gain money from outside of them to reward the few and disenfranchise the many via legislation. Government of, by and for the cronies is what we have gotten, and it doesn’t matter if they have a D or R after their name. I know the smell of government and the outhouse defines it nicely, and if it buzzes then, indeed, it is a fly no matter what party it is with.
We do indeed need a bigger House so that our Representatives actually have a fair chance of knowing us and representing us as that is the objective of representative democracy… term limits don’t get you that, just more anonymous faces who don’t know you. Swamp the political elite, watch as legislation locks up with hundreds if not thousands more eyes on it, and let us just see how efficient representative democracy really is. I am not afraid of it. The backers of an elite ruling America are afraid of it… and I know their buzzing when I hear them, too.