Barack Obama's prevarication, double-talk, deceptiveness,
chicanery, secrecy, obfuscation, and hidden records

Note:  You might want to start at the Barack Obama Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine.

Barack Obama talks a lot and usually doesn't say anything.  Most of his supporters have given little or no thought to the real meaning of his words, if any.  Very few have asked themselves how Obama will pay for all the wonderful things he promises.


On other pages:

Lies about job creation.

Lies about Obamacare.

Lies about taxes.

Lies about energy production.

Lies about everything else.

General disingenuousness.

Obama resides on the outskirts of the law.

Obama's birth certificate

Friday night document dumps

The Obama team manipulates the media

Obama faces credible accusations of plagiarism


Secrecy, chicanery, and obfuscation

During his 2008 campaign, didn't Barack Obama promise to conduct the "most transparent administration in history"?

Obama's Media-Contrived Courage.  [Scroll down]  The people who voted for Obama in 2008 knew virtually nothing about him, and know little more now.  Where are his college transcripts, his friends and girlfriends, and whatever he wrote for the Harvard Law Review?  No one has seen the transcripts or the writing, no one has sought out and interviewed his high school and college friends and girlfriends.  We know almost nothing about Obama's early years except what Obama himself has written.

The Enigma That Is Barack Hussein Obama, Part Two.  Barry has sequestered and locked away all of his personal records in some safe dark place where they will never again be shown the light of day.  These records include his "certificate of live birth" (he released a forgery), his college transcripts, Harvard thesis, student loans, Harvard law review articles, passport, medical records, Illinois Senate records, community organizer activity with ACORN, and others.  His Illinois bar registration, social security number (he uses one originating in Connecticut) from a place he never lived, and most any other documents of a personal or professional nature could be construed as his bona fides.  His army of lawyers from the Perkins Coie law firm of Seattle, Washington are his henchman to make sure that each and every challenge to his narrative is immediately quelled.  So much for the most "open and transparent" administration in history, which was only rhetoric as we have seen with his dismal performance in office.  This is beginning to make sense when all the facts leading up to this are considered; clearly, he is hiding something, and all these actions appear preemptive in nature as a possible legal defense for something as of yet undisclosed.

Did Steven Chu Sabotage BP's Top Kill Effort Just as It Was Succeeding?  [Scroll down]  So the question before us is, did the administration deliberately sabotage BP's top kill efforts for political reasons?  They were in the midst of trying to pass "Cap and Trade" legislation in the Senate so as to take control of the energy business through taxation and regulation and thereby promote their political crony capitalist allies in the "green energy" sector.  If they have nothing to hide, they need to fully comply with the legal requests for documents from the various investigations in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government.  Let the public know the whole truth.  That's the least we should expect from the "most transparent administration in history."

White House abandons press pool again.  President Obama ditched his press pool reporter for the second time this year, leaving the reporter at an event as he returned to the White House. [...] Obama previously left the press pool at the White House in January when he decided to attend his daughter's basketball game on short notice.

So When Will We See Obama's College Transcripts? Or The Rashid Khalidi Tape?  I just got through reading Washington Post reporter Jason Horowitz's "expose" of Mitt Romney's prep school days the centerpiece of which focuses on an alleged bullying incident of a gay student in 1965.  If the Washington Post and other liberal media outlets insist on getting the skinny on Romney's day to day life from the age of 12 to 18 then the very least they can do is to at long last release President Obama's college transcripts from Occidental, Columbia University and Harvard Law School.  Does it really have to take a $10,000 bounty to find about Obama's academic records?

$10,000 bounty offered online for Obama college transcripts.  The Daily Caller has identified the owner of a website that promised on Tuesday [5/1/2012] to pay $10,000 to anyone who can provide an authentic copy of President Barack Obama's course transcripts from his days at Occidental College, Harvard University or Columbia University.  Although its one-page website is presented anonymously, conservative blogger Brooks Bayne confirmed to The Daily Caller that he is responsible for it.

The Editor asks...
 Would "fake but accurate" transcripts qualify for the reward?

The Enigma That Is Barack Hussein Obama, Pre-Election To 2009.  [Scroll down]  Obama as a freshman Senator from Illinois went on a congressional fact finding tour to Perm Siberia in Russia with Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) in 2005 to verify the destruction of mobile missiles and their launchers under the Cooperative Threat Reduction program (CTR).  The trip was uneventful, that is, until it was time to depart the Russian military base where these inspections took place.  All of a sudden, Barry and Senator Lugar were confronted and held by Russian authorities for three hours while the Russians sought permission to search the aircraft they were traveling in.  Senator Lugar does not make any mention of this incident in his after-action trip report; the Chicago Tribune has a small blurb in passing on August 29, 2005.  Numerous foreign news sources in Italy and other nations reveal that Barry was being held and questioned for espionage as being a spy for Britain.  This is curious behavior from the Russians because the Cold War ended in 1991, and our nations have more to gain with mutual cooperation than hostility towards each other.

Who is Barack Obama?  As usual, when Obama is the subject, Americans can't count on the progressives in the Corporate Mainstream Media (CMM) for much help. [...] What happened next — after the inspections were over — was at the time reported by several foreign news sources but was never reported in the USA by the CMM.  The Russians detained Obama and Lugar for three hours at the airport, demanding to examine both Obama's and Lugar's passports and search their plane.  Some sources reported that the Russians accused Barack Obama of being a spy.  But wait — there's more!  According to an Italian source, the Russians did not accuse Obama of being an American spy; they accused him of being a spy for the British!  The report went on to say that the incident ended up involving the White House, the U.S. State Department, and military officials, along with their counterparts in Moscow.  Strangely enough, an official report from Lugar's office about the trip never mentioned the incident.

A New Declaration of Independence.  [Scroll down]  Echoing the despot of old, Mr. Obama has "called together legislative bodies" in such manner that makes the action less transparent for the "sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."  So while he calls for creating easy-to-read, shorter bills, Mr. Obama creates monstrosities of several thousand pages.  He is famous for his Friday-night document dumps, pushing the legislation through late on Friday evening when Congress has retired.  Before ObamaCare was passed, Mr. Obama promised C-SPAN complete transparency and public coverage so that the American public could study the law.  That never happened.

Mitt Needs to Weaponize Transparency.  If there's one area where President Obama is wholly vulnerable, it's his utter lack of transparency — yet the presumptive Republican nominee is somehow losing this issue to the president.  This is patently insane.  Barack Obama is the president the mainstream media have refused to vet.  In fact, the networks and newspapers have a vested interest in the American people knowing as little as possible about The One.

Government's answer to "Fast and Furious" records requests: Blank pages.  For more than a year, CBS News has been investigating the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms' "Fast and Furious" operation and related cases that also employed the controversial tactic of "gunwalking."  With Justice Department officials refusing all interview requests to date, CBS News requested numerous public documents through the Freedom of Information Act.  So far, all of the requests that have been answered have been denied in part or in full.

The coming chaos from the Obama-Soertoro playbook.  [A]ny seasoned investigator experienced in conducting background investigations knows that there is no valid substitute for the actual authenticated paper document.  When there is an outright refusal to allow for a legitimate inspection of an actual document, combined with an overt redirection of investigators' attention away from the hardcopy form, there is always something being hidden.  Always.

Obama's Secretive Keystone XL Decision.  To find out what was going on behind the scenes in the Keystone XL decision, the Institute for Energy Research (IER) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Obama's State Department and EPA. The goal was to understand if politics and special interest group pressure entered into the decision to delay the pipeline.  But while extreme environmental groups like Friends of the Earth, which opposes the pipeline, had no problem receiving similar information after its FOIA request, IER's request has been delayed.

Under Obama, the Freedom of Information Act is Still in Shackles.  Three years ago this past weekend, on his first full day in office, President Barack Obama issued his now infamous memo on transparency and open government, which was supposed to fulfill his campaign promise to lead the "most transparent administration in history."  Instead, his administration has been just as secretive — if not more so — than his predecessors, and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has become the prime example of his administration's lack of progress.

Open government? Not yet.  The day after being inaugurated, President Obama sought to pry open a government he viewed as insulated from the people it served.  Declaring that "a democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency," Obama directed agencies to adopt a presumption of openness in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, and pledged to work toward "an unprecedented level of openness in government."  We aren't there yet.

This is openness? Image courtest Politico

Obama: 'Most transparent administration ever' meets Fast & Furious.  From the White House web site:  ["]My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.  We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.  Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.["]  Here's an example of Obama's "unprecedented level of openness in Government."

Image courtesy of POLITICO.

A Policy of Lying.  Why does the most open and transparent administration in history lie about government records?

WH: Visitor logs can't be used to verify visitors.  President Obama offered the White House visitor logs as a historic milestone in transparency, but his spokesman now says the logs cannot be used for "verifying" the identity of White House visitors.  The Ann Romney-Hilary Rosen controversy has led to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney casting doubt on the reliability and use of the visitor logs in revealing who visits the White House.

Obama Administration Discontinues Transparency Tool.  Since 1993, the Census Bureau has made available detailed data about federal government expenditures in its Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR).  The 2012 report will be the last one.  Through the CFFR website, the public had access to such data as federal expenditures made at the county level for programs such as Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare as well as for more obscure federal spending programs.  How much did the federal government send to Autauga County in Alabama for a hazardous materials training program?  That data was available, but now it is concealed.

Obama administration rebuffs subpoena.  The Obama administration has snubbed a congressional subpoena in the investigation of a White House "drafting error" that suggested certain experts supported their decision to temporarily ban oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.  The Interior Department says it will not turnover all of the requested documents and accused the House Resources Committee conducting oversight of the incident of violating the administration's good faith effort to work with the panel.

Obama Trades His Oath for Russian Campaign Contribution.  A U.S. president has just told the leaders of an unfriendly nation that he wants to make concessions to them on matters of national defense, but that he cannot do so until after he has freed himself from having to answer to the American people.  In other words, he has explicitly made himself a servant, not of U.S. national interests, but of Russian national interests.  He is assuring the Russians that he intends to satisfy their wishes, as soon as American public opinion ceases to be an obstacle.  This, I suggest, is the kind of government secrecy that ought to cause alarm.

Birthermania!  The only way to end all doubt is complete transparency.  Complete transparency means actually releasing personal records, including his birth certificate.  Actually releasing his birth certificate means making the original available for forensic authentication.  With today's forensic technology, all doubt could be laid to rest quickly.  We have the ability to determine whether the original document is written on paper from 1961 and with corresponding seal, typeset, and ink.  No doubt was erased by Obama's "releasing" a belated birth certificate via internet posting — the internet meets no legal standard of document production.  Try showing an image of your birth certificate on your laptop to the processing agent when applying for a passport.

Postman: Ayers family put 'foreigner' Obama through school.  Did the parents of former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers help finance Barack Obama's Harvard education?  Did Ayers' mother believe Obama was a foreign student?  And was the young Obama convinced at the time — long before he even entered politics — that he was going to become president of the United States?  A retired U.S. Postal Service carrier who delivered mail to Tom and Mary Ayers in a Chicago suburb in the late 1980s and early 1990s and claims to have met Obama in front of the Ayers home emphatically says yes to all three questions.

Why the Ayers family helped Obama.  As Jerome Corsi reported Tuesday in WND, there is excellent reason to believe that Bill Ayers' parents, Tom and Mary Ayers, helped put Barack Obama through Harvard Law School.  This assertion has generated substantial media interest not only because of the credibility of the story's source, retired mailman Allen Hulton, but also because the story fits all the known facts and resolves at least one major mystery.

Kagan and Obamacare — still no answers.  Even before he became President, Barack Obama promised the American people his would be the most open, transparent administration in history.  Unfortunately, his administration's record doesn't match his campaign rhetoric.  Now, on the eve of one of the most important Supreme Court arguments in our nation's history, the stonewalling that has become the hallmark of the Obama administration may call into question the legitimacy of the court's ultimate decision.

Obama Administration Seeks More Secrecy for Govt. Files.  This sort of obfuscation is an example of an attempt by agents of the federal government to muddy the clear waters of liberty with words and arguments intended to deprive the people of the right to monitor the government they created.

Why Obama's Birth Certificate Matters, Especially Now.  You don't present a forged a document for no reason. ... We're not talking here about some kid who forged an ID so he could drink at 18 in a bar.  This is the most powerful man in the world, who, it appears, is passing off a forgery for some mysterious — or not so mysterious — reason.  This mystery needs to be solved.

Poll: Government officers impeding reporter access to information, interviews.  An overwhelming majority of journalists who cover Washington say the public is not getting needed information because of government control over interviews and information requests, according to a new poll.  The survey from the Society of Professional Journalists of reporters who cover federal agencies found most journalists have experienced a range of interference from public affairs employees.  The release comes at the start of so-called Sunshine Week, a week dedicated to government transparency.

If Obama's Past Isn't A Concern, Why Cover It Up?  The videotape of Obama praising and hugging his America-bashing, Constitution-trashing law professor Derrick Bell isn't the only evidence that's been hidden from the public.  A 1998 video of Obama praising the late Marxist agitator Saul "The Red" Alinsky alongside a panel of hard-core Chicago communists also exists.  Yet it, too, has been withheld.  So has a 2003 video of Obama speaking at a Chicago dinner held in honor of former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi. ... If there's nothing to hide, why keep these tapes under wraps?  Why not release them?

Oil and Gasoline Prices.  Actual oil prices are unknown to most Americans. ... A few of us know that the price of U.S. crude oil is always cheaper than the price of foreign OPEC crude oil.  Some of us know that because we have followed "World Crude Oil Prices" on the website of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy for years.  On November 11, 2011, the EIA shut down the World Crude Oil Prices website.  EIA did not even leave up the valuable historic data on the website.  The Obama administration has hidden actual oil prices from the public.  That should be a scandal.

President Obama's muddy transparency record.  A minute after he took office, the White House website declared his administration would become "the most open and transparent in history."  By the end of his first full day on the job, Obama had issued high-profile orders pledging "a new era" and "an unprecedented level of openness" across the massive federal government.  But three years into his presidency, critics say Obama's administration has failed to deliver the refreshing blast of transparency that the president promised.

The Editor says...
 I am unable to find "the most open and transparent in history" in any transcript of Obama's inaugural address, so that first sentence might be untrue.  Aside from that, I'm generally in agreement.

White House misses Solyndra document deadline.  The Most Transparent Administration In History continued its practice of ignoring inconvenient subpoenas, by missing a Monday [2/20/2012] deadline to hand over documents related to the Solyndra "green energy" boondoggle.

Obama's Deceptive Hidden Premises.  The most evil thing about the Obama administration's recent violation of the separation of church and state is its deceptiveness.  With his order requiring inclusion of contraception and abortifacient drugs in insurance coverage, the president is smuggling the hidden premises of NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and other supporters of abortion into U.S. law, and doing so untruthfully.  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) instruction attacking religious institutions such as hospitals, universities, and programs for the poor rests on four hidden premises.

Obama's Eligibility Diversion.  [Scroll down]  In fact, there are so many curious items in Obama's history and adventures in the "birthers'" quest to obtain more information that anyone attempting to recount it all ends up sounding like a loon.  Many have scoffed at the level of conspiracy or collusion required to create such a fascinating and frustrating trail.  But does the consistent pattern of unknowns suggest that maybe there really is something there?

Obama's sneaky treaties.  President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are entering negotiations over — or seeking ratification of — five treaties that could radically limit our national sovereignty and the reach of our democratic institutions.  Particularly scary is that the treaties, once signed and ratified, have the same status as constitutional law and cannot be altered or eclipsed by Congress or state legislatures.  And their provisions must be enforced by U.S. courts.  Those who wish to preserve our sovereignty and democratic control over our future must rally to block these treaties, either by pressing Obama and Clinton not to sign them or by blocking their ratification.

Covering Up Fast & Furiously.  The Fast and Furious investigation in Congress is becoming even more fast and furious with Congressional Chairman Issa threatening a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder.  Last week's Friday document dump by the DoJ once again added to the widely held belief that that the AG and his minions are hiding something from Congress and the American people, but what?

Government Withholds Information on Drone Flight Authorizations.  State and local law enforcement are increasingly using unmanned aircraft for investigations into things like cattle rustling, drug dealing, and the search for missing persons.  Any drone flying over 400 feet needs a certification or authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, part of the DOT.  But there is currently no information available to the public about who specifically has obtained these authorizations or for what purposes.

Obama's Calculated Deception.  Calculated deception as a central public manipulation strategy practiced by President Obama involves the President taking advantage of what he thinks the average person doesn't know and won't be told by a compliant media.

The Most Open And Transparent Administration In History -- Not.  A centerpiece of Barack Obama's campaign message was the grandiose pronouncement that his would be the most transparent administration in history.  Congressional bills would be posted on the internet prior to such bills gong to the floor for vote.  Governmental agencies would be open and accountable to the people.  As we have seen, the opposite is true.

The Promise That Keeps on Breaking.  President Obama promised on the campaign trail that he would have the most transparent administration in history.  As part of this commitment, he said that the public would have five days to look online and find out what was in the bills that came to his desk before he signed them.  It was his first broken promise, and it's the promise that keeps on breaking.  He has now signed 11 bills into law and gone, at best, 1 for 11 on his five-day posting promise.

The "most open and transparent administration in history" sets record for avoiding press conferences.  So since the last one didn't go as he wanted it to he's not giving any more?  This Administration has a penchant not only for insisting it control the message but for acting like children when they can't.

Dem Convention Press Briefing Attended by 500 Journos Kept Strictly Off-the-Record.  So the Democratic National Committee (DNC) gave a walk-through Wednesday for network journalists planning on covering the party's nominating convention this summer in Charlotte.  But while the DNC is trumpeting the convention as "the most open and accessible in history," the Charlotte Observer's Mark Washburn complained that the briefing, attended by some 500 journalists, was kept strictly off-the-record.

Obama Campaign Rips Romney For Failure to Release Records.  Seven years after Barack Obama burst onto the national political scene, we still await the disclosure of his background records.
1. Occidental College records and transcripts — Not released
2. Columbia University records and transcripts — Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper — 'not available'
4. Harvard University records and transcripts — Not released
5. Medical records — Not released
6. Illinois State Senate schedule — 'not available'
7. Illinois State Senate records — 'not available'
8. Law practice client list — Not released
9. Certified Copy of Original Birth certificate — Not released
10. Harvard Law Review articles published — None
11. University of Chicago scholarly articles — None
12. Record of Baptism — Not released or 'not available'
Of course, there are different standards for legacy media's preferred candidates.  Remember how the media unearthed Rick Perry's college transcripts within 48 hours of the announcement of his candidacy?

Our Elective Despotism.  [Scroll down]  Here is another political heresy:  the emperor has no college records.  Yes, I have the temerity to believe that Barack Hussein Obama should be thoroughly vetted before the 2012 election.  We know far more details about Gingrich's marriages, Romney's mutual funds, Paul's prehistoric newsletters and the voting block made up of Santorum's children than a bare minimum of facts that we need to know about the current Occupier of the Oval Office.

The Obama administration is planning a second-term attack on gun rights.  Obama administration officials are deliberately keeping gun owners in the dark about the president's gun-control agenda as we head into next year's national election, because administration officials know that when NRA members and gun owners show up at the polls en masse, anti-gun candidates lose.

Who is this Barack Obama person, really?  Almost everything about him is surrounded in mystery or is the source of never-ending questions and conspiracy.  Even his birth has been questioned.  Although the White House produced a certificate that says he was born in Hawaii on Aug 4, 1961, the document has come under intense scrutiny by many who say it was either edited or is a complete forgery.

Inside Obama's Secret Fundraiser.  With President Obama shifting into campaign mode to raise money for his re-election effort, the White House has generally let reporters inside the events at least long enough to record what he says to his top donors.  This week, though, Obama departed from that practice, meeting for more than an hour with big-dollar contributors — all behind closed doors.

Is anyone really buying Holder's excuses on Fast & Furious?  I recall when it came to light that Karl Rove, who wasn't a Cabinet secretary or running federal law enforcement for the US, used his personal e-mail account while working on George W. Bush's political team in the White House.  Democrats clutched hankies and swooned at the lack of transparency.  Now the Attorney General of the United States has suggested that his personal e-mail account might have been used to bypass transparency, and that there are thousands of communications that he will flat-out not share with Congress on the matter of Operation Fast and Furious, which a year ago resulted in the death of a US Border Patrol agent and perhaps hundreds of murders in Mexico.  Have the same Democrats demanded transparency of the Obama administration?

More about Eric Holder.
More about the Fast and Furious scandal.

Why It's So Easy To Destroy Republicans.  If one examines the voting patterns over the last few decades it appears that Republican voters are particularly picky and principled about whom they vote for.  Democrats on the other hand are more interested in what's being promised to them than in a candidate's character. ... The Democrat crushing machine will continue to eviscerate all Republicans in its wake because it knows that the media will assist in the destruction while ignoring any possible flaws in its own candidate.  Consider how very little we knew about Barack Hussein Obama in 2008 and for that matter how little we know now.

Obama's Cloud-Based Transparency.  For three years, White House officials have rolled out countless executive orders and initiatives touting open government.  Just this week, they unveiled plans to move federal archival records from a paper-based to an electronic system.  But behind the scenes, Obama's lawyers systematically have stymied public information requests, carved out crater-sized disclosure loopholes, fought subpoenas on scandals from Fast and Furious to Solyndra, and made routine the holiday document dump.  The latest meeting of the Government Accountability and Transparency Board, attended by Vice President Joe Biden, was closed to the press two weeks ago.

Border Agent's Murder Brings Calls For Investigation.  The Justice Department has sealed court records detailing the circumstances of a border patrol agent's murder by a Mexican drug cartel, including the fact U.S. agents were being hunted with U.S.-supplied weapons.

The Great American Memory Hole.  Mondo Frazier, in his new book, The Secret Life of Barack Hussein Obama, wrote:  ["]In an age in which seemingly every facet of a person's life is recorded, on file, and increasingly available on the Internet, the total absence of Barack Obama's vital records is an almost singularly unique phenomenon...  In Obama's case, the records either don't exist, haven't been released, or have disappeared.["]

Joe Biden addresses secretive donor conference.  Vice President Joe Biden spoke at a secretive conference attended by about 150 rich liberals deciding how to divvy up their cash in the run-up to the 2012 election.  A variety of liberal groups pitched the donors throughout the three-day conference, including a network of Democratic outside groups hoping to raise upwards of $120 million to fund a sort-of shadow party effort supporting the reelection campaign of Biden and President Barack Obama.

File Not Found.  Why does the most open and transparent administration in history prefer to lie about government records?

Obama's secrets.  One of the most disappointing attributes of the Obama administration has been its proclivity for secrecy.  The president who committed himself to "an unprecedented level of openness in government" has followed the example of his predecessor by invoking the "state secrets" privilege to derail litigation about government misdeeds in the war on terror.  He has refused to release the administration's secret interpretation of the Patriot Act, which two senators have described as alarming.  He has blocked the dissemination of photographs documenting the abuse of prisoners by U.S. service members.  And now his Justice Department has proposed to allow government agencies to lie about the existence of documents being sought under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.

ACLU: Obama "Authorizing Agencies to Lie".  While the Obama administration's hostility to transparency is well known, its latest scheme would break new ground in government secrecy.  The administration's proposed changes to the Freedom of Information Act guidelines would allow the Department of Justice to deny the existence of documents and prevent judicial oversight.

Barack Obama accused of breaking transparency pledge.  Mr Obama's justice department has proposed that if documents requested by the public are exempt from freedom of information laws, federal agencies should be able to "respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist."  Transparency campaigners described the move as a "stunning" reversal of Mr Obama's pledge to run "the most transparent administration in history" during his campaign for the presidency.

Update:
 Justice Dept. move on FOIA requests eases headache for administration.  The Justice Department is withdrawing a new rule that would allow government officials to be misleading about the existence of records in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.  By scrapping the controversial part of the regulation, the Justice Department is easing what had become a growing headache for the Obama administration.  President Obama has said several times that transparency and openness are key priorities for his administration, and the proposed regulation was a cudgel for Republicans to swing at the White House's promises.

Who is Barack Obama?  In the summer of 1981, 20-year-old Barack Obama embarked on a two-week trip to Pakistan.  At least what little reporting that has been done claimed the length of the trip was two weeks.  The only proof that the trip didn't turn into a longer stay is that we (supposedly) have records which show that Barack Obama enrolled at Columbia University later that same summer.  Of course, the public hasn't seen those records, but that's what we've been told.  Anyone in doubt will be directed to Obama's autobiography, Dreams from My Father.  Obama clearly gave the impression in DFMF that he was this penniless, somewhat confused young man, in search of an identity.  Obama makes sure readers don't miss the point by writing that he was forced to wear "thrift store clothing" during this time.  Yet he somehow managed to find the cash to finance a two-week trip to Pakistan.

Obama freezes local reporters out of S.F. event.  President Obama is scheduled to appear before hundreds of donors at a $7,500-a-plate noontime fundraiser today at San Francisco's W Hotel — but not a single local reporter will be allowed inside to cover his only stop in the area, the White House said Monday [10/24/2011].

What's the point of the FOIA with this in place?
 Obama Rule Would Allow Feds to Lie About Existence of Official Records.  A proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act would allow federal agencies to tell people requesting certain law-enforcement or national security documents that records don't exist — even when they do.  Under current FOIA practice, the government may withhold information and issue what's known as a Glomar denial that says it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records.  The new proposal — part of a lengthy rule revision by the Department of Justice — would direct government agencies to "respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist."

Obama: 1, Informed Public: 0.  I've been worried about this for some time: the government would start either manipulating the data or hiding it altogether.  Eliminating the [Statistical] Abstract [of the United States] is not just a matter of crimping the mirth of data hobbyists like me; it is ominous.  It is hiding the truth.  It is Soviet-like.  It is a short step from airbrushing people out of photos.  The Abstract has been around for 133 years, or about a century longer than the Department of Education has.

Obama's 'Fundamental Transformation' of the White House?  The current administration is one that promised transparency but delivers mysteries.

Obama's "Rose Mary Woods" moment:
 Busted: DOE Altered Loan Program Bulletins.  It appears as though the Obama administration has been caught red-handed trying to cover up evidence in relation to the "green" loans programs that helped finance Solyndra.  CNBC reports that a number of press releases posted by the Department of Energy have been retroactively altered to remove the name a solar company thought by many to be the next "green" failure. ... Naturally, the DOE blames 'outside contractors,' who "inadvertently" altered the news bulletins while updating the loans program website.

Emails directly link White House to secret transparency meeting.  Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by government watchdog group Judicial Watch suggest that the White House had direct involvement in shutting a transparency hearing to the press. ... And if holding a secretive, closed-door meeting on government transparency makes the Obama administration's open-government rhetoric seem a bit insincere, the irony was not lost on the transparency advocates.

Michelle Obama is right on Target.  Until now, despite the promises, the Obama administration has been anything but transparent.  In budget year 2009, federal agencies cited exemptions to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests 466,872 times, compared to the 312,683 exemptions cited by former President George W. Bush's administration in his final year.  This nearly 50 percent increase in refusals occurred even though there was a decrease in actual information requests.  So much for open government.

The American Con Job Act.  The president is out and out campaigning for re-election while promoting his latest half-baked half-trillion-dollar "American Con Job Act," which he says will generate jobs and jump-start the sluggish economy, which continues to slide south.  When I sat down to write this, there was no bill for Americans to read and digest.  In my America, the president would have had the bill to present to Congress when he spoke to its members last week.  What happened to all that transparency, Mr. President?

Lack Of Transparency.  After a long legal battle, a federal judge has ruled that White House visitor logs are public and can be released under the Freedom of Information Act.  So much for the White House's vaunted claim to openness.

Here's a better question:  Why did he even have an Iftar dinner?
 Why did the White House hide the names of 3 guests at Iftar dinner?  August 10, 2011, President Obama hosted his third annual Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan at the White House.  Neil Munro of the Daily Caller noted that the invite list was much shorter than previous years and had been scrubbed of several "controversial" Muslim leaders who had attended in the past.  Daniel Pipes, writing at the Investigative Project, identified three Islamist attendees who were not on the official list released by the White House but who are reported to have attended:
  •   Mohamed Magid, President of the Islamic Society of North America;
  •   Awais Sufi, Chairman of Muslim Advocates; and
  •   Haris Tarin, Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Why did the White House conduct a cover-up of the attendance by these three Muslim leaders of Islamist lobbying and advocacy groups?

Obama to host third Ramadan dinner.  President Obama will host an Iftar dinner to celebrate Ramadan at the White House Wednesday evening [8/10/2011]. ... By late Tuesday, White House officials wouldn't provide any names of expected guests.

Obama's Iftar guest list omits controversial attendees.  The White House's published guest list for this year's Ramadan Iftar dinner was much shorter than previous years' roster.  It excluded the names of several controversial advocates who have attended the event in the past, including some who The Daily Caller can confirm did attend on Wednesday night [8/10/2011].

Justice nominee keeps names of 11 clients secret.  Michael E. Horowitz, President Obama's nominee as the Justice Department's top watchdog, has earned more than $4 million since last year as an attorney representing the likes of Pfizer Inc., Dow Chemical Co. and Cablevision Systems Corp.  But he is keeping the identities of nearly a dozen other clients secret on newly filed ethics forms.

The Editor asks...
 What is the purpose of ethics disclosure forms if they are kept secret?

Obama's Misleading Vocabulary.  A quick review of Obama's speeches reveals his most common euphemisms seem to show a pattern of deception, obfuscation and misdirection.  In President Obama's lexicon, words have different meanings; to decipher the message and understand what the President is saying requires a special Washington Dictionary.  Here are some samples from President Obama's special dictionary...

Obama's 'Transparent' Secrecy.  Imagine the reaction if President Obama and congressional Democrats had released a sweeping health care bill, drafted in closed-door meetings, and demanded its approval by Congress immediately.  There would have been national outrage over the secrecy, lack of time for public hearings, and the absence of discussion, revisions, amendments, and multiple votes.  Yet that is exactly what the White House and Democrats are proposing once — and if — a deal on raising the debt limit by as much as $2 trillion is reached.

'Sensitivities' Bar DOE From Discussing Progress on WH Solar-Power Plan.  The Obama administration told CNSNews.com Thursday [6/16/2011] that it is currently in the process of procuring solar panels to place on the White House roof but it cannot discuss the progress on the project because of "sensitivities."

White House to cut access to half of federal websites.  As part of the Obama administration's campaign to promote transparency, the White House announced today it intends to eliminate the public's access to half of the federal government's websites within the next year.  The White House said there are nearly 2,000 websites operated by the federal government, which it said confuses people. ... White House officials didn't say how the administration will determine which web sites to cut.  But the president is creating an 11-member "government oversight and accountability board," comprised of current executive branch officials, "to help federal agencies improve their performance."

The Editor says...
 I'm not confused.  Are you confused?  If there are 100,000 names in the phone book, is that confusing?  No, the real motive here is concealment.

Stop It Already — He's Not So Smart.  [Scroll down]  To be a law review editor-in-chief, a Chief Articles Editor, a Chief Comments Editor of a law review, it is a sine qua non that you publish something fabulous, a real scholarly piece of work.  Many dozens of America's finest law students do exactly that every year.  Those articles later become part of a vast searchable electronic library of legal scholarship.  The thing is, I cannot find Barack Obama's great piece of work, the scholarship one would presume he researched, drafted, crafted, and honed, that earned him the presidency of the Harvard Law Review.  The name "Obama" is the kind of search term that should do the job.  But I cannot find any scholarship published by him that reveals the exceptional brilliance that paved the way to his achievement.

How Smart Is Obama, Anyway?  [Scroll down]  Obama went back to Chicago.  His record as a lawyer was undistinguished.  He was allowed by his firm to speak in court only once. ... Obama was associated with the University of Chicago Law School for a dozen years, during which he published zero (0) academic articles.  Yet, astonishingly, he was offered tenure anyway.

Corsi Book An Important One.  Unlike every other candidate in modern presidential history, Obama did not choose to share any of his essential documents, and the media happily obliged him.  As Corsi details, Obama has shielded those records involved with his adoption, his kindergarten, Punahou School, Occidental College, his passport and travel, Columbia University (including his senior thesis), Harvard Law School, his medical history, his Chicago law practice, his State Senate career, as well as his SAT and LSAT scores, and, until recently, his very birth certificate.  Then, too, there is the question of Obama's Connecticut-based Social Security number, a question that Corsi tackles, but the media inevitably dodge.

Now Obama has 'lost' $1.3 trillion.  By the time Bush left office, USASpending.gov was up and running and provided a serviceable tool for accessing billions of bytes about where Washington politicians are spending trillions of tax dollars.  But in January 2009 when President Obama and members of his administration came into office, they saw USASpending.gov as a potential propaganda tool and the utility of the site became an open issue.

Why reporters are down on Obama.  [Scroll down]  The correspondents association recently met with [Robert] Gibbs to discuss, in the words of Bloomberg's Ed Chen, "a level of anger, which is wide and deep, among members over White House practices and attitude toward the press."  A few days later, Gibbs said at one of his briefings, "This is the most transparent administration in the history of our country."  Peals of laughter broke out in the briefing room.

The most transparent and accountable administration in history announces...
 White House won't turn over Obama's BlackBerry messages on Solyndra.  President Barack Obama won't be sharing his BlackBerry messages with House investigators seeking communications about Solyndra, the White House told Hill Republicans on Friday [10/14/2011].

Most transparent administration in history? Really?  Despite Presidents Obama's campaign promise that this would be the most transparent administration in history, it has been anything but.  The [health care reform] bill contained far too many instances of rules and regulations "to be determined by the Secretary" to make me feel comfortable.  When Nancy Pelosi stated, during the debate over the Healthcare reform bill that "we needed to pass the bill to find out what's in it", it indicated that the details were not important to her then and they probably aren't now.

Obama promised things he knew would be impossible to deliver.  Despite promising the most transparent administration in history, on Obama's very first full day in the Oval Office, Obama sealed his personal records resulting in us knowing less about Obama's live than we do about the life of even George Washington.

Gibbs Is Set to Rise in Obama's Inner Circle.  [Scroll down]  In an interview, [Robert] Gibbs said he was loath to talk about a job he had not formally been offered.  He said, however, that the White House press office would follow through with Mr. Obama's promise of transparency.  "The president-elect has pledged to be open, transparent and accessible," Mr. Gibbs said.

Congressional Investigation Exposes White House 'Transparency' Myth.  Officials in the Obama administration "go to great lengths to avoid disclosing their meetings with lobbyists," a Republican congressman said Tuesday, as he opened a House subcommittee hearing to investigate whether the White House is keeping its promises of "transparency."  "The American people were promised a new era of openness and accountability and they haven't gotten it," said Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

President Obama out-secrets the "most secretive President" in history.  Democrats seem to be having a bit of trouble figuring out a winning strategy for November's elections.  They can't campaign on TARP.  ObamaCare is a campaign loser.  And unemployment [stinks].  But there is one area in which President Obama has surpassed all previous presidents -- his administration is now the most secretive in history.

The Promise That Keeps on Breaking.  President Obama promised on the campaign trail that he would have the most transparent administration in history.  As part of this commitment, he said that the public would have five days to look online and find out what was in the bills that came to his desk before he signed them.  It was his first broken promise, and it's the promise that keeps on breaking.

Most transparent administration in history? The facts demonstrate otherwise.  While he was campaigning for the presidency, Barrack [sic] Obama promised that his administration would be the most transparent presidency ever.  The facts demonstrate otherwise.  A recent report by The Associated Press claims that the Obama administration has denied the release any material in more than 33% of all FOIA requests and even when it did respond, the average wait time was getting longer not shorter.  Only 20% of "urgent" FOIA requests received replies within the 20 day period required by the FOIA time.

The least transparent administration in history.  The Administration discriminates in responding to requests for documents under FOIA.  It illegally forces its critics to wait years for the documents to which they are entitledÑwell beyond the 20-day legal deadline for responding -- or refuses to even respond to their requests for documents.  Meanwhile, it gives many of its supporters the documents they seek in just a few days.  These are just a few of the ways that Obama has broken his promise to have the most transparent administration in history.

Obama's Empty Transparency Rhetoric:  One of Obama's first actions as president was a pledge to transparency.  But according to a House hearing and outside watchdog groups, that promise has so far been a giant bust.

GOP slams White House for suspected coffee shop meetings.  House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee raised concerns at a Tuesday [5/3/2011] hearing that White House staffers hold meetings at a nearby Caribou Coffee to avoid disclosure requirements.  "White House staff apparently purposely schedule meetings at the Caribou Coffee around the corner from the White House so that those meetings won't show up on the White House logs," said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight subcommittee.

The Mysterious Mr. O.  [Scroll down]  He spent a huge chunk of change on attorneys to hide it.  He enlisted people all over the country to help.  He left a military officer to languish in a prison.  And yet, after years of stalling and hiding, Obama has released his purported long form birth certificate.  What are the possibilities here?  In withholding the document to begin with, perhaps Obama was manipulating the opposition, trying to divide and conquer us.  He may have been stirring the fans of racial resentment, knowing that blacks would assume racist overtones.  Maybe Obama was creating an elaborate smokescreen, a distraction while he dismantles the country.  Or perhaps the document he produced is a counterfeit.  Who knows?

Time For Conservatives to Focus on Obama's Performance in Office.  Emotion should have no place in the upcoming campaign.  In order to make these tactics moot it is time to put the issue of Obama's birth certificate, college grades, and all manner of personal questions on the sidelines and concentrate on making certain he is defeated based on his record.  That is not to say that there may indeed be some validity to these issues; but they cannot be proven with absolute certitude between now and the fall of 2012.  Placing any attention on these matters will not succeed in helping defeat Obama as long as the mainstream media is a wholly owned subsidiary of liberal deep-pocket benefactors and the Democratic Party with their access to taxpayer money.

Despite Campaign Claim, Obama Told Paper He Attended Trinity Church 'Every Week'.  President-elect Barack Obama said in 2004 — while he was a state legislator running for a U.S. Senate seat — that he attended services at Trinity United Church of Christ every week.  This is in contrast to what Obama, as a presidential candidate, said this year after controversial anti-American remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright surfaced.  Obama then told news outlets that he did not attend the church frequently and was not aware of Wright's comments.

Barack Obama's plan to placate the Muslim world:  He's promising an unrelenting desire to create a relationship with peoples of goodwill?  What about peoples of badwill?  What about peoples of goodwill who are ruled by corrupt and oppressive governments? ... We suppose a certain amount of sheer fluff — or let's call it strategic indirection — can be useful in international diplomacy.  Let us hope that Obama is not actually naive enough to mistake the platitudinous for the profound, and that he is merely using the former to keep America's adversaries guessing.

Sorry, But Obama Scares Me.  Almost everything about Obama's campaign is fraudulent.  He masquerades as a uniter while dividing, polarizing and alienating us.  He denies he's liberal, when objective sources score him as the most liberal senator.  He says he barely knows militants and radicals with whom he has spent his lifetime cavorting and whose worldviews — horrifyingly — he shares.  He brazenly disguises welfare redistributions as tax cuts.  He and his surrogates keep changing his tax plan.

Emperor Obama's Clothes are Visible and Scary.  During this election, Barack Obama said lots to make the public feel good.  He made promises couched in vague language that could mean anything that the listener wanted them to mean.  He used words like "change" and "hope;" he promised tax cuts to 95 percent of Americans — a promise that was ludicrous and impossible to fulfill, but people fell for it.  He spoke one way in front of liberal audiences and another way in front of conservative ones.  He learned the language of evangelicalism and he spoke it fluently when it served his purposes.

'They Must Think You're Stupid'.  Let's start with social issues like Second Amendment freedoms.  Mr. Obama denies that he's ever supported banning handguns, right after the landmark Heller case where the Supreme Court struck down Washington D.C.'s handgun ban.  When a 1996 questionnaire surfaced that had asked if Mr. Obama supported banning all handguns, his one-word written answer was "yes."  He said an unnamed staffer must have filled it out without his knowledge.  Then another copy surfaced — this one with his handwriting on it.  He says he must not have read that particular question.  Sure.

Obama, the hoax.  The packaging of the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, aided and abetted by the drive-by media and major TV networks, have perpetrated a great hoax on the American public.  Never before in our history have we had a candidate with such a lack of accomplishments and a lack of transparency into his background and associates.  We can't see his records from prep school, Occidental College, Columbia University or Harvard.  What was his thesis?  Who paid for his education at Harvard, since there is no record of student loans?  There are even questions concerning where he was born.

If you investigate Obama's background, you will be prosecuted.
 Iowa arraignment for 9 in Obama loan case.  Nine people accused of accessing President Barack Obama's student loan records while employed for a Department of Education contractor in Iowa are to be arraigned on federal charges.

Woman accessed Obama loans record.  An Iowa woman pleaded guilty today [6/17/2010] to accessing President Barack Obama's student loan records without permission. ... The nine defendants were charged with one count of exceeding authorised computer access.  Apart from [Mercedes] Costoyas, the remaining eight have entered pleas of not guilty and are expected to stand trial in August.

But if Obama's critics are investigated, that's another matter altogether.
 Judge tosses out 'Joe the Plumber' privacy lawsuit.  A federal judge yesterday threw out a lawsuit by Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — the northwestern Ohio man immortalized as "Joe the Plumber" in the 2008 presidential campaign — alleging that three high-ranking state bureaucrats violated his privacy by running his name through confidential databases.  U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said Wurzelbacher could not show that he had been harmed by the snooping.

A President Who Won't Uphold the Constitution? Never.  Well, now we know why Barack Obama's been so reluctant to have symbols of this country associated with his campaign.  No flags on his airplane.  Nix to pins on his lapel.  Not inclined to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem.  After all, it turns out he has a problem with that other slightly more significant representation of our nation, the United States Constitution.

Obama's campaign built on lies.  There have been many lies by Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign that he has tried to mask by shifting his recollections over time. ... But two lies in particular have been especially consequential:  Obama's pledge not to run for President in 2008, and his commitment to participate in federal financing for his general election campaign, with its consequent spending limits.  The news this past Sunday that Obama raised $150 million for his campaign in September shows the significance of the second lie.

The Real Obama:  The story of Obama's political career is not a pretty story.  He won his first political victory by being the only candidate on the ballot — after hiring someone skilled at disqualifying the signers of opposing candidates' petitions, on whatever technicality he could come up with.  Despite his words today about "change" and "cleaning up the mess in Washington," Obama was not on the side of reformers who were trying to change the status quo of corrupt, machine politics in Chicago and clean up the mess there.

Obama Grant Park election night rally "tickets" really data bonanza for Obama machine.  The Obama campaign, by requiring tickets for the election night rally in Grant Park, is using the event to collect names and contact data to be used for future voter contact, fund-raising and political or issue organizing.  That will let Obama, win or lose the White House next week, build on what are already the most valuable political lists in the nation to use to help his causes and candidates.

Obama Falsely Claims 'Every Penny' of Bailout Proceeds Will Go to Americans.  In a speech in support of the financial bailout before the U.S. Senate Wednesday night [10/1/2008], the Democratic presidential candidate claimed that American taxpayers would get their money back, raising the possibility they might even profit from the bailout.  "If this is managed correctly, and that is an important 'if,' we will hopefully get most of our money back, and possibly even turn a profit on the government's investment — every penny of which will go directly back to the American people," Obama said.  The claim is false.  According to the bill that passed, the government will get all of its money back — but none will be returned directly to taxpayers.

Hypocrisy Doesn't Begin To Describe It.  [Scroll down] More than hypocrisy is at work here.  It is not just far Left, American-hating radicals he now disowns.  You get the sense that he believes everyone can be played. … It is not hypocrisy.  It's fraud.  He's sold the same piece of political real estate to multiple buyers for multiple, conflicting uses.

The Audacity of Lies:  I don't know what is going to happen on November 4th.  But I think it's going to boil down to whether or not enough Americans have been fooled by this serial liar.  For the sake of our country, I sure hope not.

Homeless 'Driven' to Vote for Obama.  Volunteers supporting Barack Obama picked up hundreds of people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and drug-rehab centers and drove them to a polling place yesterday [10/6/2008] on the last day that Ohioans could register and vote on the same day, almost no questions asked.  The huge effort by a pro-Obama group, Vote Today Ohio, takes advantage of a quirk in the state's elections laws that allows people to register and cast ballots at the same time without having to prove residency.

Pro-Obama, Muslim-led voter registration in mosques.  A leading critic of Islam isn't surprised there has been virtually no coverage or action taken against a Muslim group that has been running an illegal "get out the vote" campaign in swing-state mosques.

Memo to McCain:  Take the Gloves Off.  Obama says, without rebuttal, that his plan lowers taxes on "95 percent of working families."  This is flatly impossible because 32 percent of income tax returns filed (some 43 million Americans) pay absolutely nothing in federal income taxes.  Obama makes his claim by offering a $500 "Making Work Pay" tax credit to everybody ($1,000 per family), by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and creating other credits.  If your tax credit is more than your tax liability, you receive a check from the Treasury and you pay no taxes.  That is not a "tax cut."

Obama covers his tracks.  Barack Obama apparently wishes his two autobiographies to be the definitive record of his past.  He has blocked efforts by others who wish to independently examine his past.  He won't allow his transcript from his undergraduate days at Columbia University to be released.  He "lost" his thesis on Soviet nuclear policy … He won't answer questions about his days at Harvard Law School.  He "lost" his Illinois Senate records.  He will only release a simple one-page letter from his doctor on his medical condition.  He won't release his application to the state bar….

Why Won't Obama Talk About Columbia?  Barack Obama does not want to talk about Columbia.  Not even to his good friends at the New York Times, who've so reliably helped him bleach away his past — a past neck-deep in the hard Left radicalism he has gussied up but never abandoned.  Why?  I suspect it is because Columbia would shred his thin post-partisan camouflage.

The Obama Enigma.  The country is in two unpopular wars — amid the worst financial panic of the last 80 years.  Not since prophet of change and newcomer Jimmy Carter ran against Gerald Ford (post Watergate and the lost Vietnam war) have voters been so eager for a shake-up.  Why then is the charismatic Barack Obama not quite yet a shoo-in?  Easy.  Voters apparently still don't know who Obama is, or what he wants to do — and so are still not altogether sure that Obama is the proper antidote to George Bush.  After more than a year of campaigning, he still remains an enigma.

Cirque De Obama:  Barack Obama says we can't afford four more years like the last eight.  What, exactly, is bad about winning a war on terror, keeping Americans alive and free, and letting us keep more of what we earn?

Obama's Moral Equivalence Problem:  I guess we really shouldn't be surprised that Barack Obama sees no difference between our toppling of Saddam Hussein and Russia's invasion of Georgia.  On an emotional level — which is where most liberals live and breathe — the comparison is attractive.  But on an intellectual level, it is stupid and deceitful.

Obama's casual ways with the truth:  Barack Obama gave us more than some magnificent photo-ops when he spoke in Berlin yesterday.  By trying to look presidential, he revealed more then he intended to about his operating style -- long on glossy production values, and painfully inadequate when it comes to getting the facts straight.  Twice in the course of generating the almost poetic images which mark his rhetoric, Senator Obama spoke to the assembled throng and the world's media about matters at variance with reality.

The Audacity of Slander:  Just as his comments about Sarah Palin's lack of experience highlighted the scantiness of his own resume, Obama's aggressive questioning of McCain's honor invites examination of his own probity.  And the Democrat presidential nominee is no stranger to prevarication.  He routinely lies about McCain's positions on a wide variety of issues, including health care, Social Security, and the mortgage crisis.

Lobbyists Give to Obama Campaign.  Obama has pledged to forgo contributions from federally registered lobbyists.  Yet, more than 40 have donated nearly $15,000 to his presidential campaign this year, according to records recently filed with the Senate and House.  The latest tally, as of Tuesday [7/29/2008], comes as lobbyists have begun filing their LD-203 forms….

Obama, Postmodernist.  [Postmodernism] claims to liberate society from fixed meanings and rigid categories, but it is invariably used to impose new ones, usually in the form of political correctness.  We've all seen how adept the PC brigades are celebrating free speech, when it's for speech they like.  Obama gives every indication of having evolved from this intellectual soup.

Cracks beginning to show in Obama's exterior.  Obama getting testy with a reporter whose only crime was mentioning that the candidate appeared to flip flop on drilling could mean that the pressure of the campaign is getting to him.  There was no call to accuse the reporter of bias.  The question is legitimate and the fact that the candidate's answer was vague and contradictory shows that Obama has a real problem with keeping his lies straight.

Life Lies:  Sen. Obama is currently misleading people about what he voted against, specifically claiming that the bill he voted against in his committee lacked "neutrality" language on Roe v. Wade.  The bill did contain this language.  He even participated in the unanimous vote to put it in.

Obama in the mud:  So much for honesty.  In the past few weeks, Obama has thrown so many false accusations against John McCain that just keeping track of them has become difficult.  And these aren't innocent errors.  They are deliberate distortions of the sort Obama has always said he reviles.  On Thursday, Obama said of McCain, "He has consistently opposed the sorts of common-sense regulations that might have lessened the current crisis."  That's entirely untrue.

Fraud:  Obama as Guardian of the American Taxpayer.  Thanks to reporting from Amir Taheri, the gist of which the Obama campaign has confirmed, we now know that while Obama is telling the American people he wants an end to the war, he has secretly negotiated with the government in Iraq to extend the U.S. military mission there.  That is a black-and-white violation of federal criminal law.  Very simply, in our system the president is responsible for conducting foreign policy.

Dirty Politics From Camp Obama.  Earlier this week, I wrote about the dirty tricks campaign against journalist Amir Taheri following his revelation that, in a private meeting in Iraq last July with Iraqi leaders, Barack Obama tried to persuade them to delay the agreement being hammered out with the US government on a draw-down of the American military presence.  According to this account, which quoted Iraq's foreign minister Hoshya Zebari, Obama had thus privately sought to undermine an American government foreign policy initiative — an explosive revelation.

McCain the Ascender, Obama the Condescender.  Polite people say Obama, the man who reads a great speech, simply doesn't come across as well as John McCain as a conversationalist because he doesn't have the Arizona senator's experience.  On Saturday [8/16/2008] night, even the polite had to admit that, while experience is a key issue when selecting a president, it is our collective experience of Obama's character deficit that keeps us from boarding Barack Obama's Double Talk Express.

Good and evil and Obama.  "Does evil exist?" [Pastor Rick] Warren asked Obama.  "And if it does, do we ignore it, do we negotiate with it, do we contain it or do we defeat it?"  Obama the moral philosopher replied, accurately, that evil is everywhere, in Darfur, in our city streets, in our own hearts.  We cannot "erase evil from the world.  That is God's task.  But we can be soldiers in that process, and we can confront [evil] when we see it."  (Imagine the reaction if President Bush called himself a soldier of God in the battle against evil.)

Obama's Extremism:  Obama's problem isn't his temperament, but the unsustainable exertions necessary to attempt to square his reasonable-sounding rhetoric on abortion with the extremism of his record.  Asked by Pastor Rick Warren when a baby gets rights, Obama said, "I'm absolutely convinced that there is a moral and ethical element to this issue."  This is a crashing banality couched as thoughtfulness.  If Obama is so sensitive to the moral element of the issue, why does he want to eliminate any existing restrictions on the procedure?

A little too glib.
 Obama's Abortion Position?  It's a One-liner.  Barack Obama had made real strides in defusing the abortion issue with pro-life voters as late as last week. ... But Mr. Obama eroded many of those gains last Saturday when he told Pastor Rick Warren during a nationally televised forum that deciding when the rights of personhood should be extended to the unborn was "above my pay grade."

'Pay grade' unartful dodge.  Obama supports partial-birth abortion and voted against the "Born Alive Infant Protection Act."  When he got the invitation to an evangelical forum hosted by a pro-life pastor, he had to know that issues regarding life and the law were going to come up.  And his prepared answer to the most fundamental question about public policy and abortion ("is the fetus a human being?") is that it's "above my pay grade?"

What Will He Say Next?  With Obama's lead in the polls disappearing, a steady stream of doubt is now being poured over Obama's nervous and inverted campaign.  The great orator appears ready to crack. … It is nauseating to watch Obama flipping and flopping on the campaign trail as he frantically tries to tell mentally stable Americans what he hopes they want to hear.

The illusion that is Barack Obama:  [Obama] engages in doubletalk when, on free trade and Iraq, he tells the yokels one thing and the policy people another.  He overstates when he presents his minimal accomplishments in the Illinois Senate as proof of his stature.  He engages in systematic deception when he says he doesn't take money from lobbyists.  He presents a lie as metaphorical truth when he says it was the 1965 bloody Sunday attacks on peaceful civil rights protesters in Selma, Alabama, that inspired his parents to marry.  (They had been married for years already.)

Dobson blasts Obama's 'fruitcake' view of Constitution.  As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

Paper, rapped for outing Obama note, claims campaign pre-approved leak.  What initially seemed to be a journalistic scoop of dubious moral propriety now seems to be a case of an Israeli paper being played by the Barack Obama campaign.  Maariv, the second most popular newspaper in Israel, was roundly criticized for publishing the note Obama left in the Kotel.  But now a Maariv spokesperson says that publication of the note was pre-approved for international publication by the Obama campaign, leading to the conclusion that the "private" prayer was intentionally leaked for public consumption.

Obama's Prayer:  The Intended Audience.  [Scroll down slowly]  This is a political story that is essentially about character because the man putting the note is running for the highest office in the United States of America — the office of the president. … Who is Barack Obama?  Is he the kind of man who would write a note intended for the Kotel, send the media a copy, stick the note in the Kotel, have the note extracted and conveyed to the media all for political gain?  That is the question that is germane to his character.

Is the Democratic candidate starting to symbolize change for change's sake?  The Obama camp uses the word "change" more frequently than commas and perhaps in that constant repeating of the mantra they occasionally miss that a country yearning for change wants improvement, not change for the sake of change.

Out of bounds!  Obama falsely claims to be Banking Committee member.  Obama on Wednesday [7/23/2008] was speaking to reporters in Israel when he tried to boast about what he'd done to protect Israel.  "Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee — which is my committee — a bill to call for divestment from Iran as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon," Obama said.  Why that's wrong:  Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Messiah Lies About His Senate Committee Assignment.  This guy is going to be harder than Bill Clinton to keep up with.  The next whopper whips along before you have time to wrap your brain around the last one.

Verbal junk food.  It was a flawless ploy for Obama to inject his offspring into his message.  This imparted the highest degree of folksy empathy:  "Like you, I'm a dad.  I too would feel impelled to take action."  And these syrupy supportive sentiments crossed the ocean with satellite immediacy and appealed directly to the hearts of registered Jewish voters, which they were foremost intended to sway.

How Hollywood Hurts Obama:  [Scroll down]  The Hollywood glitterati and European elites look at Obama and see one of their own: a socialist whose politics are rooted in cultural relativism and smug anti-Americanism.  In fact, Barack Obama is exactly like a high budget Hollywood flick.  Like much of what Hollywood produces, Obama looks good to the eye and sounds good to the ear (as long as you don't listen too closely).  He dazzles with style and panache.  But just like your typical Tinsletown blowout, Obama is nothing more than eye candy — the ultimate triumph of style over substance.  In the wake of a number of extemporaneous gaffes, Obama recently decided to take his teleprompter on the road, just another sign of how scripted his campaign has become.

Obama the Postmodern Candidate.  Mr. Obama is on a nodding acquaintance with the concept of "truth."  It appears that everything he says and does must be viewed "in context" and that the framing of that context is the sole province of Barack Obama.  Take the whole Reverend Wright issue for example.  Over the course of six weeks we were told that he had no idea these things were said; he had a vague idea they were said; he knew they were said but could no more disown them than his occasionally racist grandmother; he had been personally disrespected and was through with Jeremiah Wright.  Quite a bit of "context" to get from his initial statements to the end point a mere month and a half later…

Barack Obama Uses Google to Combat Vicious Rumors.  Barack Obama is waging a quiet battle in the Googlesphere to combat damaging rumors, as well as his opponent, John McCain.  Specifically, Obama's campaign has waded into online auctions for Google search terms to snap up not only obvious phrases like "Barack Obama" but also potentially negative ones like "Barack Obama birth certificate" or "Barack Obama as a Muslim," according to Hitwise, an Internet audience monitoring firm.

The Editor says...
 I'm thinking that if he has to resort to such extreme measures, maybe he has something to hide.  Perhaps the "vicious" rumors have a basis in fact.  I think these are valid questions.

The Obama College Try.  Are you a college student seeking to register to vote?  Barack Obama's website makes it easy.  But does the site follow the law? ... This campaign tactic raises legal and ethical questions.  Is Sen. Obama's campaign encouraging voter fraud?  Is it encouraging college students to take actions that may be harmful without informing them of relevant risks?  If so, what does this say about the integrity of the campaign?

The new 'digital brownshirts':  Where is Al Gore when you need him?  Three years ago, the former vice president blasted "digital brownshirts" who "harass and hector any journalist who is critical of the president."  He meant the mortal threat to the Republic of bloggers and angry Republican e-mailers.  But times change, and the digital legions are greater nowadays on Mr. Gore's side.  Thus we don't hear much fretting at all about the Obama Action Wire, which, unlike the brownshirts of yore, is actually managed by Barack Obama's campaign to muzzle critical media.

Obama's Revisionist History:  The saga over Rev. Jeremiah Wright is Exhibit A.  In just 62 days, Americans were treated to eight different explanations. … Mr. Obama's problem is a campaign that's personality-driven rather than idea-driven.  Thus incidents calling into question his persona and character can have especially devastating consequences.  Stripped of his mystique as a different kind of office seeker, he could become just another liberal politician — only one who parses, evades, dissembles and condescends.

Problem with Barack Obama's First General Election Ad.  Barack Obama's first general election ad says about 46 seconds in that the Illinois senator passed laws that "extended health care for wounded troops who'd been neglected."  The ad "Country I Love", which was released Friday [6/20/2008], provides a citation at the bottom of the screen which reads "Public Law 110-181."  The problem is Senator Obama never voted for that legislation.

How Smart is Obama?  Obama has made a habit of coming across like a man who doesn't know what he's talking about.  That's bothersome enough, but what's more worrisome still is how comfortable he is with not knowing what he's talking about, and how convinced he seems that his rhetorical flourishes will obscure his ignorance.

He talks a lot, but he says nothing.
 Obama Cannot Keep Running On Narcissism.  Does Obama have the sort of adviser a candidate most needs — someone sufficiently unenthralled to tell him when he has worked one pedal on the organ too much?  If so, Obama should be told:  Enough, already, with the we-are-who-we-have-been-waiting-for rhetorical cotton candy that elevates narcissism to a political philosophy.

Obama Still Hasn't Gotten the Memo.  Obama, please, for your own sake, delete the phrase "energy independence" from your database.  Purge it from your campaign.  You sound like a moron.

Idols of Crowds:  Barack Obama is truly a phenomenon of our time — a presidential candidate who cannot cite a single serious accomplishment in his entire career, besides advancing his own career with rhetoric.  He has a rhetorical answer for everything.

Barack Obama:  Oratory Versus Action.  "Yes, we can" means anything the listener wants it to be.  "Hope" is also subject to all manner of interpretation. ... If his supporters conclude that [Obama], like the Wizard of Oz, is really "the man behind the curtain" creating an illusion, his rhetorical skills will not be able to hide the fact that the federal government that created the present ills is unable to end them.

A Blank Screen And An Empty Suit.  In his most recent study in vapidity, The Audacity of Hope, Barack Hussein Obama does a remarkably terse and honest job of describing himself.  If only Americans were to take him at his word:  "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views."  Indeed. … All that blather about "change we can believe in," "hope we can change with ... change we can hope for ... beliefs we can change with" or whatever, seems to have mystified folks all over the fruited plain, making his "blank screen" metaphor spot on.

Prince Obama.  Barack Obama is an accomplished political actor who delivers his lines well, whether or not they contain substance.  He manipulates platitudes like Laurence Olivier, calling for "unity" and the end of alleged divisions to create a better world defined by peace among nations and the end of class distinctions at home.

The Greatest Scandal:  A visitor to Mr. Obama's Web site finds plenty of information about his plans to fix public education in this country.  Everyone knows this is a long, hard slog, but Mr. Obama and his wife aren't waiting.  Their daughters attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where annual tuition ranges from $15,528 for kindergarten to $20,445 for high school.

What We've Learned About Barack:  The senator has had nearly a year-and-a-half to explain how his new brand of politics and bipartisanship would work; the optimists among us are still waiting.  Quizzed on how he'd reach across the aisle, Mr. Obama likes to mention that he might, maybe, perhaps, possibly, if caught on a good day, negotiate on "merit pay" for teachers. … If Republicans can't figure out a way to capitalize on this gap between the spin and substance, they'll deserve backrow seats at his inauguration.

Obama's Fatherhood Talk Is Cheap.  Sen. Obama claims he is all about change.  He says he wants to get Washington working differently.  He might start by declaring independence from the teachers' unions.

When in the Course of Political Doublespeak.  [Many of Obama's] speeches use the same formula:  hearken to America's founding, hail the shining ideals of America's revolutionary liberty, invoke the greatness and even the rhetoric of American luminaries gone by, and then subtly change the focus to suggest that the next step for American liberty is to become a socialized nanny state for the greater good.

Obama should actually read the Constitution.  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was on "60 Minutes" recently, and here's hoping Barack Obama was listening, or that if he wasn't, someone will send him a tape.  You can pray it will straighten out this Harvard Law School graduate on some of the balderdash he passes off as respect for the Constitution.  Respect, at the least, entails upholding what the document says and means, but as his reported words convey, Obama believes instead that justices should make primary reference to their own innermost moral convictions and sympathies.  He thinks the Constitution should be regarded as "living," which is to say that you should be able to jigger its principles in accord with the temper of the times.

What Obama Left Out:  [Scroll down]  In the rest of the speech, he goes on to detail — at some length — the "so many ways to serve" that are available "at this defining moment in our history."  There's the Peace Corps, there's renewable energy, there's education, there's poverty — there are all kinds of causes you can take up "should you take the path of service."  But there's one obvious path of service Obama doesn't recommend — or even mention:  military service.

Obama's Language Games:  Barack Obama, the candidate, has used nuanced language to evade and deflect in order to avoid being candid.  Here are three examples of Obama language games concerning (1) Louis Farrakhan, (2) driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, and (3) reparations.

Obama Speaks!  Thank you very much.  It's great to be here.  You know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result.  We are going to do things differently and expect a different result.  And if we don't do things differently, well, the results we get, well, they'll be the results we deserve.  Thank you.

Obama won't wear flag pin but displays Cuban Flag in his Houston Office.  Barack Obama's Houston campaign office prominently displays a Cuban flag with a superimposed picture of Che Guevara, the Argentine-born terrorist and revolutionary.  Of course, Obama made an issue of not wearing an American flag pin or placing his hand over his heart during the national anthem….

I smell Barack Obama baloney.  Anyone who delves past his soaring speeches and mesmerizing gaze and follows the money trail will find plenty to question.  The Democratic candidate of "change," for example, has raised nearly $100 million in campaign contributions, nearly as much as the Hillary Clinton money machine.  Three of his four largest group of bankrollers are executives of Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and JPMorgan Chase.  What kind of change is that?

Obama's Deceptive Anti-Oil Ad:  'I Don't Take $ From Oil Companies'.  It has been illegal for the last 100 years for an oil company to directly donate to a political campaign.  So, while it is technically correct that Obama isn't taking money from oil companies, it is ALSO true that neither is anyone else!

Not from the companies themselves, but from the employees.
 Barack Obama still takes in oil money.  Sen. Barack Obama continued accepting donations from oil company executives and employees last month even as he aired ads in which he stated he took no oil company money, his campaign finance reports show.

Obama's Dry Hole:  "I want you to think about this," Barack Obama said in Las Vegas last week.  "The oil companies have already been given 68 million acres of federal land, both onshore and offshore, to drill.  They're allowed to drill it, and yet they haven't touched it — 68 million acres that have the potential to nearly double America's total oil production."  Wow, how come the oil companies didn't think of that?  Perhaps because the notion is obviously false….

The Editor says...
 The oil companies haven't been "given" anything.

On offshore oil, Obama offers the audacity of ignorance.  To plan a long and challenging journey, would you reject Mapquest and GPS and only consult an atlas from the 1970s?  Unlikely.  But to pinpoint America's offshore oil deposits, congressional Democrats, starting with Sen. Barack Obama, love disco-era maps.  Despite his conditional, latter-day support for limited offshore drilling, Obama is the sole sponsor of legislation that would block geological research to locate offshore oil.

Barack Obama is a Fake.  Sen. Barack Obama's star appeal is causing physiological reactions in his supporters.  Which is to say, they're fainting.  And these fainting routines are causing me physiological reactions.  Which is to say, I'm throwing up. … I don't mean to suggest that all this is staged.  I'm saying it straight out:  It's staged.

William Jefferson Obama.  I now have reason to suspect that Barack Obama has a skill of proven value to a U.S. President:  the ability to look straight into the camera and not tell the truth, without lying.

Obama Lies.  On issue after issue, whether confessing to a mistake or tailoring his latest position for political effect ("moving to the center" is what they call this in political lingo), Obama's words are now increasingly being received as bald untruths.  His image is turning into that of presidential candidate as Pinocchio, the would-be president as habitual liar.  Simply googling "Obama Lies" produces thirteen million references on the subject — thirteen million! — as opposed to just over a million references to "Bush Lies" and three million for "Bill Clinton Lies."

Obama Campaign Removes New Black Panther Party Endorsement From Web Site.  Barack Obama's campaign has removed an endorsement by the New Black Panther Party from its Web site, one day after the Illinois senator delivered a speech calling for improved race relations in America.

Typical White Fact-Based Reasoning.  Senator Barack Obama said in his memoir, The Audacity of Hope, "The arguments of liberals are more often grounded in reason and fact."  Yet he also claimed that to fear a black person on the street more than a white person is a racial "stereotype", "bred" into us.  To the contrary, such a fear is actually "grounded in reason and fact."  When the numbers are crunched, a black person is almost six times more likely than a white person to be a murderer.

Barack Obama — I'm sure we've seen him somewhere before.  Every time I listen to [Obama], I … find my mind wandering, asking itself things like:  'What does "the challenge of hope" mean?' … His is a rhetoric that soars and takes flight, but alights nowhere.  It declares that together we can do anything, but doesn't mention any of the things we can do. … Maybe Obama is so successful because he's the supreme master of what American politics excels in:  high-flown language that denotes as little as possible.

Where's the Beef in Obama's Big New Ideas?  Over the past couple of weeks, Obama has begun to reveal approaches that only a vegetarian could love.  Take his energy proposal.  Obama worries that an oil embargo could do serious harm to our economy and offers up plans to help us avert disaster.  The centerpiece of the proposal is certainly different but not in a favorable direction.

Say Watt, Senator?  Speaking Tuesday in Lansing, Mich., Sen. Obama set a goal of putting 1 million plug-in gas-electric hybrid cars, capable of getting 150 miles per gallon of gasoline consumed, on the road by 2015.  To help power them, Obama also said he wanted 10% of our electricity to come from renewable sources by 2012 and 25% by 2025.  Actually, about 20% of our electricity already comes from a renewable resource — nuclear power — and John McCain wants to up that percentage significantly.

Obama Scores as Exotic Who Says Nothing.  Obama's appeal comes not from the things he says, but from who is saying them.  He scores as an exotic who talks of barbershops and church socials in the flat tones you'd expect from any son of the prairie.  Had [Evan] Bayh been half-Kenyan and raised in Hawaii by white grandparents from Kansas, he too would have become a political star, at least for the month of December.  But he is a conventional white man.

Who Is Senator Barack Obama And What Does He Believe?  Sen. Obama's church background is clearly liberal and pro-homosexual.  His voting record shows him to be a typical secularist liberal.  Human Events notes that Obama has a 100% rating from Americans for Democratic Action, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women, the NAACP and the National Education Association.  He says he believes that marriage should be a union of one man and one woman, but voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006.

What does Barack Obama believe in?  The intro he taped for "Monday Night Football" — in an Aaron Sorkin-like setting of gleaming desk and important lighting — showed he is an actor who can absorb the script and knows by nature what a camera is.  This is a compliment.  All the great presidents of the media age, FDR, JFK and Reagan, were great actors of the presidency.  (The one non-great president who was their equal in this, Bill Clinton, proved that acting is not enough.)

The real story behind the cover:  This latest campaign kerfuffle was the perfect distraction to mask what's behind the controversial caricature.  Inside the New Yorker is a 14,619-word story by Ryan Lizza that has largely escaped attention.  It's not a flattering portrayal of the senator, who comes off as opportunistic.  But few know this, so caught up in the cover controversy that they haven't taken the time to read the article itself.

Bamboozled Obama's big black lie:  It was the Republican Party that fought for the freedoms of blacks in Congress following the conclusion of the Civil War.  State chapters of the Republican Party were started by blacks in most southern states.  The first black congressional members, some of whom had been former slaves only months previous, were all Republican.

Jonathan Livingston Obama:  Only white guilt could explain the insanely hyperbolic descriptions of Obama's "eloquence."  His speeches are a run-on string of embarrassing, sophomoric Hallmark bromides.  In announcing his candidacy last week, Obama confirmed that he believes in "the basic decency of the American people."  And let the chips fall where they may!

Barack Rodney King Obama:  Barack Obama's glib announcement in declaring his candidacy for the presidency provides clues about the man and reminds us, contrary to his stated message, of the great chasm that separates people of different political orientations.  Mr. Obama appears to have fallen prey to the wave of public adulation accompanying the media's hype about him — to the point that he broke his recent promise not to seek the presidency at this early stage in his inexperienced political career.

Obama's Born-Alive Cover-Up.  Several of the purported refutations are themselves, at best, misdirections.  One of the most easily verifiable is Obama's continued insistence that he voted against the Illinois Born Alive Act because it lacked an abortion neutrality clause.  Remarkable.  Obama now has unequivocally repeated this falsehood several times.  Is he that confident nobody in the mainstream media will call him on it?

Obama's Abortion Challenge.  Senator Obama has justified his strenuous objection to the Illinois bill by claiming that differences from the federal bill are the reason.  This claim is false.  The Federal legislation and the Illinois legislation were in fact virtually identical. ... The candidate has been burnishing and airbrushing his history as November nears.  One aspect of this effort is his attempt to recreate his own political history involving abortion.

Ethanol Insanity.  Barack Obama doesn't want to talk about corn ethanol.  And it's no wonder.  In early August, his campaign Web site purged several sections of his energy plan that talked about corn ethanol.  Before the purge, Obama was touting corn ethanol as a pivotal element in his push for "energy independence." ... In early August, Obama released a new set of talking points on energy called "New Energy for America" that supplanted his old energy stance.  All mentions of corn ethanol were removed.

A new Obama:  No we can't.  During CNN's broadcast of Barack Obama's first press conference yesterday [11/7/2008], a corner of the screen flickered with a live feed of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  As Obama spoke, the Dow average lost more than 100 points.  In his brief statement and question session, the president elect of the United States said next to nothing about anything.  There were no signs of the Yes We Can positivism of the campaign in his low-key, even halting manner.  What little he did say may well signal the beginning of a new phase in Obamamania:  No we can't.

Pablum from the President-Elect.  President-elect Barack Obama hasn't held his Friday afternoon press conference yet — but we have a pretty good idea of what he might say.  Every day this week, Obama has held a press conference to introduce new members of his team.  In each instance, Obama has said ... not a whole lot.

Obama:  Where have all his records gone?  According to March 2008 reports, State Department employees conducted an unauthorized search of Obama's passport files during the recent presidential campaign. ... Two workers were fired and another faced discipline.  Obama's files reportedly contained copies of passport applications, birth date, basic biographical information, records of passport renewal and possibly citizenship information. ... Meanwhile, a key witness who had been cooperating with federal investigators was later found fatally shot in front of a Washington, D.C., church.  A police officer found the body of Lt. Quarles Harris Jr., 24, slumped dead inside his car.  At the time, investigators said they didn't have any information connecting the murder to the passport case.  After one year of investigation of the homicide, there have been no arrests.

No Proof.  [Scroll down]  That individual, identified as Lieutenant Harris Junior, 24, was stopped for a minor traffic infraction on 25 March 2008, and was found to be in possession of stolen credit cards and documents that were traced back to the breach of the passport records.  HARRIS, known to DC police, began working with federal authorities to strike a deal as they expanded their investigation into the passport incident.  According to a review of the arrest record, HARRIS admitted to investigating officers that he obtained the documents from (an unnamed) co-conspirator "who works for the U.S. Department of State".  Less than a month later, HARRIS was found with a single bullet wound to his head on Thursday, 17 April 2008, inside of his car that was parked in front of the Judah House Praise Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

Obama on Fort Hood Massacre:  Don't Jump to Conclusions.  [Scroll down]  By sealing off records of his past, including his original birth certificate and his academic records, Obama was in a way persuading Americans to forget about "all the facts" and to jump to conclusions about his qualifications to be president.  In addition, would the White House be attacking Fox News if it had a healthy respect for the "marketplace of ideas?"

Obama Treason Charges Advance In Tennessee Grand Jury.  [Scroll down]  Yet ten months after inauguration, Obama's entire past remains a mystery under lock and key.  Obama has spent almost $2 million in legal fees to keep his life Top Secret, not counting millions in tax-payer funded road blocks thrown up by Obama's Justice Department, which has sent numerous federal attorneys into court after court to file dismissal requests on the basis of "standing" — with great success.  They don't want the courts to ever decide Obama's Constitutional eligibility on "merit," because if discovery ever goes forward and Obama's files are opened up, Obama is finished and so is his Marxist Global Agenda!

Who's Visiting The President?  President Barack Obama has worked closely with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pass health care reform and other measures, but there are a number of private-sector figures whose names appear more frequently in White House visitor records.  They include labor leaders, an executive for a Swiss bank and a Chicago billionaire.

Solving the Obama Problem.  I have argued before that Barack Obama is as close to being a rogue president as can be imagined.  There is something troublingly undocumented about him, a cloud of ambiguity hovering over his selective reticence. ... The problem is that much of genuine importance remains an ongoing mystery.  For example, his college and university transcripts, including his academic papers and financial statements, his senate files and schedules, his professional client lists and other documentation remain sequestered under seal, a fact which should properly distress even his most ardent supporters.

Obviously they have something to hide.  What could it be?
 Dems object to GOP gov't transparency probe.  Some Democrats in Congress objected Wednesday [2/2/2011] to early steps taken by the new Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to conduct a broad inquiry into President Barack Obama's promises to improve government transparency.

Promises, Promises: Little transparency progress.  Two years into its pledge to improve government transparency, the Obama administration handled fewer requests for federal records from citizens, journalists, companies and others last year even as significantly more people asked for information.

Obama's openness falling short of campaign promise.  He won an award for making government more transparent, but President Obama is nowhere near keeping his pledge to "usher in a new era of open government," according to government watchdogs.  Obama rode into office two years ago as a self-proclaimed reformer, vowing to kick down the walls of secrecy that defined George W. Bush's presidency.

Obama's 'Openness' a Transparent Lie.  For an administration which has touted "openness" left and right, the pattern would be amusing — if it weren't so frightening. ... While it's obviously not possible to comply with every FOIA request, the sheer volume of refusals is troubling.  More troubling still is the apparent tendency to favor requests from sympathetic agencies and groups.

"President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history..."

Obama secretly accepts transparency award.  After canceling a scheduled appearance to accept an award from transparency advocates during Sunshine Week earlier this month, President Obama finally accepted the award this week — without letting anyone know.  According to various reports, Obama met with several transparency advocates for roughly 20 minutes on Monday [3/28/2011] to discuss open-government issues and accept an award for his commitment to increasing federal transparency.

Obama Accepts "Openness" Award at Clandestine Meeting.  Earlier this month, the White House announced that President Obama would be receiving a "transparency" award from good-government groups — a piece of news that was met with well-deserved mockery from the press.  The White House responded by canceling the award ceremony without explanation.  But now Politico is reporting that Obama accepted the award this week in a secret, closed-door meeting with government transparency groups.

The Editor asks...
 Why do "government transparency groups" have closed-door meetings?

Shh! Obama gets anti-secrecy award.  President Obama finally and quietly accepted his "transparency" award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.  The secret presentation happened almost two weeks after the White House inexplicably postponed the ceremony, which was expected to be open to the press pool.

'The height of irony': Obama awarded prize for transparency ... behind closed doors.  President Barack Obama accepted an award for making the government more open and transparent in secret.  The White House even left the event off the President's public schedule, so no one knew about it and requests for journalists to cover the meeting by those attending were turned down.  'To have such a meeting not be transparent is the height of irony.

Where's the openness, Mr. President?  The day after his inauguration, President Obama promised a new era of "openness in government."  But the reality has not matched the president's rhetoric.  We ... have found little openness since Obama took office.  If anything, the administration has gone in the opposite direction:  imposing restrictions on reporters' newsgathering that exceed even the constraints put in place by President George W. Bush.  Democrats criticized the Bush administration for not making decisions based on the best science.  But the Obama administration now muzzles scientists and experts within federal agencies.

The administration's honesty deficit.  Barack Obama is a president who won a peace prize and took the nation into a new war.  It ought not to be a surprise, then, that he would accept an award for his administration's transparency last week as his third-largest agency was raked over the coals by Congress for obstructionism.  The House Oversight and Government Reform committee alleged in a report released Wednesday [3/30/2011] that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has politicized the way it responds to requests for information from the public and the press.

The White House Guess List.  President Barack Obama has won praise from the media — and from himself — for putting the White House visitor logs online.  Yet the visitor logs may hide more than they reveal.  The White House is still holding back "tens of thousands" of visitor logs, according to congressional testimony last week by Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, who also added that "the Obama administration is less transparent than the Bush administration."

"It has been my experience that whenever a leader — whether elected, anointed or media-appointed — does not want you to see something, that's probably the time when you should go out of your way to see it."
— Clarence Page    

Obama Birth Certificate Issue More Urgent Than Ever.  At this point, every member of the Congress and media, as well as ordinary citizens, knows that there was something putridly rotten about Obama's election.  Not just the billion dollars in campaign donations, most of which are still unaccounted for but known to have flowed from foreign donors, many of them enemies of America.  And not just the missing mountains of qualifying data that all presidential candidates are expected to produce, including:
  ·   His Illinois law license.  Is he even a lawyer?  Where is his supposed Harvard Law degree?  Where are the papers he wrote in law school?  Why does he not correct people when they say he was a law professor when he was never a professor but only a lecturer?
  ·   His Selective Service registration, which investigative-journalist and lawyer Debbie Schlussel has reported to be falsified, an accusation that Linda Bentley quite persuasively documented just the other day.
  ·   His visa or more probably visas.  After all, he did travel to Pakistan in 1981 when Americans were forbidden into that country.  Did he use the Indonesian visa he got when he was a citizen of that country?
  ·   His school records from Indonesia and Hawaii.
  ·   His college transcripts from Occidental College in CA, Columbia College in NY, and Harvard Law School in MA.
  ·   His Baptism certificate.
  ·   His Illinois State Senate records.

Did someone mention Obama's birth certificate?

Presidential Executive Orders.  In a story by Tom Murse, About.com Contributing Writer, titled "Obama's First Executive Order" dated September 20, 2010 the question was asked, "Did President Really Seal His Own Personal Records?"  It might surprise you, as it did me, that the answer is "No".  One day after being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, on Jan. 21, 2009, Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13489, states Mr. Murse and he continues, "That the first order of business Obama took care of on day one of his Presidency was to sign off on an Executive Order that states that only the records he chooses to be made public will be released.  This is the subject that was at the absolute top of his agenda.  If this isn't proof that Obama is hiding something, I don't know what is."

Democrats Force 'Birther' Issue to Rise Again:  What Gives?  In my opinion — as a civics-minded citizen — Obama's as yet unreleased original long-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii is merely the tip of a mysterious iceberg when it comes to the 44th president of the United States.  Any journalist worth an ounce of salt would be curious as to why any presidential candidate would conceal nearly every documented item from his own past.  Obviously, America does not have many remaining curious journalists.

The Case Against Barack Hussein Obama:  [Scroll down]  Sure, there's [1] the original, long-form 1961 Hawaiian birth certificate.  Then there's:
  [2] Marriage license between Obama's father (Barak Sr.) and mother (Stanley Ann Dunham) — not found, not released
  [3] Obama's baptism records — sealed
  [4] Obama's adoption records — sealed
  [5] Records of Obama's and his mother's reptriation as US citizens on return from Indonesia — not found, not released
  [6] Name change (Barry Sotero to Barack Hussein Obama) records — not found, not released
  [7] Noelani Elementary School (Hawaii) — not released
  [8] Punahou School financial aid or school records — not released
  [9] Occidental College financial aid records — not released. (These records were, however, subpoenaed but Obama lawyers succeeded in quashing the subpoena in court.  No other Occi records have been released.)
  [10] Columbia College records — not released
  [11] Columbia senior thesis — not released
  [12] Harvard Law School records (...not released)
  [13] Obama's law client list — sealed
  [14] Obama's files from his career as an Illinois State Senator — sealed
  [15] Obama's record with Illinois State Bar Association — sealed
  [16] Obama's medical records — not released
  [17] Obama's passport records — not released
That's a lot of records sealed and not released.

Obama conspiracy — It's no longer just a theory.  On Sept. 7, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama appeared on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," and stated, "I had to sign up for Selective Service (SS) when I graduated from high school ... And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honorable option.  But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979.  The Vietnam War had come to an end.  We weren't engaged in active military conflict at that point.  And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue."  Some people did keep in mind that he graduated in 1979 and noted the registration requirement was suspended in April 1975 by President Gerald Ford and wasn't reinstituted until 1980 by President Jimmy Carter in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  The Military Selective Service Act required men born in the calendar year 1961 to register on any of the six days beginning Monday, July 28, 1980.

Obama's Draft Registration Raises Serious Questions.  Did President-elect Barack Hussein Obama commit a federal crime in September of [2008]?  Or did he never actually register and, instead, did friends of his in the Chicago federal records center, which maintains the official copy of his alleged Selective Service registration commit the crime for him?  It's either one or the other, as indicated by the release of Barack Obama's official Selective Service registration for the draft.  A friend of mine, who is a retired federal agent, spent almost a year trying to obtain this document through a Freedom of Information Act request, and, after much stonewalling, finally received it and released it to me.  But the release of Obama's draft registration and an accompanying document, posted [in this article], raises more questions than it answers.

Lawfare, Voluntary Surrender, and Right-wing "Extremists".  [Scroll down slowly]  Barack Obama, who passed his bar in 1991, "voluntarily surrendered" his license in 2008, for unknown reasons.  Why did Obama surrender his license?  Citizen WELLs reports that it may have been because of charges that Obama lied on his bar application.

Lawfare, Voluntary Surrender, and Right-wing "Extremists".  Fox News, who has, one assumes, a few resources, was unable to come up with a single student from Obama's purported time at Columbia, who remembered him. ... Was the guy a ghost?  Here is a very partial list of documents relating to Obama's past,that no one seems to have seen.  Good luck finding them.
  Original birth certificate (you know, as in one you can actually touch)
  Obama/Dunham marriage license
  Obama/Dunham divorce documents
  Soetoro/Dunham marriage license
  Soetoro adoption records
  Occidental College records
  Passport — the one used for the trip to Pakistan (not mentioned in either biography)
  Columbia College records
  Columbia thesis
  Harvard College records
  Illinois State Bar Association records

Is Barack Obama the Ultimate Sleeper Agent?  Many questions regarding Obama's past remain hidden.  Beyond the issue of whether he is a natural born citizen eligible to hold the office, most of the paper trail concerning his education at Occidental College in Los Angeles, followed by Columbia University and Harvard, and the funding for his tuition, his travel to Pakistan as a youth, and other factors normally made public during a campaign are still kept secret.

The Endless Secrecy Around Barack Obama.  Just to review, the public cannot get access to paperwork related grants distributed by then-state-legislator Obama (records from 1997 to 2000 aren't available); his state legislative office records (which he says may have been thrown out); he refuses to release a specific list of law clients, … he won't release his application to the state bar (where critics wonder if he lied in responding to questions about parking tickets and past drug use); he's never released any legal or billing records to verify that he only did a few hours of work for a nonprofit tied to convicted donor Rezko; and he's never released any medical records, just a one-page letter from his doctor.

No Paperwork For Obama Grants From 1997 To 2000.  [Obama] won't release his application to the state bar.  He's never released any legal or billing records to verify that he only did a few hours of work for a nonprofit tied to Tony Rezko.  He's never released any medical records, just a one-page letter from his doctor.  Does it bother anyone that a guy with political ambitions for his entire adult life has not left a paper trail?

Berg v. Obama:  Elector Suit Call to Action.  Unfortunately, the overwhelmingly vast majority of American citizens are not aware that President-elect Barack Obama has been the only candidate for the Executive who has not released certain records to help establish his credentials; to wit:
 •  Occidental College records -- not released.
 •  Columbia Thesis paper -- not available, locked down by faculty.
 •  Harvard College records -- not released, locked down by faculty.
 •  Selective Service Registration -- not released.
 •  Medical records -- not released (only a one-page report).
 •  Illinois State Senate schedule -- 'not available.'
 •  Law practice client list -- not released.
 •  Certified Copy of original Birth certificate -- not released.
 •  Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth -- not released.
 •  Harvard Law Review articles published -- None.
 •  University of Chicago scholarly articles -- None.
 •  Record of Baptism -- Not released or 'not available.'
 •  Illinois State Senate records -- 'not available.'

Obama's Lost Years:  Voters and the media are now exercising due diligence before Election Day, and they are meeting resistance from Mr. Obama in checking his past.  Earlier this year, the AP tracked down Mr. Obama's New York-era roommate, "Sadik," in Seattle after the campaign refused to reveal his name.  Sohale Siddiqi, his real name, confirmed Mr. Obama's account that he turned serious in New York and "stopped getting high."  "We were both very lost," Mr. Siddiqi said.  "We were both alienated, although he might not put it that way.  He arrived disheveled and without a place to stay."  For some reason the Obama camp wanted this to stay out of public view.

Obama's Years at Columbia Are a Mystery.  Senator Obama's life story, from his humble roots, to his rise to Harvard Law School, to his passion as a community organizer in Chicago, has been at the center of his presidential campaign.  But one chapter of the tale remains a blank — his education at Columbia College, a place he rarely speaks about and where few people seem to remember him.

The Stealth Candidate:  [Obama] burst onto the political scene and has risen with such alacrity that even many of his supporters don't have a clue what he's about or where he would take America.  It's no wonder the conspiracy types are whispering that he's the Manchurian candidate.  It's not as if he's embracing his past; it's more as if he's concealing it, and for good reason.

Barack "blank" Obama and disingenuous politics of "understanding".  Who is Barack Obama?  He is a cipher running as a shaman.  He has been in the Senate for two years.  He has virtually no voting record; he has virtually no articulated positions.  Ask his advocates, and they will describe him as "a breath of fresh air" — but ask them about a single position he holds, and they will stare at you as though you are speaking in tongues.  They will tell you, however, that Obama "understands" every position you hold.

Few Details Known About Obama's Three Weeks in Pakistan.  Last April during a San Francisco fundraiser, Obama referred briefly to a visit he had made to Pakistan during his college years.  Campaign press secretary Bill Burton subsequently gave inquiring journalists a few facts.  Obama had visited Pakistan for Òabout three weeksÓ in 1981, after visiting his mother in Indonesia. He had traveled with a college friend whose family lived in Karachi.  He had also visited Hyderabad in India, Burton said.  Word of the visit surprised observers.  The Democratic presidential hopeful has not mentioned it before while campaigning, nor has he written about it in either of his memoirs.

Obama's College Trip to Pakistan.  [Scroll down]  "I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college — I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."  This last part — a college trip to Pakistan — was news to many of us who have been following the [2008] race closely.  And it was odd that we hadn't hear about it before, given all the talk of Pakistan during this campaign.

On Obama's 1981 Trip To Pakistan.  If one was to believe the left wing media, Barack Obama's 1981 trip to Pakistan was nothing more than an innocent visit a college friend and his family. ... Pakistan was on the banned travel list for US Citizens at the time and all non-Muslim visitors were not welcome unless sponsored by their embassy for official business.  [There] would be only a few reasons a young Westerner of the Muslim faith would travel to Pakistan in 1981:
[1]  To Participate in Jihad, which is the duty of every "True Believer".
[2]  For religious education in a Wahabbi sect, Saudi funded, Madrassa.
[3]  In order to purchase drugs from the drug marketplace.
Pakistan was not a tourist stop nor the place to hang out with someone's family in 1981.

Is this related?  I hope not.
 Why Pakistan Produces Jihadists.  Monday night's arrest of Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-American accused of planting a car bomb in Times Square on Saturday, will undoubtedly stoke the usual debate about how best to keep America safe in the age of Islamic terrorism.  But this should not deflect us from another, equally pressing, question.  Why do Pakistan and the Pakistani diaspora churn out such a high proportion of the world's terrorists?

Unprecedented and Secretive.  Lost amid all of the jubilation of the Obama victory was the announcement by the Obama transition team that it had set up a separate transition program beyond the one that is paid for by the American taxpayer.  Called the "Obama/Biden Transition Project," it is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, with no limits on the contributions it can receive and no requirements to divulge the names of individuals or organizations that give it money. ... No one is certain that any political organization has ever set up a tax-exempt entity that would be shrouded in such secrecy, particularly when Obama claimed he would be more transparent about the way things were done.

Health-Care Secrets.  President Obama has promised a "new era of transparency" in Washington, so perhaps he should talk to the Senate about getting with his program.  On July 15, six weeks ago, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed an amended $1 trillion health-care bill, with acting Chairman Chris Dodd calling it a "historic achievement."  Too bad the committee won't reveal this history even to other Senators, much less to the public.

Who Is Behind Quashing the Birth Certificate Issue?  [Scroll down]  Even more significant is that no one in the media thought Obama's missing birth certificate worth even casual mention.  Their thinking seemed to be:  If we're not going to check on his eligibility to be president, then why question why the other crucial documents were — and continue to be — sealed?  For instance:  his baptism certificate; elementary, high school, college and graduate school transcripts; visa(s); selective service record; alleged multiple Social Security numbers; Illinois attorney's license; Illinois State Senate records; law practice client list; Univ. of Chicago scholarly articles; financial records while a community organizer in Chicago; and medical records.  I'm also curious about why Michelle Obama's law license was suspended in 1993 by the Illinois Supreme Court, but then again she wasn't running for president.

Transparent Obfuscation.  One problem with the Obama financial rescue plan is that it is almost as complicated and obscure as the problem it is designed to solve.  Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, testifying yesterday [3/26/2009] on Capitol Hill, called for greater simplicity in financial regulation.  Good luck with that.

FCC Won't Allow 'Diversity' Chief Mark Lloyd to be Interviewed about Public Policy Views.  The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) won't allow its Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd to be interviewed by the news media about his views and past statements on federal communications policy.  Lloyd, who cites the radical author Saul Alinsky as an inspiration, has argued that public broadcasting outlets in the United States should be funded on a level equal to the funding of private broadcasting companies — with the money coming from licensing fees levied on private broadcasters by the government.

By hook or crook...
 House Approves Hate-Crimes Measure as Part of Defense Funding.  Legislation to punish hate crimes became a flashpoint on Capitol Hill on Thursday [10/8/2009], as a measure expanding the definition of such crimes was attached to the bill outlining the Defense Department budget and approved by the House over the strong objections of Republicans.

Mr. Obama:  Tear Down Your Wall of Secrecy.  The real issue, however, is not about birthers or theories or racism or whatever else you want to add.  The real issue is about the secrecy of Barack Obama, and it involves more than the release of his complete birth records.  Hospital records; high school, college and law school records; transcripts; writings; and passport info have been requested, and all are being withheld by Obama.  Mr. Obama is presented as the smartest man in the country, yet we have not seen his college course list or grades.

Joe Biden update:  Working from home again today.  According to his official White House schedule, at precisely 1 p.m. today Eastern time Biden will lead a transcontinental conference call "with mayors from across the country to discuss implementation" of the ... American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. ... Because Obama promised his would be the most transparent White House administration in history, Biden's mayoral conference call is closed to everyone except the unidentified mayors, including especially those in the annoying, unelected media.

Lawyer files lawsuit against Obama administration for health deal records.  Conservative attorney Larry Klayman filed a lawsuit against the White House Monday [12/21/2009] demanding that it release information on healthcare meetings with lobbyists.  The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, charges the Obama administration violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the Freedom of Information Act by not providing relevant information about closed-door meetings on healthcare policy.

Percy Sutton dies; His Obama revelation omitted from obituaries.  However, one of [Percy] Sutton's most notable moments is absent from the media hagiographies I have seen:  he stated on television that he knew that an Islamic supremacist, Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, and advisor to a wealthy Saudi, had paid for Barack Obama's education at Harvard Law School.  Exactly how young Barack Obama, a man of slender means, managed to pay for a Harvard Law degree has long been a mystery, and the President has not been forthcoming about any details of his elite education.

Man Who Told of Obama's Islamic Benefactor Passes Away.  Percy Sutton, long-time Borough President of Manhattan passed away this week at 89.  Sutton is famous for being Malcolm X's lawyer and a powerful New York politician but he was also a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a radio pioneer, and a civil rights activist.  There is one more little thing that Sutton is known for and that is for revealing that Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, a member of the Black Panthers and a well-known Islamist, was the benefactor that paid for Barack Obama's Harvard education.

Five Easy Questions for Obama:  What were your SAT and LSAT scores and your GPA at graduation from Columbia?  You are one of the youngest presidents ever, with one of the leanest track records in elected or executive office.  Virtually all your predecessors served in the U.S. Congress for many years, or served as vice president, or in a cabinet, or a high military command position, or as governor of a state, prior to being president. ... So what exactly were your test scores and grades?  Did you take any economics courses?

What Transparency Looks Like to the Obama White House:  As the Chamber notes, "CEQ had identified 87 documents totaling 759 pages that were responsive to our request.  HOWEVER, they could not release most of the documents because they 'originated' with another agency."  So what did CEQ produce?  An entirely blacked-out, redacted, Sharpie-markered e-mail, pictured [in this article].

No information FOIA you.  Associated Press reports the Obama administration is keeping more information hidden from the public than did the Bush administration by employing "exceptions" to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  FOIA statutes, which are designed to keep government accountable, are increasingly being abused or violated even at the state level.  In fact, unlawful FOIA methods are often employed to evade constitutional or other legal safeguards against abuse of power, thereby compounding illegalities by the government.

An Obama secret:  Here's a not-so-tiny tidbit of data that's getting lost in the White House-driven public frenzy over healthcare legislation this week:  The White House Democratic administration of Barack Obama, who denounced his presidential predecessor George W. Bush as the most secretive in history, is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than the Republican did.

Government Secrecy Increases Under Obama.  Government agencies keep finding excuses to keep an alarming number of public records secret as President Obama sits idly watching his promise of unprecedented transparency repeatedly mocked.  The commander-in-chief's open-government guarantee has turned out to be a big joke that has actually led to more secrecy than under the Bush Administration.

Stanley Dunham's FBI file reportedly destroyed.  Stanley Dunham, the man President Obama called "Gramps", was monitored by the FBI, but like President Obama, his paper trail has been obscured. News comes from Cliff Kincaid, via the Christian News Service and Canadian Fee Press. ... The reasons the FBI thought he was worth watching will probably never be known, along with so much about Obama's background that might conflict with the carefully manufactured image that the MSM cooperated in selling to the American public, while ridiculing those who sought more information on the odd lacunae in Obama's paper trail.

FBI Destroyed File on Obama's Grandfather, Journalist Discloses.  The FBI destroyed a file on Barack Obama's grandfather, the man who selected Communist Frank Marshall Davis to be the future president's mentor during his growing-up years in Hawaii. ... While the exact nature of the Dunham file will be a topic for speculation, Kincaid said that is likely that some of the information was related to Dunham's relationship with [Frank Marshall] Davis.

No Proof.  From an investigative perspective, the reluctance of Barack Hussein OBAMA to release an authenticated copy of his actual long form birth certificate is as revealing as it is troubling.  The exact number of lawsuits filed within the last two years to legally compel Barack Hussein OBAMA to release a copy of his authenticated, long form birth certificate is unknown. ... By comparison to the 150 or so investigations of this type I have performed over the last 25 years, I have yet to find anyone under consideration for such a position to refuse this most routine and basic request.  Moreover, I have never experienced anyone who has not only refused to do so, but spent extraordinary sums of money in legal fees to fight against such disclosure.

Uncovered:  Obama's mystery college years.  In one of the many strange features of Obama's presidential candidacy, his 2008 campaign went to great lengths to conceal normally routine information about the candidate's college years.  The information included his first two undergraduate years at Occidental College in Los Angeles, followed by his final two years and graduation from Columbia University in New York City.  No official or unofficial records were ever made available.  No college transcripts, published records, or even contemporary newspaper announcements about his education have been released.

Obama the Titan, or the Cipher?  [Scroll down]  And what has Obama published on constitutional law or any other legal topic?  Although he was president of the Harvard Law Review as a student, in which capacity he no doubt wrote some unsigned notes, a search of the HeinOnline database of law journals turns up exactly nothing credited to Obama in any law review anywhere at any time.  This is yet more indication that his status as "lecturer" at Chicago was not a regular faculty appointment, since regular full-time faculty are expected to produce scholarship.  Let me say that again.  There appears to be not one single article, published talk, book review, or comment of any kind, anywhere in the professional legal literature, under Barack Obama's name, notwithstanding an apparent eleven-year teaching career in constitutional law at a top-flight law school.

On the absurdity of background.  Peter Baker, on pool duty today at a DNC funder POTUS is headlining in Atlanta, captures the absurdity of insisting on background attribution to disclose the most harmless of information.

Does Obama tell the truth about anything?  Barack Obama pledged that if elected he would make it a goal to have much more transparency in his administration than those Presidents who preceded him.  There was going to be Change.  The transparency would bring about 'accountability" in his words.  One of the policies he trumpeted would be making available to the public the White House visitor logs so we can know who visited with the President, the Vice-President and key officials of his team.  Only later did we discover — through outside investigators' efforts — that these key officials were circumventing the new "policy" by meeting with lobbyists across the street from the White House at Caribou Coffee, as well as other spots so that their meetings would not show up on the logs.

Strictly someone else's fault.  The administration was sounding fairly untroubled by a new report detailing thousands of names missing from the White House visitor logs.  The omissions, detailed in a Center for Public Integrity story this week, include celebrities, lobbyists, campaign donors and more who visited the White House but never made the list.

White House visitor logs leave out many.  A foot of snow couldn't keep Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jennifer Hudson and other celebrities away from a star-studded celebration of civil-rights-era music, hosted by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House in February 2010. ... But you won't find Dylan (or Robert Zimmerman, his birth name) listed in the White House visitor logs — the official record of who comes to call at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., which is maintained by the Secret Service.  Ditto Joan Baez.

Obama's 'open' government hides behind close [sic] doors.  Barack Obama promised a more active, more open government.  He's delivered on half of that.  Two House committee hearings last week focused on the Obama administration's lack of transparency.  Cliff Stearns' Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and Darrell Issa's Government Reform Committee both assailed the administration for operating behind closed doors.  The hearings only scratched the surface of the problem.

Obama Must 'Win Over' Media? Is CBS Joking Here?  [Few in the Old Media] cared much about the lack of transparency in Obama's donor base.  Millions of dollars were likely donated to Obama's campaign illegally yet not a word was ever uttered by the largest number of Old Media establishments.  The Old Media obviously wasn't interested in the transparency of Obama's past.  The media didn't care much about looking into Rev. Wright until the Internet beat the bushes for the story and never did say a word about his communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis.

Did someone mention Frank Marshall Davis?

Obama on being a beneficiary of racial preferences:  Despite promises of transparency and openness, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has deliberately been opaque about his past and beliefs, carefully crafting his own story in his autobiographies The Audacity of Hope and Dreams From My Father while sealing his own academic records and often voting a noncommittal "present" as an Illinois state legislator.  Instead of questioning him and demanding the promised transparency and openness, the media have gone along with Obama ... they accepted Obama handouts without question while continuing to entertain the most outrageous speculations about McCain and Palin.

We know more about the Obama's marriage than we do about healthcare.
 False transparency:  I've given up hope of ever finding out what young Barack actually did at Occidental and Columbia or even reading a snippet of what he wrote, if anything, for the Harvard Law Review. ... I'm not really interested in Obama as a man (or as a husband).  I'm interested in what he does.  And most of that, of late, he has done in secret.  We know more about his marriage than about how the healthcare legislation was drafted or how its contents are being negotiated.

NPR Brushes Aside Transparency Concerns at DOJ Civil Rights Unit.  On Tuesday's Morning Edition, NPR's Carrie Johnson highlighted critiques of the Obama White House from the left on their promise to be "the most transparent administration in history," but downplayed questions over the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Unit's use of non-disclosure agreements with companies under investigation.

More Questions.  Why does the media suddenly have no interest in asking hard questions?  Why are they "factophobic"?  What is difficult about "trust but verify"?  And, why malign those who want truthful answers?  Would it be that they are Democrat operatives cloaked as journalists; or proverbial wolves in sheep's clothing?  These and many other questions animate those who no longer trust the media and who seek answers to legitimate questions in their quest of the truth.  Obama repeatedly promised "the most transparent administration in history," his continuing resistance to American citizens who seek the facts about him is a non sequitur and establishes him as Deceiver-in-Chief.

'Most Transparent White House Ever' Prevents Reporters From Covering Protest.  While mainstream media reporters are generally pretty supportive of the Obama administration, they bristle, and rightly so, at incidents where the administration is less than transparent or actively seeks to impede journalists from working.

Obama's (Axelrod's) Choreographed Media Blackout.  The "most open and transparent" president in American history is still playing hide-and-seek with the press, and even the liberal New York Times has begun to notice it, as indicated by this headline:  "Obama Turns His Back On the Press."  If the mainstream media were not so ideologically wedded to Obama's big-government agenda, they would be doing more than pointing out his secrecy and hypocrisy with the occasional headline.

Most Transparent Administration Ever Makes Effective Reporting from Gulf a Felony.  Effectively reporting on the Gulf oil spill is now a Class D felony, punishable by a fine of up to $40,000.  That's right, the most transparent administration in history has made it a felony, effective July 1, to get within 65 feet of what the Coast Guard determines are essential recovery efforts.  According to Anderson Cooper, officials tried to up that number to 300 feet.

If this is transparency, what's accountability?  The White House press corps is challenging the Obama administration's reliance on background briefings by unnamed officials — noting that the same officials tend to turn up soon after, delivering the same message on television.  And more to the point, didn't President Obama run on a promise of transparent government?

'Where's the Birth Certificate' becomes 'Why would Obama publicly mock man asking'.  [Scroll down]  Writing in American Thinker, Jack Cashill makes a strong stand for the Corsi book.  "Unlike every other candidate in modern presidential history, Obama did not choose to share any of his essential documents, and the media happily obliged him.  As Corsi details, Obama has shielded those records involved with his adoption, his kindergarten, Punahou School, Occidental College, his passport and travel, Columbia University (including his senior thesis), Harvard Law School, his medical history, his Chicago law practice, his State senate career, as well as his SAT and LSAT scores, and, until recently, his very birth certificate."

Palin/Obama Paper Trails and Media Hypocrisy.  The deafening roar of nothingness emerging from the Sarah Palin email trove points up the media's hypocritical lack of interest in Barack Obama's pre-presidential record.  Just as Palin's emails were released, Slate's David Weigel pointed out that Barack Obama's State Senate records are not available.  Weigel quotes Obama's statement to the effect that he didn't have the staff or financial resources to preserve office paperwork.  As a result, Obama claims, his State Senate records may have been thrown out.  In fact, Obama could easily have preserved his State Senate records had he wanted to.

Why Haven't We Seen Barack Obama's E-Mails? Where are his records from his U.S. Senate creer? [sic]  I can answer that for you.  ["]The FOIA applies to Executive Branch departments, agencies, and offices; federal regulatory agencies; and federal corporations.  Congress, the federal courts, and parts of the Executive Office of the President that function solely to advise and assist the President, are NOT subject to the FOIA.["]  What about his State Senate records?  ["]When asked about why he hadn't released his papers, Obama said that he had only one staff person assigned to him during his years in the senate and simply did not have the resources to keep archival records.["]

The network that produced Barack Hussein Obama, Jr..  Professor [Angelo] Codevilla raises the intriguing network of connections among President Obama's family and programs sponsored by the CIA and a variety of fronts and associated groups, including the Asia Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the East-West Center, and much more.  The evidence he presents is not conclusive, as he acknowledges, but it is indeed highly interesting, and explains some puzzling aspects of the Dunham/Obama families' histories.

Obviously, Barack Obama is somebody's puppet.
 The Chosen One.  In our time, asking how a young man of scarce achievement got into position to win the Democratic Party's nomination for president courts the contemporary synonyms for "impious":  "birther," "conspiracy theorist," and, of course, "racist." ... Let us open ourselves to wonder how, minus miracles, a 10-year-old boy without obvious talent who had lived in Indonesia since age six ends up with an eight-year scholarship to Hawaii's most exclusive school; a scholarship to Occidental College; a transfer into Columbia University; acceptance into Harvard Law School, and editorship of its law review; and how he goes from job to prestigious job without apparently mastering any of the previous ones.  No wonder some of Barack Obama's supporters treat him as if he were anointed by an extraterrestrial power.

Time for New Look at 2008 Obama Passport Breach.  [Scroll down]  What made the trip controversial was not so much what Obama did once he got to Pakistan, but how he got there.  In 1981, Pakistan was not an easy or likely destination for an American tourist.  This prompted some noise in the blogosphere that Obama could not have traveled to Pakistan as an American citizen. ... The mainstream's media's beef that Obama's background has been "thoroughly vetted" and that the various "conspiracy theories" about his origins have already been debunked is just junk disinformation on top of its earlier junk misinformation.


"Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their government is doing."
— Barack Obama    
Sources:  [1] [2] [3]    

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