Would the ‘nets like to have great numbers for the May ratings book? I’m guessing they would. I’ll tell them how to get ‘em.

Do an honest investigation into President Barack Obama’s college transcripts. Honest, is the key word here.

As of right now, they won’t even touch the issue. Perhaps they’re afraid of what they might find out.

Since JFK every US President has been transparent about their school records and in most cases, their medical records as well (JFK kept many of his issues with pain medications secret.) Even Presidential candidates release this information. John Kerry did it (to some degree) and John McCain did it, even though they never made it to the White House. George W. Bush gave full disclosure, and still, CBS tried to make up records about his military service. Dan Rather got busted on that one.

The President who said he would be the most transparent in history has been the most secretive.

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Initially, I thought this was a joke.

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.

This time, Obama met quietly in the Oval Office with Gary Bass of OMB Watch, Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive, Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Patrice McDermott of OpenTheGovernment.org, without disclosing the meeting on his public schedule or letting photographers or print reporters into the room.

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Tuesday, Ted Koppel appeared on NPR to continue his defense of “objective” journalism. His main objection to outlets like Fox and MSNBC seems to be that these news organizations are trying to make a profit:

The fact that you have these many voices on cable television, in effect, debating one another day in and day out is an inexpensive way of attracting an audience and making money, and that’s why they’re there, not because of any search for a new brighter form of journalism.

Mr. Koppel is not alone in thinking the noisy partisanship needs to stop. Indeed, here’s Senator Rockefeller just yesterday lecturing the CEO’s of the cable industry about Fox News and MSNBC:

Put aside for the moment that the heyday of television news which Koppel lionizes was entirely corporate, one might almost say monopolistic. Let’s consider his core objection by taking a detour into another profession. If a profit motive corrupts the practice of journalism, what about the practice of law?

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The word of the week is “transparency.”  No, this isn’t the vapid hopey-changey wordage that the Obama campaign and administration has been using for the past two years, rather the transparency I’m speaking of here involves the literal process of revealing truths, exposing potentially negative material and providing a fair playground on which lovers of rational thought can explore and determine reality for themselves.  At the end of the day, transparency is all about providing access to information and ideas, while shifting power to the people to subsequently formulate conclusions.  This week, two transparency medals of honor should be given out – one to the Sunlight Foundation and the other to Andrew Breitbart (naturally).

First and foremost, in a bid to once again outdo itself in the categories of “way too cool” and “ultra useful,” The Sunlight Foundation has created a timely democracy tool that offers the American public a first-hand look into the opinions and past work of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.  The new project, called “Elena’s Inbox” takes Kagan’s public e-mails from her Clinton administration years and organizes them in an easy-to-view format, thus providing unprecedented access and perspective.  In an e-blast from Sunlight yesterday afternoon, Jake Brewer wrote,

All of the emails sent and received by Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan during her time in the Clinton White House were recently put online… [We] built a site to take Elena Kagan’s emails and make them readable…While we’re in the middle of Kagan’s hearing for the Supreme Court, it’s fascinating to get a sense of her through her public emails.

In the past, I’ve voiced concern over Kagan’s take on the first amendment, so I personally plan to sift through her e-mails to gain a better sense of her worldview and how she’ll function on the Supreme Court. This website couldn’t have come at a better time, as the American public (and Congress) learns about the woman who might very well partially shape American law for decades to come. (more…)

Is the Obama administration trying to ban sport fishing? Not at this time. Is the Obama administration setting up structures and processes that could, and probably will, eventually result in more regulatory restrictions on sport fishing? You betcha. But, with all due respect to anglers, that’s not the biggest problem with the “Interim Framework For Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning” issued by the Interagency Ocean Policy Taskforce (latest version dated December 9, 2009). Government goes after industry long before it dares to subtly, oh-so-subtly, impose new restrictions on individuals. The framework, which we will now shorthand as “CMSP,” will affect off-shore drilling operations, commercial fishing and commercial shipping first and foremost.

Some conservative bloggers erupted in outrage when the report came to light, saying that – as Gateway Pundit put it – “Obama’s latest assault on your rights – he wants to ban sport fishing.” That was an overreaction, but an understandable one given the aggressive nature of this administration when it comes to environmental issues and the fact that the CMSP report specifically lists “recreational fishing” as an activity that needs to be “better managed” (page two of the report). Perhaps “better managed” translates into “leave them alone,” but one may be forgiven for thinking not.

On the other end of the spectrum, George Soros’ steno pool declared that worries about a sport fishing ban were “absurd,” as though nothing in the CMSP report could possibly have an impact on recreational fishing, even though the report itself kicked that particular door wide open. That is not to say that a ban on recreational fishing is in our immediate future, but it’s terribly naïve to believe that the CMSP framework won’t create the regulatory environment that will result in painful restrictions on the sport in the future. What does it all mean? Sit back, relax and let Dr. Environment break it down for you kids. (OK, so I don’t have an actual PhD, but seeing as how the University of Tennessee is awarding Al Gore an honorary doctorate, I’m sure that my degree just has to be in the mail).

The CMSP framework is another classic, benevolent big-government gambit. It sounds great, appears to encompass everyone’s concerns and the end results of the exhaustive process proposed are supposedly the epitome of noble. Consider a few features of the program: (more…)

Isn’t this special? The leftist activist media boobs (LAMBS) are talking about how transparent President Barack Obama is by televising today’s “Made for TV HealthCare Event.” The media has doubled down on the charade by saying that Obama was fulfilling a “campaign promise of transparency.” What? Have the LAMBS not been paying attention for the last year? Transparency is happening now only because Democrats got their trash handed to ‘em.

Let’s provide a little help to my friends in the media. I’ll make it simple. Obama and the Democrats have worked for the last year at shutting out Republicans. Closed-door meetings, only Democrats, only Democrats. Republicans weren’t invited and weren’t even told when and where the meetings would be held.  There were no cameras in the meetings and we were not told much of what happened. I wrote about this last month.

Republicans proposed three bills last year and none of them even got out of Committee. They were never considered. The LAMBS ignore this fact and still smile as they call Republicans the party of no. They were told no by the Democrats three times. Is that what the LAMBS mean, by the party of no? Republicans kept hearing no.  Said Obama of today’s meeting:

I don’t want to see this meeting turn into political theater. (more…)