THE NEW TRANSPARENCY

I was on vacation when the financial regulation legislation was passed.  They were still debating it before I left, and I thought it was rather chiilling that Senator Dodd (D-CT) came out and said:

“No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we’ve done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done.”

That's right, Senator Dodd - never let a good crisis go to waste!  His rhetoric about not knowing how it works is chilling on two levels.  First, if Dodd -one of the alleged co-authors of the bill - doesn't even know how it works, we're really screwed.  Second, we've heard that "we'll know when it's passed" line before:




For those not up on the latest ObamaCare outrage, the rationing has begun.

As for FinReg (aka the Frank-n-Dodd law), the first victim to be revealed is a key one - transparency.  The FinReg allows the SEC to ignore FOIA requests from the public.  This is hardly surprising in a bill whose details would not be released until after it's passage, from an administration that touts transparency but doesn't seem to know what the term really means.  Remember the five day rule?  How about posting bills for 72 hours online before a vote?  Remember how that turned out?  How about the transparency of Obama's appointed officials - oh, wait, czars don't need vetting or congressional approval. 

None of these things bode well for the country, but many of them can be fobbed off with some lame excuse or another from Media Matters.  The neo-pravda media certainly won't pursue them, and in the progressive world, if the press doen't think it is important, it must not be. 

However, Obama's recent transfer of "ethics czar" Norm Eisen to an ambassadorship in the Czech Republic and scrapping the position altogether seems to be the final nail in the transparency coffin.  Most of the duties Eisen performed are being shunted off on White House Counsel Bob Bauer, a hyperpartisan lawyer who, in 2006 blogged (via the Washington Examiner):

"disclosure is a mostly unquestioned virtue deserving to be questioned." This is the man the White House has put in charge of making this the most open White House ever.

Most telling might have been Bauer's statements about proposed regulations of 527 organizations: "If it's not done with 527 activity as we have seen, it will be done in other ways," he told the Senate rules committee.

"There are other directions, to be sure, that people are actively considering as we speak. Without tipping my hand or those of others who are professionally creative, the money will find an outlet."

Ah, transparency - why bother regulating something and keeping an eye on things to keep people honest - they're just going to eventually find a way around it anyway!

After all, this is the White House that is circumventing White House visitor logs by simply meeting with lobbyists and other special interests at the coffee shop across the street.  When you add in the neo-pravda media's tendencies to pander and obfuscate for their chosen party, there is most certainly a serious problem brewing.

There has been a disturbing trend developing with Pelosi, Obama and Reid - it seems that whatever they claim, the exact opposite is generally true.  So far, Obama's eliminating the position of transparency czar, and thus the pretense of transparency, is the truest thing this administration has done so far. 

JENNINGS MUST GO

This is just insane. Kevin Jennings, our 'Safe School' Czar, is apparently inspired by NAMBLA supporter and gay activist Harry Hay. For those not aware of what NAMBLA is, it is the North American Man Boy Love Association. This is a group that advocates for men having homosexual relationships with under aged boys. Harry Hay was a big proponent of "intergenerational relationships" - aka pedophilia - and was enthusiastic in his support of NAMBLA..

Lovely.

This Harry Hay booster is also the man who wrote the foreword for Queering Elementary Education, as well as authoring 4 books dealing with homosexuality and it's place in our schools. He also founded GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network), who sponsored a lovely 'education' program for high school kids that taught deviant behavior.

Our 'Safe School Czar'.

Jennings has already admitted that he advised an under aged boy who was having a relationship with an older adult male who had picked him up in the restroom of a bus stop to use a condom. That's it. Use a condom. Jennings said he thought the kid was 15, but it turns out, according to the now adult victim, he was 16. There are those who will argue that the boy was technically of age, what's the big deal, but the point is Jennings thought he was under aged.

Because, after all, safe sex is the most important part of a confession of statutory rape.

As an educator, he was required to report victimization of a minor child to the proper authorities. Instead, he merely advised the victim to use protection, implicitly giving his approval of the act.

Is this really someone we want involved our school system?

If Jennings doesn't bow to pressure and step down, the administration should remove him from office. Bodily, if necessary.

This unapproved czar system has to stop. Contact your representatives and tell them to vote for the Czar Accountability and Reform Act of 2009.

Enough is enough.

VAN JONES RESIGNS Updated

Hot off the AP wires comes news that Obama's environmental advisor has resigned.


This was just a matter of time. The administration had to separate themselves from him. Every day had new video footage of him saying something incendiary or offensive. Worst of all, this firestorm of controversy started reigniting past blazes - the names Wright and Ayers had started coming up again. Clearly, the man had to go.


The administration are hoping this will play out over the Labor Day weekend and will be forgotten by Tuesday. They will have the school and joint session speeches to hype and distract with. With any luck, Jones will lay low and not pull a Blagojovich, but you just never know these days. There is also the possibility of him becoming a left-wing martyr to the cause over the coming weeks, thanks to the MSM. I'm also betting Glenn Beck will be making some sort of comment over this turn of events come Tuesday. I have to say that his resignation statement certainly leaves plenty to discuss:

""On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight Saturday. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."
He continued: "I have been inundated with calls -- from across the political spectrum -- urging me to 'stay and fight.' But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.""

He is painting himself as a victim in this - 'They are using lies and distortions...' Really? Weren't those 'lies and distortions' either a)caught on video or b) written in his own words in books and articles? Hardly lies and distortions when they come from his own mouth.

Due to this clown's appearance on the national scene, there are many pundits (not to mention run-of-the-mill Americans) now calling for a review of the many, many 'Czars' that have been given an awful lot of power and money with a frighteningly little amount of oversight. The esteemed Mr. Jones' prolific library of gaffes and agenda-outing has brought public scrutiny of the Czar complex to a head. This may very well signal the end of the czar system - something that is unconstitutional and should not have been allowed to be expanded as radically as it has. And for those who would drag George Bush into the argument (and there are always a few), yes, Bush did appoint some czars - about eight, as far as I can discern - and was soundly criticized for it by the MSM. Mr. Obama has appointed 4x as many as that demon Bush, and yet, nary a peep from the press.

President Obama had a very difficult, embarrassing time trying to appoint Cabinet members and high-ranking officials due to the vetting and congressional approval process. When he was stymied by the legal, constitutional approach, he simply decided to circumvent the process. There are at least 32 czars actively working for the Obama administration. and only 21 Cabinet officials. Many of the czars have powers and responsibilities that overlap cabinet positions, and they all have massive budgets to enact their 'reforms' (Van Jones had a budget of $30 billion). They are answerable only to the president, they do not need to reveal their agenda to Congress for oversight, and the only way to get rid of them is to have them resign or have President Obama remove them from office.

This entire system is unconstitutional. Where are the checks and balances?

It is time to take the administration to task for these czars and demand they all resign or submit to congressional vetting and approval.


It is getting harder and harder to make excuses for the number of radicals, marxists, socialists, and, at least in Jones' case, self-avowed communists infiltrating our government under Obama. It is getting harder and harder to separate President Obama from these radicals and their ideology.

As Van Jones said himself, "Personnel is policy". Either our president is completely clueless to the type of people he is appointing, which I find hard to believe in such a savvy man, or these radical policies are ones he shares. It was allowed, during the campaign, that he sat in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years, oblivious to the man's insane rantings. I'm not sure why it was allowed, as it speaks to Obama's judgement, but allowed it was. Unfortunately, such a gross display of ignorance can only be allowed once, twice at most.

After that, it becomes a pattern, and one that should be used to get a fuller picture of who exactly the 44th President of the United States really is.

Van Jones may very well be the catalyst for that epiphany.

UPDATE: Glenn Beck has issued a statement on Jones' resignation.

UPDATE II: The MSM is managing to drop the ball even more - and boy, does it have ridiculous spin! Bad, BAD internet!!