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CREW AND OBAMA ADMINISTRATION REACH HISTORIC LEGAL SETTLEMENT...(will also release Bush-era records) - Democratic Underground
CREW AND OBAMA ADMINISTRATION REACH HISTORIC LEGAL SETTLEMENT WHITE HOUSE TO POST VISITOR RECORDS ONLINE Sep 2009 // Washington, D.C.
- Yesterday, the Obama administration and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) settled four ongoing cases regarding public access to White House visitor records.
The most significant development, however, is the commitment by the Obama administration to affirmatively post visitor records on-line on an ongoing basis, bringing a historic level of transparency to the White House.
CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan praised the White House, stating, The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise.
The Bush administration fought tooth and nail to keep secret the identities of those who visited the White House.
In contrast, the Obama administration by putting visitor records on the White House web site will have the most open White House in history.
Because visitor records will now be available online, CREW dismissed its lawsuits. Sloan continued, Providing public access to visitor records is an important step in restoring transparency and accountability to our government.
CREW is proud to have been part of this historic decision.
Yesterdays agreement stems from lawsuits CREW filed after the Bush and later the Obama administration refused to provide White House visitor records in response to CREWs Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Visitor records are created by the Secret Service as part of its statutory responsibility to protect the president, vice president, their residences, and the White House generally.
In lawsuits for records of visits by Christian conservative leaders and lobbyist Stephen Payne , the Bush administration argued the records were presidential records, not agency records of the Secret Service, and therefore exempt from the FOIAs mandatory disclosure requirements.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C.
Lamberth disagreed, ruling twice that the records are subject to the FOIA and not within any of the claimed exemptions.
The government appealed those decisions to the District of Columbia Circuit Court.
After President Obama took office, CREW sought records of visits to the White House by health care and coal executives to determine the degree of their influence on health care and energy legislative proposals.
The government initially refused to turn over these records, but now has agreed to produce them, as well as the Bush era records , as part of the settlement.
In turn, CREW has agreed to dismiss all the pending litigation.
Read the Department of Justice's settlement letter to CREW and the White House's Voluntary Disclosure Policy in the Related Documents section on the right.
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What shall we bitch about now?
Oh, yeah -- blame Obama for the bad behavior of Congress concerning health care: Obama sold us out to big money interests!!!1111oneoneone
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That we are being inundated with the amount of virile nonsense from so many but take into account that ole rushy also gave this site another hit when he announced us on his program therefore allowing the door to be open for his followers to seek, speak and destroy what he must feel is a site that should be demolished..
Nice to see you still here considering all that you've done for so long.
So many good people have simply given up and left du to the wingnuts....not you...so I for one thank you....
Whomever said fighting the good fight would be easy was obviously a down and out liar...
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Http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
somebody might should eat some crow, but who?
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This place has brought me to tears yesterday and today.
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In fact, this action by Obama was a response to a legal complaint issued by CREW.
If there had been no complaint from CREW, then there might have been no action.
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If we focus our complaints and our energies to make this happen, it will.
Obama will not initiate an investigation into these crimes because it would be inappropriate.
However, I am certain that the administration could be legally guided into cooperating with such an investigation.
Hopefully, this will provide some clues...
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If Obama had opened all of the records of his own volition, it would just show that a president can do whatever he wants.
By responding to the legal process with respect, he shows that a president operates under the law and will comply with its dictates.
Public officials used to act this way.
Perhaps a few more examples of submitting to the law of the land will help get our poitical life back on track.
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"thinking" about Invading and Occupying a sovereign nation known as Iraq?
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If the msm ignore anything that comes out of this, the general public will never know about it.
I'm glad Melanie Sloan is out there.
She used to be on Al Franken's radio show all the time.
She always brought great info.
I have a lot of respect for her and her work.
I'm just very pessimistic about the bush administration being held accountable for ANYTHING.
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Obama is intelligent enough to realize that he didn't have a legal leg to stand on.
But now he can shrug his shoulders and say, "I fought the law and the law won," and the Rethugs can't hold it against him.
He had to know he was going to lose, so he "saves face"--not to mention gets what he wanted in the first place at the Rethug's expense--by settling out of court.
This would be the start of something big.
Cue the Vonage theme!
rocktivity
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...were fighting disclosure, but I don't know why this admin.
Was initially fighting disclosure ~ legal strategy to out the Bushies??
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