The Hemingway Report

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Around the World on $69 Million in Welfare Funds

On a tip from Ed Kilbane

Thursday, March 17, 2011

He can't be transparent... even to get the transparency award

At first I thought this was a joke.

Obama ducks transparency award, but reason isn't clear

Maybe because the healthcare bill was transparent as pea soup. All those who watched the debate on C-Span raise your hand.

WASHINGTON -- A coalition of open-government groups will present President Barack Obama a "sunshine" award for taking important steps toward openness and transparency in government, even though some of them are voicing concerns about gaps between his rhetoric on these issues and his administration's actions.

Obama was to receive the award Wednesday in an Oval Office meeting with five open-government advocates, until the White House scrapped the presentation at the last minute. The explanation why wasn't entirely transparent.

White House Counsel Bob Bauer told the advocates, already gathered at the White House, that he was "really sorry" but that there had been "pressing business" and the president would have to postpone their meeting until another day, according to one of them, Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

A White House aide told the media pool designated to witness the start of the meeting only that it was being rescheduled "due to changes to the president's schedule today."

That raised more questions than it answered. In fairness, Obama was dealing with crises in Japan, Libya and Bahrain and preparations for a Latin America trip starting Friday. (But he did find time to play golf) He also had a meeting added earlier in the day with the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the radiation threat to Americans in Japan.

But he also had plans to attend a Democratic event in the evening. And he was feeling heat from Republicans who criticized him for taking time out to tape an ESPN interview on his predictions for the NCAA basketball tournament. And an hour before the award was to be given, Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, faced questions from reporters about findings that the administration has fallen short on its goals for being responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Carney said that Obama "has demonstrated a commitment to transparency and openness that is greater than any administration has shown in the past" and added, defensively, that "this is not an award that he is, that we are, giving to him or he is giving to himself. This is an award from an outside organization that has recognized the achievements this administration has made."

Advocates behind the award said that Obama deserves praise for instructing his agencies to be considerably more responsive than past administrations to FOIA requests; creating searchable databases for White House visitor and stimulus spending records; supporting a "shield" law for journalists; and implementing "apps" and social networking that let Americans get more information quickly from their government.

They hope that by giving Obama positive reinforcement on such fronts, he, in turn, will give them standing to press his aides on concerns that the administration too often invokes the state secrets privilege in court; prosecutes leakers; falls short on FOIA responses; allows loopholes to disclosure promises; and allows political considerations to interfere with communications in crises, such as the BP oil spill last year.

"It's quite possible to honor his commitment and at a later time continue to advocate for important openness in government," said Gary Bass, founder of OMB Watch and one of the advocates who will present the award on behalf of the Freedom of Information Day Conference. "Frankly we hope that by doing this it puts even more wind into the sails of transparency."

Bass said he feels "that commitment is clearly there" with Obama. "But he has a mixed record. I don't think we are yet ready to say he's the most open and transparent administration in history."

Bauer committed to sit down soon with advocates to hear them out, and to have the president meet with them to accept the award some time after he returns from Latin America, Blanton said.

The other advocates who were to present the award were Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Patrice McDermott, Director of Open the Government, a coalition of good-government groups dedicated to increasing government transparency and promoting public participation in government.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Tons of dead sardines still clogging Calif marina after former speaker's swim

By Rand Saul
Associated Press (tongue in cheek division)

Dead fish float in the King Harbor area of Redondo Beach, south of Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Millions of fish washed up dead in the harbor, triggering a cleanup effort by the city.

Nancy Pelosi the former Speaker of the House went for a swim Sunday. Shortly afterward thousands of slimy, reeking sardines gurgled to the surface of an increasingly murky Southern California marina as crews kept scooping and vacuuming tons of fish.

It could take about a week to clean up the mess.

Volunteers and city workers scrambled to remove the bloated fish that bobbed to the surface of King Harbor. "This reminds me of the Democrats after the November election" commented one volunteer.

"The virtue is we can get them easier," police Sgt. Phil Keenan said. "The vice is they smell, but not half as bad as Pelosi", said another volunteer.

An occasional breeze carried the stench from the shallow marina where the fish died late Monday. Some of the bystanders watching the clean up effort commented, "It smells almost as bad as the healthcare bill."

By Thursday evening, 85 tons of fish had been removed, Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin said.

Sunny, hot weather made finishing the cleanup a priority before the smell became any worse and the decomposing fish corpses feed bacteria that could reduce oxygen levels in the marina water and kill other sea life, officials said. After this statement was disclosed Al Gore proclaimed. "This is nothing but a Right Wing smear tactic trying to deflect the real culprit, Global Warming."

The water was already beginning to look brackish with tiny bubbles, scales and scum floating on the surface with the decomposing fish. Redondo Beach residents suspected Harry Reid must have joined the former speaker.

California Department of Fish and Game officials have estimated that at least a million fish died. One of the Fish and Game officials joked, "I wonder if any of them were related to Rahm Emanuel?"

The Fish and Game experts are confident the sardines suffocated, but about a dozen fish were sent to a laboratory in Rancho Cordova, where they'll be examined to see if a disease or a liberal toxin killed them, department spokesman Andrew Hughan said.

"I'll bet it's the liberal toxin." Hughan added.

Jesse Jackson who was supposed to speak at the clean up was a no show. He was found later at Motel 6 with his girlfriend. When asked by a reporter if he had anything to say he said this, "There's something fishy going on here. How do a million fish die for no reason. White people own boats, they were out there on them. Put 2 and 2 together. They poisoned the fish in their continuing effort to undermine the black community. Depriving blacks of their food supply. That's what this is really about."

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Remember those vicious racist Tea Partiers

You know, those terrible, violent, tea partiers at the Restoring America rally.

Yet when it comes to these selfish, spoiled, unionized commies in Wisconsin their antics are covered with a free pass from the MSM.

What new tone? Left forgets calls for civility

Sarah Palin used a cross hairs logo -- an often-used image in politics, by both sides -- to identify Democratic districts Republicans could win, and suddenly she was responsible for the tragic shootings at a town hall meeting held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., one of the Democrats Palin targeted for defeat. Or so the left claimed, even after that was proven untrue.

So we are really eager to hear what the liberals who denounced the so-called "rhetoric of hate" have to say about the acts of intimidation and violence, including numerous death threats, perpetrated by public employee unions against Republican state senators in Wisconsin.

After Wednesday night's vote in which Senate Republicans passed a bill to limit the ability of public-sector unions to engage in collective bargaining, union protesters stormed the state capitol. Republican Sen. Randy Hopper told National Review that protesters "were literally trying to break the windows of the cars we were in as we were driving away. I got a phone call yesterday saying that we should be executed. I've had messages saying that they want to beat me with a billy club."

Around 9:30 Wednesday night, Republican senators were sent an e-mail informing them that they were all going to be killed.

"Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks," the e-mail read.

A few weeks before these death threats were made, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., spoke at a solidarity rally in Boston for the Wisconsin unions. He urged union members to "get out on the streets and get a little bloody." Of course, Capuano was one of those calling for more civil rhetoric after the Giffords shootings.

The institutions of the left, from the Democratic Party to The New York Times to Moveon.org, called for an end to violent political rhetoric immediately after the tragedy in Arizona on Jan. 8. That was only two months ago. How quickly, and conveniently, those demands for civility were forgotten.