Obama's Lies Have Quebec's Professional Journalists Fooled

by Norman E. Hooben

In an editorial titled "Working toward a government policy of openness" the Montreal Gazette submits a report from Quebec’s federation of professional journalists. In the report they have the following suggestion:

"If the government needs inspiration and guidance in the matter, the federation suggested, it should look to U.S. President Barack Obama, who has committed his administration to a policy of openness in governance based on transparency, public participation and collaboration."

Openness? Transparency? Public Participation? (I'm sure there was a lot of the latter during the health care debates! LOL! )  Who are these professional journalists?  Obama has the worst record of any president concerning these issues!  Rather than bore you with all of Obama's lies and deceptions lets go back to just his first year in office where his administration had an increase of 50% over George Bush regarding FOIA claims.  The following from CentristNet:

In a startling review issued today by the Associated Press regarding Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests, it was revealed that the Obama Administration substantially increased the use of so-called “exemptions” to disclosure under FOIA, effectively undermining the many rhetorical claims by President Barack Obama that his administration will be the “most open and transparent in history.” The AP explains the findings of its review:

WASHINGTON — The government’s use of legal exemptions to keep records secret rose during President Barack Obama’s first year in office, despite promises of increased openness, an Associated Press review found.
The review of annual Freedom of Information Act reports filed by 17 major agencies found that overall, the use of nearly every one of the open-records law’s nine exemptions to withhold information rose in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.
Among the most frequently used exemptions: one that lets the government hold back records that detail its internal decision-making. Obama had directed agencies to stop using that exemption so frequently, but that directive appears to have been widely ignored.
Major agencies cited that exemption to refuse records at least 70,779 times during the 2009 budget year, compared with 47,395 times during President George W. Bush’s final full budget year, according to annual FOIA reports filed by federal agencies.

An increase of 23,384, a nearly 50% (49.34%) increase, in the amount of FOIA exemption claims in the first fiscal year of the Obama Administration versus the final fiscal year of the Bush Administration clearly demonstrates that President Obama has failed in his asserted quest to create an “unprecedented level of openness in Government.”... continues here

Quebec’s federation of professional journalists?   I don't think so...professional fools maybe!