Tag: Manchurian Candidate

Political

Freedom Of Information Act Reveals Obama Spent $36 Million To Hide Records In 2016

The Obama administration granted less than a quarter of public requests for government files in its last year in office and spent $36.2 million on legal battles to keep its files secret, according to a new transparency report compiled for “Sunshine Week.”

Freedom Of Information Act Reveals Obama Spent $36 Million To Hide Records In 2016

The Obama administration granted less than a quarter of public requests for government files in its last year in office and spent $36.2 million on legal battles to keep its files secret, according to a new transparency report compiled for “Sunshine Week”.

Having aspired to be “the most transparent administration in history” at the beginning of President Barack Obama’s first term, it instead set records for denying, delaying or obstructing requests for government records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing analysis of data provided by the US government.

The Justice Department spent $12 million on legal costs in fighting to keep its files from the public, with the Department of Homeland Security spending $6.3 million and the Department of Defense spending $4.8 million, AP noted. The three departments received more than half of the total Freedom Of Information Act requests made in 2016.

The Obama administration set many Freedom Of Information Act records last year, from the number of requests received (788,769) to the amount spent on answering them ($478 million). There were 4,263 full-time Freedom Of Information Act employees across over 100 federal agencies, 142 people more than in 2015.

Other achievements were less flattering, however – such as breaking its own record from 2015 in telling citizens, journalists and others who made Freedom Of Information Act requests that they couldn’t find a single page of the requested files, AP reported without citing the number of such cases.

The previous administration also set records for denying access to files, refusing to quickly process requests described as particularly newsworthy, and denying requests for waivers of copy and research fees.

In 77 percent of the cases, people who asked for records in 2016 received partly or fully redacted files.

AP’s revelations come during “Sunshine Week,” an event organized in March each year by the American Society of News Editors to educate the public on the importance of open government.

Under the 1966 Freedom of Information Act, individuals can request copies of federal records for free or at a nominal cost. The government is obligated to hand them over, unless the disclosure could harm national security, violate personal privacy, or expose confidential decision-making – exemptions that authorities often abuse, according to critics.

“I will hold myself as president to a new standard of openness,” Obama said upon assuming office in 2009. “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

 
During the 2015 Sunshine Week, the White House exempted itself from the Freedom Of Information Act.

 
via

Political

Thank You Obama!

Thank You Obama

This is the face of a charismatic but incompetent failure that presided over the fall of the Democrat Party. He helped his party lose 919 State legislature seats, lose control of Congress, lose control of Governorships across the nation, and help usher in the Trump era.

And somehow, a day from now, 4 years from now, 20 years from now the Democrats will still look back at him as a hero.

For that we sincerely Thank You Obama!

 

Political

US Interfered In Foreign Presidential Elections At Least 81 Times In 54 Years

The US was found to have interfered in foreign elections at least 81 times between 1946 and 2000 – not counting US-backed military coups or regime change efforts.

US Interfered In Foreign Presidential Elections At Least 81 Times In 54 Years
Ever since Donald Trump managed to win the US Presidential Election last month, the US establishment – which largely backed Hillary Clinton – has pounced on any and all opportunities to accuse a foreign power, namely Russia, of having “interfered” in the US election. Though such accusations have been proven to be based solely on speculation and not hard evidence, that hasn’t stopped the US political elite for crying foul for an act, they say undermines democracy in the worst way possible. Yet, absent from all of this post-election hysteria, is any mention of the US’ own well-documented practice of interfering with the elections of numerous foreign nations under the pretext of protecting or furthering US “interests” abroad.

Dov Levin, a political scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, amassed a database of US election interference abroad, which shows just how common that practice has been throughout recent US history. According to Levin’s work, the US interfered in 81 foreign elections between 1946 and 2000. The definition of intervention used in the study was “a costly act which is designed to determine the election results [in favor of] one of the two sides.” However, other types of intervention in elections, such as US “assistance” in the electoral process via election monitoring etc, was not included. The incidents of intervention cited in the database were largely carried out in secret as only one-third of intervention efforts were carried out publicly. Methods included the dissemination of misinformation or propaganda, training one side in campaigning techniques, making threats against a particular candidate, threatening to withdraw foreign aid, and bank-rolling a particular candidate among others. In 59% of the cases examined, the candidate that had received US “assistance” emerged victorious, though Levin estimated that the average effect of “partisan electoral interventions” only swayed the vote by an average of 3%.

However, these incidents do not include those that have taken place over the past 16 years. Under Bush, election intervention was a common policy practiced jointly through regime change, as evidenced by Bush’s covert intervention in the Iraqi elections of 2005. In a 2006 interview, Hillary Clinton argued that allowing Palestine to hold elections was a mistake. “I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake,” said Clinton. “And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.” The same such interference continued later under Obama, such as in the 2015 elections in Haiti.

It is also worth noting that the report does not include the numerous military coups and regime change efforts the US has led in the same time period. Notable military coups of the past century include those which took place in Guatemala, Iran, and Chile – all of which were bank-rolled and executed with US military assistance. Regime change efforts continue to today, particularly in Syria, as US imperialism seeks continue to dominate all other nations in the name of “protecting democracy.” Though President-Elect Trump has pledged to not continue this long-standing practice, it remains to be seen if he will be able to resist the “deep state” or if he will be forced to serve its interests like the Presidents before him.

 
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