Appeals Court Notes The Feds Can't Hide Behind 'Lobbyist Privacy' In Not Releasing Documents On Immunity Lobbying
from the open-up dept
For a while now, the EFF has been trying to get the White House to reveal information on who lobbied to get retroactive telco immunity for warrantless wiretapping. The "we're all about transparency and openness" Obama administration has been stalling as much as possible, and while it released some info after a long fight, it still insisted that it was keeping some information private, claiming a heretofore unknown standard of "lobbyist privacy." Yeah, that's a good one. Turns out the courts don't know what it means either, and an Appeals Court has said that it's a bogus excuse, and the government needs to hand over the info:"There is a clear public interest in public knowledge of the methods through which well-connected corporate lobbyists wield their influence."I'm still not sure what anyone expects to get out of these documents. We know who lobbied: the telcos did, like crazy. And the reason they did so is because they know they broke the law in assisting the administration in getting info outside the official process. In fact, the recent revelations suggest the telcos didn't just accede to administration demands, but they eagerly assisted in explaining how to get around the rules. So of course they lobbied to get immunity.
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Filed Under: lobbying, privacy, telco immunity, warrantless wiretaps
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Meet the New Boss; Same as the Old Boss.
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Re:
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Bet you...
I don't know what justice was responsible for that quote, but here's hoping he doesn't get on a plane anytime soon. Opponents of the Executive Branch when there's a Clinton involved have a tendency towards a very short life span....
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Re: Bet you...
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Re: Re: Bet you...
http://dangerouslogic.com/ron_brown.html
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Dick Cheney
Does this doctrine come from Cheneys secret energy meetings?
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BUT but but...
I Want to spy and keep POWA.
I want to KNOW what lil PEEPS DOIN to STOP MY YACHT BULDIN PROGRA
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Wrong word.
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Re: Wrong word.
Main Entry: lobby
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): lob·bied; lob·by·ing
Date: 1837
intransitive verb
: to conduct activities aimed at influencing public officials and especially members of a legislative body on legislation
transitive verb
1 : to promote (as a project) or secure the passage of (as legislation) by influencing public officials
2 : to attempt to influence or sway (as a public official) toward a desired action
— lob·by·er noun
— lob·by·ism -ˌi-zəm noun
— lob·by·ist -ist noun
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Re: Re: Wrong word.
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no surprise
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Tea Party Thoughts...
It is now obvious that he only uses openness when forced or as a politcal card now. It is a shame as he seems to be such an ideolog on other items. If he would have fought hard on this first and then tackled the other issues then at least an honest and open debate could have followed.
I believe people live up to your expectations of them and by him blocking the information flow and openness of debate he has essentially said that the American people are too stupid to understand. Imagine if we had a President that thought otherwise and engaged the American people in the tough decisions that we face. In the end, that is the leader that will fix Social Security, Health Care and so on.
That aside, for any Obama supporting that believes he betrayed you on this issue, just remember that he voted for immunity before getting elected and even made the comment that he knew it would upset his base, but is was a tough blah blah blah ...
For me, the only difference between a typical DEM vs. REP is who the handouts go to. Both seem to want to control you - the libs with their political correctness and high taxes to ensure you are always a "working slave" and the conservatives with their religious ideology and corporate welfare. Very few representatives believe in a truly limited government role in our lives. However, we only have ourselves to blame. When "you" refuse to take responsibility for your life, what do you expect the government to do - their job is to serve us and as a whole we demand way too much.
Freedom
P.S. When did it become the Federal Government's job to provide your retirement?, your health care?, your presecription drugs, education?, welfare?, and so on... If Uncle Sam got out of the entitlement business, we'd be running a surplus and have more than enough money for NASA, Defense, and so on...
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Re: Tea Party Thoughts...
yeah, well, most places that have the governments doing that stuff do it Instead of trying to prop up a whole bunch of useless industries.
Makes a heck of a lot more sense, too, for all that it has it's own issues.
here's a fun thing: it's not uncommon for new (stupid) ideas to be tested in small countries (like New Zealand) first.
one thing NZ has done and proved doesn't work is Proping Up Failing Industries... we got a recession, a government change, a massive change in economic policy towards the right (by our leftist, unionist party, no less!), several years of price freezes and huge unemployment out of it, the value of our currency took a hit (it was over valued anyway)...
(admittedly we also got some hydro dams built, not all of this stuff happened at once (there's a logical sequence which doesn't match the order i wrote it in)
now, that was ridiculous subsidies who's initial purpose was long gone. But the bail out packages for the various industries and institutions are basically 'subsidizing suck'... which is hardly different.
bail outs for the corporations only make sense when the reason for issues is a large scale natural disaster that's too big for the insurance companies to handle it And the corporation isn't big enough to simply soak the costs. ie, almost never.
not to mention corporations soak up a LOT more money than your common citizenry.
also note: ALL governments want to control you. it's kinda the point. heck, the need for some limited control is the reason we have them....
(and it should be noted, we have a party who actually gets in here who really IS committed to reducing the government's influence in stuff... starting with offloading all the public infrastructure onto privately owned (and usually foreign) companies. proven fact? that way lies disaster. our own rail network is evidence of it. the ridiculousness regarding water in parts of South America is evidence of it...
really, corporations serve a purpose, but if left unchecked are a Disaster.
You're right about there not being much noticeable difference between the American republicans and democrats...
From the outside, they're all crazies, and the only distinction being where they get their money (and not always that) and who they annoy more.
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ACTA - Access to information
"There is a clear public interest in public knowledge of the methods through which well-connected corporate lobbyists wield their influence." "
So why does this NOT work when trying to uncover the ACTA text?
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