Harry Reid believes that out Southern Border is secure

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Originally posted by: hoops2
forky is back to splitting hairs in order to defend obama. The AP and the White House press corp have all complained about the lack of transparency...

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Originally posted by: pjstroh
Can I play?

First, lets concede the strawman argument from our resident conservatives. This president is not 100% transparent on all things...including many important issues like the drone program and NSA behavior. Shame on them. And shame on the previous administration(s) who did the same.

Do our resident conservatives have the courage to compare this president to previous ones? Past behavior would suggest "no". That would require our resident conservatives to use one scale and one set of metrics. They struggle with that.

But lets note some important achievements:

- This administration has made public all White House visits so the public can see what special interest groups (if any) are whispering in the president's ear.

- This administration has made public a list of all contractors the government has hired....and the nature of their contracts. Now you can see what special interest groups are getting contracts...and you can connect the dots to see if any of those contractors have made campaign contributions. Again - a first.

-This administration was transparent enough to include the cost of out military campaigns in their annual budgeting process instead of using Enron accounting techniques to hide the true cost from the public.

- When the stimulus bill passed the administration created a web site and interactive map that showed the location, description, and amount of money used for each project. It was widely reviewed to be one of the most transparent and accessible efforts to open the details government spending to the public.
Republicans used it as a means to blast the program (usually a few weeks after they cheered the jobs being created in their district at the local ribbon cutting ceremony).

- By executive order he created a committee who's soul function is to declassify documents in the national archives and make them available to the public.

- This administration submitted a bill which became law forbiding Congress from engaging in insider trading ...which also removes the incentive to award contracts to companies in their stock portfolio.

- This administration does not have their lawyers edit and censor official scientific research in regards to information that does not play nice with their policy positions. This was the case in the last administration when White House lawyers edited research from NASA regarding climate change before showing to the public. (Not so much an achievement in the current administration. Its just an exercise in not being scummy and dishonest. That bar was too high for the previous administration.)

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Originally posted by: ecomstoc
Insider trading law doesn't seem like much of a step forward. Per link: "Without the provisions, the STOCK act is made toothless," writes Dan Auble with the Center for Responsive Politics. "Insider trading by members of Congress and federal employees is still prohibited, but the ability of watchdog groups to verify that Congress is following its own rules is severely limited because these records could still be filed on paper—an unacceptably outdated practice that limits the public's access. This is not true disclosure."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2013/04/17/congress-and-obama-quietly-collude-undo-insider-trading-law

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Originally posted by: pjstroh

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Originally posted by: ecomstoc
Insider trading law doesn't seem like much of a step forward. Per link: "Without the provisions, the STOCK act is made toothless," writes Dan Auble with the Center for Responsive Politics. "Insider trading by members of Congress and federal employees is still prohibited, but the ability of watchdog groups to verify that Congress is following its own rules is severely limited because these records could still be filed on paper—an unacceptably outdated practice that limits the public's access. This is not true disclosure."

">https://www.commondreams.org/news/2013/04/17/congress-and-obama-quietly-collude-undo-insider-trading-law[/Q

The law can be improved but I disagree with your conclusion. "Watchdog groups" dont play much of a role in identifying insider trading and it would be impossible to give them that transparency without revelaing the investment holdings of all members of Congress.

The SEC enforces insider trading laws and can identify people who buy into stocks ahead of big news. Ask Martha Stewart.

If a member of Congress sits on a committee that awards a defense contract it would be easy to charge them with insider trading if they bought shares of that company prior to the contract going public.

I'd be surprised if any such trading is happening since the law was passed.

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