{"id":13320,"date":"2009-01-22T10:07:40","date_gmt":"2009-01-22T17:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2009\/01\/22\/too-many-secrets-marty-3.html"},"modified":"2009-01-22T10:07:40","modified_gmt":"2009-01-22T17:07:40","slug":"too_many_secrets_marty_3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/22\/too_many_secrets_marty_3.html","title":{"rendered":"“Too many secrets, Marty”"},"content":{"rendered":"

People who have information tend to horde it. Knowledge is power, and power shared is power lessened. When it is information that might hold them accountable for stuff, they tend to horde it even more.<\/p>\n

Which is why Congress had to pass the “Freedom of Information Act<\/a>” in 1966, to compel the government to reveal information about its workings to the very people they ostensibly represent. The government has, of course, resisted it mightily over the years, always trying to find loopholes to exploit, and hoops to make applicants jump through. But as a tool for accountability, it is essential to making our representative government work.<\/p>\n

Which is why it makes me giddy to see Obama, on his first day in office, issuing a memo<\/a> like this.<\/p>\n

All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Imagine that — presuming that information held by the government should <\/em>be available to the public. <\/p>\n

This is counter to a memo issued by John Ashcroft, post-9\/11, dictating the opposite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

I encourage your agency to carefully consider the protection of all such values and interests [privacy, confidentiality, national security] when making disclosure determinations under the FOIA. Any discretionary decision by your agency to disclose information protected under the FOIA should be made only after full and deliberate consideration of the institutional, commercial, and personal privacy interests that could be implicated by disclosure of the information.<\/p>\n

In making these decisions, you should consult with the Department of Justice’s Office of Information and Privacy when significant FOIA issues arise, as well as with our Civil Division on FOIA litigation matters. When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

In other words, “don’t say anything unless you have to, and if you can get a DoJ lawyer to cover your butt in being silent, you’re golden.”<\/p>\n

But it’s more than just being responsive to requests. Obama is telling folks to be proactive <\/em>in giving out information.<\/p>\n

\n

The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Making information public? What, are they supposed to be public servants <\/em>or something?<\/p>\n

More info at the EFF article on this: On Day One, Obama Demands Open Government | Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People who have information tend to horde it. Knowledge is power, and power shared is power lessened. When it is information that might hold them accountable for stuff, they tend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31382,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/15\/tweets-from-2012-11-15.html","url_meta":{"origin":13320,"position":0},"title":"Tweets from 2012-11-15","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Nov-12 9:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dishes cleaned, Hawaii Five-O backlog watched, laundry put away ... time for @MargieKleerup to come home! # RT @davidvnewman: The horrid horde whored and roared at the fjord, while the bored horde lord polished his sword and counted the horde h ... # 5 of 5 stars to The Devil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15582,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/14\/the-health-care-debate.html","url_meta":{"origin":13320,"position":1},"title":"The Health Care Debate","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Aug-09 10:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"From Rachel Maddow: What's being called a debate about health care policy right now is so far from an actual debate about health care policy that the charge from his critics that the President of the United States has to rebut in public is whether or not he wants health\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40309,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/06\/the-tea-party-declares-war.html","url_meta":{"origin":13320,"position":2},"title":"The Tea Party Declares War!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Jan-14 6:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Or so says the email I got from them (the TeaParty.net folks), attacking \"the RINO elitist GOP establishment who are, unabashedly, at war with the party's own base, the energized, principled grassroots Tea Party movement.\"Paging\u00a0Manichaeus, paging Prophet\u00a0Manichaeus ... please pick up the white courtesy phone ...'Using the GOP Establishment as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13630,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/03\/a_split_government.html","url_meta":{"origin":13320,"position":3},"title":"A split government?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 3-Nov-08 9:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've noted before, I tend to, philosophically, prefer a split government, where no one party controls both the White House and both chambers of Congress. Such an arrangement keeps...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27949,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/21\/nations-that-dont-invest-in-the-future-tend-not-to-do-well-there.html","url_meta":{"origin":13320,"position":4},"title":""Nations that don\u2019t invest in the future tend not to do well there"","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 21-May-12 11:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Nations that don\u2019t invest in the future tend not to do well there\"Cuts in government support of American education (and double-digit inflation of tuition costs) don't just affect pointy-headed intellectual types -- they affect the future of the United States. Embedded Link Do You Want the Good News First? A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49814,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/12\/afterlife-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-nirvana.html","url_meta":{"origin":13320,"position":5},"title":"Afterlife, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Nirvana","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Mar-15 11:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"Without speaking to the merits of the case, it's always ... weird ... when governments (in this particular case, an officially non-believing government) get so entangled in religion. 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