More Freedom From Obama

Above is a good example of just how secretive the Bush administration really was. It is a page released as a result of a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request. So much information has been redacted from the page that only six words remain. Yet, the Bush administration counted this as a release of information.

I guess the recepient should be grateful they received anything at all. The Bush administration was definitely one of the most secretive of any presidential administration. I think they were disobeying so many laws and regulations, that they were afraid to release any information.

There are some FOIA requests that have been pending as long as eight years. Ten requests to the State Department have been pending since February of 2001, so even if a request was not denied, there was no guarantee it would be handled in a timely manner (or redacted so severely as to be useless). In fact, the Bush administration released information in less than half of the FOIA requests they received.

The table below shows just how secretive the Bush administration was. It's figures for 2007 are compared to figures from the Clinton administration in 1998. The percentages are the amount of FOIA requests granted or fulfilled.

DEPARTMENT.................1998............2007

Defense................................61%.............48%
Interior................................64%.............47%
State.....................................28%.............09%
CIA.......................................44%.............11%
Agriculture..........................95%.............85%

Fortunately, Obama seems to want a much more open and honest administration. On the 21st, he signed a presidential order that should reopen the public's access to information from the government. Obama's order states, "All agencies should adopt a presumption of disclosure," adding that "in the face of doubt, openness should prevail."

I have no doubt that President Obama will disappoint me at times, but so far, I am very impressed with everything he's done. It's so nice to have a president that is trying to do the right thing.