A Transparent Award for a Transparent President

Today, the most transparent President evah had 5 meetings on his schedule. Only one was open to the public. In a wonderful moment of irony, this meeting was a ceremony in which President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) accepted an award for being open to the press.

At approxiamately 2:55 p.m., (around 3:20 p.m. Obama Standard Time), the smartest person in the room accepted, according to the White House Propaganda, err, statement “an award from a coalition of good government groups and transparency advocates to recognize ‘his deep commitment to an open and transparent government—of, by, and for the people’ in conjunction with Sunshine Week”.

I don’t know how he responded, but I’ll bet he didn’t say that his administration responded to fewer requests for information last year, than any other recent administration. The sad thing is, they received more requests for information in that period than any other White House.

He also probably didn’t say a mumblin’ word about trying to prosecute federal workers who leak information to shed light on wrongdoing.  And,  I’m positive that he did not talk about his aides’ clandestine meetings with lobbyists away from the White House, so that there is no public record.

The White House identified the award as coming from organizers of the Freedom of Information Day Conference. The award was presented by a curious group of five “so-called” transparency advocates:

1. Gary Bass, Founder and Executive Director of OMB Watch

Per sourcewatch.org,

Gary Bass has been named one of the top 50 most influential people in the nonprofit community by the NonProfit Times.

OMB Watch “was formed in 1983 to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which oversees regulation, the budget, information collection and dissemination, proposed legislation, testimony by agencies, and much more.”

It’s Board of Directors include:

• Edwin S. Jayne, AFSCME
• Ben Jealous, NAACP
• Sylvia Johnson, United Auto Workers
• Bill Kamela, Microsoft Corporation
• Margaret Seminario, AFL-CIO

One of its former Directors is Mark Lloyd of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress.

Funding sources for OMB Watch include:

• AFSCME
• Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Ford Foundation
• Global Fund for Women
• Nathan Cummings Foundation
• Open Society Institute (George Soros)
• Rockefeller Brothers Fund
• Other Anonymous Funders (wouldn’t you like to know?)

2. Tom Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive at the George Washington University

Per sourcewatch.org, this organization is:

An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States. The Archive won the 1999 George Polk Award, one of U.S. journalism’s most prestigious prizes, for-in the words of the citation-“piercing the self-serving veils of government secrecy, guiding journalists in the search for the truth and informing us all.”

The Archive’s $2.5 million yearly budget comes from publication revenues, contributions from individuals and grants from foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As a matter of policy, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding.

Funding Sources include:

• Arca Foundation
• Benchmark Fund
• Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Center for Global Partnership (Japan Foundation)
• Central European University
• Cold War International History Project Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
• Compton Foundation
• Congressional Quarterly
• Cox Newspapers
• Dow Jones & Company
• Mike Farrell and Shelly Faberes
• Ford Foundation
• Ford Foundation Program-Related Investment Division
• Freedom Forum (formerly the Gannett Foundation)
• Fund for Constitutional Government
• Fund for Friendship and Justice
• Fundación Ford (Santiago, Chile)
• General Service Foundation
• German Marshall Fund of the United States
• J. M. Kaplan Fund, Inc.
• National Community Funds
• New World Foundation
• New York Times Company Foundation
• Open Society Fund, Inc. (George Soros)
• Open Society Institute (George Soros)
• Partnership for Democracy (formerly the Youth Project)
• Public Welfare Foundation
• Rockefeller Associates
• Rockefeller Family Fund
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
• Philip M. Stern Family Fund
• Streisand Foundation
• Time, Inc.
• Washington Post Company
• Weiss Foundation

3. Danielle Brian, Executive Director of the Project on Government Oversight

From their website, pogo.org:

Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that champions good government reforms. POGO’s investigations into corruption, misconduct, and conflicts of interest achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government.

Funding sources include:

• The Arca Foundation
• Francis Beidler Trust
• The Herb Block Foundation
• Harold and Stephanie Bronson Fund of the Liberty Hill Foundation
• Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Cavallo Foundation Inc.
• Connect US Fund of Tides Foundation
• Colombe Foundation
• C.S. Fund
• Everett Philanthropic Fund of the New York Community Trust
• The Ford Foundation
• The Fund for Constitutional Government
• HMJS Marks Fund of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
• The Lawrence Foundation
• The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• The New-Land Foundation, Inc.
• Open Society Institute (George Soros)
• Pew Charitable Trusts
• The Purple Lady/Barbara J. Meislin Fund
• Ploughshares Fund
• Revenue Watch Institute
• Rockefeller Family Fund

4. Lucy Dalglish, the Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

From their website, rcfp.org:

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press was created in 1970 at a time when the nation’s news media faced a wave of government subpoenas asking reporters to name confidential sources.

Their Steering Committe includes:

• SCOTT APPLEWHITE
• The Associated Press
• WOLF BLITZER
• CNN
• DAVID BOARDMAN
• Seattle Times
• ERIKA BOLSTAD
• McClatchy Newspapers
• JESS BRAVIN
• The Wall Street Journal
• MICHAEL DUFFY
• Time
• RICHARD S. DUNHAM
• Houston Chronicle
• ASHLEA EBELING
• Forbes Magazine
• FRED GRAHAM
• InSession
• NAT HENTOFF
• United Media Newspaper Syndicate
• DAHLIA LITHWICK
• Slate
• TONY MAURO
• National Law Journal
• DOYLE MCMANUS
• Los Angeles Times
• ANDREA MITCHELL
• NBC News
• BILL NICHOLS
• Politico
• SANDRA PEDDIE
• Newsday
• DANA PRIEST
• The Washington Post
• DAN RATHER
• HDNet
• JIM RUBIN
• Bloomberg News
• BOB SCHIEFFER
• CBS News
• ERIC SCHMITT
• The New York Times
• ALICIA SHEPARD
• National Public Radio
• PAUL STEIGER
• Pro Publica
• PIERRE THOMAS
• ABC News
• SAUNDRA TORRY
• USA Today
• JUDY WOODRUFF
• PBS/The NewsHour

While they do not publish a Donors’ List, I was able to find out, through research, that Lois Lloyd, their Business Manager, came to them from the Center for Law and Social Policy, which, according to discoverthenetworks.org is: 

…a Washington, DC-based think tank claiming to have approximately 22,000 affiliates nationwide—mostly law students, law professors, practicing attorneys, and judges.

Several foundations have contributed large sums of money to ACS, most notably the Streisand Foundation, the Deer Creek Foundation, the Ford Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Institute, the Overbrook Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

5. Patrice McDermott, Director of Open The Government.

Per sourcewatch.org, redirected from Open The Government:

OpenTheGovernment.org is a coalition of journalists, consumer and good government groups, environmentalists, library groups, labor and others united to make the federal government a more open place in order to make us safer, strengthen public trust in government, and support our democratic principles.

Funding Sources include:

• Angelina Fund
• The CS Fund
• Educational Foundation of America
• HKH Foundation
• The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
• Open Society Institute (George Soros)
• Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust (through Philanthropic Ventures Fund)
• Warsh-Mott Legacy Fund
• Fund for Constitutional Government
• National Security Archive
• OMB Watch

Are you beginning to see a pattern here, gentle reader?

Ain’t transparency wonderful?