Six Months of Obama...Part 2

Compiled by justincase.

38. On January 21, 2009 Obama said he would not hire lobbyists. (38a and this) As of May 7th he had hired 30 as senior administration officials (11%) - with Congress poised to approve another (38b). Congressional clerks have “clarified” the definition of “lobbyist” (which allows more lawyers to de-list from lobbyist status) (38c) and the first quarter saw a 25% increase in the number of people de-listing. (38d) It isn’t known how many Obama has hired who have recently de-listed or who fit through other loopholes. (38e).

39. On June 10, 2009 the Obama administration called British officials to inform them that they , without consulting Britain, had released 4 Uighurs (pronounced wee-gers) - Chinese Muslim terrorists - from Gitmo and had put them on a plane to Bermuda, a British territory. After hearing back from British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the administration described the response this way: “They’re pissed.” (39)

40. Despite campaign promises of bi-partisanship, has answered the other side of the aisle by saying, “I won” (40a) and “Only I am the president of the United States” (40b). Has said nothing in rebuke of democratic Congressional leaders who have changed the House fairness rules (40c), stacked powerful committees with disproportionate ratios of democrats (40d), locked Republicans out of meetings altogether before announcing a “bi-partisan agreement” (40e), and repeatedly shut down ethics probes of politicians’ pork-barrel paybacks for large campaign donors. (40f)

41. Set up a website for people to suggest how the government could be more transparent and accountable. By far, the top response was that Obama should disclose his long-form, non-forged birth certificate to prove his Constitutional eligibility for office. The administration responded by removing many of the posts about it (41a)– the only posts on the site that were deleted. Only Obama knows which suggestions will be considered for action, since , as the website says,“The ideas that received the most organized support were not necessarily the most viable suggestions.”(41b)


(38a) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ExecutiveOrder-EthicsCommitments/ and
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/01/24/obama-waives-own-executive-order-for-defense-lobbyist/

(38b) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/07/obamas-lobbyists/

(38c) http://thehill.com/the-executive/house-and-senate-clarify--lobbying-rules-guidance-2009-06-17.html

(38d) http://pac.org/content/lobbyists-de-list-higher-rate-normal

(38e) http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/trailhead/archive/2008/05/19/obama-s-lobbying-ties.aspx

(39) http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/10042528/Barack_Obama_ignores_British_over_sending_Guantanamo_four_to_Bermuda/

(40a) http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17862.html

(40b) http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/06/24/2009-06-24_for_president_obama_the_honeymoon_is_officially_over.html

(40c) http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30143

(40d) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n44_v9/ai_14677875/

(40e) http://www.ourmidland.com/articles/2009/02/11/local_news/1559998.txt and
http://arkansasgopwing.blogspot.com/2009/02/republicans-locked-of-discussions-nancy.html

(40f) http://hotair.com/archives/2009/05/13/most-ethical-congress-evah-kills-ethics-probe-into-pma-for-the-eighth-time/

(41a) http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=99933

(41b) http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=100312