Blurts & Spasms

In answer to Quora question: "What are the most egregious examples of Obama's lack of transparency?"

Thanks for the A2A Joel. IMO this criticism of Obama is probably the most valid, and unfortunately also the most egregious. The fact that Obama campaigned on increasing government transparency is just salt in the wound. Here are some examples:

After a brief initial relaxation in FOIA denials, the Obama administration consistently escalated denial and foot-dragging on FOIA requests over time. In fact right now the FOIA performance has been 50% worse than the Bush administration.

The most aggressive prosecution of "whistleblowers" of any administration - often utilizing the Espionage Act to silence revelations of corruption, waste, illegality or mismanagement that has nothing to do with national security.

The secret expansion of the Drone assassination program and inclusion of U.S. citizens as targets.

Increased restrictions/managing of Press Corps coverage of the President (anywhere) and denying access to Executive Branch officials except on background.

* Shielding the CIA from investigation into torture and detainee abuse using the state secrets privilege.

In part I think this is a legacy of the expansion of Executive power under the Patriot Act; the U.S. remains in a perpetual state of war, giving POTUS additional authority to, in this case at least, violate Constitutional protections and circumvent the War Powers Act. (For more info on this do some combined searches of the Patriot Act, AUMF, and Article II of the Constitution.) Obama's secret use of power is likely a potent example of absolute power corrupting absolutely as the original checks and balances provisioned by the U.S. Constitution have been increasingly obliterated in a post-9/11 world.

My 2 cents.