Opacity in Government
Today I am flying the Fort Moultrie Patriot Flag. I fly this flag when liberty is at risk through “risky discussion.” Today a discussion is happening behind closed doors, the result of which could affect every citizen and 1/6th of the economy of the USA. A classic “Star Chamber.”
Talk Risking Liberty
- Wikipedia Star Chamber: In modern usage, legal or administrative bodies with strict, arbitrary rulings and secretive proceedings are sometimes called, metaphorically or poetically, star chambers.
Pick four people with whom you vehemently disagree, people who have a track record of being opposed to your points of view. Now imagine them in a dark room behind a closed door preparing a plan that will directly affect your future. Disturbing? I would hope so. Is it any wonder why Conservatives are getting even more angry each day? Wonder no more! If you just look at the facts, it is very easy to understand the growing anger toward, and loss of confidence in, this administration.
Wikipedia: Transparency, when used in a social context, implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparent procedures include open meetings, financial disclosure statements, the freedom of information legislation, budgetary review, audits, etc.
Opacity: The antonym of transparency is opacity it means: impervious, dense, cloudy, muddy, milky, misty, smoky, solid, thick, obscure, unclear, dense, difficult, impenetrable, incomprehensible and hard.
Today, with the promise of governmental transparency still on their lips from the Democrat win, four Democrats, each in his own way a “suspect” to the safety of Liberty and Freedom, are meeting behind closed doors working on legislative details of a Health Care Reform bill that could bankrupt the country and destroy the finest health care system in the history of the world. Take a closer look:
Closed Door
- Sen Max Baucous … has emerged as a leading recipient of Senate campaign contributions from the hospitals, insurers and other medical interest groups hoping to shape the legislation to their advantage. Health-related companies and their employees gave Baucus’s political committees nearly $1.5 million in 2007 and 2008, when he began holding hearings and making preparations for this year’s reform debate. (Source)
- Sen Chris Dodd – Banking Committee chairman got a sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide; he has received $280,000 in campaign contributions from troubled insurer AIG; and he made sure that AIG executive bonuses were untouched by Congress — then claimed for 24 hours that he knew nothing about it, before reporters forced him to admit the truth. (Source)
- Sen Harry Reid The AP catches Harry Reid without a disclosure on real-estate deals that netted him $700,000 in profit: (Source )
- Rohm Emanuel…made $16 million in less than two years. This sum is in addition to the $250,000 Emanuel made at financially troubled Freddie Mac, which was plagued by scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities while he was on its board. Emanuel was there when they were cooking the books, And the legislation they are working on is Health Care Reform, which will affect every inhabitant of the United States (citizen and non-citizen) … every inhabitant that is except for their health care plans which are different than those of the average citizen. (Source)
These are the fine and upstanding, honest, trustworthy people who are “deciding” the combined version of the Health Care Reform bill for you and me. They are doing this without input from “bipartisan” sources (Geez, they even didn’t invite Graham or Snowe! … must REALLY be a secret meeting!).
Obama’s Promise: To achieve health care reform, “I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We’ll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies — they’ll get a seat at the table, they just won’t be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process.”
The Bottom Line
From bobmccarty.com/
Debate? There is no Debate!
Televised on C-SPAN? Didn’t happen!
Discussion? There is no Discussion!
Exchange of Ideas? There is no exchange of Ideas!
Bipartisanship? There is no Bipartisanship!
Transparency in Government? There is no Transparency in Government!
Doubt? There is no doubt! Not any longer. The radicals have taken over the government in a bloodless coup and we are witnessing the result. Total government control of all institutions including the legislative process.
Instead of Transparency in Government, we get Opacity in Government
Four Democrats behind closed doors constructing the bill in secret!
When does a Campaign Promise simply become a lie?
From THE HILL
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present.
Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.
For months Towns has refused Republican requests to subpoena records in the case. Last Thursday Committee Republicans, led by Issa, were poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was abruptly canceled. Only Republicans showed up while Democrats chairs remained empty.
Republicans charged that Towns cancelled the meeting to avoid the subpoena vote. Democrats first claimed the mark-up was canceled due to a conflict with the Financial Services Committee. Later they said it was abandoned after a disagreement among Democratic members on whether to subpoena records on the mortgage industry’s political contributions to Republicans.
And there’s more here
Look at the pattern, FULL CONTROL by the party in power, imagine how this would have played if the Republicans would have done this!