[GinaGomesz]

What's your take on all this? I like it. I don't have any illusions that this will, in one fell swoop, solve the influence problem in DC, but it's a step.

I personally think his orders towards more gov't transparency should be of equal or greater interest to the American public Agreed. And the categories aren't mutually exclusive. More transparency should, theoretically, allow for people to pick up on Really Bad Things (however you personally define that) earlier, and raise a ruckus.

-Arrian

[WGRocky]

Another executive order, along the same lines of improved governance:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/60474.html

Undoing Bush: Obama orders easier access to public records
By Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, in his first full day in office, revoked a controversial executive order signed by President Bush in 2001 that limited release of former presidents' records.

The new order could expand public access to records of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the years to come as well as other past leaders, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.

"It's extraordinary that a new president would address this issue on his first full day in office," Aftergood said. "It signifies the great importance he attaches to open, accountable government. The new order suggests President Obama will take a narrow view of executive privilege and assert it in a much more limited way than what we've seen in the recent past."

Under Bush's order, former presidents had broad ability to claim executive privilege and could designate others including family members who survive them to exercise executive privilege on their behalf.

Obama's new order gives ex-presidents less leeway to withhold records, Aftergood said, and takes away the ability of presidents' survivors to designate that privilege.

Separately, an Obama memorandum issued Wednesday also appears to effectively rescind a 2001 memo by President Bush's then-Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft giving agencies broad legal cover to reject public disclosure requests.

"For a long time now, there's been too much secrecy in this city. This administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information but with those who seek it to be known," Obama said before a gathering that included his senior staff. "The mere fact that you have the legal power to keep something secret does not mean you should always use it. Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."

[Unhappu]

Yes, I hope it doesn't discourage good people from participating in government because of the possible negative monetary issues that could result when you leave service. I know this isn't the intent but it could be one of the outcomes.

[GaxyGroordrep]

I like the start despite many of the things I posted during the election
But this is small stuff, we need to see the real stuff, but I'll cut him some slack on the time line. At least a week.
I also remember a congress (the republican promise to america) that started out real good and got the people really excited but petered out quite quickly. And I won't even blame it on Clinton.

[topbonuscasino]

I can't wait to read Obama's personal e-mails that he will have on his Blackberry.

[VioletttaJosetta]

Supposedly he'll have some sort of super-smart phone that will be impossible for hackers and what not to intercept his communications.

Hmmm yeah... doubt it.

[Old-old-Ivy]

Lobbyists

[KernJetenue]

YEah, I'm torn on this one. I agree that anything I do at work is public but what I do at home is personal. He's on duty 24/7. Is Obama not entitled to any personal time. It seems a bit harsh.

Part of the price.

[KukkoDrukko]

This is mostly optics. Like imposing the salary cap in the executive branch. Restoring America's confidence in gov't, yadda, yadda yadda. It might even be problematic in an environment where talented people aren't trying to get into government and the public wasn't so jaded, but that's not today.

Much more substantive were the orders on public disclosure and executive privilege.

[UMATURLIN]

I like how everyone here is falling for this. Even the retarded Cambell Brown didn't fall for this.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/...ef=mpstoryview

Perhaps all of you should get over it and realize that ever since Fiddy Cent took two to the chest and wrote that awful party song, black people too have been corrupted by original sin. M:AD

[ssyyyrruho]

They can still join, they just have to burn their wheels doing something unrelated for two years.

[PymnImmen]

They can still join, they just have to burn their wheels doing something unrelated for two years.

Apparently not according to Wiglaf's link.

[LoisCampon]

They can still join, they just have to burn their wheels doing something unrelated for two years. Which also means Obama pretty much has to promise people jobs two years in advance. Qualified people are not going to abandon careers on the hope that maybe they will get picked up in two years.

Actually, I see quite a few lawsuits on the horizon due to this.