From the Government Transparency Desk: The dog that didn’t bark

"Watch the feet not the mouth." -- Gabree Family maxim

Despite paying lip service to open government, the administration of Barack Obama has been among the most secretive in our history.

In addition to prosecuting whistle-blowers in record numbers, the White House has dragged its heels over appointments to watchdog positions.

Seven of the 33 inspector general posts in the Obama administration are being filled by temporary appointees, according to [a Senate] panel. Permanent IGs have been nominated for just three of the vacancies.

Four of the agencies without nominees for permanent inspector generals -- the Department of the Interior, the Veterans Administration, the Export Import Bank and the Central Intelligence Agency -- are among those that need oversight the most.

The rest of the story: Senate Panel Says Obama Administration Lacks Watchdogs by Brian Naylor (NPR)

The Bush administration's response to the torture report is straightforward:

The CIA's actions were fully authorized. And we didn't know anything about them.

Change Watch: Obama is craking down on whistleblowers

The Obama administration's tough investigative stance on unauthorized press leaks goes against the president's campaign promises to bring back openness and transparency. Is the government under Obama mounting an attack on press freedom?

Accountability: Freedom of Information - Online

The Sunlight Foundation has proposed Federal legislation that would require government to provide meaningful access to its information online. In the words of its organizational sign-on letter, the Public Online Information Act (POIA)

requires government information that is public to be made available in the broadest, most accessible manner — online. Our vital public information can enhance accountability, spur commerce, and empower citizenship, but only if we create and require meaningful digital access to it. POIA creates this meaningful access through two mechanisms.

First, POIA mandates that the Executive Branch make public records permanently available on the Internet, with a few exceptions....

Second, POIA creates an advisory body of government officials and private citizens to ensure that all three branches of government...will coordinate the development of government-wide Internet disclosure policies.

The act also creates procedures similar to those available under Freedom of Information Act to enable organizations and individual citizen to pry loose information from reluctant bureaucrats.

Sunlight Foundation proposes Public Online Information Act, LII Announce (Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School 2010-03-16)
More about the Public Online Information Act (Sunlight Foundation)
Read a summary of the Public Online Information Act or read the entire bill