PrintObama's transparency and Gore's school: Iconic and Ironic
Two news headlines appearing at the same time recently got my attention. The first is about Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences, the $75.5 million school named after science fiction hustler, Al Gore. The second story is titled, "Obama gets mixed report card on transparency."
With regard to the school story, it turns out that the Gore school was built on an environmentally contaminated piece of real estate. Concerns are being raised that the school "may pose long-term health risks to its students, faculty and staff, as the groundwater beneath it is contaminated by chemicals." And, incidentally, the Los Angeles school sits across the street from -- gasp! -- an oil well. The "mainstream" media see the school story as a "cruel irony."
How ironic.
The next story reports on "a new report tracking indicators of government secrecy." The story begins with Obama's pledge to have an "unprecedented level of openness" in his administration. Obama promised to be the most transparent president in history.
But, surprise, it turns out that Obama is not completely transparent. Among the breaches of trust were:
[Obama's] decision to oppose the release of photos of Iraqi and Afghan detainees being abused by American troops, his insistence that White House visitor logs are exempt from mandatory release under the Freedom of Information Act, and the Justice Department's invocation of the state secrets privilege in cases involving alleged CIA torture have all tended to undercut Obama's pledge, which he expressed in a memo to government employees when he took office.
How shocking.
Of course, the "mainstream" media have walked lockstep with Al Gore's anthropogenic global warming theory and Obama's transparency myth. So, journalists find irony in the environmental school story and bewilderment in the news of Obama's secrecy.
For conservatives, however, the news of the Al Gore school is no more ironic than the unusually cold weather that visits the global warming conferences. It is equally fitting that an Al Gore environmental school would be as dangerous as Al Gore's preaching. To avoid the emission of toxic properties and long-term health risks, people should avoid both.
With regard to Obama's supposed "transparency," it never ceases to amaze me that "journalists" would believe that the most secretive politician in our history would somehow become the most transparent president. How is it shocking that a man who refuses to release the most basic of information (like his grades and education records, health records and name of his birth hospital) is probably not the most transparent person in the world?
