Most Transparent Administration, Evah.

The Detroit News: U.S. sets new record for denying, censoring fed files

The Obama administration set a new record again for more often than ever censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn’t find documents, and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.

It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.

In addition, the administration, in another burst of transparency, is going to exempt the White House Office of Administration form FOIA requests. Of course, the administration blames Bush for the Obama administration making this formalized ruling. This blame is because, you know Bush did it first and all that so it's cool for Obama to formalize the denial of responses to FOIA for the Office of Administration.

UnaFOIAdable - Wayne County Would Charge $1.6 Billion To Retrieve Emails In Response To A FOIA Request

One effective way to hide corruption is to make the cost of revealing it far too high.

Wayne County, Michigan (The corrupt county with its county seat being the corrupt city of Detroit) seems to have adopted this technique.

The Detroit News: Open records at issue in Detroit conference

Last year, Wayne County informed reporters that it would cost some $1.8 billion if they wanted months of emails from Executive Robert Ficano and three former aides.

The explanation: The county’s computer network would need to be backed up to retrieve a single email and lawyers would need to spend 66,000 hours — about 7 1/2 years working around the clock — reviewing all the data.

Anyone accepting that explanation at face value also invests in land in the Everglades and bridges for sale in the Brooklyn area. Clearly, they're hiding something, either that or their budget has a $1.6 Billion dollar hole in it somewhere.

Meanwhile counties that are well-organized, less corrupt, (and dare I say, not dominated by Democrats?) seem to be taking a different view:

Oakland County Deputy Executive Phil Bertolini said the rationale was simple: “It is a public record. The easier it is to get, the better.”

Imagine that.