open government     Here’s a laugher. This was a press release from January 18, 2006:

          Democrats from across the country today unveiled their Honest Leadership and Open Government Act. In the Great Hall of the Library of Congress, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, were joined by Senator Barack Obama and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter and their Senate and House colleagues to shine a spotlight on the Republican “pay for play” politics that put special interests first at the expense of the priorities of the American people and signed a pledge to restore honest leadership and open government.

     Hey, but that was almost 4 years ago. That’s ancient history. Besides Obama wasn’t even President then; I know, so you’ll love this one. And I’ve even got a “talkie” for you. Here’s the back story:

On January 21, 2009, his first full day in office, the President issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government and called for recommendations for making the Federal government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.

On May 21, 2009, the Administration kicked off an unprecedented process for public engagement in policymaking on the White House website. As Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President said, we are proud to announce an important next step in this historic call to action one that will help us achieve a new foundation for our government a foundation built on the values of transparency, accountability and responsibility.

And now for the talkie:

Valerie Jarrett on Open Government

     Gosh, I thought I had been making my opinions known. And by the polls, it looks like the American public has been making their opinion known on healthcare “reform”. I guess I didn’t get the memo on the Era of Open Government being over.