Monday, August 29, 2011

Rick Perry's version of transparency in Government

It seems that Rick Perry isn't being put under the same scrutiny when it comes to emails and correspondences during his time as Governor of Texas as his predecessor, other candidates, and potential candidates for President. I guess because there's not much there..... from a PHYSICAL perspective that is.

Sarah Palin released hers and the New York Times actually asked folks to help them look for dirt....and there was none to be found I might add.

Mitt Romney had reporters looking through his emails and correspondences as well for a few years. Some 700 cubic feet of it. Did they find anything? As one investigating reporter put it,

"It's enormous and a lot of it's crap,” the reporter says, referring to the boxes of Romney documents. "You just have to figure out how much time [you want to spend]. My experience is, they were pretty careful about what they left behind. You're welcome to it. It's a ton of shit."

In both cases, Palin and Romney were transparent........NOTHING TO HIDE!

Which brings me to Texas under Governor George W. Bush:

When then-Gov. George W. Bush ran for president in 2000, his office released a treasure trove of information relating to his years as Texas' chief executive.
Some 3,125 pages detailing Bush's appointments during 1995-1998 allowed news organizations to remark on the exact number of lobbyists and campaign donors with whom he met. The records showed which state lawmakers Bush conferred with - and on what subject - and detailed how much time he spent reviewing capital punishment cases prior to executions. The records showed when he arrived at the office, when he took time off for the gym and when he went home.
In short, the documents provided a portrait of the leadership style of a candidate for president of the United States.
As to Rick Perry?
Over the past decade, the Perry administration has withheld information in response to some 100 open-records requests, instead seeking review by the Texas Attorney General's Office. In two cases in the past year, Perry's office acknowledged it failed to meet legal deadlines for responding to the requests, or otherwise delayed in violation of well-established procedures outlined in the Texas Public Information Act.

Most of the withheld documents involved contracts, bidding and oversight of programs in which state money flows to entrepreneurs, privately held companies and universities from Perry's two economic development funds, the Emerging Technology Fund and the Texas Enterprise Fund. In some cases, the requests involve entities headed by Perry campaign donors and political appointees. Perry also chose to withhold information when third parties complained they would release proprietary information or violate trade secrets.
And then there is the AUTOMATIC PURGING OF EMAILS older than 7 days. He has also blocked access related to his travel and security expenses. There have been several court filings by newspapers and other groups for access to Perry's information.

The point is, What does he have to hide? Why purge emails and deny access to information that most other governors allow. I guess it's a....RICK PERRY version of, TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT!


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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who would have ever thought that Perry would unite most Republicans.

Against him!

larry said...

Perry gets high marks in sleaze.

Anonymous said...

While I agree that Palin did release her e-mails, it took almost 2 years and a court order to do so - and then, there was much that was redacted.

Romney just released them on his own, without being asked.

Right Wingnut said...

Anon,

Give it a rest, would you?

It DID take Romney's staff a while to release them, and as the reporter stated, they were careful whith what they left behind. Furthermore, try searching through those boxes of shit. Palin's emails were all sorted and searchable.

You need to learn how to pick your battles.

Right Wingnut said...

"There's no discrete series of emails," he adds. "We didn't take any electronic or digital files." Romney's emails were printed out and stuffed into cartons.

Finding and collating emails on any given subject means digging through hundreds of boxes. In fact, if you request the full file on the creation Romney's state Health Connector, expect at least a very long delay. You might get those materials by 2016.

Since the former governor's last run, Comeau says his office has only gone through and approved for public eyeballs and nosy reporters about 25 percent of those 700 boxes. But the process has become only more time-consuming, as his staff has shrunk from six to two.

"State budgets are tight everywhere," he explains. "We felt the crunch along with everybody else."



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/mitt-romney-health-care-reform-emails_n_866365.html

Anonymous said...

I think the point is, Romney, Palin, and GW's info was all there for anyone to view. Perry's is non-existent after 7 days, or so he and his staff says.

No one said these people have to make it east for the dirt diggers, just make the stuff available.

Anonymous said...

Is RW quoting the Huffington Post about Romney? Now there is a source worthy of our respect!

It is true that Romney's stuff is not easy to search through; so what? It is there!

Another point I am longing to make is that Romney is OLDER than Palin. Some of the difference in style may be the way that an earlier generation deals with things. I am quite different in my media choices than my sister and her cohorts, mostly because I am 11 years older. Technology choices are different for different age groups. Just sayin'.

AZ