Obama's new lobbying rules ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. This reminded me of how special interests have financed the election campaigns of Commissioners Barton and Conley and benefited with public contracts
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By Charles O'Dell, Ph.D.
It’s likely that if Americans had not been subjected to the past eight years of bumbling, stumbling and conniving by George W. Bush and company, voters would not have turned out in record numbers to elect a leader who exudes the same quality of leadership that our founding fathers exercised when establishing this great nation.
President Barack Obama is the ideal national leader. A devoted father and husband, a person of deep personal integrity and ethics with compassion and empathy for others, confident, decisive, well educated despite the odds and smart as a whip, President Obama lights up the whole nation with an infectious smile that is full of genuine emotion and good humor. He has a clear vision for our country and we the people share that vision.
It is my good fortune to be married to an Independent who has connections with Democrat movers and shakers. She obtained tickets to the Texas State Society Black Tie Inaugural Ball held at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center on the evening of January 19, 2008. The Ball was a prelude to why we went to Washington, DC…the Inauguration.Our first indication of how popular the Inaugural event would be occurred 6AM Friday morning at Austin Bergstrom International Airport. Gambling that we could locate Inaugural tickets, Susan had booked our tickets two months before on the last available Southwest flight from Austin to Baltimore. On this Friday morning, ABIA was packed with passengers leaving for DC.
Racial diversity of passengers and discussions held during our flight gave me hope more citizens are realizing that the wages of voter apathy is a disastrous government. The more voters there are the more difficult it is to fool them.
We left Austin in 36 degree weather and arrived in Baltimore to 12 degrees. On Saturday morning it was 8 degrees in Silver Spring, MD. I’d forgotten how cold the winters can be in the DC area…but they don’t have Ashe Juniper.
Susan and her sister Anne worked feverishly preparing an Obama 2009 Inaugural Tea they hosted Saturday afternoon for friends and former associates in the Virginia, DC and Maryland area. Every food item was made from scratch by these two gourmet cooks, and two presidential plate patterns graced the table.
The crowd on Sunday had numbered half a million. Inauguration Day it was four times as large and even more excited. We arrived on the Mall about 9 am and took a spot in front of a large screen near the Washington Monument. It was still cold but we brought snacks, water and a couple of folding chairs we let an elderly woman use. You could feel the anticipation grow as more people filled the Mall and distinguished guests were introduced.
A statistic I saw later was that despite an estimated 2.5 million visitors there wasn’t a single arrest. As we waited for noon and the oath of office I remembered leaving work at USDA forty six years ago and walking to almost this same spot on the Mall to hear Martin Luther King deliver his “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial behind us. It now seemed to have come full circle.
Will the fresh new ethics and openness
trickle down to Hays County?
trickle down to Hays County?
"Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington," said the new president, and he froze the salaries of about one hundred of his highest paid White House staff. I thought about the grandstanding and insensitive pay raise our commissioner’s court recently gave themselves.
In an attempt to deliver on pledges of a transparent government, President Obama said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act. He said he was directing agencies that receive requests for information to err on the side of making information public — not to look for reasons to legally withhold it — an alteration to the traditional standard of evaluation. I thought about how Commissioner Barton conducted official business on his cell phone but refused to surrender his phone records in response to an open record request.
“Just because a government agency has the legal power to keep information private does not mean that it should," Obama said. “Reporters and public-interest groups often make use of the law to explore how and why government decisions were made; they are often stymied as agencies claim legal exemptions to the law.”
Obama's new lobbying rules will not only ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted. This reminded me of how special interests have financed the election campaigns of Commissioners Barton and Conley and benefited with public contracts.
Will the new ethical, transparent and inclusive government in Washington trickle down to Hays County? That will be up to Hays County voters.
I’ve never felt more connected to my county as I do following the Inauguration of President Barak Obama. What a thrill this past week has been for me. I’m fired up and ready to go!
On the way home I visited with one of the few remaining Tuskegee Airmen. Thanks for your service, Dr. Williams.
In an attempt to deliver on pledges of a transparent government, President Obama said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act. He said he was directing agencies that receive requests for information to err on the side of making information public — not to look for reasons to legally withhold it — an alteration to the traditional standard of evaluation. I thought about how Commissioner Barton conducted official business on his cell phone but refused to surrender his phone records in response to an open record request.
“Just because a government agency has the legal power to keep information private does not mean that it should," Obama said. “Reporters and public-interest groups often make use of the law to explore how and why government decisions were made; they are often stymied as agencies claim legal exemptions to the law.”
Obama's new lobbying rules will not only ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted. This reminded me of how special interests have financed the election campaigns of Commissioners Barton and Conley and benefited with public contracts.
Will the new ethical, transparent and inclusive government in Washington trickle down to Hays County? That will be up to Hays County voters.
I’ve never felt more connected to my county as I do following the Inauguration of President Barak Obama. What a thrill this past week has been for me. I’m fired up and ready to go!
On the way home I visited with one of the few remaining Tuskegee Airmen. Thanks for your service, Dr. Williams.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing your experiences. i can tell you that I am extremely jealous but glad you and your lovely wife were able to go! I am simple amazed at the amount of work our new president has been able to accomplish in just two short weeks...wow!
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