Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington are pissed at getting the runaround from Trump.

Here's more courtesy of Bloomberg: 

A government transparency group vowed on Friday to continue a court battle to open up visitor logs at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, after the administration provided only the names of Japanese staff who attended a February visit from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, one of three government transparency groups that sued the Department of Homeland Security for the information, obtained and released the records on Friday. 

The Justice Department said in a letter to CREW that the records were responsive to the group’s request under the Freedom of Information Act. “The government seriously misrepresented their intentions to both us and the court,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “This was spitting in the eye of transparency. We will be fighting this in court.” 

CREW and other ethics specialists have criticized Trump for not divesting from his business holdings -- including Mar-a-Lago and other properties he visits -- saying they provide an avenue for those seeking influence to curry the president’s favor.

This kind of arrogance on the part of Trump and his businesses will ultimately only bring more heat in their direction.

And that last part is becoming a real issue now that we are learning just how much Trump himself is benefiting financially from using Mar-a-Lago as his "winter White House."

Courtesy of WaPo: 

On a weekend in early March, during one of seven trips by Trump and his White House entourage to the posh Palm Beach property since the inauguration, the government paid the Trump-owned club to reserve at least one bedroom for two nights. 

The charge, according to a newly disclosed receipt reviewed by The Washington Post, was $1,092. 

The amount was based on a per-night price of $546, which, according to the bill, was Mar-a-Lago’s “rack rate,” the hotel industry term for a standard, non-discounted price. 

The receipt, which was obtained in recent days by the transparency advocacy group Property of the People and verified by The Post, offers one of the first concrete signs that Trump’s use of Mar-a-Lago as the “Winter White House” has resulted in taxpayer funds flowing directly into the coffers of his private business.

I am very hopeful that these groups really turn the screws on Trump and bring transparency to what is now perhaps the most secretive administration since Richard Nixon's.

Trump Administration to keep White House logs private. Why? Because fuck you, that's why.

Courtesy of Time Magazine: 

The Trump Administration will not disclose logs of those who visit the White House complex, breaking with his predecessor, the White House announced Friday. 

The decision, after nearly three months of speculation about the fate of the records, marks a dramatic shift from the Obama Administration’s voluntary disclosure of more than 6 million records during his presidency. The U.S. Secret Service maintains the logs, formally known as the Workers and Visitors Entry System, for the purpose of determining who can access to the 18-acre complex. 

White House communications director Michael Dubke said the decision to reverse the Obama-era policy was due to “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.” Instead, the Trump Administration is relying on a federal court ruling that most of the logs are “presidential records” and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Security risks and privacy concerns my ass, Trump just does not want the American people to witness the parade of criminals that will march through the White House during his tenure.

And remember this is the same Donald Trump who once sent these tweets:

Why is @BarackObama spending millions to try and hide his records? He is the least transparent President--ever--and he ran on transparency.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2012

Why does Obama believe he shouldn't comply with record releases that his predecessors did of their own volition? Hiding something?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2012

There has GOT to be a better word than simply "hypocrisy" for all of this but I just can't think of it right now.

But I will tell you this, I believe that it is more important than ever for the American people to know who is coming and going in and out of the Trump White House.

Hillary Clinton releases ad using Republicans to shame Donald Trump about his tax returns.

Not only did the campaign put this ad out but the Clintons also released their 2015 tax returns: 

Hillary and Bill Clinton paid $3.2 million in federal income tax last year, a rate of 34.2 percent. Their 2015 return was released today by the Clinton campaign, almost five months after they signed it for filing. 

The Clintons overpaid the Treasury and got a refund of more than $1 million. 

The couple's income plunged last year. Adjusted gross income for 2015 was $10.6 million, compared to $27.9 million for the previous year. Charitable contributions accounted for 9.8 percent of their adjusted gross income. 

Clinton is releasing the returns for two reasons: transparency and the opportunity to bash Donald Trump. The Republican nominee has refused to make his 2015 tax data public.

They also released Tim Kaine's tax returns for the last ten years.

Hillary Clinton also used the "Some people are saying" meme on Twitter to go after Trump.

Many people are saying Trump won't release his tax returns because he's hiding something. What do you think it is?

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 12, 2016

Gee I wonder how Trump will respond to this?

Will he accuse Hillary of founding the KKK?

Or perhaps he will claim that Chelsea Clinton is secretly Bigfoot's love child.

Who knows?

P.S. While we are on the topic of tax returns, whatever happened to seeing this guy's returns?

After all he did promise them before the convention.

Personally I am happy to support the candidate who seems more than willing to show her tax returns.

Dark money in politics and the honesty of Senator Mark Begich.

Courtesy of TPM:

Republican dark money groups are outspending their Democratic counterparts by an incredible margin, according to data from the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation. 

During this cycle, conservative groups that do not disclose their donors have spent more than $94 million, while liberal dark money groups have spent more than $28 million.

The data this cycle confirms Republican dominance of dark money spending. In the 2012 election cycle, about 80 percent of dark money spending backed Republican candidates.

Of course as we know there has been untold millions spent up here in Alaska in support of Dan Sullivan, hell anybody trying to watch a You Tube video, listen to the radio, or watch television can tell you that. 

And when asked about that Dan Sullivan ran away like somebody was trying to take his lunch money.

Now undoubtedly Mark Begich has received some money from outside groups, and some of those are certainly from shady PACs that don't want to disclose their donor list.

However Begich is not one to shy away from scrutiny as evidenced by the fact that he has voluntarily provided documentation as to how his campaign money is spent.

This from ABC News:  

Senate campaigns aren't required to tell us by Election Day--they submit spending reports to the Federal Election Commission on paper, a seemingly antiquated system that prevents reporters and the public from being able to dig effectively through their latest receipts and expenses. For most campaigns, sortable expense data is only available through June. Weeks or months later, we'll get a fuller picture. 

But Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, apparently out of the goodness of his heart, has been filing his disclosures electronically since October 2013, giving us a window into how Senate campaigns are spending their millions of dollars these days. 

Since Oct. 1, 2013, Begich has spent $7.3 million, a middling total for campaigns. Alaska isn't the most expensive state in which a candidate can run, and it's outside the top 10 this election cycle for candidate spending, although, including outside money, it's the sixth most expensive of all 2014 Senate races, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Can anybody imagine Dan Sullivan being this transparent? Nope me either.

As if we needed another reason to support the only REAL Alaskan running for the Senate in 2014.

President Obama agrees to release secret drone strike memos.

The Seattle Times:  

The Obama administration Wednesday directed the Justice Department to release classified documents discussing the legal justification for the use of drones in targeting U.S. citizens abroad who are considered terrorists to the two congressional intelligence committees. 

The announcement appears to refer to 2010 memos from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel justifying the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who had joined al-Qaida in Yemen. He was killed in a CIA drone strike in September 2011. Members of Congress have long demanded access to the memorandum. 

The decision to release the legal memos to the intelligence committees came under pressure, two days after a bipartisan group of 11 senators joined a growing chorus asking for more information about the legal justification for targeted killings, especially of Americans. The announcement also came on the eve of the confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday for John Brennan, President Obama’s choice to be director of the CIA. Brennan was the chief architect of the drone program as Obama’s counterterrorism adviser. 

Until Wednesday night, the administration had refused to even officially acknowledge the existence of the documents, which have been reported about in the media. This week, NBC News obtained an unclassified, shorter legal memo, described as a “white paper,” that officials said described the legal framework that officials follow in using the drones. 

Administration officials said Obama had decided to take the action — which they described as extraordinary — out of a desire to involve Congress in the development of the legal framework for the use of drones. Aides noted that Obama had made a pledge to do that during an appearance on “The Daily Show” last year.

This is big news and I am hoping it will give Congress, and hopefully the American people, some idea as to how it is determined that an individual is considered dangerous enough to justify raining death down on him from the skies.

Personally I don't think this will provide much solace for those of us who find this kind of death dealing abhorrent but at least it indicates more transparency from this administration and it is certainly a hell of a lot more than we EVER got from the Bush administration.

Just a reminder for those keeping score.

State of Alaska claims they need until February 20, 2012 to release last of Sarah Palin's e-mails. To speed things up they are now redacting with TWO hands!

Courtesy of The Republic:

The state wants more time to release the last 10 months of emails from Sarah Palin's time as Alaska's governor. 

Randy Ruaro, deputy chief of staff to current governor Sean Parnell, says he expects it will take at least until Feb. 20 to release the emails from Oct. 1, 2008 to July 26, 2009. Ruaro told the attorney general that without an extension, responding to requests for the emails would "substantially impair" the other functions of the governor's office, as well as the ability to properly and thoroughly review the messages. 

In June, the state released 24,199 pages of emails from Palin's first 21 months in office. This was in response to public records requests first made in September 2008, after Palin was chosen as the GOP vice presidential nominee.

You know in the time it has taken these e-mails to get released Palin could have faked given birth to an entire Little League team!

But it might be worth it if they are even a little bit sloppy with those big black permanent markers of theirs, because from Oct. 2008 to July 2009 is where all of the GOOD stuff should be.

This is when Palin was communicating back and forth during the Troopergate investigation, and trying to figure out some way NOT to have to produce Trig's birth certificate, and in a blind panic attempting to hide all of her skeletons before the media started vetting her the way that the McCain campaign completley failed to do.

I found some VERY interesting stuff in that last batch of e-mails, despite the MSMS saying otherwise, and I have little doubt I will find some fascinating nuggets this time around as well.

Of course if Frank Bailey would finally seek the kind of absolution from his sins that he claims to want, by releasing all of those thousands of e-mails still in his possession, we could finally see what the state of Alaska and Sarah Palin have been desperately attempting to hide from the people of America, and the citizens of our fair state.

How about it Frank?