It looks obvious

I’m following, with great interest, Jeff Jarvis’s reports about how our elected representatives intend to limit our freedom of speech. In his efforts to have his opinion heard, and other similar, Jeff Jarvis tried to be invited to testify at the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing on decency . When ignored, Jeff start wondering what was the criteria the committee used to choose the witnesses and tried to get the information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ; however Jeff reported that:

“I can’t find any means to file FOIAs with Senate committees or members.”

 

Naïve that I am, and since I believe that Jeff carry the flag in very important battle for our freedom, I thought to Ask Anne to spend some time in legal research and help Jeff find the legal way to do that. However later today I saw Tom Evslin’s post about this:

“The answer, unfortunately, is that the FOIA, like OSHA and Social Security, doesn’t apply to Congress. The first line of the act (full text here) says: “(a) Each agency shall make available to the public information as follows…”. Further down is the definition: “"agency" as defined in section 551(1) of this title includes any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency…”

 

What’s sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander. FOIA is very important for knowing what appointed officials are up to. Too bad our elected officials don’t think we have the same right to know how they make decisions.  Doesn’t stop Jeff Jarvis from asking, though, and shouldn’t stop the rest of us either.”

So when your elected officials tell you that they are working for you, do they really think so?  Do they really think you, as the “boss” shouldn’t have the right to have the information about how the hell they are working for you? I guess not.