House Cleaning

"Opening Up the People’s House" on the White House blog follows through on some of the promised transparency that has become associated with the Obama administration by making White House visitor logs available to the public. The site provides links to Bush administration records as PDF files, and provides Microsoft Excel files that chronicle comings and goings in the current administration.

Unfortunately, there are exceptions for "a small group of appointments that cannot be disclosed because of national security imperatives or their necessarily confidential nature." And the White House also admits that the disclosure policy also satisfies a legal settlement with cases brought against the federal government by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW has also produced an interactive graphic about Congressman Jack Murtha and provides a database of government documents at governmentdocs.org.