White House Comedy: 'Transparency Like You've Never Seen Before'

Transparency as seen through Freedom of Information requests and administrative appeals with the Department of Homeland Security. So transparent we don't even know all the names of those who've visited the White House this year, with names of lobbyists not disclosed.

But in ObamaWorld, that's transparency like you've never seen before! Just imagine how'd they act if they had something to hide.

The White House on Friday released a small list of visitors to the White House since President Barack Obama took office in January, including lobbyists, business executives, activists and celebrities.

No previous administration has released such a list, though the information out so far is incomplete. Only about 110 names —and 481 visits —out of the hundreds of thousands who have visited the Obama White House were made public. Like the Bush administration before it, Obama is arguing that any release is voluntary, not required by law, despite two federal court rulings to the contrary.

Under the Obama White House's policy, most names of visitors from Inauguration Day in January through the end of September will never be released.

The transparency is amazing. It's as if we can almost see all the requested information but we never will.

Yummy. Please, sir, may I have more transparency?

So who were some of the beautiful people granted an audience with The One?

The names released Friday include business leaders and lobbyists with a lot to gain or lose from Obama policies. They include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (whose foundation is pushing for changes in teacher pay), former AIG chairman Maurice Greenberg, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Chevron CEO David O'Reilly, Citigroup's Vikram Pandit, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, JP Morgan's James Dimon, Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, John Stumpf of Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley's John Mack, State Street bank's Ron Logue, BNY Mellon's Robert Kelly, labor leader Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union (22 visits), American Bankers Association CEO Ed Yingling, community bankers president Camden Fine, and lobbyists Heather and Anthony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta led Obama's transition team.

Besides Gates, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt are also on the list. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC. One of NBC's parents is GE.)

Advocates and nonprofit leaders include National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which is interested in health policy.

Democratic donor and businessman George Soros visited with White House aides twice.

Political figures include former Sen. Thomas Daschle, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, former Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Al Franken, former Vice President Al Gore, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, and Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf.

Nice to see New Gingrich's transformation is nearly complete. Doing commercials with Nancy Pelosi, hanging out with Al Sharpton and Howard Dean, and now he's pre-approved for White House pats on the head. As for Soros, I'm surprised he's only visited twice. I figured he had an office in the West Wing.

Now since we haven't seen all the names and likely never will, it's ridiculous to assert there's any real transparency here, although I'm sure the Obama-approved media will dutifully regurgitate it as fact.

A request for the complete records of all visitors from the first months of the administration, filed by msnbc.com, was rejected by the White House, and an appeal is pending. The news organization requested the names of all visitors to the Obama White House beginning with Inauguration Day. Msnbc.com has filed an administrative appeal with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.

If they had nothing to hide they'd provide a daily list so we knew who was coming and going. That would be transparent. Instead those who are actually seeking information are blindfolded with a sack over their heads. Some transparency.

To me it appears they have something to hide.