Torturing the faithful.

*

It's stories like this that's got my love meter for his O ness dipping:

"Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show. AIG said in a draft of a regulatory filing that the insurer paid banks, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA, 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm. The New York Fed crossed out the reference, according to the e-mails, and AIG excluded the language when the filing was made public on Dec. 24, 2008. The e-mails were obtained by Representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee..." [More here]

Let's call it the "Chinese water torture" effect. Drip. Drip. Drip. My dome is starting to feel wet.

"President Obama wants the final negotiations on health care reform - a reconciliation of the House and Senate versions of the bill - put on a fast track, even if that means breaking an explicit campaign promise. "The House and Senate plan to put together the final health care reform bill behind closed doors according to an agreement by top Democrats," House Speaker Nanci Pelosi said today at the White House. The White House is on board with that, too, reports CBS News political correspondent Chip Reid. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stressed today that "the president wants to get a bill to his desk as quickly as possible." Special Report: Health Care Reform During the campaign, though, candidate Obama regularly promised something different - to broadcast all such negotiations on C-SPAN, putting the entire process of pounding out health care reform out in the open. (That promise applied to the now-completed processing of forging House and Senate bills, too.) Back when Republicans controlled Congress and George W. Bush was in the White House, it was Democrats who angrily complained about secret backroom deals. Now the roles are reversed..." [Story here]

I know a lot of people don't watch C-SPAN, but just an hour on that network is not enough. His O ness promised me transparency and that's what I want.

But field, it's not only Obama, congressional dumbocrats are the real reason that these deals are being done in secret, The president does not have any control over the process.

That may or may not be true. I am not as up on the inner workings of Washington like some folks, so I can't say for sure. But what I can say is that White House sure isn't pushing for wall to wall coverage on C-SPAN. I am sorry, I must be missing something, but what the hell do these lawmakers think will happen if folks see how the "sausage is being made"? This is A-merry-ca, damn it! I didn't like secrecy with the frat boy, and having my man in the beige house doesn't change how I feel about that.

Oh, and before I go, I want to thank Glen Beck for finally settling this little name issue for us black folks. Apparently he doesn't like the term African American, either.

"African-American is a bogus, PC, made-up term. I mean, that's not a race"

Obama, my love meter for you just went back up a few notches. Why? Because " The enemy of my enemy is my friend. "

*Pic taken from the Rosetta Sister blog.