The American Spectator

MEMO FOR THE MOVEMENT

www.Wikicountability.org can be a useful tool for Conservatives

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

RE: The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a powerful tool which conservative organizations should use more often. FOIA is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States Government. FOIA allows groups or individuals to request information of interest that may not otherwise have come to light, such as internal Administration correspondence, rulemaking procedures, cost benefit analyses, and other beneficial documents. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statute. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966.

ISSUE-in-BRIEF:

www.Wikicountability.org -established by Crossroads GPS-is a repository for FOIA requests and other legally obtained official documents. This wiki is community contributed and community edited. The site was founded for the purpose of publicly sharing information obtained through FOIA and other important reports, documents and analyses.

One benefit of contributing to and using the wiki is the ability to “crowdsource” analysis of documents received. If several groups are analyzing the same document, each may take away an important message based on specialty area. By combining these efforts, all documents can be fully vetted, and therefore more useful to the movement as a whole.

Crossroads GPS is dedicated to the belief that most Americans don’t support the big-government agenda being forced upon them by Washington-and that most people, if equipped with the facts and a road map for action will work to restore the core principles and values on which this country was founded. FOIA and Wikicountability allow for the acquisition and consolidation of those facts.

The ‘most transparent administration in history’?

* Crossroads GPS Transparency Accountability page tracks how the Obama administration is adhering to its pledge to be the most transparent in history.

* Crossroads GPS Obama Administration FOIA Violations page tracks requests that have not been answered in 20 working days, the requisite timeline for responses.

According to the Politico
(http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51796.html) Crossroads GPS wiki has
exposed:

- The Andy Griffith ad promoting Obamacare last year cost taxpayers
$3.66 million - including $404,000 in production

- Labor Secretary Hilda Solis met with union bosses or attended their
events on more than 40 separate occasions from February 2009-January
2010.

- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head Elizabeth Warren made time
for dinner with liberal journalists including American Prospect’s Bob
Kuttner, Mother Jones’s David Corn and DailyKos.com’s Markos
Moulitsas.

And their current efforts involve the release of discussions about
health care waivers for ObamaCare.

CITIZENS CAN TAKE THEIR OWN INITIATIVE IN PURSUING FOIA’s

Individuals are able to submit FOIA results to wikis or host their
own. The software is available for download at
http://www.mediawiki.org and requires a mySQL database.

A FOIA request can be made for any agency record. You can also specify
the format in which you wish to receive the records. You should be
aware that the FOIA does not require agencies to do research for you,
to analyze data, to answer written questions, or to create records in
response to a request. And WIKIs are perfect outlets for raw data.

Find the contact information to send the FOIA request to here:
http://www.foia.gov/report-makerequest.html

Here is a video about how to file a proper FOIA and how long the
response should take: http://www.foia.gov/how-to.html

Sometimes a FOIA request requires fees for duplication of records, and
it is wise to ask for a list of costs in your request. There is
usually no charge for the first two hours of search time or for the
first 100 pages of duplication.

FOCUS ON FOIA’s AT STATE LEVEL

The State Policy Network’s www.spn.org think tanks also have been involved in wiki
work. Also, the most comprehensive of state level FOIAs on a wiki is
from the Sam Adams Alliance (SAA): http://sunshinereview.com SAA
also offers detailed wiki training seminars, which are live and
available for free over the internet.

CONSERVATIVE ACTION PROJECT

James Martin, Chairman, 60 Plus Association

Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com

Ken Boehm, Chairman, National Legal & Policy Center

Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform

Karen Kerrigan, President, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

Duane Parde, President, National Taxpayers Union

Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council

David Williams, President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Brent Bozell, President, Media Research Center

Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring

Andrea Lafferty, President, Traditional Values Coalition

James Miller III, former Reagan Budget Director

Edwin Meese III, former Attorney General

Becky Norton Dunlop, former senior official to President Reagan

Cliff May, former RNC Communications Director

Susan Carleson, Chairman & CEO, American Civil Rights Union

Howard Phillips, Chairman, The Conservative Caucus

Alfred Regnery, Publisher, American Spectator

Rev. Lou Sheldon, Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition

Marion Edwyn Harrison, Past President, Free Congress Foundation

(Organizations listed for identification purposes only.)FOR MORE INFORMATION ON FOIA’S AND

CROSSROADS GPS WIKICOUNTABILITY PLEASE VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES:

About Wikicountability: http://wikicountability.org/index.php?title=Wikicountability:About

The New York Times, A Wiki Takes an Aim at Obama: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/business/media/04link.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0811/Judge_White_House_visitor_records_subject_to_FOIA.html

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATISM VISIT: WWW.THEMOUNTVERNONSTATEMENT.COM