Saturday, October 24, 2009

The White House Doesn't Want Us To Know What His Czars Do

White House to Keep Obama’s ‘Czars’ from Testifying Before Congress
Among the czars Congress wanted information on:

-- Energy and Environment Czar Carol Browner (whose official title is Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change)

-- Health Czar Nancy Ann DeParle (Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform)

-- International Climate Czar Todd Stern (Special Envoy for Climate Change)

-- Guantanamo Closure Czar Daniel Fried (Special Envoy to Oversee the Closure of the Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay)

-- Urban Affairs Czar Adolfo Carrion Jr. (White House Director of Urban Affairs);

-- Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg (Special Master on Executive Pay)

-- Afghanistan Czar Richard Holbrooke (Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan)

-- Auto Recovery Czar Ed Montgomery (Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers)

-- Car Czar (Manufacturing Policy) Ron Bloom (Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury)

-- Domestic Violence Czar Lynn Rosenthal (White House Advisor on Violence Against Women)

-- Economic Czar Paul Volcker (Chairman of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board)

-- Senior Director for Information Sharing Policy Mike Resnick

-- WMD Policy Czar Gary Samore (White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control)

-- Great Lakes Czar Cameron Davis (Special advisor to the U.S. EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan)

-- Central Region Czar Dennis Ross

-- Border Czar Alan Bersin (Special Representative for Border Affairs and Assistant Secretary of State for International Affairs)

Two of the positions – the Green Jobs Czar and the Cybersecurity Czar -- are unfilled. Van Jones, who was first appointed to the Green Jobs post, resigned recently under fire.

Remember when Barack Obama promised transparency and open government?