One of my all-time favorite headlines: "Obama Transparency Award given in secret"

That has to be one of the more Orwellian headlines I've ever heard of. The reason it was given in secret?

If the ceremony had been open to the press, it is likely that reporters would have questioned the organizations' proffered justification for the award

The link provided will navigate you to an open letter demanding that the "Transparency Award" be rescinded. It is signed by numerous individual whistleblowers and organizations.

I'm sure quite a few of you won't go to the site, so I'll run off a few of the 13(!) reasons the letter gives for rescinding the award:

1. President Obama has not decreased but has dramatically increased governmental secrecy!
2. There were 544,360 requests for information last year under the Freedom of Information Act to the 35 biggest federal agencies -- 41,000 requests more than the year before. Yet the bureaucracy responded to 12,400 fewer requests than the prior year, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.
3. Ignoring his campaign promise to protect government whistleblowers, Obama’s presidency has amassed the worst record in US history for persecuting, prosecuting, and jailing government whistleblowers and truth-tellers.
4. President Obama has initiated a secret assassination program, has publicly announced that he has given himself the power to include Americans on the list of people to be assassinated, and has attempted to assassinate at least one, Anwar al-Aulaqi.
5. The Obama Administration is also busy going after reporters to discover their sources and convening grand juries in order to target journalists and news publishers.

If you're interested in the entire list clink on the link. This is a chance for you to add your voice to try to stem the tide of civil rights violations by our government by signing the letter.