Photo courtesy of the FBI

Recently, Truthout revealed the FBI’s practice of “blackballing” files that were requested via a Freedom of Information Act Request. According to Truthout, “blackballing” refers to a practice by FBI’s FOIA analysts in which they find documents responsive to a request, but for reasons unknown, they determine them to be unresponsive and “blackball” the records, issuing a “no records” response to the request.

Now that this practice has been revealed, how can researchers avoid getting records “blackballed’ by the FBI?

A researcher can avoid being “blackballed” by making their FOIA request very specific. This means including all relevant information relating to their request: names, dates, facts, etc. Truthout reported that some requests were “blackballed” because the files did not match the “specific request.”

A researcher should also use the FBI FOIA classification codes to ask for the files they are seeking and be very specific about the types of files they are seeking. Truthout reported that a FOIA request to the FBI regarding “blackballing” returned powerpoint slides that said that files identified as 190 (Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts) and 197 (Civil Litigation) “main files” are “blackballed” unless “specifically asked for” by the requestor when the initial FOIA is submitted.

A researcher should also be aware that FBI “control files”, files that are “used as an administrative means of managing, or ‘controlling’ a certain program or investigate matter,” are likely to be “blackballed” However, Truthout noted that a FOIA analyst must get permission from a supervisor before “control files” can be “blackballed,” so there is still a slight chance you may get the files.

Read more about FBI “Blackballing” on Truthout: http://www.truth-out.org/revealed-fbis-secretive-practice-blackballing-files/1326811421

Researchers should be on the lookout next fall for the launch of a comprehensive federal Freedom of Information Act portal — a single location where public records requests can be submitted to multiple governmental agencies.

The portal could end some of the biggest hurdles to submitting FOIA requests. A single website would mean, most obviously, no more hunting down the correct agency/division to submit a request to. In the current system, this information can be tediously hard to find.

In addition, the portal will utilize electronic records — meaning (hopefully) a significantly reduced lag time in receiving requested materials. And, less scanning.

The project is a joint venture between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Commerce, and the National Archives and Records Administration. You can read the National Archives blog post about the portal here.

“The devil is in the details.” Pithy, but true. Details can be uncooperative things — to candidates, companies and governmental agencies. That’s obvious. Less obvious, however, is that stringent laws protecting public access to the details of government decision making are an essential check on government power and official misconduct.

Take this case: Police use tear gas on ‘Occupy’ protesters as they attempt to reestablish an encampment near City Hall in late October. The police response that appeared the following day read pretty standard: The officers needed to protect themselves from the onslaught of bottles, rocks, and firecrackers that were being volleyed at them from the angry crowd.

Acting Police Chief Howard Jordan told reporters at a late night news conference that authorities had no other choice, saying the protesters were throwing rocks and bottles at officers.
“We had to deploy gas to stop the crowd,” he said, according to a KCBS report.

Then the Associated Press submitted a request for public records from the Oakland Police Department.

The records revealed an ugly fact — the Oakland police department had OK’d the use of tear gas prior to the raid, and the mayor was in the dark about the whole thing. Police categorized the use of tear gas as a “tactical or operational decision” – something that didn’t require any outside authorization.

The new information will no doubt further shift the narrative from rowdy protestors to concerns regarding police oversight. It probed at the very nature of police intervention relating to ‘Occupy’ and elsewhere. Public records laws made this story possible and hopefully will mean improved police policies in Oakland and elsewhere.

It is no secret that we hate email attachments and, consequently, we love things that make it easy for us to avoid them. Box.net powers our secure online collaboration features and they recently highlighted just a couple of the reasons email attachments suck. In the opposition research world speed is key and email attachments are slow, insecure and unreliable.

3 Reasons to Ditch Email Attachments The Box Blog

Though attachments are often inconvenient, outdated and clunky, many of us still use them to send files to coworkers and friends. It’s an old habit that’s tough to break, despite the fact that better file-sharing solutions exist. If you’re still sending files the old-fashioned way, here are 3 big reasons to reconsider attaching that document: Size limitations While the maximum attachment size differs from service to service, it’s rare for…

See their full post for more. [The Box Blog - Read about new features, interviews and more]

As he did last year, President Obama has again demonstrated that he may be one of the brightest minds in basketball since Dr. James Naismith by selecting Kansas to win it all. The President correctly noted “I’m picking Kansas, just because I think they’re deeper…I think that Kansas has more firepower [than Ohio State].” You can check out his full bracket here.

Nesbitt Research is proud to congratulate Kendrick Meek on his primary victory today.  This contest has been wilder than a trip to the Black Sea on Jeff Greene’s party boat with Mike Tyson and Lindsey Lohan.  Kendrick will now face two life-long Republicans, both with deep ties to the corruption and scandal of the Republican Party of Florida.  We look forward to a spirited campaign from Kendrick’s exceptional team.

- Nesbitt Research

Nesbitt Research is proud to congratulate Virg Bernero on his primary victory in Michigan’s gubernatorial race.  He has a great team and they have been a blast to work with.  It is sure to be a spirited general and we can’t wait.

- Allen

No question. I mean, look at this bracket. KU vs K-State in the final four? Nuf said. Smartest POTUS ever.

In the last couple days, Virginia Del. Bob Marshall has come under fire for specific assertions, as reported by the News-Leader in print and audio, that women who had abortions were punished by God with subsequent children who were disabled.  Marshall stated, “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.”

This is not the first time that Marshall has suggested that women who have abortions will face complications in later pregnancies.  In his 1991 book “Blessed are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood,” Marshall suggested that, despite studies indicating otherwise, when a woman has an abortion it increases the likelihood that subsequent pregnancies will result in complications.  Marshall sets up a straw man using a American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) white paper on the safety of legal abortions that details a 1989 study conducted by Planned Parenthood that found, “there was no loss of fertility” in the women who received the 170,000 abortions they examined in the study.  Marshall disagreed, stating, “This is an interesting assertion,” since the study failed to follow up with all 170,000 women initially examined.  Marshall further claims that:

Planned Parenthood’s follow-up procedures are limited to immediate or short-term postabortion [sic] complications, and they do not include verifying postabortion childbearing capabilities,  Moreover, a majority of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clients accept contraception that is offered as part of the abortion service.  How was their return to fertility verified?

…Did the “no loss of fertility” simply mean the return of menstruation or did it mean successful childbirth?  [Blessed are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood, Robert G. Marshall, p. 199-200, 1991]

For Marshall now to claim that he was taken out of context appears disingenuous at best given the fact that while he hadn’t spelled it out before, Marshall has for years suggested that abortions lead to future pregnancy complications.

There’s a petition urging Marshall to resign which you can sign here.

It’s officially the most snow in the District of Columbia since they started counting. That’s 126 years. If you’re counting, Chester A. Aurthur was president and on November 4, 1884, “Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.”

Via – DCist

As the snow totals have been steadily piling up, we’ve all been thinking that we can’t remember ever seeing this much snow in D.C. before. Well, now it’s official: no one has seen this much snow in D.C., at least not since Pat Collins‘ great-great-granddad started sticking yardsticks in area snowpacks back in 1884. As of 2:00 this afternoon, the National Weather Service is reporting that this is indeed the snowiest winter in recorded history for D.C., Baltimore, and Dulles.