First it’s important to note that Tony Russell is in deed selective about what comments are posted on iCommandant. Respectful or not, he will not post any questions that put the Commandant in the awkward position of answering a tough question any given topic.

Second, Russell and the Allen are both very selective in who they are willing speak with in the Blogosphere. If the Blog is not viewed as “a friendly,” they will ignore you. That transparency is not in keeping with President Obama’s policy on transparency in government.

Russell and Allen determined that our Blog was unfriendly due to our reporting on serious issues with Coast Guards Civil Rights Office and programs. Coast Guard went to the trouble of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax payer money to prove that a Blogger was mean.

Coast Guard commissioned and contracted for a Functional Review of its Office of Civil Rights from the firm Booz Allen Hamilton. The letter from Coast Guard to DHS requesting the review asked that the impact of a Blog’s negative reporting on this office be review in addition to process of the office over the past 5 years.

When the Booz Allen Report was published, it took only one day for the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Transportation to fire off a curtly worded letter to the Commandant. Congressman Elijah Cummings then held a Hearing on 1 April 2009 in which he stated that “a Blog didn’t tell us anything we didn’t learn from previous reports over the past decade.”

Cummings went on to say “Put simply, the picture that emerges from the {Booz Allen} reports available to us shows that despite knowing that its equal opportunity programs did not ensure full compliance with U.S. law and regulations, the Coast Guard has taken little to no action to ensure full compliance.”

Transparency is not evident in the daily operation of the Commandant’s Blog.