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Banned
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Originally Posted by Elphaba
.....GW has also prevented the release of his father's papers by executive order. There has also been sufficient time to data mine all of the documents taken from Iraq for "troublesome" information.
This cesspool reaches back to Reagan at least. Where will the political will come from to pursue these crimes? The bastards just might get away with it.
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Quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html
.....In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend - but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. <h3>"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."....</h3>
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<b>Don't have access to NY Times "select" ??? You're in luck...the "reality" is that the above article, is available here, too:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/101704A.shtml
</b>
....only the beginning....only just the start....if they want our "trust", they'll have to earn it....some folks just want to give it to them, unconditionally, because why would they "lie"????
<b>Links to source of every point in the following article are available at the tpmmuckraker link displayed at the top of the following quote box:</b>
Quote:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002175.php
Bush Admin: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt Us
By Paul Kiel - December 18, 2006, 11:46 AM
Just how many different ways has the Bush Administration tried to hide once-public information sources from the public record? Help us count the ways.
On Friday, Justin <a href="http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002169.php">discovered</a> that the Department of Defense has suddenly classified the numbers of attacks in Iraq for September through November of this year -- after providing the figures for every month since the war began. Why classify the information now? If there's a good explanation, we don't know it, and the Pentagon isn't returning our calls.
As others have noted, it's far from the first time that the administration has tried to deep-six data that was unhelpful to its goals. Over the years, they've discontinued annual reports, classified normally public data, de-funded studies, quieted underlings, and generally done whatever was necessary to keep bad information under wraps.
Wouldn't it be great to have all those examples in one place? Thankfully, Steve Benen at the Carpetbagger Report has <a href="http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9364.html">started us off</a> on that goal. But we're pretty confident there are more examples, so please use the comments to make suggestions, and we'll update the list as we verify the specifics. Please, include links where possible.
Here's Steve's <a href="http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9364.html">list:......</a>
........Our list continues, after the jump.
Update:
* The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has to date failed to produce a congressionally-mandated report on climate change that was due in 2004. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has called the failure an "obfuscation."
* The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced plans to close several libraries which were used by researchers and scientists. The agency called its decision a cost-cutting measure, but a 2004 report showed that the facilities actually brought the EPA a $7.5 million surplus annually. (Thanks to Mark B. below.)
* On November 1st, 2001, President Bush issued an executive order limiting the public's access to presidential records. The order undermined the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which required the release of those records after 12 years. Bush's order prevented the release of "68,000 pages of confidential communications between President Ronald Reagan and his advisers," some of whom had positions in the Bush Administration. More here. (Thanks to Roger A. and nitpicker below.) Update: TPMm Reader JP writes in to point out that Bush did the same thing with his papers from the Texas governorship.
* A rule change at the U.S. Geological Survey restricts agency scientists from publishing or discussing research without that information first being screened by higher-ups at the agency. Special screening will be given to "findings or data that may be especially newsworthy, have an impact on government policy, or contradict previous public understanding to ensure that proper officials are notified and that communication strategies are developed." The scientists at the USGS cover such controversial topics as global warming. Before, studies were released after an anonymous peer review of the research. (Thanks to Alison below.)
* A new policy at the The U.S. Forest Service means the agency no longer will generate environmental impact statements for "its long-term plans for America's national forests and grasslands." It also "no longer will allow the public to appeal on long-term plans for those forests, but instead will invite participation in planning from the outset." (Thanks to libra below.)
* In March 2006, the Department of Health and Human Services took down a six-year-old Web site devoted to substance abuse and treatment information for gays and lesbians, after members of the conservative Family Research Council complained.
* In 2002, HHS removed information from its Web site pertaining to risky sexual behavior among adolescents, condom use and HIV.
* Also in 2002, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission removed from its Web site a document showing that officials found large gaps in a portion of an aging Montana dam. A FERC official said the deletion was for "national security."
* In 2004, the FBI attempted to retroactively classify public information regarding the case of bureau whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, including a series of letters between the Justice Department and several senators.
* In October 2003, the Bush administration banned photographs depicting servicemembers' coffins returning from overseas.
* In December 2002, the administration curtailed funding to the Mass-Layoffs Statistics program, which released monthly data on the number and size of layoffs by U.S. companies. His father attempted to kill the same program in 1992, but Clinton revived it when he assumed the presidency.
* In 2004, the Internal Revenue Service stopped providing data demonstrating the level of its job performance. In 2006, a judge forced the IRS to provide the information.
* Also in 2004, the Federal Communications Commission blocked access to a once-public database of network outages affecting telecommunications service providers. The FCC removed public copies and exempted the information from Freedom of Information Act requests, saying it would "jeopardize national security efforts." Experts ridiculed that notion.
* In 2002, Bush officials intervened to derail the publication of an EPA report on mercury and children's health, which contradicted the administration's position on lowering regulations on certain power plants. The report was eventually leaked by a "frustrated EPA official."
* In 2003, the EPA bowed to White House pressure and deleted the global warming section in its annual "Report on the Environment." The move drew condemnations from Democrats and Republicans alike.
* Also in 2003, the EPA withheld for months key findings from an air pollution report that undercut the White House's "Clear Skies" initiative. Leaked copies were reported in the Washington Post.
* For more than a year, the Interior Department refused to release a 2005 study showing a government subsidy for oil companies was not effective.
* The White House Office of National Drug Policy paid for a 5-year, $43 million study which concluded their anti-drug ad campaigns did not work -- but it refused to release those findings to Congress. (Thanks to skeptic below.)
* In 2006, the Federal Communications Commission ordered destroyed all copies of an unreleased 2004 draft report concluding that media consolidation hurt local TV news coverage, which runs counter to the administration's pro-consolidation stance. (Thanks to Jim Tobias below.)
* After Bush assumed power in 2001, the Department of Labor removed from its Web site "Don't Work in the Dark -- Know Your Rights," a publication informing women of their workplace rights. (via the National Council for Research on Women)
* The Department of Labor also removed from its Web site roughly two dozen fact sheets on women's workplace issues such as women in management, earning differences between men and women, child care concerns, and minority women in the workplace. (via the National Council for Research on Women)
* In February 2004, the appointed head of the Office of Special Counsel -- created to protect government employees' rights -- ordered removed from a government Web site information on the rights of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in the public workplace. (via the National Council for Research on Women)
* In early 2001, the Treasury Department stopped producing reports showing how the benefits of tax cuts were distributed by income class. (via the Tax Policy Center, from Paul Krugman)
* In 2006, as a number of groups sought records of visits by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates to the White House, the administration quietly made an agreement with the Secret Service, making sure that White House visitor records would no longer be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Comments:
Well, there is the closing of the EPA libraires.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cf...19&ref=rellink ....
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<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/14/laura-bush-iraq/">Laura Bush Slams Media For Ignoring Good News In Iraq</a>
....but Laura....how do you explain "stuff" ??, like this:
Quote:
www.juancole.com
<a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq_Jamil_Hussein.html">The Associated Press has been vindicated in having reported on an incident of sectarian violence</a> based on an interview with Jamil Hussein. <b>The Iraqi government initially denied he existed, and the US military put pressure on AP to retract.</b> Now it turns out he does exist but will be punished for speaking to the press!....
<a href="http://www.bl.uk/iraqdiary.html">......The diary of the last two months</a> in the life of the director of the Iraqi National Library and Archives. It is harrowing....
posted by Juan @ 1/05/2007
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Quote:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP...11/lkl.00.html
CNN LARRY KING LIVE
Panel of Christians Speaks Out on War With Iraq
Aired March 11, 2003 - 21:00 ET
KING: So you would see going to war in Iraq as, under your concept, justifiable?
LUCADO: I would see that this is a decision that really can only be made by those in authority and we have to trust their decision and rely on their character and pray earnestly for them that God would lead them in the right direction.
KING: Do you have a personal opinion?
LUCADO: I do have a personal opinion about trusting those in authority. I feel like the president has done several things to earn our trust. And I don't see men like General Franks as men who are war mongers.
They have, I think, demonstrated themselves as men who have pursued peace especially over the last 12 years. And if we engage in this battle, it will be because they are convinced it is the last alternative.....
<b>....LUCADO: Why would the administration lie to us?</b>
I would agree if the administration is misleading us that this would be an inappropriate action. I haven't seen anything myself. <b>I'm not privy to any inside information but you have to trust somebody......</b><right><img src="http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/customprofilepics/profilepic53414_1.gif" height=100 width =120></right>
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Last edited by host; 01-07-2007 at 04:57 PM..
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