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Bush Admin: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt Us, 2007 Version
Another year has almost passed under the Bush Administration, and so it's time to review how much less we know.
Last year, we launched the insanely ambitious project of recording every significant instance of this administration stifling government information. As we said then, "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." To be sure, the list will continue to grow through January, 2008.
TPMm research hounds Adrianne Jeffries and Peter Sheehy set to updating our already extensive tally, and those items have been added below (don't miss our new section on global warming!). But TPMm readers made the list what it is, so if you see something else that should be on there, let us know, and we'll update it accordingly.
So, without further ado, the list! Some notable additions:
* Does the intelligence community disagree with the administration's take on Iraq, Iran, or al Qaeda? Don't expect to hear about it. In October 2007, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell reversed the practice of declassifying and releasing summaries of national intelligence estimates.
* In July 2007, Richard Carmona, President Bush’s first Surgeon General from 2002-2006, testified to Congress that when he attempted to speak publicly about stem cell research, he was “blocked at every turn, told a decision had already been made, stand down, don’t talk about it.” He also testified that political appointees vetted his speeches “in such a way that would be preferable to a political or ideologically pre-conceived notion that had nothing to do with science.” Carmona was precluded from speaking openly with reporters.
* On June 2007, the New York Times reported that Dick Cheney's resistance to "routine oversight of his office’s handling of classified information" is so intense that he has "suggested abolishing" the National Archives unit that monitors classification in the executive branch. Because Cheney has repeatedly refused "to comply with a routine annual request from the archives for data on his staff’s classification," "the Information Security Oversight Office, a unit of the National Archives, [has] appealed the issue to the Justice Department, which has not yet ruled on the matter." In a related effort to prevent the release of information about his office, Cheney has also instructed the Secret Service to destroy copies of visitor logs.
Global warming:
* 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."
* 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.
* 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.
* In October 2007, the administration deleted the Congressional testimony of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The director’s report on the negative health implications of climate change was, according to a CDC source, “eviscerated.”
* A January 2007 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, UCS, and the Government Accountability Project, GAP, "found that nearly half the 279 climate scientists who responded to a survey reported being pressured to delete references to ‘global warming’ or ‘climate change’ from scientific papers or reports and many said they were prevented from talking to the media or had their work edited.”
* On February 7, 2007, Rick Piltz (who resigned his position with the Climate Change Science Program, CCSP in 2005 in protest of White House interference with climate science and now directs the Government Accountability Project (GAP's) Climate Science Watch) testified before the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that “the Administration suppressed official use of the National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts and has failed to continue the National Assessment process” and “the Administration has acted in a variety of ways to impede and manipulate communication about climate change by federal scientists and career science program leaders to wider audiences, including Congress and the media.”
* In 2003, the administration had Phillip Cooney, a petroleum lobbyist who at the time was the chief of staff for the Council on Environmental Quality, edit an Environmental Protection Agency report “to eliminate a reference that human activities were causing global temperatures to rise and weakened language on the consequences of climate change - the edits prompted EPA officials to delete the entire climate change section from report.” In March 20, 2007 Phillip Cooney testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about his extensive edits to environmental reports over the past several years. The committee report showed "hundreds of instances" of edits that tempered information of the destructive impact of global warming.
It was actually a short list of disappeared items that TPM contributor Steven Benen put together over at his Carpetbagger Report that got us going on this project. Here are those entries:
* In March of 2006, the administration announced it would no longer produce the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, which identifies which programs best assist low-income families, while also tracking health insurance coverage and child support.
* In 2005, after a government report showed an increase in terrorism around the world, the administration announced it would stop publishing its annual report on international terrorism.
* After the Bureau of Labor Statistics uncovered discouraging data about factory closings in the U.S., the administration announced it would stop publishing information about factory closings.
* When an annual report called “Budget Information for States” showed the federal government shortchanging states in the midst of fiscal crises, Bush’s Office of Management and Budget announced it was discontinuing the report, which some said was the only source for comprehensive data on state funding from the federal government.
* When Bush’s Department of Education found that charter schools were underperforming, the administration said it would sharply cut back on the information it collects about charter schools.
And much, much more:
* The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 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.
* 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. Bush did the same thing with his papers from the Texas governorship.
* 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."
* 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."
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* On October 19, 2007, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a "final rule" that thwarts "public access to early warning information about motor vehicle safety hazards." According to Public Citizen, "today's final rule restricts public access to much of the 'early warning data' submitted by the auto and tire industry under the 2000 Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act (TREAD Act) to assist in the early identification of motor vehicle safety defects."
* On November 2007, a U.S. District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the White House from destroying back-up copies of millions of e-mails deleted (the White House says accidentally) between March 2003 and October 2005.
* On May 23, 2007, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) "sued the Department of Education for violating the Federal Records Act (FRA) by failing to preserve copies of emails of official Education business sent by agency employees through the use of non-governmental email accounts."
Comments (64)
TomJ wrote on November 23, 2007 1:41 PM:In 2004, Bush said that, if re-elected, he and Cheney would restore honor and dignity to the White House. Thank God that's been done.
the truth will out wrote on November 23, 2007 1:52 PM:I always wondered about bush's face in that photo.
But now it's clear... the guy is constipated.
Letting go.. will help, georgie! let go ... of the info...
Mafalda Hopkirk wrote on November 23, 2007 1:56 PM:Waterboarding is said to "loosen the bowels."
Paranoid yet? wrote on November 23, 2007 2:00 PM:I thought they were supposed to restore honor and dignity in 2001.
But apparently, when we do get the "goods," it's gonna be a pile of stinking manure.
BrewhouseBob wrote on November 23, 2007 2:49 PM:The truth will come out. When these criminals are no longer in office the truth will come out... and we'll be shocked to learn just what they've done. Our Senators and our Representatives let this happen on their watch. Through complacency and complicity they've enabled and emboldened these thugs. Make no mistake, they've all played their part in this. My representatives and yours... they are all guilty. They've failed to uphold their oath to protect the Constitution. Now we ALL need to do our part. Do not send a single one of these people back to Washington. Go to the polls. Encourage your family, friends and neighbors to vote. And for the sake of this country do not vote for any incumbent.
fedhallofshame_com wrote on November 23, 2007 2:55 PM:Thanks for info on the Department of Labor redacting: "Don't Work in the Dark -- Know Your Rights," a publication informing women of their workplace rights.
I'm blogging about a sexual harassment complaint against DOL and everything critical has been documented in writing.
(I'm pretty sure I'll still lose this federal employee battle, but it will be fun to watch DOL publicly argue that escort services were "other duties as assigned," and that no supervision was necessary for an out-of-control man.)
Keep up the fight for transparency everyone!
A few patriots remain wrote on November 23, 2007 2:55 PM:There are a few who deserve to be returned to office.
Russ Feingold for sure. He voted against the Patriot Act. Voted against authorizing the prez to go to war, I believe. Has voted consistently for Constitutional protections. There may be others.
But yes many have been complicit. And do not deserve to serve.
brent wrote on November 23, 2007 3:04 PM:As if the last year of bush/cheney will be 2008. Don't count on an election if it looks like the dems will win. We'll have another "terrorist suprise attack" on American soil, then we'll fire on Iran, and then martial law will begin. These guys won't leave unless they know the next neocon will fill their shoes and perpetuate their aspirations to American empire.
brent wrote on November 23, 2007 3:04 PM:As if the last year of bush/cheney will be 2008. Don't count on an election if it looks like the dems will win. We'll have another "terrorist suprise attack" on American soil, then we'll fire on Iran, and then martial law will begin. These guys won't leave unless they know the next neocon will fill their shoes and perpetuate their aspirations to American empire.
brent wrote on November 23, 2007 3:06 PM:As if the last year of bush/cheney will be 2008. Ha! Don't count on an election if it looks like the dems will win. We'll have another "terrorist suprise attack" on American soil, then we'll fire on Iran, and then martial law will begin. These guys won't leave unless they know the next neocon will fill their shoes and perpetuate their aspirations to American empire. However, if you think this is far-fetched, just ask yourself, "how they been honest about anything? Do they care about the constitution or the rule of law?"
fedhallofshame_com wrote on November 23, 2007 3:14 PM:I'm certainly no fan of the Department of Labor (I can't see how even a horndog would want government to provide PRIVATE escort services on his taxpayer dollar), but I'm going to come to their defense on one issue mentioned.
QUOTE: After the Bureau of Labor Statistics uncovered discouraging data about factory closings in the U.S., the administration announced it would stop publishing information about factory closings.
The discontinuation of the series really was the result of budget constraints, and the data series known as Mass Layoff Statistics has since been reinstated. You can find it at:
http://www.bls.gov/mls
I hate what they did to me, but I can still be fair.
TJ wrote on November 23, 2007 3:44 PM:So thankful on this holiday & otherwise for many things, especially for this & similar types of Websites - since we dont have any integrity, lawfulness, or morals, (rather mostly the opposite) from this fascist infested white house & their neocon buddies!!
I sure people will not only get out & vote next time around, but will never listen to the lies & crap propaganda from a bunch like this who says they'll "restore morality to government."
TJ wrote on November 23, 2007 3:57 PM:Oh and on another note, I think the whole "MARS" expedition thing back 3 years ago (or whatever it was he barked about regarding Mars) should be added when ever there's a "list" put together on this guy... and this should be brought up continuously, imagine if a Dem had tried to get such a ridiculous thing going?!
I'd support such a crazy project if it meant sending the bush there first!!
Chasm wrote on November 23, 2007 4:13 PM:I'm beginning to wonder if the target of all these quashed reports and checks on oversight agencies is not the public, but actually the President. Chimperer is waiting for all these studies to come in to tell him global warming is a crisis, but, hmm, they never seem to cross his desk. Cheaney could care less about what we know and how it appears, and to Bush it just seems like less paperwork and more time for biking.
DemandTruth wrote on November 23, 2007 4:34 PM:What's that good ole talking point of the Radical Republican Regressive Right again?
IF YOU'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE!!
Hmm.
OxyCon wrote on November 23, 2007 4:45 PM:When you're the frontman for a dishonest, willfully ignorant ideology like Bush is, you have to craft a phony veneer and conceal the truth, lest your house of cards will come tumbling down...and it is tumbling down.
"We would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling bloggers" - Karl Rove
Matt in Costa Rica wrote on November 23, 2007 5:09 PM:You guys rock! Good work and thank God Almighty for blogs.
Anonymous wrote on November 23, 2007 5:34 PM:If we survice as a republic and the history of this sorry era is written, Josh and his comrades in arms will have a couple of pages in the history books all to themselves.
Bless you magnificient bastards!
George Patton
theWalrus wrote on November 23, 2007 6:05 PM:I didn't see any blowjobs in there.
Ben wrote on November 23, 2007 7:09 PM:Too bad.....
Yea, I thought we'd be on Mars by now...
And though not directly attributable to Pres. Bush, whatever happened to PHASE II of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's review of issues related to prewar intelligence on Iraq?
parrot wrote on November 23, 2007 7:36 PM:And this is only the stuff we know we don't know about!
jeffgee wrote on November 23, 2007 7:40 PM:But Clinton lied about a BJ, therefore, they ALL lie!
Dave in ME wrote on November 23, 2007 7:54 PM:Bush and Cheney need to be waterboarded until they release all the information which rightly belongs in the public domain.
aprilrain wrote on November 23, 2007 9:36 PM:There's a theory afloat that it was Bush41 who called in favors from the Supreme Court friendlies to get his son in office with the express purpose of making sure his own Presidential papers and earlier dirty tricks would be covered up under a slew of new laws.
Uncover a Bush criminal and you find another Bush criminal.
Zorba wrote on November 23, 2007 9:39 PM:If only the Demcrats had been as passionate in investigation of Vance Foster incidents.
Zorba wrote on November 23, 2007 9:41 PM:There's a theory afloat that it was Bush41 who called in favors from the Supreme Court friendlies to get his son in office with the express purpose of making sure his own Presidential papers and earlier dirty tricks would be covered up under a slew of new laws.
who exactly afloated this theory? do they have the agenda of themself?
Zorba wrote on November 23, 2007 9:43 PM:Sorry. part of above was to be in colorquote box, but screwed some how.
Rick wrote on November 23, 2007 10:57 PM:Great work Muckrakers. Those who assert the "incompetence" of BushCo do not get it. These guys (and girls, sorry Condi) are very competent at doing EXACTLY what their corporate handlers chose them to do before the 2000 (s)election. The above list is one indication. And the stuff they do want to share with us is mostly lies. To expand the list, how about some hidden truths about war profiteering?
aprilrain wrote on November 24, 2007 12:59 AM:Zorba-
Not sure what your question means. In any event the theory in question emerged out of a presentation on the Tom Hartmann show on Air America radio.
There's a long history of Bush41's dirty tricks which includes his stint as head of the CIA and as point-man in the Iran/Contra mess. He wants the permanent record expunged and Presidential records sealed indefinitely and with his son in office, this is now happening. And happening thoroughly.
Pasquale wrote on November 24, 2007 3:01 AM:Did they also go into why Sandy Berger was caught stealing and destroying top-secret documents out of the National Archives??
Al in Austex wrote on November 24, 2007 4:53 AM:Zorba,
Joe Monster wrote on November 24, 2007 8:39 AM:The name was Vince Foster , and many hours& much money was spent making sure it was really a suicide. And as a point in fact all the money that was spent by the Republicans to Impeach & Convict President ( twice elected ) Clinton - all that $70 MILLION PLUS that was spent only got Bubba tried but not convicted by the Senate for lying about a blowjob !
I would respectfully request Zorba that you and the other TROLLS on this & other threads ask yourselves if a Republican Congress was faced with a Democratic President that had lied about going to war & HAD DONE THE OTHER ASSERTED & SORDID ALLEGED ACTS - that this President has been accused of- would we not have had at least iMPEACHMENT hearing by now ?
And I am for throwing all the bums out that are dirty - lets start with Congressman "Cash in the Freezer " Jefferson (D) "from New Orleans.
Bush takes home 2X President Clinton's salary. He was hired as a CEO by the financial class and their media, who can push buttons and cause zombies to leave their houses and attend voting ceremonies.
He's also working hard to make hearsay and circumstance stand up in court against the rest of us, so he wants information to be Safe, Legal and Rare. But when he comes out of the White House, with any spine, we can prosecute the crap out of him, his family and everyone who's ever been kind to this freak scene.
Knowledge, turns out, IS power, which people ought not have. It makes our betters nervous.
Al in Austex makes a mistake when he asks the Republicans to identify. Do you really want them to suddenly feel imbued with goodness and light? What harm that would bring to light!
osage wrote on November 24, 2007 10:22 AM:AMERICANS ARE BEING BETRAYED BY OUR LEADERS AND THEIR COWARDLY ENABLERS FROM BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES
George W. Bush personifies the most malevolent, irredeemable and diabolic aspects of mankind. Not only is he wantonly destructive, purposefully dishonest and shamelessly unremorseful, he disgracefully defends his catastrophic decisions by hiding and perpetuating the devastating impact they have on the lives of defenseless human beings. Hundreds of thousands of innocent children, women and men, who have not harbored a harmful thought toward another human being, have been murdered, eviscerated and maimed as a direct result of George W. Bush being the president of the United States of America. And yet, his overriding priority is to prolong the inhuman carnage he has instigated, not to end it. George W. Bush is an indelibly chilling example of what man is capable of doing to his fellow man......the worst example imaginable.
IMPEACHMENT is the only means we have of stopping the devastating consequences of the unrelenting IGNORANCE, ARROGANCE, INCOMPETENCE, DISHONESTIES, INSECURITIES, HOSTILE TEMPERAMENT, VINDICTIVENESS and PRONOUNCED PSYCHOLOGICAL DEFECTS of George W. Bush. He is an intellectually and emotionally mean-spirited immature child who is destroying America's honor and integrity single-handedly. And politically correct Democrats are standing by watching as he dismantles our Constitution and rules of law creating an all powerful and self-ruling/policing ONE branch oppressive/fascist American government. No individual in our history is more deserving of CONDEMNATION and IMPEACHMENT than George W. Bush!
jhorse wrote on November 24, 2007 11:02 AM:From a systems point of view Bush's attempt to stifle information is alarming. Feedback is absolutely necessary in order determine how well programs are working or to determine problems that need to be addressed.
From a systems point of view you don't hide negative feedback but welcome it because you want to know what is not working in order to fix it.
Unfortunately, Bush and the Bushies do not think systematically. They believe in "fixing the facts around the policy". They are not part of the "reality based community" that believes that solutions emerge from a "judicious study of discernible reality".
fedhallofshame_com wrote on November 24, 2007 11:07 AM:Osage,
Impeachment isn't in the cards yet. This Administration has left me thankful for what little freedom I have, such as being able to post to this thread using my real identity and knowing that tomorrow I'll still presumably be safe at home with my husband and kids.
Shockingly, when I did decide to come out about the twisted government culture at my agency, not just one, but numerous people asked me if I was afraid for my safety; several asked if I might one day "disappear."
Interested Observer wrote on November 24, 2007 11:38 AM:You note that "On June 2007, the New York Times reported that Dick Cheney's resistance to 'routine oversight of his office’s handling of classified information' is so intense that he has 'suggested abolishing' the National Archives unit that monitors classification in the executive branch."
As far as I can tell, this blog has not mentioned that the National Archives' official in question recently announced his retirement. After December 2007, he no longer will head the information security oversight office. This isn't a secret, the Archives put out a press release on this some time ago.
Former White House official John Dean recently offered some speculation in his November 16 column on Findlaw as to the status of Presidential records. His column is worth reading but keep in mind that much of it is speculative.
I haven't seen anyone, on any political blog or in any news report, approach records and access issues with the level of sophistication these matters deserve, unfortunately. It's simplistic to scream "let everything out" or to attribute secrecy only to politicians of one party. The weakness of that approach is demonstrated by the fact that discussions of the present administration invariably draw mention of Sandy Berger.
Historical records -- their creation, preservation, what to restrict, what to disclose, and how soon to release them -- deserve to be discussed with more courage and greater insights than I've seen any political blogger display. That this appears impossible to achieve, despite the seeming good intentions of many people who write political blogs on the right and the left, actually explains a great deal about the current state of affairs with records and information.
TheraP wrote on November 24, 2007 12:09 PM:osage:
I heartily second your post. I would add only one thing. Impeachment is not enough.
The man deserves: Indictment; Trial; a Life Sentence.
MsInformed wrote on November 24, 2007 12:52 PM:Because I like alliteration:
IMPEACH*INDICT*IMPRISON
Pasquale wrote on November 24, 2007 3:28 PM:Let's see..hmmm... someone claimed $70 million spent by Starr. So let's use that figure. That's about 25c for each citizen of the USA. Best damn quarter I've ever spent. It got Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, two McDougals, and about a dozen other folks. So that quarter divided by twelve... I figure Starr cost about 2 cents per citizen. Not bad.
Doh wrote on November 24, 2007 3:52 PM:EPA also significantly reduced the requirements for reporting of releases of toxic pollutants by industry, and it appears Bush completely rescinded the requirements for federal facilities to report releases of toxic pollutants.
OMB Watch has some coverage of this, for example here, http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3729/1/241?TopicID=1
TheraP wrote on November 24, 2007 5:18 PM:MsInformed:
I love your alliteration! Perfect. Thanks.
Ky beaver wrote on November 24, 2007 7:15 PM:this list is, i believe, TPM's first mention of the Sibel Edmonds case. Dig into this more and get it out in the open.
The Oracle wrote on November 24, 2007 9:35 PM:Where there's Muck, there's Fire.
In the Clinton administration, there was hardly any Muck, no matter how the right-wingers tried to hype it.
In the Bush/Cheney mal-administration, there is nothing but Muck, with a raging right-wing Fire consuming everything in its path, including our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, honor, integrity, truth.
The contrast between the two administrations is startling, just as our nation's overall economic condition during the Clinton years (excellent) versus the Bush years (for the wealthy, of the wealthy, by the wealthy, screw the middle-class, screw the poor) is equally startling.
Your TPM Muckraker list points out the difference between our past two administrations succintly.
Your list is thorough and accurate (and just the tip of the Bush/Cheney Muck Iceberg), with evidence and documentation to back up all that is listed.
On the other hand, the right-wingers screamed Muck at the top of their lungs during the Clinton years, but we now know they were lying, making up one spurious charge after another, all for the purpose of making people believe that the Clinton administration back then was as corrupt as the Bush administration is today.
Clinton administration officials were lily-white virgins compared to the Washington whores and their Republican pimps in the Bush administration.
Which is why I enjoy checking out your site daily, because you keep track of all the Republican pimps and whores (starting with the two in the White House) who've done so much damage to our federal government, to our Constitution, to our Bill of Rights, to our military, to our country.
just joe wrote on November 24, 2007 11:27 PM:Then there's the DoJ attorney purge and caging. The Walter Reed scandal, The Plame leak. Never has there been more impeachable offenses from an Administration. There is no limit to the destruction of our democracy that Bush and co would not do. No one will stop them until we elect some true patriots who would tell our democratic centrist blue dog cowards to get the hell out of the way. Everything is broke because of this administration and I really wonder if we can make it till the end of his term before all is lost. Bush's legacy is the sinking of America.
Mark Shapiro wrote on November 25, 2007 12:16 AM:Secrecy started very early with the Cheney energy task force in February 2001. The participant list was kept secret despite lawsuits from GAO, Sierra Club, and Judicial Watch intended.
But this was a case of "The Purloined Letter" -- two critical pieces of information were hiding in plain sight.
One - the recommended policy was objectively awful. It primarily called for increasing consumption subsidies.
Two - that Cheney and Bush demanded secrecy in formulating energy policy at all, and fought for it so fiercely! Energy policy should be wide open. This was the first sign that Cheney and Bush wanted to operate an opaque administration.
Tola wrote on November 25, 2007 12:44 AM:this is all very interesting, but i will be more impressed when a similar list is published showing these same reports, and others, re-instated after the Dems take office.
that will be one of those i'll believe it when i see it. power is never given up willingly by those who seek it
Foreign media wrote on November 25, 2007 1:30 AM:For many years the State Department's Office of Research regularly published a digest of commentary in the world media on US foreign policies and initiatives. This product compiled foreign reactions of all kinds, including critical ones, and provided translated summaries of foreign language reports that would otherwise be unintelligible to the American public.
In late 2005 publication ceased, as described in the following link:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/2005/12/killing_the_messenger.html
Oddly enough, it was suppressed not long after it embarrassed Bush confidante Karen Hughes, by reporting on the response to her widely panned 'Listening Tour' of the Middle East. Its archives have been expunged from State's web site, though scattered traces remain online elsewhere:
http://rejjy.freeshell.org/Foreign_Media_Reaction/2005/wwwh100506.html
How have Bush's policies impacted America's reputation abroad? How does the US fare in the crucial battle for the world's hearts and minds? Questions to which this administration now declines to supply an answer...
JD Glass wrote on November 25, 2007 2:02 AM:It's too bad the Bush cabal will be in power until January 2009 (if not longer??). If only we had 2 more months of BushCo. left...
Michael A. Olson wrote on November 25, 2007 6:23 AM:WHY?
http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=647
Why did VP Cheney decline a golden opportunity to shoot the plane that approached the Pentagon?
According to the testimony of former Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta before the 9/11 Commission, a young officer kept on asking the Vice-President, in the bunker and in charge in President Bush's absence, whether the "orders" still stood. Cheney kept on asking the officer whether he had any reason to believe they had. Some time later, Mineta learned that the conversation referred to whether we should shoot down the plane approaching the Pentagon. Given the fact that we never shot, it appears that the order was to NOT shoot. Cheney has never apparently answered any questions on this subject.
To get the real story about the Pentagon crash, we really need to see the videotape made by a gas station camera across the street from the building. Oh yeah. It was confiscated by the FBI.
craig wrote on November 25, 2007 9:29 AM:i might've missed it (my eyes began to bleed after a while), but i didn't see where the treasury stopped releasing the M3 noted.
kathleen wrote on November 25, 2007 1:11 PM:not telling folks how much monopoly money you are printing is always a good sign of a well-managed economy...
A backed up system like that can cause cancer. All we are saying is
GIVE IMPEACHMENT A CHANCE.
Anonymous wrote on November 25, 2007 3:13 PM:Google ( Remove Pelosi ) . . .
A way to clear the road for impeachment. Put her removal on the table; and force the House to discuss this.
Use the State proclamation process to get a discussion going, and pressure the House to consider this option to make way for impeachment.
It's not an all or nothing option: Other options can also be used. Pelosi needs to know the country is serious: Either she gets with the Constitution and makes way for an investigation; or she's facing a real, credible threat of a House vote to remove her.
Make Pelosi choose: Betweeen inacdtion on impeachment; or getting removed as Speaker. Please ask your friends to discuss this option: Removing Pelosi as Speaker to make way for impeachment.
Roberta wrote on November 25, 2007 4:43 PM:To DemandTruth, who wrote on November 23, 2007 4:34 PM:
"What's that good ole talking point of the Radical Republican Regressive Right again?
"IF YOU'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE!!
"Hmm."
The talking point is now playing out as
"If there's nothing to hide, you've done nothing wrong."
If you get rid of the information itself, you're not hiding anything. It's no longer there and new information is not forthcoming.
Information truly is power, and this Administration knew this from their very first day, when they started expunging what they didn't like and discontinuing touchy reports.
I can only thank Godzilla for the Internet, and for all those wonderfully anal-retentive comrades out there who copied many of these now-defunct or deleted documents so they still have life, even if it's outside of where they belong. Let every one of these compulsives check their hard drives and put back into circulation anything the Busheneys took out.
Imagine if it were still a case of print and microfiche only? Bye bye forever, documents! This Admin apparently didn't channel Orwell well enough to get his updated scenario for controlling information in the age of the Web. At least they've been more ham-handed about this kind of thing than the elegant campaigns mounted by Rove.
Joe wrote on November 25, 2007 6:06 PM:What else would you expect from a President who was a member of the secret society called Skull and Bones? What else would you expect from a Vice President who mourns the fact that Nixon's illegal acts led to a more open government? The American people were suckered into electing them, thanks to the right-wing media machine and financing from powerful special interest groups who've been allowed to loot this country's treasury since 2001. Whoever said that crime doesn't pay never gave much thought to politics.
piggly wrote on November 25, 2007 7:19 PM:There is a dangerous idea that with new masters there will be new rules.
Don't be too sure as some of the presidential canidates already show a prediliction to secrecy
Pasquale wrote on November 26, 2007 12:40 AM:What else would you expect from a President who was a member of the secret society called Skull and Bones?
John Kerry was also a member of the Skull and Bones, so we sure lucked out there.
ChristianMTQ wrote on November 26, 2007 3:06 AM:What about the memo sent out to every government agency that has a television in its waiting area/lobby that it be turned only to Fox News with a caption underneath, DO NOT CHANGE THE CHANNEL.
Where's that memo?
Steve Elliott wrote on November 26, 2007 8:22 AM:Does anyone know what the chimp`s approval rating was the day he landed on the aircraft carrier and gave his infamous " mission accomplished" speech.
QuisCustodiet wrote on November 26, 2007 9:43 PM:Is there a really good reason why the Fed would stop publishing the M3 money supply figures? Ron Paul apparently sponsored legislation to make them start publishing it again, but it died, and now has been resurrected and sent to committee.
Publius wrote on November 27, 2007 11:32 AM:Unless a Democratic presidential candidate pledges to turn the full force of the DOJ loose on these thieves, I won't vote for her.
Anonymous wrote on December 13, 2007 11:30 AM:k']
Anonymous wrote on December 18, 2007 12:52 AM:PLEASE, someone put this idiot in jail!!
caveman420 wrote on December 18, 2007 11:35 AM:I's quite obviously true that this, so president, by presidential standards, is the stupidest pres. this country has ever had! BUT, he seems quite proud of himself for this "qualiy"!
Far and away, he's the MOST dishonest, hypocritical, thief that ever walked the earth! Furtherore he's a murderer for the hundreds of thousands of Innocent lives that his lieng and deceit have caused!!
PLEASSSSSE put his ass in jail and save a few more hundred thousand lives!
H's SOOOOO anxious to invade IRAN so he can get many more innocent killed for HIS lunacy and for USA OIL companies!
AND, he's NVER made a mistake so he says!!
He's a bonifide nut job and he's ruining a reat country! HITLER ALL OVER AGAI!!!
Why does all the underhandedness and crime surprise anyone?? It is in their DNA. Grampa Bush was able to assist the Nazi's and dig up the bones of a Native American Indian. They, the Bush's, were able to join a club where they sit around and discuss their private sex lives and piss on the aforementioned bones.
They are just rich, spoiled, emotionally immature individuals. Even the prez's wife has blood on her hands. She killed someone one on the roadway. And in good Bushy fashion, had the records wiped clean. They enjoy killing and doesn't it make sense??
Bill in Pittsburgh wrote on January 2, 2008 2:53 PM:How could they appreciate being so rich and connected if they could not enjoy the suffering of those who have less??
We are so screwed, welcome to 1929. This is where the "Greed is good" republican party has led us. Poverty and Ignorance, fear ignorance first, nothing has really changed since Charles Dickens wrote that.