frog

http://tinyurl.com/jw96

The law that provided for special counsels has expired.
President Bush's fellow Republicans control both houses of
Congress. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm
of Congress, has stepped back from challenging the White House
after losing a court case that sought to open the records of
Vice President Cheney's energy task force.

The result: The White House is better able to control
information and prevent a nagging controversy from becoming a
full-blown crisis. It's harder for Democrats to demand answers
and easier for administration officials to dismiss their charges
as political posturing. And Bush faces less of the daily barrage
that prompted President Clinton to set up a parallel press
operation for investigative inquiries and made Clinton's White
House seem at times like an embattled enclave.

"It's made an enormous difference and it's helped Bush in
governing," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist who studied
the pursuit of Washington scandals during the Clinton years.
"When a president is seen as besieged and entangled in
controversy, he really can't get very much done. But when a
president commands the central institutions of American politics
and has few institutional checks, he can range more widely and
hover above the fray."

a.d.2003

America has become a Stalinist state, where information about public
officials is kept private and confidential, but where information
about private citizens and entities is readily available to those
"serving the public interest".


A.D.

SOME QUOTES ON GOVERNMENT SECRECY

"Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice;
nothing is safe that does not show it can bear discussion and
publicity."
--Lord Acton

"A popular government, without popular information, or the means of
acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps
both."
--James Madison

"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when
the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."
--Patrick Henry, American colonial revolutionary

"I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information
is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if
officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then
publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless."
--Sissela Bok, Swedish philosopher, 1982

"Government ought to be all outside and no inside. . . . Everybody
knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public
places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means
impropriety."
--Woodrow Wilson

"Secrecy is for losers. . . . It is time to dismantle government
secrecy, this most persuasive of Cold War-era regulations. It is time
to begin building the supports for the era of openness that is already
upon us."
--Senator Patrick Moynihan, Secrecy: The American Experience, 1998

"The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy; the best weapon of a
democracy is openness."
--Edvard Teller

barbara walker

A truly laughable claim, given all the Democrats in these newsgroups how
claiming to have information that President Bush "was AWOL" back in the
National Guard. Can't get much more "public official" than the President,
Honey.

Demmie posters hoist themselves on their own petard, once again.......

martin chill

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Predictably, the parties disagree on whether this a good thing.


"When the Republicans ran the Congress and Clinton was in the White House,
there was no accusation too small for them to pursue," says California Rep.
Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), the senior Democrat on the House
Government Reform Committee (news - web sites). "Now that President Bush is
in power, there's no scandal so large that they have any interest in
examining it."


He says he'd like to have hearings on the no-bid contract awarded to
Halliburton, Cheney's former company, to rebuild oilfields in Iraq (news -
web sites), for example.


But White House spokesman Scott McClellan says Bush has delivered on his
campaign promise to "change the tone" in Washington."

he changed the tone alright - and as a recording engineer, i can offer a
professional opinion - it sounds like shit, now.


old saying in the music business - "turn down the **** knob!"

chilly


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martin chill

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http://opengov.media.mit.edu/

"It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the
masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does
not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
Giordano Bruno


"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's
character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln


"He who strikes terror into others is himself in continual fear." Claudian


"A fool is very dangerous when in power." Denis Fonvizin


"A politician will do anything to keep his job - even become a patriot."
William Randolph Hearst

"Welcome my son, welcome to the machine. What did you dream? It's alright,
we told you what to dream." Roger Waters

chilly

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a.d.2003

Nice quotes.

I've got a collection of my favorites going, so keep 'em coming. :^)

A.D.

martin chill

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my favorite?

"**** all y'all" ice cube

lol!

chilly


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a.d.2003

Hey, now...I hope you're not including me in that...

"I say it once again
I'm called the enemy - i'll never be a friend
Of those with closed minds

"Cia fbi
All they tell us is lies
And when i say it they get alarmed
'cause i'm louder than a bomb"
--Chuck D

martin chill

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lmao! no not you bud.


You got it...what it takes
Go get it...where you want it?
Come get it...get involved
'Cause the brothers in the street are willing to work it out

chilly - skinny white guy


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