Bush's not so open administration

From the very beginning da Bush and company have tried to do their dirty work in secret and hide their machinations from the public who elected them. It's worked pretty well, too.

The problem is that democracy gets lost in the dark. Democracy works much better in the sunshine.

Maybe things are changing. (Or not!) Back in 2006, CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington - a government watchdog group) sued the Department of Homeland Security after being denied access to White House visitor logs and visitor logs for Dick Cheney's home.

CREW wanted to know which "evangelical Christian leaders" visited the White House and Cheney. CREW had already identified some of the visitors, including James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer and Jerry Falwell -- all right wing extremists.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, such logs should be open and accessible. When the White House learned someone wanted them, they hid them, arguing that "Secret Service visitor logs are the property of President George W. Bush and are not subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests."

We know from past experience that da Bush and Cheney don't want the world to know what they do or who they talk to -- acting more like royal regents than elected representatives of the people. Thus Cheney stonewalled successfully for years all requests for records of his meetings with energy executives who set our energy policy; with good reason, too, for it turned out that the energy industry set the agenda, laid out the plan, and here we are - $5.00 per gallon gasoline, and a policy that lays waste the American people.

This time, the White House lost. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, rejected the Bush administration's claims, upholding a decision made last December by a U.S. District Court Judge. The case went back to the judge for his "consideration."

Unfortunately, this ruling means only that the Secret Service "most process CREW's FOIA request..."

What's expected is that the Bushites will offer additional arguments as to why they shouldn't have to open their visitor logs if for no other reason than to delay the process until Bush finally gets the hell out of Dodge.

In fact, the appeals court judges added: "it is entirely possible that the government will never have to turn over a single document."

Now, ask yourself: Has Bush and company so destroyed our form of government, our system of checks and balances that there is not way to stop him from doing whatever the hell he wants?


And you also have to ask why the White House or Cheney would care about this matter if something underhanded wasn't going on. Or maybe they are just embarrassed about giving access to the many wacko religious fruitcakes that clutter our landscape. Perhaps they think we might think they have been too influenced by creeepos such as John Hagee who demand we bomb Iran so we can start World War III and "force" Jesus to come back to save all those who are "born again."

Maybe we might get the idea that there really isn't a lot of difference between the religious wackos and the wackos in the White House!