like i keep saying OVER AND OVER AND OVER

the good ol' white boy network just keeps getting richer and richer

they fiddle while rome burns

Watchdog: Bush ex-officials used leverage in private sector
By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Shortly after leaving his job as U.S. energy secretary in early 2005, Spencer Abraham took a $60,000-a-year post as a director of Occidental Petroleum, which soon became the first firm in 20 years to ship oil to the U.S. from Libya.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge accepted director's fees and consulting work from several firms seeking contracts with his old agency.

Tommy Thompson, the former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has consulted, lobbied or worked as an employee for 42 companies since leaving office in January 2005.

All told, 17 of 24 former Bush Cabinet members have taken positions with at least 119 companies, including 65 firms that lobby the government and 40 that lobby the agencies they headed, a liberal-leaning watchdog group said in a report Monday.

Melanie Sloan, the executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that the group's six-month investigation "has shown that most of these former Bush administration officials have cannily leveraged their time spent in the public sector'' and "made a mint on the backs of American taxpayers."

"It may be legal, but it is certainly not honorable," she said..........

nail his good ol' white boy ass down

get those records and not just SOME of 'em. GET ALL OF 'EM. they belong to us. the citizens of the united states of america (i understand SOME may be confidential and i understand if they are redacted or cannot be released at all. however, NONE of them should be destroyed or withheld by the giant dick

Cheney Is Told to Keep Official Records

Judge's Order Responds to Suit Filed by Open-Government Advocates, Historians

By Christopher Lee

Washington Post Staff Writer

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction yesterday ordering Vice President Cheney and the National Archives to preserve all of his official records.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's order came in response to a lawsuit filed this month by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group, joined by several historians and open-government advocates, warned that Cheney might destroy or withhold important documents as the Bush administration winds down if he interprets the Presidential Records Act of 1978 as applying to only some of his official papers.

That, in turn, could deprive historians and the general public of valuable records that illustrate Cheney's role in forming U.S. policy over the past 7 1/2 years, they argued. He is widely considered to be the most influential vice president in history.........

they'll never see them

so US getting a glimpse of the documents is absolutely out of the question. if the big dick hasn't destroyed them already, he will shortly. and what will happen to him for breaking laws? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

Lawsuit to Ask That Cheney's Papers Be Made Public

By Christopher Lee

Washington Post Staff Writer

Months before the Bush administration ends, historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the past 7 1/2 years.

In a preemptive move, several of them have agreed to join the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in asking a federal judge to declare that Cheney's records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld without proper review.

The group expects to file the lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia........

the only reason i can figure out

why in the world they WOULDN'T want to release the visitor logs if if osama his own damn self was listed in them. why else would they lie, conceal, stall and whatever the hell else they're doing? they're just visitor logs for goddess' sake. it's NOT like the conversations were taped or anything (is it??????????) hmmmmmmm
White House challenges court ruling on release of visitor logs
The Bush administration is challenging a court ruling that White House visitor logs are public documents, saying releasing the records would infringe on the separation of powers.
White House documents are normally exempt from public records laws, but a federal judge ruled in December that Secret Service visitor logs must be released. The court sided with a liberal watchdog group that sought records showing visits by prominent religious conservatives to the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence.
The Bush administration appealed and lawyers were scheduled to argue the case Monday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Government lawyers argue the president and vice president must be able to receive visitors and solicit advice privately. They portrayed the request for Secret Service records as an end-around, saying those same logs maintained by the White House would never be considered public documents............

at work

our emails are recorded and stored for, i believe, 5 years. from what i understand it is part of some new law(s) that went through (although i could be wrong here). if i'm right, how come MY emails (yesterday i emailed building services because one of the elevators was not functioning correctly) have to be saved and THEIRS DON'T?
White House Says It Routinely Overwrote E-Mail Tapes From 2001 to 2003

By Elizabeth Williamson and Dan EggenWashington Post Staff Writers
E-mail messages sent and received by White House personnel during the first three years of the Bush administration were routinely recorded on tapes that were "recycled," the White House's chief information officer said in a court filing this week.
During the period in question, the Bush presidency faced some of its biggest controversies, including the Iraq war, the leak of former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson's name and the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said he has no reason to believe any e-mails were deliberately destroyed.
From 2001 to October 2003, the White House's practice was to use the same backup tape each day to copy new as well as old e-mails, he said, making it possible that some of those e-mails could still be recovered even from a tape that was repeatedly overwritten. "We are continuing to analyze our systems," Fratto said last night........

we MIGHT call people like james dobson

big fat liars but we won't. we will just say he got his facts f**ked up (yeah right)


Focus On Falsehood: Religious Right's Dobson Spins Whoppers About AU

By Rob Boston
It seems that Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson just can't keep Americans United for Separation of Church and State off his mind. He blames the organization for things it hasn't even done!
Yesterday Dobson announced that the Internal Revenue Service has cleared FOF of allegations of partisan politicking. A story on FOF's news service by Stuart Shepard stated, "The IRS closed a nearly 12 month audit of Focus on the Family and Dr. James C. Dobson by affirming that the organization committed no wrongdoing.
"The investigation, which ended last week, was sparked by allegations from two groups that routinely bash conservatives: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They falsely accused Focus on the Family and Dr. Dobson, in his capacity as the head of Focus, of electioneering by endorsing candidates for public office."
There's one big problem with that: While CREW did indeed file a formal complaint with the IRS over Dobson's endorsements, Americans United never did. AU believed that the IRS was unlikely to consider Dobson's personal endorsements a violation of federal tax law............

duh!

like we didn't know this was the case anyway! nothing king george and his court have done and will do IS above board. i don't believe anything they say. i don't trust them. they have committed crimes against humanity. congress is doing nothing. i will remember that next election

White House Declares Office Off-Limits
Administrator of Missing E-Mails Not Subject to Open-Records Law, It Says

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
The Bush administration argued in court papers this week that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act as part of its effort to fend off a civil lawsuit seeking the release of internal documents about a large number of e-mails missing from White House servers.
The claim, made in a motion filed Tuesday by the Justice Department, is at odds with a depiction of the office on the White House's own Web site. As of yesterday, the site listed the Office of Administration as one of six presidential entities subject to the open-records law, which is commonly known by its abbreviation, FOIA.......

oh yeah, one more thing. king george and his court work for US. as long as there is no super secret info on those emails (secret as in it would doom america) WE HAVE A RIGHT TO SEE THEM

and we are shocked and surprised .... because???

well we're NOT shocked and surprised are we. they are following the same pattern they have from day one. THEY HAVE NOT DONE ANYTHING WRONG. THE CONSTITUTION IS JUST A PIECE OF PAPER. LAWS, WHAT LAWS? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' LAWS

and, we've let them (king george and his court is the them as if you didn't know) get away with it from jump street and we'll continue to let them get away with it. LET'S EVERYONE GROW A SET AND STOP THEM NOW

('oversight' that's a GIANT laugh all in itself)

White House Defends Cheney's Refusal of Oversight


By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer

The White House defended Vice President Cheney yesterday in a dispute over his office's refusal to comply with an executive order regulating the handling of classified information as Democrats and other critics assailed him for disregarding rules that others follow.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Cheney is not obligated to submit to oversight by an office that safeguards classified information, as other members and parts of the executive branch are. Cheney's office has contended that it does not have to comply because the vice president serves as president of the Senate, which means that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch."..........

you can lose or misplace a set of keys

i once lost my keys in a snowbank and never found them again. however, if i had an additional 4,999,999 sets, WELL then, it would be fairly IMPOSSIBLE for me to lose all of the rest. no?

NO

CREW sues White House over missing e-mails

Nick Juliano

A Washington-based legal watchdog has sued the White House Office of Administration alleging the administration refuses to comply with a public records request related to more than 5 million e-mails from administration officials that have gone missing, according to a press release.
"The White House has decided to play an unlawful game of high-tech hide and seek with the American public," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in the release.
Last month, CREW filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the White House's Office of Administration to turn over records related to the millions of e-mails the watchdog says were lost between March 2003 and October 2005........