Secrets and lies

“Secrecy and a free Democratic Government don’t mix”

-Harry Truman-

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a book that was quite popular back when our country was a functioning Republic, describes a Galactic President; a man whose job it was not to wield power but to conceal it. Perhaps this is one of the few books George W. Bush has read. Perhaps he’s only seen the movie but the job description isn’t fiction at all.

The only way to figure out who the players are in the Bush administration is to find out who stands to profit most from its actions; there is no scorecard. Records have been sealed and all inquiries are stonewalled. After 8 years of trying to erode executive privilege during the Clinton Presidency, that term that gave us goose bumps during the Nixon years has returned in greater strength, but no longer a subject of scorn, it’s the iron curtain behind which Government deeds are hidden and behind which the wielders of power effect the subversion of our government in safety. The ‘Blog, Bushsecrecy.org tells us:


“Expressing a determination to halt what they see as an "erosion" of the prerogatives of the Presidency (and even the Vice Presidency), Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft and other administration figures have asserted a sweeping view of executive privilege to impede public access to historical records of prior Presidents and Vice Presidents, to completely block public release of large numbers of Justice Department documents, and to thwart congressional investigators and public interest groups from even learning who was a part of the Vice President’s Energy Task Force (let alone what they did).”

Indeed, the stonewalling of the 9/11 investigation, the refusal to give out any information about the Cheney Secret Energy Task Force despite court orders and limiting or eliminating access to Presidential records are only a small part of the program of secrecy and denial that are the chief characteristics of the Bush administration. The censorship and falsification of scientific data, the weakening of the public’s ability to have product safety data and even to access weather information paid for by our taxes – all these are only a small part. Overturning a law making Presidential records public property in defiance of legal precedent and court decision – just a little piece of the puzzle.

A report released by the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Government Reform in September of 2004 finds that there has been a consistent pattern in the Administrations actions:

“...laws that are designed to promote public access to information have been undermined, while laws that authorize the government to withhold information or to operate in secret have been repeatedly expanded. The cumulative result is an unprecedented assault on the principle of open government."

The War that was supposed to last only a few weeks and cost us nothing is a complete failure, but even if he doesn’t get to dress up in a costume and land on an aircraft carrier, Bush can certainly look at his record of destroying the transparency, the due process and the checks and balances our government was founded on and say Mission Accomplished.