http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070709/ap_on_go_pr_wh/congress_bush_31
Echoes of the Nixon Administration. . .
:puke
I loved this...
QuoteThe White House, however, did offer again to make former counsel Harriet Miers and one-time political director Sara Taylor available for private, off-the-record interviews.
Awe. Isn't that nice of the White House? You're not willing to cooperate with congress but you are willing to allow your minions to discuss the weather, the Paris Hilton affair and other irrelevant issues "off the record." That's nice.
This one also bugged me. . .
Quote"I respectfully request that you inform Ms. Taylor that the president has directed her not to provide this testimony," Fielding wrote in a letter Monday to Neil Eggleston, her lawyer. Eggleston did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I'm no lawyer, obviously, but does that smell like obstruction of justice to anyone else? Who is the president to direct a private citizen not to testify before congress? Does he have that sort of authority even by invoking executive privilege?
How many more days do we have to put up with those clowns?
The unintentional comedy from this administration has completely gone at this point, and there's 1 1/2 years left.
For anyone that cares, a study of executive privilege:
The Wikipedia Basic Overview (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_privilege)
A Brief History From Findlaw.com (http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20020206.html)
PBS debate on executive privilege (During the Clinton administration) (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/jan-june98/executive_3-24.html)
Opinion on Bush's use of executive privilege over the Guantanamo prisons (http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/23/Opinion/Executive_privilege.shtml)
Wikipedia Article on the U.S. vs. Nixon Supreme Court case about his use of executive privilege during Watergate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Nixon)
Yay secret, unaccountable government.
Everybody should have aides!
(http://southpark.org.ru/Img/aliens/alien602b.jpg)
Former Bush surgeon general says he was muzzled
Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:25PM EDT
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first U.S. surgeon general appointed by President George W. Bush accused the administration on Tuesday of political interference and muzzling him on key issues like embryonic stem cell research.
"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as the nation's top doctor from 2002 until 2006, told a House of Representatives committee.
"The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party," Carmona added.
Carmona said Bush administration political appointees censored his speeches and kept him from talking out publicly about certain issues, including the science on embryonic stem cell research, contraceptives and his misgivings about the administration's embrace of "abstinence-only" sex education.
Carmona's comments came two days before a Senate committee is due to hold a hearing on Bush's nomination of Dr. James Holsinger as his successor. The administration allowed Carmona to finish his term as surgeon general last year without a replacement in place.
Gay rights activists and several leading Democrats have criticized Holsinger for what they see as "anti-gay" writings, but the White House has defended him as well qualified.
U.S. surgeons general in the past have issued influential reports on subjects including smoking, AIDS and mental health.
"Political interference with the work of the surgeon general appears to have reached a new level in this administration," said Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to which Carmona testified.
"The public expects that a surgeon general will be immune from political pressure and be allowed to express his or her professional views based on the best available science," he said.
Carmona said he was politically naive when he took the job, but became astounded at the partisanship and manipulation he witnessed as administration political appointees hemmed him in.
Bush in 2001 allowed federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, but only with heavy restrictions that many scientists condemn as stifling.
Carmona said the administration prevented him from voicing views on stem cell research. Many scientists see it as a promising avenue for curing many diseases. But because it involves destroying human embryos, opponents call it immoral.
Carmona said he was prevented from talking publicly even about the science underpinning the research to enable the U.S. public to have a better understanding of a complicated issue. He said most of the public debate over the matter has been driven by political, ideological or theological motivations.
"I was blocked at every turn. I was told the decision had already been made -- stand down, don't talk about it," he said.
Carmona testified with two predecessors, Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served under President Ronald Reagan, and Dr. David Satcher, named by Clinton but whose term ended under Bush.
Carmona said some of his predecessors told him, "We have never seen it as partisan, as malicious, as vindictive, as mean-spirited as it is today, and you clearly have worse than anyone's had."
QuoteCarmona said he was prevented from talking publicly even about the science underpinning the research to enable the U.S. public to have a better understanding of a complicated issue. He said most of the public debate over the matter has been driven by political, ideological or theological motivations.
If statements like this weren't so nauseating they would be comical.
It's like Joe Biden said yesterday before the Senate (paraphrasing)
whenever this administration has a choice between two paths they always take the wrong one. He was referring to Iraq, of course, but the same can be said for pretty much every other issue as well.