Threats by Republicans to cut the General Accounting Office (GAO) budget influenced its decision to abandon a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, The Hill has learned.

Lovely =/

[ 02-19-2003, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: Rokenn ]

I'm very disappointed if this is true. I abhored the Clinton Administration for abusing gevernment resourses to cover personal wrongs. This would be equally as bad.

<font color="#ffccff">Same old, same old.

Edit: or in other words...SSDD.</font>

[ 02-19-2003, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

Okay, guys, here's some info:

1. GAO = part of congress (investigative body). Congressmen can/should boss it around. If the majority of congressmen want it to drop something, they shouldn't have had to *threaten* it in the first place. Totally appropriate.

2. The underlying records GAO sought are a different issue. Did you guys know the Bush admin is undertaking a systematic cutting of federal information releases and records warehousing budgeting? As my legal librarian informed me the other day, it is becoming increasingly harder to obtain governmental documents. Plus, the government webpages are changing everyday to be more pro-administration propoganda and less information dissemination. Information links are being excised.

This is a huge issue. Access to governmental documents is ESSENTIAL and BASIC to freedom and democracy. Except where national security is concerned, there should not be a word written by Bush or anyone else in the government that I can't gain access to. This is what FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) is all about.

Open access to governmental documents is, for instance, the very issue REagan used to open the door to winning over Gorby -- it is the exact substance of Perestroika. In Russia, for all of this century until Perestroika, each new leader would destroy/hide all historical documents prior to their rule and would not allow public access to governmental documents. This is why those Russian dolls-within-dolls containing former Russian leaders are so ironically poignant.

Sorry to rail so much on this, but limiting the public's access to information is the first discernible characteristic in a long parade of horribles. It was the first step in many of the past century's totalitarian regimes.

And, I hope we as a Nation take note of it and don't ignore the issue. :(

While I would not pretend to understand the politics (or care) that sparked this thread, I just wanted to say "well said that man" to timber. My views exactly, <font color="cyan">information is liberation! </font>

<font color="#ffccff">I agree with TL on the issue of FOIA. </font>