Bush's Document Dumps Undermine Democracy

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.teamster.org/07news/hn_070614_3.asp

Bush's Document Dumps Undermine Democracy

By Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa

June 14, 2007

If Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre undermined democracy, so do George Bush's Friday Night Document Dumps.

Nixon's Watergate-era firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox and the resignations of his attorney general and deputy was viewed as a gross abuse of presidential power.

Bush habitually makes controversial announcements on Friday night, after networks and newspaper deadlines. The practice subtly and insidiously undermines democracy. It deprives the public of information it needs to make decisions about its leaders.

Take last Friday, when the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it had published details of its cross-border trucking program. The press release made the bold claim that it "continued to meet or exceed every condition required by law."

Reporters had little time to read the 17-page, legalese-rich document. Opponents had even less time to point out that in no way does the Bush administration's reckless plan to allow Mexican trucks travel freely on American highways "meet or exceed every condition required by law."

Sadly, we've gotten used to the Bush administration document dump. As the scandal unfolded over the Justice Department's firing of prosecutors for political reasons, e-mails and reports subpoenaed by the Senate were routinely released on Friday nights. Thousands of pages of documents were dumped late on March 23 and April 27—both Fridays.

FULL article at link.

[Demeter]

1. This Is a Stupid Complaint

Humans are infinitely adaptable, and this is such a minor adaptation. And if the MSM doesn't want to adapt (not that they want to dirty their hands with news reporting, anyway) then there's the Internet, the embodiment of the 4th Amendment, technology to the rescue in the nick of time.