quote:

Originally posted by occrider Well, the disturbing trend of prominent people speaking out against the bush administration continues. And by prominent, I don't mean the laughable dribble such as Moore or Franken. If any of you are aware, John Dean recently came out with a book entitled: "Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidancy of George W. Bush" As somewhat of a biography behind dean, he's a registered independant who was former white house counsel privy to some of the innerworkings of the Nixon administration during its somewhat scandalous tenure. Anyway, I kind of paged through it in the bookstore and it looked interesting so I bought it. It appeared to make some cogent points that the Bush adminisration is one of the most secretive administrations since the Nixon administrations which is somewhat of a threat to the concept of democracy and the separation of powers. Thoughts?

I think all the secrets are coming out do to the severity of the upcoming elections. I don't believe I've seen such mudslinging and manipulation of words in my life (and yes, I paid attention to the elections when I was a child as well!)

I shall comment more on this tomorrow, when I don't have to wake up in a few hours for work. Just wanted to make a quick comment at least.

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aka Tits McGee
aka Chesty LaRue
aka Busty St. Claire

The secrecy of the Bush administration is no secret. It wouldn't be the first time that comparisons have been made between bush and Nixon. Btw, There was no surprise where the administration was heading when bush first executive order was to seal his daddy's records,

Secrecy bad for democracy? Are you try to lob a softball for me to hit out of the ballpark?

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GIGANTIC CUNT

quote:

Originally posted by igottaknow The secrecy of the Bush administration is no secret. It wouldn't be the first time that comparisons have been made between bush and Nixon. Btw, There was no surprise where the administration was heading when bush first executive order was to seal his daddy's records, Secrecy bad for democracy? Are you try to lob a softball for me to hit out of the ballpark?

There is a place and time that privy information that should NOT be revealed in entirety to the widespread public or even congress. One need only look at how quickly leaks spread from the American government to the press for example of that. However, what the book contends is that there is a deliberate trend consistent with historical perspective from the Nixon administration that the secretive practices of the Bush administration are completely unwarranted given the nature of the policy decisions derived from those intelligence assets. At any rate, it's an interesting book since it provides perspectives from both sides of teh fence.

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Retro ...

quote:

Originally posted by occrider Well, the disturbing trend of prominent people speaking out against the bush administration continues. And by prominent, I don't mean the laughable dribble such as Moore or Franken. If any of you are aware, John Dean recently came out with a book entitled: "Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidancy of George W. Bush" As somewhat of a biography behind dean, he's a registered independant who was former white house counsel privy to some of the innerworkings of the Nixon administration during its somewhat scandalous tenure. Anyway, I kind of paged through it in the bookstore and it looked interesting so I bought it. It appeared to make some cogent points that the Bush adminisration is one of the most secretive administrations since the Nixon administrations which is somewhat of a threat to the concept of democracy and the separation of powers. Thoughts?

I'm not sure just how "independent" he is politically, just spending about 45 min. reading alot of his columns here http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/
Most of his criticism democratically biassed you would think seeing that there is no democratic criticism to be found there. That might be the sites discretion. I don't know.
On the other hand I notice that it lacks the liberal rhetoric and "laughable dribble" that you point out in your opener. His commentary is concise, intelligent and informative. (read DRY) He is a political columnist!
Curious how you are liking the book.

As far as the secrecy goes...It's my opinion that given the world climate in this new century, the new economic competition in EU, Chinese economic imperialism, global security, homeland security, the war on terror and many other things that previous administrations did not have to worry about SHOULD breed an aire of some secrecy within the administration. We as Americans are not only targets to terrorist but an economic targets to other overseas interests as well. China and the EU. The democrats! The world is getting smarter, smaller, faster and a hell of a lot more ambitious. Kinda like we have been the last 50yrs. I feel its only natural to become more discreet in how the administration does business.


sleepy.

I watched Bill Moyers' interview with John Dean the other day, and I completely agree with him that the media as a whole has not been doing its job properly in regards to questioning the actions and motives of this Administration. The media, except for perhaps PBS and NPR (which gave both sides), I found was essentially cheering on the Iraq war before it began without questioning the motives given. Even so-called “liberal media” such as the Washington Post was dominated by pro-war editorials.

There’s little doubt in my mind that the media failed the public, and to some extent continues to fail the public in regards to its important role in maintaining checks and balances.

I probably distrust the media as much as some of you guys distrust the UN lol.

/media critic

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imo in a true democracy should every decission and the minutes of every public decission taking be avaiable to the public without any restrictions as far as it's not a threat to the nations security.

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Originally posted by St_Andrew imo in a true democracy should every decission and the minutes of every public decission taking be avaiable to the public without any restrictions as far as it's not a threat to the nations security.

Well in a true democracy every decision is made by the public, so it would be pretty challenging to keep the public from knowing about those decisions.

Dean is hardly unbiased with regards to the Bush administration. He's written against them from "day one," so his latest words are just another criticism. Also, not one member of the media has asked John Dean why what he writes should be taken as factual material rather than just an opinion article. The man is a convicted felon and served time in prison for misleading investigators.

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FLUSHED THE JOHNS!

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Originally posted by imokruok The man is a convicted felon and served time in prison for misleading investigators.

are you serious? when?

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Originally posted by Arbiter Well in a true democracy every decision is made by the public, so it would be pretty challenging to keep the public from knowing about those decisions.

okay, sorry "in a true indirect democracy"

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Originally posted by Q5echo are you serious? when?

Watergate - after Nixon resigned. Also interesting is that Dean sued the authors of one well-known history of Watergate, a book called "Silent Coup," and the authors of that book used Dean's own history of Watergate to answer the lawsuit.

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FLUSHED THE JOHNS!