Presidential Library scandal (updated again)

At the beginning of March, I blogged about the Bush presidential library (with video) at Southern Methodist University. At that time, the biggest question was whether or not the $200 million for the thing was coming from Our Fearless Leader's good buddies in Saudi Arabia. Bush would not even discuss the source of the funding with the media.

Ironically, the library remembering one of the most corrupt administrations in American history is being funded, at least in part, on bribes. (Aside: why is it that we have to learn about this stuff from the British press?)

Bush lackey lobbyist Stephen Payne was caught on tape offering to arrange a meeting with VP Cheney or Sec. of State Condi Rice for the ousted president of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev Kazakh politician Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov, AKA Eric Dos. It would cost as much as three quarters of a million dollars. Apparently, Our Fearless Leader does not meet with former world leaders much anymore.

Here's the quote from the Times of London Online:

The exact budget I will come up with, but it will be somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going directly to the Bush library,” said Payne, who sits on the US homeland security advisory council.

As there are no overhead costs involved in this transaction, I am wondering where the other two-thirds of the money is going. At any rate, this sounds a lot like a bribe to me.

Incidentally, Askar blamed the U.S. government for the 2005 coup that swept him from power. He has been living in exile in Moscow ever since. Askar would have had to have been involved in this media "sting." Coincidence? I doubt it. (struck, due to updated information.)

SMU, which is the host site of the library, ought to reconsider and rescind their offer to allow this memorial to corruption to be built on their campus. This will be worse than those recruiting violations.

Chris
h/t to Think Progress for staying on top of this.

Update I: The Department of Homeland Security is investigating Payne for possible violations of federal law. Payne sits on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. Separately, House Oversight Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) has opened his own investigation. Bonus: if Payne was authorized by any member of the administration to solicit these bribes donations, that official could be guilty of bribery, too.

Update II: Contrary to the original report, Payne was actually speaking to a Kazakh politician. This is the problem with media speculation. Originally, the Central Asia politician who agreed to be secretly taped did so with the understanding that his name not be made public. The original name was an educated, but wrong, guess.

Bonus: Think Progress is now reporting that a McCain aid may have been involved, too.

Frightening prospects

The news from the last few days has been pretty frightening both in terms of physical safety and preservation of civil liberties. Here's a quick round-up.

First is the biggie. Today is the Senate vote on the FISA bill. Here's Daily Kos' recent take on it with a video from Countdown with guest host Rachel Maddow (give her a show already). I have avoided talking about this issue. (Full disclosure: I work for a cell phone company, but we have not turned records over to the feds.)

I am not particularly enamored with the immunity provision, but have argued that the telecoms were in a bad situation. Initially we heard that the telecoms were reassured by the White House that the telecoms were only helping to spy on suspected terrorists after the attacks of Sept. 11. The White House assured the telecoms that what they were doing was perfectly legal. In the interest of preventing another attacks, the major telecoms complied. The problem is that the spying probably started months BEFORE the attacks. True to form, the administration retaliated against Qwest Communications for refusing to help with illegal spying in February, 2001. Classy!

After discussing it further, I came around to realize that FISA is a bad deal all around. The problem is the warrant-less surveillance provision. While there are some restrictions in place to prevent abuse of the system, a determined CIA/FBI/NSA agent could easily circumvent any restrictions. Then it is only a matter of time before the Nixonian mindset kicks in and honest dissent is equated with active subversion.

Sure, our intelligence services need to be able to listen to the bad guys' conversations, but get a warrant first, please.

This is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment. Considering the current supreme court, I am not expecting them to strike down FISA, either.

Update: as of the writing of this, it looks like the bill with pass easily and that the immunity will stay. Pennsylvania's own Arlen Specter is the only good guy Republican, according to Kos.

Also h/t to Kos for keeping up to date on this for months.

The next scary proposal of the week comes from the friendly skies and our friends over at the Department of Homeland Security. They are liking a proposal to make all flyers wear something euphemistically called a "safety bracelet." (Remember, this is the same DHS who brought us the color-coded threat level chart. To date the treat level has not yet been in the green or blue range, meaning that we are not much safer now than on 9/11.)

Here's the deal. Every airline passenger would be fitted with a bracelet like the ones they put on you at concerts and other festivals. The festival bracelet lets security know that you paid and are allowed to be there. This safety bracelet would serve essentially the same purpose. It would replace the traditional boarding pass. So far, so good. It would also contain all kinds of personal data (in other words, government surveillance. See above.) Okaaaay. It would also act as a GPS device, meaning that DHS knows when you go to the loo or jump out of the plane. errrr. The GPS is also supposed to track your luggage. I just KNOW that the airlines will never lose another bag again. Snark.

Here's the nefarious part. These bracelets would also have the ability to shock an unruly passenger, rendering him or her immobile. This is how we control ornery dogs. While this thing might work on the shoe bomber, what happens when this thing accidentally goes off and 92-year-old great grandmother dies from the shock? What about indiscriminate use of the things. Is it okay to shock a person who had a little much to drink at the airport bar and is talking (or slurring) a little too loudly?

On the other hand, here is an interesting counter-proposal to keep airline passengers calm without the booze.

I haven't flown since 1999. It seems like every week I find a better reason to take a bus from New York to Los Angeles. I don't think I will be allowing a government agent to fit me with a torture device.

This is an oldie, but goody. Under Our Fearless Leader, liberals and Democrats needed not apply to the Justice Department. Those horrid lefties already working there might just as well clean their desks. If you are a Democrat, keep your nose clean or DoJ might come after for you.

The worst part about the Siegelman case is that Congress just can't get Karl Rove to testify about it. Anyone else who refused to testify before Congress would be arrested and dragged into the hearing.

Next up, is honor killings in Georgia, and I am not talking about the former Soviet republic. In some cultures honor killings to avenge "disgracing" the family are not only okay, but actively encouraged. The offenses that can lead to extra-judicial summary executions: In this case it is a 25-year-old considering divorce to end an arranged marriage to a man she has not seen in months.

I accept multi-culturalism, but this is just simply not okay.

Speaking of "not okay," apparently atheists are not welcome in the U.S. military. It is a Christians-only group, I guess. I remember something from Sunday School about Christianity being a religion of peace. Praise the Lord and pass the ammo, anyone?

We also learned today that there is a fundamental flaw in the Internet that would allow hackers to control all of cyberspace. Here's hoping the experts fix this thing fast.

Finally, even relatively Western-friendly Dubai is not a good place to go on a booze-fueled sex romp. This British woman is facing years in jail for doing exactly that. Of course, this probably won't help her case:

She is alleged to have called the cop a f****** Muslim **** and tried to hit him with her high-heeled shoe before being restrained.

I realize this story is from the UK Sun, but the BBC had a smaller piece about it.

All things considered, I think I am going back to bed. It's scary out there.

Chris

Judiciary Committee's Book of the Month Club

I finally finished Scott McClellan’s book. The Book of the Month Club House Judiciary Committee hearing is over. Here’s the video:

Here’s what we learned:

NOTHING

Ok. That statement is a bit disingenuous. The revelations contained therein are nothing that the reality-based community did not already know or infer. Most of the book is concerned with three main issues that he dealt with as press secretary.

First, we hear that the administration oversold the case for war. Well aware. Thanks.

Second, we learned that Scooter Libby certainly and Karl Rove probably blew the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame. This was almost definitely retaliation against Joe Wilson (Plame’s husband) for his questioning of the administration’s rationale for going to war. Yup. Knew that, too. The only real revelation was that Andy Card directed McClellan to exonerate the guy who has the most ridiculous nickname in the history of politics. McClellan seems most upset that Libby and probably Rove lied to him about their involvement in leaking Plame’s identity to the press.

Third, we find that the government really screwed up the response to Hurricane Katrina. We heard about that, too. In one minor revelation, readers did learn that McClellan objected to Bush’s infamous “fly-over” because it might make Bush look detached and unconcerned about the problem. Rove convinced Bush to proceed. Guess what? It made Bush look detached and unconcerned about the drowning city. Imagine that.

There is no case for impeachment against Our Fearless Leader or Darth Cheney in What Happened. It is more of a mea culpa by the former White House spokesman than an indictment of the Administration. It is also a critique of the media’s performance between 2003 and 2006 when McClellan was press secretary. McClellan even exonerates his former boss, noting several times that Bush’s style is to make a broad decision and leave it to his surrogates to work out the details. The advantage of this is that the underlings can take the role of the fall guys while insulating the president from any wrongdoing on their parts.

Instead, McClellan uses these major examples and a few other minor episodes to illustrate the underlying problems with modern politics within the executive branch. The overarching problem is hyper-partisanship (i.e., hate the opposition because they are the opposition rather than on the basis of policy positions). McClellan offers three factors that feed this atmosphere of hyper-partisanship. And yes, Democrats are just as guilty as Republicans. The three factors are:

1. The permanent campaign
2. A culture of scandal
3. Viewing politics as war that is a zero-sum game.

The permanent campaign was identified in 1976. Basically, it means that the party in power attempts to shape public opinion on a policy and silence critics in order to get that policy implemented. This is in contrast to the much more democratic strategy of floating a policy idea and then refining the policy in response to public opinion and input from the opposition. The larger goal is on winning the next election. Influencing public opinion is the point of campaigning, but not the point of governing. This is a situation where governing (theoretically altruistic and non-partisan) becomes secondary to campaigning (necessarily self-serving and partisan) rather than campaigning being secondary to governing.

McClellan decries this strategy by the Bush people, but does correctly point out that it was Bill Clinton’s people who really perfected it. Bush came into office promising to change the Washington game and then proceeded to play it even better than his predecessor. His major case-in-point was the disastrous decision to invade Iraq with shaky evidence. He never says that the administration lied. Instead, they selected the evidence most supportive of their case and disregarded contrary information.

The culture of scandal is nothing new to Washington. Granted corruption and the resulting scandal are inherent in any political system. Arguably, the modern era of the scandal commenced when Ron Ziegler dismissed the Watergate break-in as a “third-rate burglary.” While he was technically correct (those guys were certainly not criminal masterminds), it was the cover-up that ultimately brought down Nixon. The same holds true for Clinton’s Monica-gate. McClellan accepts that notion.

However, McClellan would prefer (at least now) to address scandal when it erupts in a true, open government way. He reasons that the short-term damage of providing the public with all relevant information is less significant than the long-term damage of a cover-up. He accuses the administration of a lack of candor and forthrightness in issues like the war and Plame episode. I tend to agree, but the media will disagree. Ongoing scandal is ratings gold, so they don’t have an interest in resolving any given scandal quickly.

The zero-sum game of war politics is probably the most damaging of these three factors. In a zero-sum game, one side can only win if the other side loses. That means utterly destroying your opponent. This is fine in a game of chess, but is unnecessarily destructive in the game of politics. As the governor of Texas, Bush gained a reputation for working with the Democrats to establish sound policy. The result was that both sides compromised to establish policy that was good for the whole state.

Something must have happened on the airplane ride from Austin to Washington because bi-partisanship was a main theme of Bush’s 2004 campaign. It probably did not help that Washington was already in full partisan mode in early 2001. The Republican Congressional revolution was still strong as was Democrat resentment over the Florida recount. After 9/11, Bush and the Republicans got wide public latitude, especially in regards to national security and foreign policy. When the Republicans controlled the White House and both houses in Congress, they could and did implement policy with little to no opposition input. Even in 2008, the Congressional Democrats are still not fighting back on key issues. Case-in-point: FISA.

McClellan’s solution: a permanent presidential advisor that every future president will be required to retain. This person would essentially be an ombudsman for the administration. This person would have the responsibility for ensuring that the administration is telling the truth and the whole truth while also legitimately working with the opposition party and tending to govern to the center. This person would almost be required to butt heads with the president and senior advisors. I would offer that the person either be from the opposition party (good) or a dedicated and vetted non-partisan (even better).

The second part of the solution is a media the White House does not cow that and that are willing to ask the tough questions. McClellan calls for a return to real investigative journalism rather than a press corps that more resembles a group of stenographers who get to travel the country and world with the president. The problem, Scott, is that mouthpieces like you are so busy constructing the current message and so obsessed with staying on message combined with a secretive administration that it is nearly impossible for journalists to do their jobs. In fairness, McClellan makes a fair mea culpa on this point too, though he likes to think he would have been more forthright if he had all of the information.

To conclude, I offer this stunningly shortsighted paraphrase from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). He asked McClellan why he could not take his story to the grave and do a favor for this country. The answer, of course, is “not a chance.” Rep. King, the air of secrecy compounds the problems that McClellan is identifying. Your attitude seems to be that we should just sweep it all under the rug as usual.

Chris

How to throw the boss under a bus real good

Whether it was for the money, for revenge, or a sincere change of heart, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClelland has written a tell-all about his time as Bush's mouthpiece. The media folks got advance copies and have been all over this. I just ordered mine and it should be here next week. A future post will be a review.

A lot of people are upset about it. It's coming from the White House and the right wing, the left wing for doing it for the money, and the media for calling them on their shoddy reporting leading up to the war.

At least his mom is proud of Scott throwing the entire administration under a bus.

Thanks, Scott. I can't wait to read it.

Chris

Israel, Syria talking peace

If you recall, Our Fearless Leader recently bashed Senator Obama for his highly controversial reality-based announcement that he would be willing to meet with the leaders of nations with whom we don’t necessarily agree. According to W., such a move is tantamount to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolph Hitler in Munich in 1938. He made these ridiculous comments in front of a foreign (in fairness it was the Israeli) legislature. (In fact, the first draft of this post was titled “Godwin’s Law violation update.) Incidentally, talking to other world leaders is not the same as ceding half of another sovereign nation. Speaking of throwing someone under the bus….

Now we are learning that the Israelis have been negotiating with the Syrians for (if Al Jazzeera is to be believed) about a year. The main sticking point from the Israeli perspective is Syria’s barely veiled support of Hezbollah, the political party/army/terrorist group that has been one of the many thorns in the side of the Middle East’s only legitimate democracy. Granted, Hezbollah is dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel. The animosity goes back to the 1948 founding of Israel when Europeans unilaterally declared that sovereignty of Palestine would be transferred from the current occupants to the Jewish people. Here is a link to a powerful interview about the impact of this decision on the Palestinian people. It sounds an awful lot like land theft to me.

Regardless, this is how negotiations work. Both sides bring their extreme demands to the table and they concede on points until they come to a resolution. Perhaps Hezbollah would be more reasonable if Israel were to RETURN (not cede) the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms to Syria and discuss the status of some Lebanese prisoners being held in Israel. That might just convince Syria to end their support for Hezbollah and stop the killings by both sides.

Currently, Turkey is coordinating the negotiations between Israel and Syria. All things considered, it would probably be for the best if the United States were to let our NATO ally take the lead on this.

Of course, W. and the other Neocons contend that such foreign policy liberalism is irrational and only realism works. It’s almost as if they want us to be constantly at war with someone. That’s good news for the defense industry. Not so good for people like this. But as we all know, negotiations never, ever, ever, ever, ever resolve anything. Err… never mind. Keeping in mind, too, that Bush and Co. negotiated on the Libya thing. Jest sayin’

It should go without saying that peace talks in this region seem to fail more often than they succeed, but a single failure is not a reason to give up entirely. Syria is the only state bordering Israel that has not yet signed a peace agreement. Hopefully, this is another major step to a true peace in the Holy Land. Also, here’s hoping we can get this worked out sometime before Jan. 20, 2009.

Chris

Godwin's law violation

I really wish someone would fill Our Fearless Leader in on Godwin’s Law, which has been circulating on the Internets for a long time now. If you missed it, Our Fearless Leader decided that his best course of action would be to go before the Israeli Knesset on that country’s 60th anniversary celebration and use his time to engage in partisan politicking by likening Senator Obama to the Hitler appeasers. Check it out:



Ummm….Mr. President, you missed it, you made a pretty significant logical fallacy. You are equated negotiations with appeasement when they are not the same thing. Senator Obama proposes meeting with world leaders, friend and foe, to sort out our differences. You, Mr. President, seem to support continued conflict, which only helps the oil and defense industries, which you and your Little Friend are tied to. Ummm….

Anyway, there is a strategic advantage to knowing what the enemy wants to achieve. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that talks with Iran, North Korea and Palestine just might help. We are not proposing ceding Austria and Czechoslovakia. We are just interested in hearing the other side’s perspective.

Get a clue, Fearless Leader. Westerners are being targeted by terrorists. I would like to know some specifics regarding why we are being targeted. And, no. I am not referring to the tired “They hate us for our freedoms” line of crap.

Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.

And here, I thought Our Little Foe’s had a few other gripes about us as well. In fairness, you do have to take the good (ending discrimination against the Palestinians) with the bad (Shariah Law, destruction of Israel). I’ll just bet there’s a well-thought out solution to that one.

The point is, a mature state is one that is willing to listen to the concerns of other nations. It is childish, Mr. President, to continue to dismiss the very idea of diplomacy. That is why your presidency was a disaster. Likening your party's opposition as a Nazi sympathizer is really not helping your cause any. The most tragic possibility is that you are held personally responsible for destroying the Republican Party, making the United States a de facto one party state until the Right is able to reorganize.


I’m sorry Mr. President, but you just lost the whole argument via a violation of Godwin’s Law. Do us all a favor and take a few more months vacation just like you did before 9/11(Our Fearless Leader needed a full month of rest after a grueling 7ish months in office).

Chris

Making your presidential campaign stand out

Now that Pennsylvania is done mattering for the moment, I thought I would post something of very little intellectual value. I got this as an e-mail forward from a co-worker. I appreciate it because it nails all of the candidates and takes a couple of cheap shots at Our Fearless Leader and friend along the way.

h/t to Lin

By Hart Seely
Posted Monday, April 14, 2008, at 12:34 PM ET

Hey there, Zeke, I'm calling on behalf of the Obama for President Yokel-Outreach Hotline, offering you a chance to climb out of your bitter, dead-end hole and do something right for once: Vote for Barack Obama! Now, before we get started, call Charlene in from the pen, and let's put down the gun …

***

Hi, I'm calling on behalf of Senator Hillary Clinton. Sorry to wake you at 3 a.m., but that's exactly the point we're trying to make …

---

***

Hello, I'm calling on behalf of Senator John McCain. Please don't hang up. Oh, God, please, don't hang up! He'll scream at us again. He gets that look, you can't talk to—OHMYGOD, HE'S COMING …

***

Hi, I'm calling for President George W. Bush. According to our records, you are one of the 15 percent of the American public who believes this country is moving in the right direction. Because of that, we've been authorized to give you this one-time chance to buy $10 Rolexes from our special online value store …

***

Hi, I'm calling from the American Polling Institute. Would you approve of an intra-presidential race marriage between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama?

***

Hello there, I'm calling from the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C. This call, like all your phone calls, is being monitored, not just for quality control but to learn what you're up to …

***

Hello, I'm calling on behalf of Senator Hillary Clinton, the most experienced candidate running for president. As you know, Hillary has overcome terrible tragedies and … (sniff) … sorry … forgive me … I just get emotional whenever I think of what he did to her …

***

Hello? Hello? I'm calling from Septuagenarians for John McCain, and we're hoping that you'll support our … hello? Hello? I think I did something wrong again. Hello? I touched something, and the screen changed. Hello?

***

Hello! I'm calling for Senator Barack Hussein Obama who—praise be to Allah!—shall bring the sword of justice to the infidels as our next president.

***

Hello, this is Dick Cheney. I'm talking to you from a secure bunker deep within the earth. Through a blend of science and the dark, mystical arts, I have transferred my brain into pure energy, and I am speaking to you now, mentally, though it may seem like it's coming through the phone…

Okay, I thought it was funny. Others disagree...


Chris

Toughest job in Washington

Dana Perino must have the toughest job in D.C. these days. On Easter Sunday, April 23, four more U.S. soldiers died in Iraq. That attack brought the death toll up to an even 4,000, which seems to have been when the MSM started focusing on the war again.

Not to worry, though. Our Fearless Leader's was on the job the very next day making sure all was well on the homefront. Errr.... Okay he was busy hosting the annual Easter Egg roll.

photo borrowed from Britain's Telegraph.

In fairness, the 2008 Easter Egg roll was dedicated to ocean conservation. Later in the day, he did manage pop over to the State Department. In fact, here's how the President spent the rest of the week.

So while the Commander in Chief was having a good day last week, here's how press secretary Dana Perino's day went:



I can't identify the male reporter asking questions, but the female voice is Helen Thomas. Never one to shy away from calling "bullshite", her questions and comments seem to make Perino more and more frustrated as the press conference drags on. The Washington Press Corps won't be the same when she finally retires.

Thanks to TPM and C&L for the stories initially.

Chris

Flashback

Who says C-Span never shows anything interesting? Here is a gem I came across tonight. Enjoy.



Chris

Worst decision since those recruiting violations

Southern Methodist University, home of the Mustangs, recently accepted the rather dubious honor of hosting W.’s Presidential Library. This comes, of course, over the objections of the faculty and alumni. The president wants to raise $200 million, possibly even from his good friends in Saudi Arabia, to erect a lasting monument to his service as president. I really don’t see the point. The disaster of the last seven years has been permanently etched into my brain. I guess the rationale is that we need to leave a primer to future generations on how NOT to run a country.

There are two problems going on here. The first is that our fearless leader is too afraid to disclose where exactly the money is coming from. Watch it:

With all due respect (both modicums) Mr. President, the appropriate response to an informal freedom of information request is not, “nice try." How do we know that you and your team are not soliciting donations in return for your good graces and favors during the rest of your lame duck term?

The second problem is that, thanks to a law that was passed by congress an executive order that W. signed in those scary days after 9/11, W.’s library might not even contain all of the records of his presidency. Oh, and guess which one of our favorite unemployed Bushites is advising on this thing. So much for leaving a legacy for our posterity from which to learn.

Oh, and that $200 million. here is a partial list of what that amount could cover:

Efforts to clean up brownfields in Connecticut
Projected deficit in foreign aid created by increases in food prices
The costs of new school construction in Santa Ana, Calif., thus leaving no child behind
Damage to Ecuadorian crops caused by flooding
All of the new development in Niagara Falls last year
Bangelina's Prenup

At least SMU has a heckuva football team…

Maybe this will set precedent at SMU: the athletics department could redact all of those football records since the 1988 season.

Remember 9-11-01 and plan for 1-20-09.

Chris

Systematic hysteria revealed

Correlation does not prove causation...

...nor does it disprove it:

Fair warning: the video is 17 minutes long.

Chris

There goes the sun

Some years back, the legendary White House correspondent Helen Thomas spoke in our little town. She called the Bush administration one of the most secretive ever. Considering Ms. Thomas covered the Nixon Administration, that's a pretty strong indictment.

The latest is not quite on the level of the 16 words. It pales in comparison to the destroyed torture tapes. It is really not even in the same ballpark as the NIE on Iran. But it is one more example of the Bush Administration attempting to hide bad news. Seems kinda pointless really, considering Bush's current approval rating.

Due to "budgetary constraints," the Department of Commerce's Economic and Statistics Administration will be discontinuing this site on March 1. Up until now, this site allowed easy public access to a plethora of economic data as soon as it is released. The "we ain't got the money this week" argument fails when you consider that 1) the proposed budget for this year is a whooping $3.1 trillion and 2) millions of people operate websites absolutely free. Ye gods, just include a few Google ads, and the site will pay for itself.

The public is well aware that the economy is currently in the toilet. We just want to know how far it is to the bottom of the sewer.

In fairness, the Office of Budget Management Watch, an independent group, has announced that they will start providing the same information on their website.

The Bushies must think the less you know, the better. Here is a good list of some of the more egregious lies coming from the administration lately. The problem with secrecy is that the public and media have no chance to vet the veracity of government claims (like the 16 words) before the government pursues potentially disastrous policies (like invading a sovereign country, just as an example). A little probing by a critical press corps is essential to solid collective decision making.

Here are the original 16 words, by the way: "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,"... Too bad it turned out to be untrue. (More about this in a future post.)

Government needs to stop operating on the assumption that information should be classified unless it is okay to release it. Instead, the assumption should be a government record is open to public inspection unless there is a reason to seal it. My beloved Pennsylvania just got that message this week. As of next year, we will not longer have one of the weakest open records laws in the country. Thanks, Governor Rendell. With all that sunshine, Punxsutawney Phil should keep seeing his shadow for a long time.

We have the right to know what our government, the one we elected, is up to. We as a public need to trust that the information provided to reporters is complete and accurate. Then we can stop pursing policies based on misinformation.

Chris