"White House challenges release of visitor logs" "
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court sought compromise Monday between a liberal group demanding the names of White House visitors and the Bush administration, which says releasing the names would erode the president's power.
How? I mean, really?
By telling us who he met?
Well, it is the PEOPLE'S HOUSE!!
He's only OCCUPYING IT (pun intended)!!!
If released, the documents would show how often prominent religious conservatives visited the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence, allowing a glimpse into how much influence they exerted on government policy.
Among others (Israeli-first, neo-con Zionists, Abramoff)!!!
White House calendars are not generally considered public records, but reporters and watchdog groups have used Secret Service documents, which normally are public, to report on White House visitors.
Rather than having those documents released on a case-by-casis basis, the Bush administration wants them considered White House documents, which would keep them from public view for more than a decade....
WTF?! Bush planning on staying around that long, is he?
The judges were skeptical. They said they wanted to find a way to protect the president's rights without broadly prohibiting access to information that should be public.
"What in the documents are so quintessentially presidential?" asked Judge David S. Tatel.
"The name of the person going in to visit," Cohn replied.
"That's a public building," Tatel said. "You can stand out on 17th Street and watch who goes in and out."
"The Secret Service might have some qualms with that," Cohn responded.
"They might have some qualms but they couldn't stop you from doing it," said Chief Judge David B. Sentelle.
Rather than balancing the president's interest with the public's, Tatel said, the government was simply disregarding the Freedom of Information Act. He said the policy would allow the president to "draw a curtain around the White House."
Judge Merrick B. Garland said he was concerned the Bush administration's policy could extend to other White House agencies such as the budget office, which normally releases public records. Under the government's theory, Garland said, visits to the White House social planner, caterer and gardener would all be secret because the president needs to receive advice privately....
Translation: You ain't getting nuthin, shit-eating Americans!!!
Garland seemed to search for a solution short of the government's blanket secrecy but that would not allow journalists and special-interest groups to regularly request the names of every visitor to the White House. Under that scenario, he said, the president could never ensure that any meeting was confidential....
They aren't asking for the minutes; they just want to know who is influencing this guy!
