Computer technicians have uncovered 22 million messages believed lost by the George W. Bush administration. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) and George Washington University's National Security Archive "...reached a final settlement of their long-running lawsuits challenging the failure of the Bush White House and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to take any action after confronted with evidence that millions of emails had gone missing from Bush White House servers over a two and one-half year period." "Documents produced so far show the Bush White House was lying when officials claimed no emails were ever missing. The record now proves incontrovertibly that Bush administration officials deliberately ignored the problem and, in fact, knowingly allowed it to worsen."* "We may never discover the full story of what happened here," said Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director. "It seems like they just didn't want the e-mails preserved." [more inside]
posted by ericb on Dec 14, 2009 - 86 comments

Flip-Flop faux-paux at the White House. On a recent visit to the White House, the 2005 national champion Northwestern women's lacrosse teams choice of footwear is causing quite a stir. Let the Kerry jokes begin.....
posted by cpchester on Jul 19, 2005 - 72 comments

"The Bush administration intervened to argue that their claims should be dismissed" I seriously can't believe it. This is Brechtian. Something has to be missing. This can't be my government.
posted by Smedleyman on Feb 16, 2005 - 60 comments

This is frankly not one of the best films ever made. "Realizing that sequels are often fraught with peril, the producers of Barney Cam secured starring roles from the President, the First Lady, many senior White House officials and a yet-to-be-named surprise cameo appearance."
posted by digaman on Dec 13, 2003 - 21 comments

Happy Loyalty Day, Everyone!
posted by Yelling At Nothing on May 1, 2003 - 32 comments

who is this richard perle guy anyway?

is anyone else a little concerned with some of his views and associations being one of the top advisors to our current administration?
posted by specialk420 on Mar 10, 2003 - 33 comments

In a long letter to Esquire magazine, the former head of Bush's Office of Faith-Based Programs blasts the White House as having practically no interest or expertise in making sound social policy: "[O]n social policy and related issues, the lack of even basic policy knowledge, and the only casual interest in knowing more, was somewhat breathtaking." DiIulio may have a bit of an ax to grind here, but it is still a fascinating look inside the Bush policy-making apparatus. (The letter was the basis for an article by Ron Suskind in Esquire which is not available online [press release here]. The saga leading to the publication of the letter is recounted in today's Tapped)
posted by boltman on Dec 3, 2002 - 22 comments

White House Wages Stealth War on Condoms The government is waging a covert war on condoms. Fact sheets on the effectiveness of condoms in preventing the transmission of the AIDS virus have disappeared from government sites. Right wing activists have been appointed to the the presidential AIDS panel. Government audits of AIDS activist groups who protest these policies have begun. So, apparently only evil-doers have sex outside of marriage, and they deserve to die horrible deaths.
posted by dejah420 on Nov 20, 2002 - 166 comments

The 'Gate-less Community "But something changed when George W. Bush became president. The current administration has not lacked questionable behavior: Karl Rove met with Intel executives in the White House even as he held a significant amount of Intel stock; Deputy Interior Secretary J. Stephen Griles, a former coal-industry lobbyist, intervened in an energy-exploration dispute on behalf of former clients; Dick Cheney met repeatedly with energy company officials who appear to have had a strong hand in formulating the administration's energy policy; and, of course, there is White. Yet each retains his job. Eighteen months into Bush's term, his only appointee to resign under a cloud is Michael Parker, the former civilian chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, and not over allegations of corruption, but for what this administration views as the one true deadly sin: disloyalty. (Parker publicly criticized the president's budget.) By contrast, two years into the Clinton administration, 10 political appointees had resigned; under the elder Bush, eight; under Reagan, 13. What has changed isn't so much the conduct of officials, but the standards by which they're judged. The "new tone" that George W. Bush brought to Washington isn't one of integrity, but of permissiveness."
posted by owillis on Jul 8, 2002 - 23 comments

Bush is at it again.
Is the fact that he is able to get away with things like this an indication of a backlash against the more open years of Democrats in the White House?
Is this secretly what the American public wants?
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger on Jul 10, 2001 - 48 comments

This White House will Have a Long Memory..... "To join the coalition, you must agree to support the Bush energy proposal in its entirety and not to lobby for changes to the bill... Should the bill change, you must support the changes in the legislation or drop out of the coalition. If you are caught attempting to lobby behind the back of the White House, you will be expelled from the coalition. I have been advised that this White House 'will have a long memory.'" -- Fundraising memo for the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth, a month-old trade group consisting of representatives from the various energy industries. The letter puts the admission to the group at "a very low price" of $5,000.
posted by brucec on Jun 22, 2001 - 11 comments

Affirmative action seems to be taking root in an unlikely place: the Bush White House. "There's been talk inside and outside the administration about having no more than half the 484 political positions in the cabinet and agencies go to white males and at least 30 percent to women," Fred Barnes writes in the conservative Weekly Standard.
posted by rcade on Apr 17, 2001 - 6 comments

Bush to frisk toddlers at annual White House Easter Egg Roll. High school massacres aside, isn't this going too far? I doubt that a 2 year old could fire off several rounds on an AK-47, much less load one. Even balloons are banned becaue they'll be mistaken for gunfire.
posted by ed on Apr 15, 2001 - 17 comments

Revealing look at Bush's policy and cabinet. Scary.
posted by skallas on Feb 11, 2001 - 14 comments

Welcome to a new era of drop shadows. Ever since Gore conceded, I was curious about the transition of the White House site. And, um, it's a little sparse right now. Did anyone catch what time it went live?
posted by holgate on Jan 20, 2001 - 59 comments

The first step in setting up a parallel government? "Republican vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney said if the General Services Administration will not assist George W. Bush's transition to the White House, the campaign is prepared to go ahead on its own. 'We will proceed drawing on other sources,' Cheney told reporters in Washington on Monday." Yeah, I just bet they will.
posted by tranquileye on Nov 27, 2000 - 18 comments