John Ashcroft (First Amendment Rights, Open Government) 

FACT: And so it comes to this. Last week, on the order of John Ashcroft, a Houston reporter was jailed for refusing to turn over notes and tape recordings, which would have identified her confidential sources, to federal prosecutors. Ironically, the hearing was closed to the public at the government's request, the transcript was sealed, and the name of the judge who sentenced her for contempt of court has not been made public. 

Bush Administration (Cover up, Criminal) April/2002 

FACT: The administration released 11,000 of 36,000 pages of documents relating to Dick Cheney's super-secret energy policy meetings. But no smoking gun hear. The administration heavily edited all smoking guns from the papers before they were released, in some instances censoring entire documents except for the subject line. 

COMMENT: If this isn't the "appearance of impropriety" that Bush was proclaiming to be unacceptable at the beginning of his term, then what could he possibly have meant. 

The Bush Administration (Lies, Cover up, Scrubbing the record, Stupidity) 

FACT: According to the Washington Post, the White House has been systematically scrubbing speeches by Bush (and by his staffers) to expunge all of the made-up words, mangled syntax, and other misstatements and Freudian slips. For example, Bush asked each American to volunteer "4000 years" (Meant to say "4000 hours") and called the lieutenant governor of the state by the incorrect name. But in the official transcript, all mistakes were corrected. In Knoxville, he got a hard time from some hecklers. Again, no mention in the transcript. In fact, the official record was edited when he called for a permanent extension of the estate tax (which he opposes), and it happened again when he made some bizarre comments about "devaluation" of the Japanese Yen. Even Ari Fleischer got scrubbed when he said that people "need to watch what they say." 

COMMENT: Like it or not, what the president says is a matter of historical record. These scrubbings are not simply corrections of innocent mistakes of grammar. They are covering up the real George W. Bush (and administration). Often, his slips are unintentional truth telling from a guilty mind that aches to spread its toxic thoughts throughout the land. It is these gaffes that will mark Bush's place in history and for that reason, their erasure from the record is criminal.

Bush (Lies, Criminal, Cover-up) 

FACT: The scheduled release of 68,000 pages of Reagan era documents is delayed by the Enron administration, which says it wants until June 21 to review them, in violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. The papers cover the period when Osama Bin Laden was recruited and trained by the Reagan Administration, as well as the period when arms were being sold secretly in the Middle East to finance the terrorist campaigns of the Contras.

COMMENT: This criminal infraction of the Presidential Records Act was designed to protect his father and members of his administration from the truths of Iran Contra.

George W. Bush (Cover up, Criminal, Aristocracy)

FACT: Bush signed an executive order which countermands the 1978 Presidential Records Act, and conveniently prevents Ronald Reagan's papers, which were due to have been released last January, from being released at all. 

COMMENT: Now why would they go and do a thing like that for? Could there possibly be something in those papers that would tarnish the image of the Godly Ronald Reagan and his silver plated henchmen? Note, that half of Bush Jr.'s administration used to be a part of the Reagan administration.

George W. Bush (Secrecy, Criminal, Aristocracy) 

FACT: The scheduled release of 68,000 pages of Reagan era documents is delayed by the incoming administration, which says it wants until March to review them, in violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. The papers cover the period when Osama Bin Laden was recruited and trained by the Reagan Administration, as well as the period when arms were being sold secretly in the Middle East to finance the terrorist campaigns of the Contras. 

George W. Bush (Lies, Secret Government)

FACT: On January 28, 2002 Bush defended his refusal to turn over records of Cheney's Energy Task force to the GAO. "We're not going to let the ability for us to discuss matters between ourselves to become eroded," 

COMMENT: This means that neither Bush nor his minions can say what they think without that advice being either criminal, unethical or immoral. In addition, Bush implies that the heads of corporations (in this case energy concerns) are privy to information that the rest of us lowly citizens are not allowed to know.. Note that Bush's gaffes inevitably reveal Bush's true thoughts. Freud 

Ari Fleischer (Lies, Cover-up) 

FACT: Most people would have given Bush the benefit of the doubt when he was shipped off to Nebraska by the Secret Service. The president was in danger and should be protected. According to Ari Fleischer, however, Air Force One received a phone call containing "code words" which indicated that it was a target. In fact, there was no such phone call. Ari later backed down - White House staffers had "apparently misunderstood comments made by their security detail." You originally could have read Ari's remarks for yourself at the White House website, but they have since been deleted from the transcript The White House claimed the deletion of the outrageous lie was a "transcription error", an "error" that they refuse to fix. Fortunately, the AP has it correctly. 

Reagan Administration (Cover up, Iran-Contra) 

FACT: A law enacted after the Watergate scandal meant that 68,000 papers from his presidential tenure were due to be released earlier this year. But six months after the papers were scheduled for release, they're still locked away in the basement of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It was reported that just days before he left office in 1989, Reagan quietly signed an executive order requiring the National Archives and Records Administration to notify the sitting president of any pending release of documents from previous administrations, and to give the White House time to review the papers. Wink, wink. Of course, the six month delay has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that half of the Bush administration worked for Reagan, and don't want the world to know what they were up to during the 80's (Read: Iran Contra). The GOP should jump at this chance to prove their innocence. Right?

Republicans (Cover up, Anti Free Speech, Secrecy) 

FACT: The Florida Legislature passes a law making it a felony to release autopsy photos without a judge's permission. The new law not only forbids copying of autopsy photos and records, but also prevents inspecting the records, hindering thousands of independent investigations of insurance claims, malpractice and murders. The law is specifically aimed at newspaper investigations into the death of Dale Earnhardt.