Please explain how Cheney's Energy task force is allowed to remain

[The Backlash Cometh]

secret, but Clinton's private conversations with his lawyer were not?

Per this article, which claims "Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on the document. She said that the courts have upheld "the constitutional right of the president and vice president to obtain information in confidentiality.""

You would think that legal counsel requires a higher benchmark of confidentiality, compared to cronys who are about to make a massive change in public policy. Is it me, or do these priorities seem skewed to everyone?

Full article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842_pf.html

[priller]

1. Unfortunately, she is sort of correct

Both the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch sued to find out who was there, and both lost. Now, I don't know if that means there is a "constitutional right" involved, but the courts did rule in Cheney's favor.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. This, I'm aware of. What I don't understand is why the courts,

who rely on precedent, would allow Clinton's advice from his lawyer become public information, while advice from political cronies are not? Especially with this administration who has been abusive and broken just about every trust imaginable.

Precedent is precedent. If they allowed the legal counsel to be public, so should the Energy meetings.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. Because the lawyer in question was a government employee.

I think this also means that if anybody ever bothered to investigate W's role in approving the use of torture, his conversations with Gonzales would be fair game.

Fat chance of that happening, though.

[fasttense]

3. Cheney gets away with secret meetings because the Supremes

are no longer about justice, they are about paying back the political machine that gave them their jobs. The Supremes are a bunch of old goats trying to dance to the right tune.

[Slit Skirt]

4. Duck hunting will get you a lot

Cheney went duck hunting with Scalia..and if I am remembering correctly, they travelled on Air Force 1. there was a big stink made by libs but nothing done. Scalia would not recuse himself. Scalia voted to keep the attendees at the Energy task force secret

[Bridget Burke]

5. And why was this not a bigger story?

So much of what's gone wrong since Bush took office could probably be traced to those meetings.

[Slit Skirt]

7. Bingo.........

that's why you didn't hear about it.
they were plotting out oil fields in Iraq and
a pipeline in Afghanistan.....


http://www.counterpunch.org/tomenron.html
A Creeping Collapse in Credibility at the White House:
From ENRON Entanglements to UNOCAL Bringing the Taliban to Texas and Controlling Afghanistan
By Tom Turnipseed

The Bush Administration's entanglement with ENRON is beginning to unravel as it finally admits that Enron executives entered the White House six times last year to secretly plan the Administration's energy policy with Vice-President Cheney before the collapse of the Texas-based energy giant. Meanwhile, even more trouble for our former-Texas-oil-man-turned-President is brewing with reports that unveil UNOCAL, another big energy company, for being in bed with the Taliban, along with the U.S. government in a major, continuing effort to construct pipelines through Afghanistan from the petroleum-rich Caspian Basin in Central Asia. Beneath their burkas, UNOCAL is being exposed for giving the five star treatment to Taliban Mullahs in the Lone Star State in 1997. The "evil-ones" were also invited to meet with U.S. government officials in Washington, D

[ComerPerro]

8. That answers the question, actually

because this wasn't a bigger story. That's why they can remain secret.

There isn't much pressure from the public or the media.

Every day, its looking more and more like that treasonous asshole Cheney set all this up back in 2001 during his energy meetings.

When you consider our current energy situation, the Iraq war, and the PNAC agenda, 9/11 looks more and more suspicious...

[Slit Skirt]

9. did you hear tucker carlson last night

I can't stand that guy and his stupid bowtie, but I had learned from DU that he had the BYU professor on who was challenging the official story...TC said that if we believe that the government was complicit we should leave the country...I emailed him and gave him an earfull

[ComerPerro]

10. Anyone who thinks Clinton committed a crime should leave, too

If you believe Clinton did anything wrong, then maybe you should just leave the country. You obviously hate America.


;)

Its the same "logic", right?

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. You hit it on the nailey.

If you follow the money, all you have to do is look around to see who is making more than God right now. The Petrol companies. And that's where it all began.

[MaineYooper]

11. the truly pathetic thing about this is-

that, in an open and honest debate about energy policy, the energy industry does actually deserve to be heard, so theoretically, Cheney shouldn't need to hide these meetings-

The trouble is that just like they have the right to be heard, the rest of us correspondingly have the right to know what they said, especially since the financial stakes are so high.

[Slit Skirt]

14. I believe it is against the law

to have corporations make government policy....hence the secrecy...

[MaineYooper]

17. well, that hits the problem on the head-

my intent with my first comment was to say that the energy industry should have input, not that they should make the policy.

And you're definitely right- if Cheney was simply allowing them to dictate the policy, then the secrecy is understandable.

I was just showing my naive optimistic side- hoping that in the best of all worlds, you would actually have government and industry and other advocates working together in an honest discussion of how to produce and most intelligently use (read: conserve) our energy resources...

to quote Roger Hodgson and friends:

dreamer, nothing but a dreamer...

[Slit Skirt]

18. I don't think the secrecy is understandable

I think it amounts to nothing less than jail time...we'll give em input allright.....input their asses in jail....and take their profits and rebuild our infrastructure.

[MaineYooper]

20. not being clear with my words again...

by understandable, I don't mean it's okay (far from it), but rather I understand why Cheney would want it, since he doesn't want anyone else to know that he's letting this happen.

sorry for the lack of clarity.

[Slit Skirt]

21. no need to apologize

i understood what you meant....i was just being sarcastic...my poor attempt at humor.....either way we are on the same page

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. ESPECIALLY IF THEY WERE PLANNING TO PUT OUR CHILDREN

AT RISK! For heaven's sakes. What importance does financial stakes have to us in America any more? The corporations are outsourcing their jobs, they're lowering the salaries for everyone in America, AND they expect us to sacrifice our children to protect their interests overseas. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

[seabeyond]

12. for years i have wanted to know what happened in htis meeting

who was in it, and how they fucked us......

i think it is a bunch of shit that we can have such candlestine activity right in front of our face in being screwed and we are told we dont get to know

this pisses me off, along with bush i saw the first plane hit and chalabi spy to iran and now prime minister and anthrax and abu torture pictures..... all these things in our face, we are not allowed to have answers to.

[leftofthedial]

16. the answer is simple

2000 was a coup

[Justice Is Comin]

19. But now this gives a factual document

for Lautenberg to get a full blown investigation that Cheney went to the highest court to prevent.

Cheney's heart must really be thumping now.