In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Not Up to Code? Embellishing the Flag, Then the Web Site
The Washington Post catches up to what blogs have been writing about for a while (writing on the flag), and seems to have even noticed the rather odd phtos on bush's website:
Nobody ever said compassionate conservatives are colorblind. On the Bush '04 campaign's new Web site, there is a "photo gallery" feature for each of the president's policy priorities. In the "compassion" photo gallery, 16 of the 20 shots feature Bush with non-white faces (the other four are studies of Bush). By contrast, all 16 of the photos in the "environment" gallery display what appear to be white complexions.
They also notice that Bush is breaking federal law (no big news I'm sure, but I didn't know about this particular one):
The main eyebrow-raiser is the posting on the official White House Web site of speeches by Bush and Vice President Cheney at fundraisers for their reelection campaign. The government Web site, www.whitehouse.gov, displays, for example, Bush's speech to a Bush-Cheney luncheon last week in Oregon, in which Bush pronounced the event "a record fundraiser," and the previous week's fundraiser in California, in which he said, "We're laying the foundation for next year's campaign."
Foul, judges Larry Noble, the executive director of the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics. "It's inappropriate. It's a government Web site. It's the use of government property for political work, which is illegal. They have to be careful."
The Democrats' all-purpose gumshoe, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee, protested that "a government Web site paid for by taxpayer funds is being used to disseminate partisan, political information." Particularly irksome to Waxman was a Cheney speech on the White House site joking that those present "probably paid a little more to get in than I did," and noting that "every dollar we raised was important."
An analysis by Waxman's lawyers argued that Bush and Cheney, when they appear at fundraisers, are giving "not official speeches, bur rather political speeches." According to the U.S. Code (31 U.S.C 1301(a)), "appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made," which means only for official -- not political -- purposes. By posting campaign speeches on the Web site, White House staffers could be violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political actions by government employees. If the White House considers the fundraising speeches "official," the lawyers argue, they could be violating anti-bribery statutes.
White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said the administration believes no laws have been violated.
Well is Ashley says that that's the case, well then I guess we should all just move on.
- rob 3:56 PM - [PermaLink] -
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