Judge hands loss to White House on visitors logs

[sabra]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday rejected the Bush administration's latest attempt to keep secret the identities of White House visitors and declared that it engaged in illegal record-keeping practices.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that the practices in dispute took place before October 2004 when the Secret Service transferred large numbers of entry and exit logs to the White House and then deleted internal Secret Service copies of them.

The practices ended, the judge said, after various private organizations went to court in an effort to gain access to the logs.

Lamberth's ruling brushed aside the government's argument that revealing Secret Service logs would impede the president's ability to perform his constitutional duties.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gkW8Q49S2BmJUNlYeifJwhgVqwXQD95JQDVG0

[defendandprotect]

1. Cheney is probably standing by to burn them . . ..

We should have fire marshalls at the ready in DC until they leave!

[Lochloosa]

8. He already did. Remember the fire?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/19/eob.fire/index.html



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Firefighters quickly doused a two-alarm fire Wednesday in the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which houses the vice president's ceremonial offices and the majority of the White House staff.

[Blaq Dem]

10. Did the shredders start the fire?

They must've overloaded the fuses.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. The bad wiring was a convenient excuse.

They may be the slickest bunch of white-collar criminals the nation has ever seen.

Of course, enough of them were involved with the Nixon administration to have learned important lessons from those who didn't get away with their crimes.

[DCKit]

19. Since when do "treason" and "unconstitutional acts" fall under the umbrella of "white-collar crime"?

I always thought "white-collar" referred to business crimes like embezzlement and fraud.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

20. I suppose the definition has expanded. It used to refer to the class

of people committing the crimes.

[madeline_con]

26. He must have done it during the appeal.

Now the records are "lost".

[awoke_in_2003]

15. You ask for a Fire Marshall, here ya go...

[peacetalksforall]

2. Did this blocking of visitors start right after the question about visits by Jeff Gannon?

[SharonRB]

5. The Gannon kerfuffle was after October of 2004

[KoKo]

27. After all these years we still don't know who Gannon was "servicing" in his "stay at homes"

at the White House. Was it Rove? Cheney? or some other person in the WH? Condi or lower level that he had so much "stay overnight status." :shrug:

[SpiralHawk]

38. "That's none of your business. Smirk." - Laura B.

[mackdaddy]

11. So logs of overnight WH stays of a known "Gay Man-Whore" ..

would "impede the president's ability to perform his constitutional duties."

yea, Probably...

[barbtries]

22. iirc

it was more relevant to abramoff

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Uh-oh. Time for Cheney to set another fire in the Executive Office Building? n/t

[peacetalksforall]

4. How to you equate a sex lie with all the ways this regime has gone against the

Constitution? From torture, rendition, spying, stealing, visitor lists?

[PDJane]

7. You investigate whether or not

Jeff Gannon is Jeff Gosh, and try to untangle the Larry King thing.

[santamargarita]

17. Don't forget about that gay hooker (aka reporter)...

...I don't remember his name.

[peacetalksforall]

29. You mean the gay, military, bald, night service, White House correspondent for Talon - an extremely

right wing offshoot of an ultra conservative entity who paid the bills for this 'journalist without a degree' That guy? If yes, - the initials are JG

[MNBrewer]

35. Looks like Joe the Plumber?

[SpiralHawk]

39. Gannon was not military. He is a republicon CHICKENHAWK thru and thru

He liked to lie and pretend he was military, like so many of those in the republicon 'leadership' Gannon never served the USA in the military for even 5 minutes, he simply served the Bush-Republicon White House.

[sunnystarr]

43. clarification ?

"he simply served the Bush-Republicon White House."

did you mean served or serviced?

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

6. kick

:kick:

[No Elephants]

9. Thank heaven for small favors. Meanwhile, they've already destroyed most of their records.

[defendandprotect]

12. Wasn't there a story that Cheney had a shredder service once a week at his home?

[Pastiche423]

16. This shredder truck?

Frrom Wonkette:

http://crooksandliars.com/2006/10/31/shredding-with-dick/

[defendandprotect]

36. Thought I remembered something like that . . .

[No Elephants]

37. They've destroyed hard drives, too. Ooops!

[shanti]

13. the question is:

what DIDN'T they do that wasn't illegal? :shrug:

[Aristus]

14. "We Republicans reserve the right to castigate Bill Clinton for every visitor he ever had

to the White House, and we further reserve the right to keep our White House visitor list secret..."

Typical repuke hypocrisy.

[tclambert]

21. They're still trying to keep secret who was on Cheney's energy task force

Who could it be that they're so embarrassed to admitting they met with? Ken Lay? Somebody bin Laden? Taliban representatives? All of the above?

[xchrom]

23. so i'm guessing the 'energy task force' is on there? nt

[DallasNE]

24. "Illegal Record Keeping"

That sounds like a Judge telling the Justice Department to file criminal charges following a Grand Jury investigation. Obviously nothing will happen until after January 20th, but will a new Justice Department take heed of this Judge's declaration and do something?

[KoKo]

25. A "bit of positive news" ...but so many of us know how this goes..it ends up nothing...

Still...one has to have hope.

[Jambalaya]

28. "Finders" Keepers

Has anyone here ever Googled the "Finders?:" Pretty incredibile.Anyhoo,on the subject at hand ,the issue of Gannon and cheerleaders... Rah,rah,sis boom bah-------WHO was BOTH a cheerleader -AND-Prez of US ?????

[NorthCarolina]

30. Can you say Jeff "Bulldog" Gannon? n/t

[mopinko]

33. can you say DNA test?

did he ever submit to a test, like he said on the teevee that he would?

[superconnected]

31. Can you guys believe we put up with EIGHT YEARS of these felons.

F-k.

[annabanana]

32. Yay!.. We'll see how many times Abramoff & Guckert/Gannon were there.

And get a clue as to the make-up of Cheney's "energy task force". . .

[goforit]

34. Its time to place into law that the US gov't can and will arrest Former US PREZ/VPs.

If all crimes (past, present and future) warrant time in prison as it does to any other citizen.

[Canuckistanian]

40. So does that mean a FOIA request can get them released?

After Jan. 20th, I mean.

[The Backlash Cometh]

41. kick

[tanyev]

42. "Oh, sorry, Judge, in all the confusion of moving out of the White House,

those records seem to have been lost. Permanently. Trust us, we will never, ever manage to find them."

[progressoid]

44. Yep.

I hate to be pessimistic, but I doubt anything will ever come of this.