Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts Down Website Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators

reply to post by bigbert81

Well - it's kinda hard to hide it, as all stock market info is generally public domain. Maybe it's time for Bush to come clean on his inceredibly inane handling of the US economy. NO - wait a minute!! - what am I saying?? Bush actually admit what an ass he is???

Yeah - right.

Ok. Next question please...

J.

What? Something else sinister & horrible coming out of the White House? Surely you jest. lol This so reminds me of that one episode of the Daily Show where one of the correspondents (this was a couple of years ago too) did a segment where they made an on-screen, scrolling, alphebetized list of all the atrocities and scandals attributed to the Bush Administration. By the time they hit commercial I think he was on J. When they came back from commercial the list kept going on and on. I imagine now they would have to make the list alpha-numeric.

Comic Sans MS

News shut down is everywhere and people don't realize that this is the sure sign of major trouble. The President/Congress would not have run around like chickens getting that rebate bill passed, if they didn't truly know the severity of our economic situation here in 2008.
People really need to study the frightening similarities between today and 1928 - Look out everyone, here comes the crash.

this is the website in question:

www.economicindicators.gov...

I took the liberty of coping the descriptions and links :


Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services
www.census.gov...

Advance Report on Durable Goods
www.census.gov...

Construction Put in Place
www.census.gov...

Gross Domestic Product
www.bea.gov...


Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders
www.census.gov...

Manufacturing and Trade: Inventories and Sales
www.census.gov...


Monthly Wholesale Trade
www.census.gov...

New Residential Construction
www.census.gov...

New Residential Sales
www.census.gov...

Personal Income and Outlays
www.bea.gov...

Quarterly Financial Report
www.census.gov...

Quarterly Services
www.census.gov...

Retail E-Commerce Sales
www.census.gov...

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services
www.bea.gov...

U.S. International Transactions
www.bea.gov...

You know if someone really wanted to, they could continue to devulge this information. it wouldn't be that hard. Ofcourse nothing is free.

Cheers,

Camain

Originally posted by projectvxn

Originally posted by grover
The last 7 years? Throughout the 35 years of my voting life I have rarely seen voters use their heads for anything more than a hat rack. Sad but true. If any politician attempts to tell the American public anything that even vaguely approaches the truth he might as well kiss his career goodbye...

We are getting what we deserve... and thanks to that we are well on our way down. The American apex has past.

God bless you and your loved ones. You took all that out of my mouth. I'm sick of it all too, 29 and 25 of them seeing hate/death/crimes. What is wrong with us? Something is happening to us... something awful.

Wars, crimes against humanity, school shootings are getting more, people are dying left and right, sad world, money is the most important thing in the world, not our lives... what is WRONG WITH US... I for one stand for freedom and have decided even isolated by the rest of the society to stand for love and peace.

Only thing I can do... we need to get these criminals out of the government... we don't need a freaking government, we the people are governing our own lives and the world shall be peaceful once again... not #ing CNN/ FOX or any of these main stream media telling us how we're about to destroy each other just so we can accomplish some few men in power's agenda, like freaking hand puppets.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!... love life, embrace it, it's too short to waste it hating one each other! Try something NEW... care and love for another even if you disagree with them... show them how to love and hate them for not understanding it. Be an example of peace/love, eye for an eye only leaves you with two blinds.

reply to post by camain


Wow, props. Starred!

True, the information is still available, but the more it's censored, the harder it gets to find, obviously.

Also, this is step in a bad direction. Who says it's going to stop here?

[edit on 2/14/2008 by bigbert81]

Somehow the article concludes that all financial disputes within the economy are the result of the Bush administration which is abhorrent. There is no direct link citing that the website was shut down singlehandedly by the current administration. Going by the fact that they did mention budgetary constraints as the result of discontinuing their public services is far more believable. Maintaining such data on a frequent basis isn't a basic task nor is it inexpensive. However, there are a multitude of other government sources available where related information may be found.

I can only wonder aloud when oh WHEN will US Americans realise they have no government, no president ... all they have is the Dictator Bush or should I say the "Decider Bush". The scientific dictatorship of the Rothschilds and Rockefellers marches ahead non-stop.

That Obama and Clinton say nothing about these things well, what does it mean? That they are just as culpable for wanting to have the powers that Bush has...

Cutting off information is just another fascist move on the part of the Democrats and Republicans.

I urge US Americans to vote OUT all Republicans and Democrats (with exception of Kucinich and Paul). Vote them OUT. Give your nation another chance while you still have time. Libertarian, Green, Constitution ... give them the election day victories in order to bury the Lawlessness of the American Imperial State and return to a Republic.

(In Canada things are so far gone. I hope we can turn the country around.)

Originally posted by bigbert81
Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts Down Website Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators
thinkprogress.org

The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media’s negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.

The Bush administration’s latest move is to simply hide the data.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Oh, boo hoo.

Another non-news article. No one uses economicindicators.gov for anything; all the information on that site is from the Census Bureau.

While it's not unexpected that there's the standard 'blame bush' nonsense and dog piling, I continue to find it simply amazing that no one bothers to know what it is they're attacking ... or why. And, more often than not (especially here, for some reason) the dog pilers are jumping on the wrong person.

Furthermore, it's NOT President Bush who shut the site down, it's the Department of Commerce's Congressional Oversight Committee - a Congress which (while it hasn't really done anything other than name bridges and post offices) is run by D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T-S.

A non-news article causes people to hate bush for something he didn't do, while the actual villans - the democrats - do nothing but let the village burn down. To all this, I say: what a freakin' surprise.

Catch a clue, sheeple, catch a clue.

Your pal,
Meat.

Originally posted by Barbs46
Comic Sans MS

News shut down is everywhere and people don't realize that this is the sure sign of major trouble. The President/Congress would not have run around like chickens getting that rebate bill passed, if they didn't truly know the severity of our economic situation here in 2008.
People really need to study the frightening similarities between today and 1928 - Look out everyone, here comes the crash.

You are spot on. It is part and parcel of Bush & Co. intent to invade and/or destroy Iran. I suspect in dong the bidding of the World Bank, Venezuela will be next after Iran.

Hi All,

While I can sadly say that I am not at all surprised by this latest situation, I can say that with more incidents like this, one or two more people "wake up". Although I do find that most people are a bit confused as to what can effectively be done to fix or prevent what has been occuring.

I say effectively because many who "woke up" in 2003 & 2004 thought that voting would make a change and when it didnt, they became quite discouraged. Not that it is a good excuse or reason to give up. I think that apathy and minimalist personal responsibility is what keeps most people from taking the time to really understand the problems we have and the underlying reason that these problems plague our country.

It is far easier to follow behind a person, or persons, who has supposedly researched the situation and claims to have a solution. Many times the solution is one that starts with a person looking deep within themselves to see how they may be part of the problem and then try and find solutions that start with themselves.

Of course personal introspection is often a scary and intimidating process and most people avoid doing so at all costs, because it can be a painful process. I think that is why we have an obsession with the fantasy life that many famous people live. Anything to keep us from focusing on the personal problems that we may have. Of course I have plenty of optimistic hope that many people have started this process, even if they are doing so because they have been forced to.

While reading the article from the OP's listed website, I followed a few links to a site that has compiled a listing of many things that have been censored, i.e. removed from public scrutiny when the data revealed things that were less than positive. It is quite an interesting list to say the least.

Muckraker

Went from America-home of the brave
to America- Home of the corrupt....

Bush must be impeached- I keep hearing about these hearings for trials against him and Cheney for war crimes- yet no actions are being taken against him legally, officially, or even off the record.

Where's a Lee Harvey Oswald when you need one?

reply to post by camain



Thanks for that great post, the information should be in everybody's favorite list.

reply to post by mmmeat


Here, I think this says it all:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to close several libraries which were used by researchers and scientists. The agency called its decision a cost-cutting measure, but a 2004 report showed that the facilities actually brought the EPA a $7.5 million surplus annually.


* On November 1st, 2001, President Bush issued an executive order limiting the public's access to presidential records. The order undermined the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which required the release of those records after 12 years. Bush's order prevented the release of "68,000 pages of confidential communications between President Ronald Reagan and his advisers," some of whom had positions in the Bush Administration. More here. Bush did the same thing with his papers from the Texas governorship.


* A new policy at the The U.S. Forest Service means the agency no longer will generate environmental impact statements for "its long-term plans for America's national forests and grasslands." It also "no longer will allow the public to appeal on long-term plans for those forests, but instead will invite participation in planning from the outset."


* In March 2006, the Department of Health and Human Services took down a six-year-old Web site devoted to substance abuse and treatment information for gays and lesbians, after members of the conservative Family Research Council complained.


* In 2002, HHS removed information from its Web site pertaining to risky sexual behavior among adolescents, condom use and HIV.


* Also in 2002, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission removed from its Web site a document showing that officials found large gaps in a portion of an aging Montana dam. A FERC official said the deletion was for "national security."


* In 2004, the FBI attempted to retroactively classify public information regarding the case of bureau whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, including a series of letters between the Justice Department and several senators.


* In October 2003, the Bush administration banned photographs depicting servicemembers' coffins returning from overseas.


* In December 2002, the administration curtailed funding to the Mass-Layoffs Statistics program, which released monthly data on the number and size of layoffs by U.S. companies. His father attempted to kill the same program in 1992, but Clinton revived it when he assumed the presidency.


* In 2004, the Internal Revenue Service stopped providing data demonstrating the level of its job performance. In 2006, a judge forced the IRS to provide the information.


* Also in 2004, the Federal Communications Commission blocked access to a once-public database of network outages affecting telecommunications service providers. The FCC removed public copies and exempted the information from Freedom of Information Act requests, saying it would "jeopardize national security efforts." Experts ridiculed that notion.


* In 2002, Bush officials intervened to derail the publication of an EPA report on mercury and children's health, which contradicted the administration's position on lowering regulations on certain power plants. The report was eventually leaked by a "frustrated EPA official."


* Also in 2003, the EPA withheld for months key findings from an air pollution report that undercut the White House's "Clear Skies" initiative. Leaked copies were reported in the Washington Post.


* For more than a year, the Interior Department refused to release a 2005 study showing a government subsidy for oil companies was not effective.


* The White House Office of National Drug Policy paid for a 5-year, $43 million study which concluded their anti-drug ad campaigns did not work -- but it refused to release those findings to Congress.


* In 2006, the Federal Communications Commission ordered destroyed all copies of an unreleased 2004 draft report concluding that media consolidation hurt local TV news coverage, which runs counter to the administration's pro-consolidation stance.


* After Bush assumed power in 2001, the Department of Labor removed from its Web site "Don't Work in the Dark -- Know Your Rights," a publication informing women of their workplace rights. (via the National Council for Research on Women)


* The Department of Labor also removed from its Web site roughly two dozen fact sheets on women's workplace issues such as women in management, earning differences between men and women, child care concerns, and minority women in the workplace. (via the National Council for Research on Women)


* In February 2004, the appointed head of the Office of Special Counsel -- created to protect government employees' rights -- ordered removed from a government Web site information on the rights of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in the public workplace. (via the National Council for Research on Women)


* In early 2001, the Treasury Department stopped producing reports showing how the benefits of tax cuts were distributed by income class. (via the Tax Policy Center, from Paul Krugman)


* In 2006, as a number of groups sought records of visits by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates to the White House, the administration quietly made an agreement with the Secret Service, making sure that White House visitor records would no longer be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.


* On October 19, 2007, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a "final rule" that thwarts "public access to early warning information about motor vehicle safety hazards." According to Public Citizen, "today's final rule restricts public access to much of the 'early warning data' submitted by the auto and tire industry under the 2000 Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act (TREAD Act) to assist in the early identification of motor vehicle safety defects."


* On November 2007, a U.S. District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the White House from destroying back-up copies of millions of e-mails deleted (the White House says accidentally) between March 2003 and October 2005.


* On May 23, 2007, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) "sued the Department of Education for violating the Federal Records Act (FRA) by failing to preserve copies of emails of official Education business sent by agency employees through the use of non-governmental email accounts."

So yeah, boo-hoo.

One problem I have with the overall attitude in this thread is the idea that the people deserve to have this treatment. You realize that there are people all over the world that have been effected, and no one seems to be able to change the direction things are going in. It's a runaway train. Blaming the victims is odd. Do you want moms to leave their kids to go march or something? What kind of results are you expecting? Voting? haha. Sorry, but aren't the voting machines rigged? Is that the fault of the people, too? There are little kids, babies, the handicapped, and various other types of people that couldn't help if they wanted to, and even they would be clueless as where to start fixing the problem.

What EXACTLY is the problem or rather WHICH problem first?
You're taking the moral high ground but your standing on a heap of bodies that are experiencing the same unpleasantness as yourself, with the added pressure of the people standing on their heads demanding they do something about "it."
Which it? What it? When it? and most specificially HOW?

Revolution will not solve a thing. It'll just cost thousands of lives and be followed up by a tyranny that'll cost millions of lives. and when the smoke clears (if it ever does), life will have went from the unpleasantness we have now, to the abject horror of then.

Sometimes people just don't think things through.

Can you say "dependent"?

Americans have become a slave to the concept of "give me". We've lost the ability to take responsibility for ourselves and our country. All a politician has to say "...I promise you X, Y, or Z..." and their in office!

I write and/or call my representatives constantly in a futile effort to change things. It takes more than one voice t

Originally posted by gholland
Can you say "dependent"?

Americans have become a slave to the concept of "give me". We've lost the ability to take responsibility for ourselves and our country. All a politician has to say "...I promise you X, Y, or Z..." and their in office!

I write and/or call my representatives constantly in a futile effort to change things. It takes more than one voice t

even if every voice that was capable of being used in such a fashion, did so, do you think that would change anything?

let's say you form a large group and do a peaceful demonstration in DC. will anything be different tomorrow?

i don't think people are getting the entire picture.

i don't think we won the cold war

Originally posted by mmmeat

Originally posted by bigbert81
Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts Down Website Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators
thinkprogress.org

The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media’s negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.

The Bush administration’s latest move is to simply hide the data.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Oh, boo hoo.

Another non-news article. No one uses economicindicators.gov for anything; all the information on that site is from the Census Bureau.

While it's not unexpected that there's the standard 'blame bush' nonsense and dog piling, I continue to find it simply amazing that no one bothers to know what it is they're attacking ... or why. And, more often than not (especially here, for some reason) the dog pilers are jumping on the wrong person.

Furthermore, it's NOT President Bush who shut the site down, it's the Department of Commerce's Congressional Oversight Committee - a Congress which (while it hasn't really done anything other than name bridges and post offices) is run by D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T-S.

A non-news article causes people to hate bush for something he didn't do, while the actual villans - the democrats - do nothing but let the village burn down. To all this, I say: what a freakin' surprise.

Catch a clue, sheeple, catch a clue.

Your pal,
Meat.

Finally, someone with a clue.

Congress controls most of what happens in the US. The President has very little to do with the direct control of issues inside the borders. He can present ideas, push for actions and pass/Veto bills. Read you Constitution sometimes and look at the powers of the President. The fact is that Bush has less power then many of the original holders of the office did. Why is that? Because many of the powers of the Presidency have been handed over to Congress and the Judiciary by past Presidents.


The economy is going the way it is because we have been riding the bubble for so long it was bound to pop sometime. The issue is that we are not as bad as everybody cries. We are still at record levels compared to any past decade.

Good idea powers that be. Makes people think 'why would they remove a website to save money as they're pretty cheap to run'...

Or maybe it's a big NWO (if they exist) coverup to make us think the market could plummet while the puppets sit there twiddling the strings, so when it 'crashes' they can martial law everything and take control. Bah.. can make anything into a conspiracy really..

Interesting subject "the cold war". I was stationed on a Ballistic Missile Submarine out of Bangor WA for several years... When the USSR came tumbling down, the stabilization of the world came down with it. Now we're paying for it... we have two up and coming countries to contend with.

On the subject of multiple voice being able to change things in this country... If you recall a little over 200 years ago a few voices changed history!!!