"Curtain of Secrecy" Elaine Chao and punishing journalist

[alfredo]

who tell the truth.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/editorial/12289311.htm


Elaine Chao's Labor Department has gone to ridiculous lengths to lock up public information about mine safety enforcement.

Now the attempt to control the news has become downright vindictive.

Phony reporter and paid escort Jeff Gannon was welcome at White House press briefings, where he lobbed softball questions. But an award-winning journalist who oversees a mining-industry newsletter is being excluded from briefings on such things as new diesel regulations in mines and a "Do the Right Thing'' workplace safety campaign.

Ellen Smith, owner and managing editor of the Mine Safety and Health News, has yet to receive an explanation for why she has been blackballed from press conferences and denied access to government officials.


more at link

[enough]

1. kick

[salin]

2. Important item....

think back to the mining collapse back in either late 2001 or early 2002; Bush exploited the scenario when lives where heroically saved. And then cut funds for mine safety.

Here we have a story that repeats familiar bushite themes - these are the stories when played through the media that start to prick the public psyche per the themes:

1 Hiding information from the public, esp information about safety, health, environment. Why? Most often to protect corporate interests.

Theme: Bushites: We the govt for the corporations hold the following as self-evident, that corporate interests are to be served to preserve the dominance of our political party by enriching those who enrich our campaign coffers; And further we pledge that pesky citizens do not need to be kept safe, healthy, or have the ability to pursue happiness.

2 Vindictive behavior towards those who try to get information to the public.

3 Orwellian work of federal departments doing the exact opposite of the departments mission.

Did you know that the lawyers in the DofL under Reagan spent most of their time not protecting labor but fending off lawsuits against the dept for NOT doing their job. Round Two under bushjrco.

[alfredo]

3. Here in Kentucky

we are fighting the coal operators and their mountaintop removal practices. bush gave them a measure of immunity against lawsuits. We are fighting that, not just those whose homes are being destroyed but for all the people whose water supply comes from the eastern mountains.

Getting data from the government usually means a long, expensive fight. It shouldn't be this way. Everything we have asked for is public record.