Bush being Bush

There is so much to love about this column by Maureen Dowd today that everyone just needs to click the link and read the entire thing.

Americablog highlights one funny quote which simultaneously pokes fun at two folks living in alternate realities of their own making, President Bush and Tom Cruise.

However, I wanted to mention the reference to a story I read earlier this week:

Eric Lichtblau reported in The Times this week that the administration was dumping the highly respected Lawrence Greenfeld, appointed by President Bush in 2001 to head the Bureau of Justice Statistics, because he refused superiors' orders to delete from a press release an account of how black and Hispanic drivers were treated more aggressively by the police after traffic stops. The Justice Department study showed markedly higher rates of searches and use of force for black and Hispanic drivers, compared with white drivers.

Fearing that the survey would give ammunition to members of Congress who object to using racial and ethnic data in terrorism and law enforcement investigations, Mr. Greenfeld's supervisors buried it online with no press release or briefing for Congress.

Mr. Lichtblau wrote that when Mr. Greenfeld sent the planned press release to the office of his supervisor, Tracy Henke, then an acting assistant attorney general, the section on the treatment of black and Hispanic drivers was crossed out with a notation: "Do we need this?" Ms. Henke herself had added a note: "Make the changes."

Like Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, John Bolton and others who helped spin reality to suit political ends, Ms. Henke was rewarded by the president. She has been nominated for a senior post in the Homeland Security Department.

I'm so damn sick of the censorship attitude which persists throughout the entire Federal employment system. It's been especially bad under the Bush Administration, however. If you read several days ago, you will see the story of Bunnatine Greenhouse. (I dodged seeing the General, by the way.)

I've gotta get out of government work.