Even with the hordes of Flying Monkeys dispatched to smear Richard Clarke this week, the Bush propaganda merchants didn't lose sight of the little opportunities to distort public discourse.
A page-two story in Newsday this past Wednesday, Silence over national parks' cuts, details how managers at our national parks have been warned not to release news about budget cuts, but instead should describe the inevitable cuts as "service level adjustments."
Managers are also urged to make cuts "from as many areas as is possible so it won't cause a public or political concern," according to the memo, written by Sandy Walters, a deputy regional director in Boston. [Emphasis added.]
[snip]
The memo will be the topic of questions tomorrow morning in Washington, when National Park Service director Fran Mainella is scheduled to testify before the House Interior Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, said Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-Saugerties), New York's only representative on the subcommittee.
Hinchey said the memo "is so typical of everything that happens in the Bush administration -- hide the truth, obfuscate, don't allow the people to understand what you're doing."
[snip]
Parks advocacy groups condemned the Walters memo and the administration's stewardship of the park system.
They said the memo's message follows a pattern set by the disciplining in December of National Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers, who was placed on administrative leave soon after she was quoted in the media about budget reductions for her force.
"Never before have the people in the park service we work with been so afraid to tell the truth about the status of their budget," said Peter Altman, director of the Campaign to Protect America's Lands, a policy group based in Washington, D.C.
Any notice of Mainella's testimony was buried by the avalanche of attention given, rightly, to Richard Clarke's appearance before the 9/11 committee.
Just another instance of the Bush modus operandi in this matter, as in all things.