It is NOT legal, under the Constitution, to declare a policy or policy
meeting or policy-makers names secret, just as a matter of personal
preference.


Jeff Rigby wrote:
It is an option and has been upheld as a right of the executive branch.


Oh yeah, that's one of the fundamental principles outlined
by the Founding Fathers: "A Republican President shall be
entitled to keep anything secret he wants, especially if it
might be politically embarassing. A Democrat President, OTOH
shall not."

Was that the double secret probation clause in the
Constitution? Our system of gov't is founded on the citizens
rights, including the citizens right to know what his gov't
is doing.


If you can't get the planners for our energy suppliers to come talk with
you unless their names are withheld from the press then what do you do.

Get other planners who will. Do you think there isn't a long long list of
people, some of whom are not necessarily motivated by profit over
patriotism, who would like to give high-level advice on national energy
policy?


One of the problems we have is that there aren't any others.

Bull****, plain and simple.

You don't know who they were, so how do you know there
weren't any others?

Or do you mean there "aren't any others who are in bed with
Vice President Cheney and who are committed to maintaining
tremendous profits for the oil industry, even against the
best strategic interest of the U.S."?



.... There are too
few home grown energy suppliers in this country, many of our top suppliers
especially in the N.E. are owned by foreign companies who don't want us
energy independent. That limits the list to a select few energy suppliers.


Uh huh. Is there even one tiny scrap of evidence that energy
independence was part of Cheney's energy policy? I'd love to
hear it.



Again, the names and content of the meeting were kept secret because of the
partisan politics being played in this country. Look at your reaction for
instance...


Well, my reaction is that a citizen of the U.S. has
enumerated rights which trump the gov't desire to keep
secrets. Your reaction seems to be that the closer we get to
a fascist dictatorship, the better.... and you want to
complain about my attitude. That's "partisan politics?"

DSK