originally posted March 25, 2004
[update: Below are pictures of the FDR Memorial, which you still won't find here.]
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I'm outraged.
Today was "Girls' day" for my wife, sister and mother... (they do this occasionally, I think it's a girl thing). Was a beautiful day... 70°... sunny... the beginning of the cherry blossom season in DC. A perfect day to see the monuments... basically just have a nice relaxing day off.
Plus, Susie has been hyping this chocolate bread pudding from McCormick and Schmick's, and mom finally got tired of hearing about it, so she gave in and agreed to go (or something like that).
Apparently they had a great time. They had their lunch at McCormick and Schmick's... spent most of the time just laughing. Susie took tons of pictures, and now her feet are killing her because she chose not to listen when I told her to wear comfortable shoes... Nevermind.
Anyway, apparently an ill-tempered mother nature chased away the cherry blossoms... and M&S wasn't serving the chocolate bread pudding for some reason... but regardless, I'm sure the 3 of them managed to enjoy themselves. Mostly because they make it impossible for themselves not to. All 3 of them are insane though, but we won't get into that.
None of this is why I'm outraged.
Check this out:
It was at the FDR memorial where Susie took most of her pictures (I'll post them as soon as I can configure a picture hosting thinga-ma-jig). We're here at the house... looking them over... finding the good ones and ditching the bad ones. We're reading the quotes inscribed on the stones in and around the memorial... overall, they're the most notable of FDR's quotes on war and civil liberties.
So, I went to check out the National Park Service webpage to see if I could link a quote... and what did I find?
Nothing.
Photos of the FDR Memorial... and most of the quotes... can no longer be found on the NPS webpage, (note the date the page was removed was October 19, 2001)... a victim of the Andy Card/DOJ webscrub, ordered October 12, 2001. Thus giving you (a human with a computer) no longer a link to pictures of the Federal government's own memorial honoring Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency. Many of these quotes are viewed by some, myself included, as some of his most poignant quotes... as relevant today as they were when he first uttered them, some 70 years ago.
A new site without a direct link to the inscriptions has been added
So, here ya go... this is what George Bush and his crew do not want you to see. (scroll down)
Pretty scary stuff, huh?
I'm curious though. How does the passage below (excerpted from the DOJ FOIA memo which led to the removal of the FDR inscription page) differ from the inscription that was removed from the National Parks Service website?
The Department of Justice and this Administration are equally committed to protecting other fundamental values that are held by our society. Among them are safeguarding our national security, enhancing the effectiveness of our law enforcement agencies, protecting sensitive business information and, not least, preserving personal privacy
