Censoring the Dirty Parts

My grandma had a book about how to be a good wife, written in the 1940's, and there's a whole chapter that's been torn out. Me and my big brother were trying to figure out what it was about, because she even marked out the name of the chapter in the table of contents. We figured it was something dirty and naughty but we never found out what it was about.

Grandma was also a Republican and one of the most sneaky conniving women I've met.

This is all true, just ask my big brother.

But, I think Grandma and the Bush Administration are a lot alike.

At the National Security Council's request, the White House excised
a full chapter on Iraq's economy from last week's Economic Report of
the President...

The decision to delete an entire chapter from the Council of Economic
Advisers' annual report was highly unusual. Council members --
recruited from the top ranks of economic academia -- have long prided
themselves on independence and intellectual integrity, and the Economic
Report of the President is the council's primary showcase.

[...]

(White House Spokesperson, Dana) Perino said the chapter did not
belong in the Economic Report of the President. "A decision was made
not to include a chapter on Iraq's economy in the report, as the Economic
Report of the President is an analysis of the American economy," she said.

However....

In fact, the Economic Report of the President almost always
addresses international trade issues and has often dealt with the
economic policies of other countries. The 2001 report, the Clinton
White House's last, contained two sections on raising the economic
performance of other countries and bolstering incomes in the developing
world. The 2003 report, a product of the Bush administration, contained a
section on economic "Developments in the Rest of the World." A section
on "Economic Freedoms" discussed at length economic policymaking from
Chile to Austria, from India to Cote d'Ivoire.

Council members said they were striving for brevity even before the
Iraq chapter was removed. But the White House intervention heightened
concern among some economists that the Bush administration does not
value lengthy, reasoned analyses of its policies.

"They just don't seem to show that serious study is an important part of
politics," Bartlett said. "It's a very casual, hands-off, almost
lackadaisical approach to the policy process."

The Bush administration does not value lengthy, reasoned analyses of its policies????

I guess they just put out some economic policy thingys all willy nilly without thinking about it much? Boy, am I gonna have nightmares tonight.