Reply #13: its an odd era...

[salin]

my cynicism has spiked so high in these years. You are correct per the public comment per the agencies... but call me a skeptic does it matter that it might be against the law for them to ignore/avoid topics related to the new legislation?

I would guess that, yes, enough time has gone by in terms of the earlier signing statements. I would also venture to guess that procedures per posting were followed, as it was expected that the signing statements were buried in the records (fed register) that few read, and thus there would be no cross checking and following up on agencies websites/records. In short, for years things the practice was so obscured that noone had to worry about it. Indeed it seems the practice went unchecked for five years before it came to light due to the controversy surrounding the torture amendment (with Cheney lobbying the senate to LET THE CIA torture), being passed and signed into law... and some media followup which stumbled across the signing statement on that legislation. Even after that it was months before the practice came up again (now folks were looking for it) in the Patriot Act - and finally with the Savage/Globe expse which highlighted the scope and frequency of the practice. Long way of getting to my point:

They probably didn't have to try to hide anything for a long time, as it was so obscure that noone was looking. (The old hiding in plain sight). Now that there is intense scrutiny, I would bet all sorts of odd maneuvers guided by the curiously opportune legal rulings of legal counsel in the WH, will be undertaken to make the federal agencies work more obscure to make the ability to 'cross reference' much more difficult.