Monday, June 25, 2007

Can Democrats Dethrone King Cheney?



The Washington Post is doing a big take-out on Dick Cheney and the strings he pulls at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The articles in the series are not shockers. But the series is loaded with details that show that the Veep was pushing--and birthing-- some of the administration's most controversial policies (cruel and inhuman interrogations, secret detentions, wiretapping, etc.) even earlier than previously known. Here's one brief summing-up excerpt from the first article in the four-part series:

Stealth is among Cheney's most effective tools. Man-size Mosler safes, used elsewhere in government for classified secrets, store the workaday business of the office of the vice president. Even talking points for reporters are sometimes stamped "Treated As: Top Secret/SCI." Experts in and out of government said Cheney's office appears to have invented that designation, which alludes to "sensitive compartmented information," the most closely guarded category of government secrets. By adding the words "treated as," they said, Cheney seeks to protect unclassified work as though its disclosure would cause "exceptionally grave damage to national security."

Across the board, the vice president's office goes to unusual lengths to avoid transparency. Cheney declines to disclose the names or even the size of his staff, generally releases no public calendar and ordered the Secret Service to destroy his visitor logs. His general counsel has asserted that "the vice presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch," and is therefore exempt from rules governing either. Cheney is refusing to observe an executive order on the handling of national security secrets, and he proposed to abolish a federal office that insisted on auditing his compliance.


It's clear that Cheney is doing all he can to duck the normal checks and balances set up by the Constitution and to defy the fundamental premise of American republicanism: every part of the government is accountable to another part.

Articles like this will offer fodder to the Impeach Bush & Cheney crowd. But putting impeachment aside, congressional Democrats ought to go on a tear regarding Cheney and his anti-constitutional shenanigans--particularly his office's recent assertion that he can circumvent an executive order regarding the handling of classified records because his office is not technically part of the executive branch. At the least, the public ought to know who's on his payroll. But like a good mob boss, Cheney refuses to say who's part of his crew. This middle-finger approach to open government should not be tolerated. There ought to be hearings, and congressional Democrats ought to call Cheney and his staff as witnesses. This is certainly worth a constitutional showdown.

Today, Senator Barack Obama released a statement on Cheney that reads:

Throughout this administration, Vice President Cheney has consistently sought to operate in secrecy and thwart rules designed to ensure the public's right to know how their business is being done. I believe strongly that democracy works best when it does its work in the daylight. In an Obama Administration, we will launch the most sweeping ethics reform in history so that we can restore an open, honest government that finally makes real progress on the challenges facing the American people.


This was not the strongest statement possible. Obama and other senators should not be issuing statements but demanding hearings, investigations, and subpoenas (if necessary--which they will be). Cheney has turned the Office of the Vice President into his own secret undisclosed location. It's time for Democrats to force him from the bunker.

Posted by David Corn at June 25, 2007 01:08 PM

20 comments:

capt said...

Mr. David Corn,

"But putting impeachment aside, congressional Democrats ought to go on a tear regarding Cheney"

Absolutely! King Busheney have taken over and discarded the constitution - the only real question is: will we let them?

Thanks

Kirk

Gerald said...

Ivory Bill, I hope that you are right about the draft. I believe that more cannon fodder means more wars.

Hajji's back! Hopefully, Jeanne, Kathleen, and the others will offer their help and inforformation.

Our newspapers need to hold our politicians, justices and judges, and religious clerics feet to the fire. A common citizen does not have the influence to reach out to a wide pool of citizens with information.

Robert S said...

But putting impeachment aside...

For love of God or Reason, (take your pick) WHY?

Robert S said...

And let me echo Hajji's comments about Tom Morello's "Nightwatchman" performances. I've caught him playing at a few anti-war demonstrations, already. See him if you can.

capt said...

It's Time to Vote: Choose Your Science Idol!


The following are the 12 Science Idol cartoon finalists. Please vote on the right for your favorite one and be sure your vote is clearly marked before hitting "Sign now."



More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Union Of Concerned Scientists cartoon contest. All 12 are pretty good.



capt

Hajji said...

"...putting impeachment aside..."

What is the point of an investigation, if CONVICTION of a crime is "off the table"?

-T

Robert S,

I figured you had...he seems to work your 'hood!

Gerald said...

This quote is full of crap. The reason why Islam is a second rated culture is because they prevented women from reaching their potential. Another reason is that they censored books and they limited the publishing of books. Sharing ideas strengthens a culture and it does not diminish a culture. Hitler Bush is trying to have Nazi America related with Islam as a second rated culture.


Outrageous Quote of the week:

Jonathan Hoenig, the aptly named Capitalist Pig, won for this doozy:

"I don't think any rational woman would ever want to be President. That's what's still mystifying me about Hillary. ...It's not a question of her talent or her ability. I just think that - you know, being President - being Commander-in-Chief of all men - for me it goes against a woman's basic value of hero worship."


I will continue to say until the day I die. We need more women in the various countries determining policies and programs, especially if these women possess the two characteristics that make them God's greatest creation. These two characteristics are nurturing and sensitivity.

In Nazi America we have too many women who prefer to castrate men. These women are primarily from the Nazi Party or the Repuke Party.

Men in the Nazi Party or the Repuke Party want women to be barefoot and pregnant. I have nothing but praise for pregnancy but women in their 40's, 50,s, 60's, and 70's need to lead nations. Women in their 80,s and 90's need to relax and enjoy the twilight of their lives.

capt said...

The Secret Campaign of President Bush's Administration To Deny Global Warming


[...]

Whitman should have had her doubts. Prior to joining the Cabinet, she sought personal assurance from Bush that the EPA would be able to call its own shots without deferring to the CEQ - the Council on Environmental Quality, a policy arm of the White House. As Whitman recalls it, Bush made no effort to mask his bureaucratic ignorance. "What's CEQ?" he asked blankly.

Cheney took full advantage of the president's cluelessness, bringing the CEQ into his own portfolio. "The environment and energy issues were really turned over to him from the beginning," Whitman says. The CEQ became Cheney's shadow EPA, with industry calling the shots. To head up the council, Cheney installed James Connaughton, a former lobbyist for industrial polluters, who once worked to help General Electric and ARCO skirt responsibility for their Superfund waste sites.

Industry swiftly took advantage of its new friend in the White House. In a fax sent to the CEQ on February 6th, 2001 - two weeks after Bush took office - ExxonMobil's top lobbyist, Randy Randol, demanded a housecleaning of the scientists in charge of studying global warming. Exxon urged CEQ to dump Robert Watson, who chaired the IPCC, along with Rosina Bierbaum and Mike MacCracken, who had coordinated the National Assessment.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

I think the secret has been out for some time.


capt

capt said...

Um, you must have missed the memo: Kings and tyrants can NEVER be impeached.

Jeeze, you'd think this was old America.

All heil Neo-Amerika land of the sheep home of the compliant.



capt

capt said...

A bit off topic:

Why don't we just give citizenship (pending) to any person that wants it? This would insure a background check and it would get the new people in the "system"?



Just a thought

capt

Gerald said...

Let us dissect a part from the above quote - "hero worship."

Who in their right mind would have Hitler Bush and Hitler Cheney as heroes to worship?

I have only one hero to worship and His name is God, the Father.

David B. Benson said...

The Vice President is part of the legislative branch. The constitution states that the vice president is to preside over the senate.

On the other hand, there are no executive powers which devolve upon the vice president in the constitution.

There is something about the president appointing officers (to help him) with the advice and consent of congress.

Looks to me that Darth Cheney is MSU (Making Stuff Up)...

capt said...

Cindy Sheehan: Zombie


Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence,
Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.
In your head, in your head they are fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are crying...

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou...

Another mother's breakin',
Heart is taking over.
When the vi'lence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.
It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they're still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying...

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a...

-- The Cranberries

On the way home from Los Angeles yesterday, my daughter Carly and I stopped in a store on the Grapevine to purchase some CDs for the longish drive (6 hours). One of the CDs we bought was a greatest hits album by The Cranberries.

It's not me, it's not my family: One of the songs is the above song, Zombie. The Cranberries were an Irish group that took on social issues such as violence and drug addiction: serious problems in all societies, but especially their society in the 1990s. We were listening to the CD and after Zombie, I looked at Carly and she was wiping tears off of her face. She said: "How can you listen to that song? You listened to it the day Casey was killed while you were cleaning the house."

"It sure has deeper meaning to us now, doesn't it?" I quietly replied as I started weeping.

Another mother's breakin' heart is takin' over: I have been watching CNN this morning and I have learned more about the horrible family tragedy in Ohio and seen pictures of the flowers and cards left at the slain young pregnant woman's home. I am learning of another tragedy in Utah where a prison inmate killed a police officer. There are fires in California. One news item that hasn't appeared thus far is the 83 soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis who have been killed so far in Iraq in June because of George's bloody surge. No one has mentioned the 20 American mothers who still don't know their child is dead for lies. It seems that we news consumers can feel better about ourselves mourning a beautiful mother and her unborn baby killed by a callous murderer in front of their two year old son, then mourning thousands of people killed by the callous murderers in Washington, DC who care more about their corporate puppeteers than the lives they have destroyed.

It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen : I was recently in Dublin and statues are erected to the leaders of the Easter Week Rebellion of 1916 when Irish Patriots rose up against a fateful British decision to forcibly conscript the Irish for the "Great War" effort. After the uprising the British Empire executed 16 Irish Patriots. However, I have a slight correction: it's the same old theme since civilizations were formed. Imperial powers oppress, kill, demonize, and marginalize people who dare to be in the way of their empires. In the 21st century, you would think "civilized" countries would be finished with killing people for profit. Sadly, it seems we have learned and will learn nothing from all of the death and destruction caused by callous murderers who put on the cloaks of "respectability" of their elective offices and can serially slaughter in the name of the people of their states. How and why can these immoral wars continue? Because we are:

Zombie, Zombie, Zombie : One of the definitions of a zombie is a person whose behavior or responses are "wooden, listless, or seemingly rote; automaton" (dictionary.com). As Carly and I were wiping our eyes and blowing our noses yesterday, enormous gas guzzling behemoths were whizzing by us on I-5 rushing from point A to point B. Some had "Support the Troops" magnets and some had "W" stickers. I wonder if any of them reflect (for even a second) on what support for W and his pre-meditated, pre-emptive act of aggression has cost some people and if anyone they whizzed by yesterday (in smaller, more modest cars) were weeping because of their robotic allegiance to a dangerous imbecile. Even more disastrously, the immense majority of our brothers and sisters who disapprove of BushCo and its foreign policy ("if you're not with us, you're against us"), are apathetic consumer-ing automatons that allow the carnage to continue. And the violence caused such silence.

Our lives have been fundamentally altered forever. We never know when the grief will strike or from what direction it will come. The only thing we can be assured of is that it will always be there.

On I-5 yesterday, it came from Zombie.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

So much truth.


capt

capt said...

Democrats plan to cut Cheney out of executive funding bill

capt said...

The Empire of Clowns Continues on Its Murderous, Genocidal Path

capt said...

"The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool." : Stephen King

=
Alliance: In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted into each others' pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third: Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary

=
There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange." : Daniel Webster

=
"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil." : Socrates

=
To save your world you asked this man to die; Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?: W. H. Auden: "Epitaph for an Unknown Soldier"


===

David B. Benson said...

David Corn ---

Emm, Peach Mint!

Gerald said...

Praying Each Day: June 25

As I read praying each day for June 25, I have this feeling that the United Nations has failed in their charter.

Gerald said...

Goodbye

Gerald said...

The eyes of all peoples are still upon us, only for different reasons. Whom will we attack next? When will we be bankrupt? What good is the American consumer market when the mass of the people are employed in third world jobs? How much longer will those trillions of dollars held by foreign governments be worth anything? How long before Americans will be knocking on European doors claiming political asylum?


I have a friend who has frequently said to me that he wished he had some money because he would leave Nazi America for another country.

Yes, how long before Americans will be knocking on the European doors to claim political asylum?