Dick Traitor

"One Nation Under Cheney"

Anyone who has been watching American politics for the last six long insufferable years should have become aware of one thing. The real power in the White House is not in George W. (must stand for witless) Bush's Oval Office, but down the hall in Dick Cheney's 'undisclosed location', known officially as the OVP (Office of the Vice President.) Bush is nothing more than Cheney's sock puppet - giving speeches, taking the heat, acting as a potential bullet sponge for any possible assassination attempts, and always decidering on things exactly the way Cheney wants them to be decidered. To even imagine the situation otherwise is to be suffering from some Bizarro-world delusions. The chimperor is obviously the monkey to Cheney's organ grinder.

This diary from Kagro X at DailyKos puts some new perspective on just how powerful Cheney is, or at least how powerful he believes himself to be. Not that the Master of All Things Evil has not previously tipped his hand. He has already gone on record recently as saying that if he was subpoenaed by Congress, that he would probably refuse. In his own mind, at least, he is above the law. It remains to be seen if he will actually flaunt the law in the Scooter Libby trial, where he is expected to be called as a witness for the defense. But I digress. Here's the DailyKos story, which is about Cheney's refusal to catalogue his activities in the classification and declassification of official documents;

"A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies and 'any other entity within the executive branch'" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents.. ..but Cheney insists he is exempt."

Where this story really takes wing is WHY Cheney feels himself to be exempt.

"The Vice Presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch, but is attached by the Constitution to the latter. The Vice Presidency performs functions in both the legislative branch (see Article I, section 3 of the Constitution) and in the executive branch (see Article II, and amendments XII and XXV, of the Constitution, and section 106 of title 3 of the United States Code)"

But wait, there's more. Kasgro divulges that Cheney has even invented his very own SYSTEM of classification, with no basis whatever in law.

"The OVP has been out of compliance with executive orders on the classification of sensitive national security information for several years. During that time, they've been inventing their own classification system (and spending taxpayer money for official-looking stamps bearing this fake classification)"

Wow. In two hundred and thirty years, no-one has come close to making any sort of claim like this. Not only has Cheney pronounced himself as uniquely occupying both the legislative and executive branches of government, but in doing so he has also intruded on the powers of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution. This is a power grab parallel to, and quite possibly exceeding, the odious theory of 'unitary executive' powers conferred unilaterally on the pResident by Justice Department functionary John Yoo. And finally, in case it escaped anybody's attention, the authority Dick is flaunting here is BUSH's EXECUTIVE ORDER. Unbelievable.

As with much of what BushCo™ have accomplished over the last six years, they are likely to get away with this too. Why? Because no sane person in the late eighteenth century could have possibly provided for the monumental degree of pure evil exhibited here, the deliberate brutal concentration of ill intent. Even while calling King George III a tyrant, conceiving a tyranny like this would only have driven Jefferson, Madison, Adams, etc. into despairing madness. Just as, even knowing about the careers of Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy, each one of us still insists on taking solace in the fact that Hannibal Lecter and Freddy Krueger are only fictional characters. To confront the real horror is to invite insanity.

TAGS: Constitution, Secrecy, Dick Cheney, Power Grab