Dick Cheney Does Whatever the &*$! He Wants

Dick Cheney has decided he just doesn’t have to follow an executive order that requires reporting on how classified information is handled in any "entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information".

In theory, Cheney’s office should have been reporting what it does with classified information to the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), whose sole purpose is to ensure that the Executive Branch takes care in maintaining the integrity and secrecy of said classified information.

Since 2003 (same year that Cheney was given the authority to classify and declassify information...see below), Cheney’s office has refused to comply. They haven’t filed an annual report and they stonewalled attempts for an office visit. In fact, this past year, when the ISOO really started to put the hard press on Cheney’s office to file their missing reports, Cheney’s staff suggested that the ISOO be abolished all together (who really needs checks and balances these days anyway!). Cheney argues that since he is not only the Vice President, but also the President of the Senate, he is not governed by rules that apply to the Executive Branch, or seemingly any rules or laws at all for that matter.

The really funny thing is that the order that established the ISOO and requires this kind of reporting, is also the order that gave the Vice President the authority to classify and declassify information in the first place. In 2003, President Bush changed and re-issued an Executive Order first issued in 1995 by Bill Clinton to specifically include the Vice President in the very short list of individuals charged with the authority to classify and declassify information at will. And the VERY BEST part is that the exact line that gives the Vice President the power to determine the classification status of information, also identifies that he can do this ONLY when acting the capacity of a member of the EXECUTIVE BRANCH:

The authority to classify information originally may be exercised only by, (1) the President and, in the performance of executive duties, the Vice President.

Let me break this down for you, Cheney is part of the Executive Branch when he classifies or declassifies information, but apparently he is not part of the Executive Branch when he actually has to answer to somebody about what he has done with that power.

I would love to go visit Cheney’s office one day. I bet he uses classified documents as scratch paper. The report would be easy enough to write. Here, I'll do it for him:

Classified Information: Hid it from Congress or Leaked it.

Done and done.

'Jericho' Has Better Fan Base than Scooter Libby

Fans of the CBS apocalyptic drama 'Jericho' have proven once again that Americans care more about TV than their government.

Our favorite fall guy Scooter Libby was sentenced this week to 30 months in prison for perjury and obstructing justice in a grand jury investigation, taking the brunt of the blame for the Bush Administration’s terrible plan to seek revenge on Joe Wilson (who you may remember from such government reports as “Iraq NOT Seeking to Obtain Yellowcake Uranium from Niger”) by outing his wife Valerie Plame as a CIA Operative.

In a parallel story, 'Jericho' was cancelled by CBS, taking the fall for the network's terrible decision to take great shows and stick months and months of re-runs in the middle of their seasons.

Before the judge handed down sentencing in the Libby case, 150 letters of support were entered into record on Scooter’s behalf. In the meantime, 114,107 people signed an online petition to keep ‘Jericho’ on the air. They then bombarded the CBS offices with thousands of phone calls, letters, and e-mails and sent the studio 50,000 lbs. of peanuts (in reference to some line from the show…don’t know, I don’t watch it. I only read the article because my mom LOVES it). ‘Jericho’ is coming back mid-season next year and the peanuts will be donated to charity. Scooter's fans seemed to only make the judge angry, he will not be returning mid-season or any season coming up anytime soon.

It is sort of sad to see Scooter head off to the slammer. While I think he made some bad decisions, I don’t think he is a terrible guy. I think that this comment from a letter submitted to the court AGAINST Mr. Libby says it all “Due to the crimes for which he was convicted, we may never know of the more substantial criminal activities for which he served as a firewall.”

And since we are here, this is the best quote I’ve read from the “We Puffy Heart Scooter” letters “Sadly I believe that Mr. Libby's premature departure from the Administration has been a major reason for the downward spiral of the situation in Iraq and the consuming mess in which we find ourselves today regarding that country” - Robert D. Blackwill, White House Aide. So THAT’S what went wrong in Iraq! My bad.

*Interesting side note, Dick Cheney did NOT send a letter of support for his good pal Scooter Libby. I guess it is 30 months where Cheney can sleep a little easier knowing that Scooter will be too busy "not getting shived" to call up Nancy Pelosi/Congress/the FBI and start chattin'!

Who's Been Visitin' The Big Bad Wolf?

A 2006 letter that the Vice President's attorney sent to the U.S. Secret Service surfaced last week. Turns out that Mr. Cheney informed the Secret Service that he and he alone would have "exclusive control" of the log books that track who has visited the him or his staff at either the White House or the Vice Presidential compound. Why would the Vice President be so concerned about everybody knowing who has been swingin' by to chat with him? Well, his attorneys say that the declaration of "exclusive control" serves to "protect the effective functioning of the vice presidency under the Constitution. [Releasing the visitor logs would] impinge on the ability of the OVP to gather information in confidence."

Well and here I was thinking that Dick Cheney didn't care about the rights afforded under the constitution! Silly me. Makes you wonder who's been stoppin' by Dick's place! Leave your guesses in the comments section. Best guess wins a prize!*

*There is no prize. Sorry.

Wolfie Still Has Cheney's Support

When asked this weekend if he thought Paul "Wolfie" Wolfowitz (who you may remember from such disasters as "The War in Iraq") should remain head of the World Bank, even amidst accusations of scandal and corruption, Vice President Dick Cheney said "I think Paul is one of the most able public servants I've ever known, and I've worked with him a lot over the years. I think he's a very good president of the World Bank."

What does it do to your credibility these days when Dick "The war is going great and Saddam had WMD's" Cheney vouches for you? Do you get immediately fired or is it more of a tar and feather kind of thing? Or worse, is the World Bank the one place where Dick Cheney still has credibility?

Poor Wolfie would be better off getting a recommendation from David Hasselhoff or Alberto Gonzales...or maybe Satan. Maybe he could have Alec Baldwin make a call on his behalf too! It reminds me of the time that Mike Tyson endorsed Michael Steele for the U.S. Senate (and said he wanted to fight women for "charity").