Dick Cheney

No surprise here:

CHENEY: On the security front, I think there's a general consensus that we've made major progress, that the surge has worked. That's been a major success.

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it's not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ So? You don't care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

That's OK Dick, we don't care about you either - you sorry sack of monkey balls. The problem is we don't have the power to send our young troops to their demise.

We might as well brace ourselves for $6.00 a gallon at the pumps:

High gasoline prices and prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal headline Vice President Dick Cheney's trip to the Mideast, but fears about Iran's rising influence will be a key topic of his private talks at each stop.

Mr "closed door energy meetings" Cheney is going there to discuss prices? This guy will fuck us all!

Apparently a secret video has been leaked out to 60 Minutes and they are saying that the leak came from Cheney's office. Haven't we been down this road before?

He won the endorsement of Liz Cheney today, but the mind of the neo-conservatives, William Kristol, tells us that there is more support coming from Pennsylvania Ave. than just that of Darth Cheney's offspring.

You know - I can buy this. It looks like Mitt and George are more alike than you would think.

Dick Cheney thinks Congress should expand domestic spying.

Yeah I always thought he looked like some KGB, freedom hating asshole.

In Washington state that is. It would be nice if Congress took note of how these states are doing it and decided to join in.

With the new sanctions imposed today it just might be:

The Bush administration is imposing sweeping new sanctions against Iran's defense ministry, its Revolutionary Guard Corps and a number of banks to punish them for purported support for terrorist organizations in Iraq and the Middle East, missile sales and nuclear activities, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The measures, to be announced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, will cover some of the Iranian government's largest military and financial institutions, which Washington blames for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan, Shia insurgent groups in Iraq, along with the Hamas and Hezbollah organizations, they said.

Iran's defense ministry and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are to be designated proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile technology while several banks will be hit with sanctions for "proliferation financing," the officials told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity before the formal announcement.

The Quds force and banks will be identified as "specially designated global terrorist" groups for their activities and financing of militant groups in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, the officials said.

Terrorism! WMD! Where have we heard all of this before? Oh yeah - exactly 5 years ago. It looks like we are on schedule for a March invasion. Perhaps that also explains why the Pentagon is citing an immediate need for new bunker buster bombs.

Let's not forget about the sanctions Clinton imposed against Iran. There were some trying to get those limited. Does anyone remember who?

Dick Cheney should be considered the biggest threat to American security - period. The man wants nothing but war, and won't stop until he gets another one:

The United States and other nations will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday.

"Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions," Cheney said in a speech to the Washington Institute
for Near East Studies.

He said Iran's efforts to pursue technology that would allow it to build a nuclear weapon are obvious and that "the regime continues to practice delay and deceit in an obvious effort to buy time."

If Iran continues on its current course, Cheney said the U.S. and other nations are prepared to take action. The vice president made no specific reference to military action.

I really think his pace-maker is malfunctioning and shocking his brain instead.

Then we had Giuliani saying war with Iran wouldn't be that bad at the debate last night. Not that bad? Yeah I guess Iraq wasn't that bad either. I mean the dead soldiers are only a "small price to pay" according to John Boehner. I guess Giuliani is planning on it taking only a couple of months and I bet the oil will pay for it! Hey - why didn't they sell the Iraq war like that? Oh wait....

Like I have been saying, the Democrats need to simply say "If you want World War 3 then vote Republican". They do get their rocks off on war, look at how easily they beat the drums. Pretty bad for a bunch of pussies who don't have the guts to fight in a war.

This will be so much fun:

The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program.

Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council. The four parties have until July 18 to comply, according to a statement by Leahy's office.

The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal disputes within the administration over the legality of the program.

"Our attempts to obtain information through testimony of administration witnesses have been met with a consistent pattern of evasion and misdirection," Leahy said in his cover letters for the subpoenas. "There is no legitimate argument for withholding the requested materials from this committee."

Now will he claim "executive privilege"? But Cheney isn't under the executive branch - his words. So if he tries to play that he is in the legislative branch, then the subpoena should stand. Just ask William Jefferson.

I had a feeling the news of Cheney's saying he is not part of the executive branch would start a fire storm. I just had no idea it would be this big.

Rahm Emanuel is showing a pair and ready to really go after Cheney in a way that sounds perfectly legal:

Following Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney's office.

The amendment to the bill that sets the funding for the executive branch will be considered next week in the House of Representatives.

Emanuel also suggested that Cheney needs to return his salary to the U.S. taxpayers and move out of the house paid for by us. Since that house is paid for by us and for the Vice President of the United States, who is part of the executive branch, I say Cheney be evicted immediately. Hell - I say he gets charged with trespassing!

The Washington Post has also started a four part series today about Cheney, entitled "Angler". Think Progress has already torn into part one and discovered this:

Shortly after Bush was elected, “Cheney preferred, and Bush approved, a mandate that gave him access to ‘every table and every meeting,’ making his voice heard in ‘whatever area the vice president feels he wants to be active in.’”

According to the article, Cheney used that influence to bypass key presidential aides and thwart any dissent about Bush’s authorization of the unconstitutional military commissions to try detainees. The Post reports “almost no one” had seen the legal draft establishing the commissions, except Cheney’s closest aides. Cheney then took astonishing measures to ensure that internal objections would not reach the President, even resorting to spying on White House staff:

Unless Cheney is trying to put himself in the judicial branch, it is not up to him to decide what is legal and what is not. That is the job of the judiciary. As matter of fact our Constitution states just that. That means we have Cheney violating our constitution yet again, and that is grounds for impeachment.

The worse part for Cheney is that some of the administrations staunchest supporters are even against him on this. Take Glen Reynolds:

DICK CHENEY AS A LEGISLATIVE OFFICIAL: Ed Morrissey is not impressed with this gem of a legal argument. He's right not to be, and he's right that this is a political and legal embarrassment for the Administration, but it's not because of the constitutional language he quotes.

[SNIP]

Like a lot of the Bush Administration's arguments, this is one that would make an interesting law school paper topic, or law review article, but that is politically idiotic and legally self-defeating. It's reminiscent, as one of Capt. Ed's commenters notes, of the Clinton Administration's effort to stall Paula Jones' lawsuit by claiming that as Commander-in-Chief the President is a serving member of the military. Clever, in a way. But definitely not smart.

Yup - there is now a darker cloud hanging over the administration and their generally weak umbrella of right wingers is folded up and tucked away in the trunk. Now will more people sign onto Kucinich's papers of impeachment against Cheney?

Right wingers always look at us like we are crazy when we talk about the flat out lies the White House tells. Well here is they are actually the ones who deserve the crazy look.

Think Progress has a video up of last night's Countdown. During yesterday's White House briefing, Dana Perino told reporters this in regards to Cheney exempting himself from the law:

PERINO: If you look on page 18 of the EO, when you have a chance, there’s a distinction regarding the Vice President versus what is an agency. And the President also, as the author of an EO, and the person responsible for interpreting the EO, did not intend for the Vice President to be treated as an agency, and that’s clear.

Sure - that makes it all better. Doesn't it?

But wait! Keith Olbermann didn't buy it and the people at MSNBC looked into this further:

OLBERMANN: No exemption at all for the Vice President on page 18. So we emailed the White House, which referred us to section 1.3 — which is about something else altogether — and 5.2 — which makes no mention of the Vice President. In fact, there is no exemption for the President or the Vice President when it comes to reporting on classified material.

So again we have a White House flat out lying to the American people. True what do we expect from Dana Perino. It was her husband who thought he was above the law and landed himself in the slammer. Just another part of the Bush crime family.

Then the Democrats need to start the subpoenas and date him to try and claim "executive privilege". Sorry - that applies to the "executive" branch - a branch Cheney is not part of under his own "rules". Let's see how the administration argues it's way out of that one.

If there weren't grounds for impeachment of Dick Cheney, there certainly are now:

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President's office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.

This is the most preposterous thing said by one of our elected officials ever. I wonder how a murder defense of "I don't consider myself a citizen of the United States and therefor not bound by their laws" would fly.

Here is a great idea. Democrats should move on impeachment now. With Congress at an all time low in the polls, what do they have to loose? Hell - kick out Bush while your at it and you might win over half of the 70% of people in this country who don't approve of him. That would put you back over 50%.

This video proves that the university is an absolute enemy of democracy. Would you want your kids going there?

I suggest people head over to the BYU website and ask Cecil Samuelson, the university's president, why he is so afraid of free speech and feels the need to hinder it. Only 18% of the people in this country support Dick Cheney - I guess we found out where one of them are.

While the main shrub was speaking today:

HMM. I wonder if Cheney was out there planning on doing some hunting. Or perhaps he is trying to distance himself from Bush.