More lawlessness from the Bush Administration...

www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/22/cheney.documents/

I swear to God, it's like the Bush Administration lives in an entirely different world. Have they never read the Constitution? Are they illiterate?

Imagine for just a second the shitstorm that would occur if anything they've done up to this point had been done by a Democrat: warrantless wiretapping in violation of federal law, torture of detainees, illegitimate preemptive war that subsequently turns into an inescapable quagmire worse than Vietnam, etc...

Sandy Berger was practically jailed for accidentally taking a few documents from the archives. Cheney doesn't even think he's required to submit to the archive system and, when someone points out that he's wrong he tries to have the department eliminated.

It's not even like this is the first time Cheney's done this. He doesn't want to submit to the traditional, and legally mandated, transparency with any of his office's actions. He didn't want to turn over the list of people he met with about the energy policy (mostly because the negotiations involved him asking the industry to write their own legislation), he didn't want to turn over the list of people who've visited his residence (even though he lives in a house owned by the American people), now he doesn't want to submit to rules governing the handling of classified information even though we're in the middle of a war.

What I really want to know though is this, and maybe some wacko right-winger will answer this for me: if Dick is not a part of the Executive branch, what branch is he part of? Is there some crazy secret fourth branch that the framers forgot to mention? Does his occasional role as tie-breaker in the Senate somehow make him a member of the Legislative branch even though that really is mostly a ceremonial role and is entirely reliant on his position as Vice President? (while his role as VP does not in any way rely on his Presidency in the Senate) More importantly, since this does actually appear to be his argument, if he's not a member of the Executive Branch, who is? If the guy who actually shared the ticket with the President, who is essentially just a President in waiting, isn't a member of the Executive how can you claim that anyone other than the President is? Or maybe that's their plan...next we'll be hearing that the Justice Dept. is actually part of the Judicial Branch (or maybe I should stop before I give them any ideas...)

This is the most secretive and ideological administration in the history of this great nation. It's literally scary to think of all the ways they've attempted to hide from scrutiny and exempt themselves from any sort of accountability. Clinton was impeached for receiving an oral favor from a consenting adult female. Bush has lied to Congress, he's lied to Americans about events that have cost thousands of American lives not to mention many more lives outside America, he's kidnapped American citizens and denied them basic judicial rights, he's wiretapped the phones of American citizens in violation of FISA, and that's just the beginning. Cheney's refused to disclose any information about how he does his job despite the very clear requirements for him to do so, he's also lied to Congress and the American people and is equally responsible for the hundreds of thousands of deaths directly linked to the administrations actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most seriously of all, both Bush and Cheney have willfully failed to capture Osama and appear to not even be trying to catch him. Bush admitted as much when he stated that he wasn't all that concerned about capturing Osama. Where are the articles of impeachment? Where is John Roberts in those absurd academic robes we were treated to when Clinton was impeached?