News Flash: Cheney Abdicates

As if things couldn't get any funnier . . .or more twisted . . .

Under a presidential executive order put in place–by the Bush White House no less–– executive branch offices are required to turn over information to the National Archives about their handling of documents, namely data on the number of documents they classify and declassify.

The Vice-President does not wish to comply and thus, has abdicated from the Executive Branch. Vice-President Dick Cheney now considers himself part of the Legislative Branch. You know, there has to be something quite damning in this energy meeting notes, his war meeting notes, his Plame-gate notes, for him to go to such lengths to hide it all. I mean his actions all but condemn him. Could you even act more guilty?

It is probably silly of me to even give the VP's argument the dignity of acknowledgment by referring to the U.S. Constitution, but:

Article II Section 1: "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows . . "

The XXV Amendment explains Presidential succession, which goes first to the Vice President. Seems pretty Executive to me.

Article II Section 4: "Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Maybe it is time to invoke Art. II Sec 4.

I love the Democrats' response. They have decided to try and cut his office’s budget. Rather than fund his office as part of the Executive branch, they would like to fund it as the office of the Senate President, a much more modest sum. . Brilliant move.

So if the Democrats succeed, would this mean the "Angler" would loose his secret service personnel? Legislators don't get bodyguards, nor do they get to use Presidential helicopters or planes, nor do they have offices in the West Wing . . .

This is a big week for Cheney who is subject of a four part series in the Washington Post that pretty much exposes him as the Oz behind the curtain. His refusal to comply with the executive order comes on the heels of the CIA's release of papers from the 1970s, the "Family Jewels", that explain how the intelligence services spied on American citizens among other things. Yep, I’ve said it before, we are living on the set of “That 70’s Show” or is it “Groundhog’s Day”?

Just a footnote to all of this: Here is a great Op-ed about how our intelligence services are being privatized. It says that contractors now claim a whopping 70% of the budget allotted to the intelligences services.