When Will Dick Cheney Become A Lawful American?
By RAY HANANIA
Even if President Bush has never been the smartest person in the White House, we always knew that there was some darker, more sinister force operating behind the president’s back making decisions that at any other time in history would be considered illegal and unconstitutional.
By Vice President Dick Cheney is no ordinary Svengali, who manipulates a hapless president, dictates American foreign policy without regard to the International Rule of Law, and decides when he is and isn’t covered by America’s own laws.
This past week, Cheney came out of the shadows and declared that he is not subject to the same laws that apply to every other elected official in the United States.
And his rebellion and burst of independence seems to involve a rather obscure issue: is the vice president required to file classified documentation with the National Archives?
Since the law was first passed in 1995, government officials in the Executive Branch have been required from the president on down to file these documents with the National Archives. The purpose is to preserve the documents.
Preserving documents is taken for granted. When President Richard Nixon was trying to cover up the illegal break in of the Watergate, he made a choice to either destroy all of the tapes he maintained in his office or preserve them. Nixon apparently chose to preserve most of them, although was he did preserve ended up bringing him down anyway.
Clearly, the Bush administration is involved in criminal activity, under the guise of national security — don’t they always use that excuse?
From the illegal war in Iraq to the illegal manner in which our nation is handling prisoners of war and disregarding such important international laws as the Fourth Geneva Conventions and international legal bodies such as the United Nations.
But why should we have to abide by international laws, right? When we want to do something, we should be allowed to do anything. That’s our new national spirit, apparently, as defined by Bush, and well, in truth, probably decided by Cheney, the man calling all the shots. [more]
June 30th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Series on Cheney who is described as the most powerful man in American history to hold office of vice president
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/about/about_this_series/
Also on administration en toto, watch Huff Post, Bill of Rights Defense Committee http://www.bordc.org/news/