Cheney Hearts Evil

How else do you explain this?

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's office was behind a push to censor congressional testimony that global warming poses a danger to the public, a former Environmental Protection Agency official told Congress.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control testified to a U.S. Senate panel last year about the public health effects of climate change in testimony that was heavily edited by the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Until now, Mr. Cheney's office hadn't been publicly linked to the efforts to keep information about climate change out of the public eye.

"The Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of the Vice President were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony," Jason Burnett, formerly an EPA associate deputy administrator, wrote in a letter dated July 6 to U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.).

Apparently Cheney can only survive in an atmosphere filled with poisonous gases.

Elections have consequences. Vote the crooks out.

Oops, My Bad

Dick Cheney:

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged on Tuesday he was wrong in 2005
when he insisted the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes."

Maybe if he says pretty please we'll forgive him.

A Small Victory for the Grownups

Finally.

The United States is ready to hold new direct talks with Iran on the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the State Department said Tuesday. The Bush administration accused Tehran of supporting Shiite insurgents there.

"We think that given the situation in Iraq and given Iran's continued behavior that is leading to further instability in Iraq, that it would be appropriate to have another face-to-face meeting to directly convey to the Iranian authorities that if they wish to see a more stable, secure, peaceful Iraq, which is what they have said they would like to see, that they need to change their behavior," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

By grownups, I mean the not-completely-batshit-crazy people.

I am going to take this to mean that war with Iran is off the table. I can hardly believe that was something that was keeping me up at night, but it really was because this administration has proven itself to be capable of things - like, fabricating a war - that I had previously thought unimaginable. This is not to say that everything is smoothed over for good, but I think the probability of war significantly dropped.

I am sure fourthbranch is on his umpteenth consecutive heart attack right now.

Great Moments in Cause and Effect

Sam Brownback on the move to cut off Cheney's funding:

Such a step, said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., would set a terrible precedent in relations between the executive and legislative branches of government, which have historically let each other set their own budgets.

"This is going to further erode any sort of working relationship back and forth," Brownback said. "This is a patently bad idea."

Somebody give Sen. Brownback a cookie. An oatmeal raisin cookie.

Shorter Bush White House

I am the law!!!!

The White House, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers' demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.

President Bush's attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.

"With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation," White House counsel Fred Fielding said in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. "We had hoped this matter could conclude with your committees receiving information in lieu of having to invoke executive privilege. Instead, we are at this conclusion."

The Bush administration's definition of mutual accomodation is the same as its definiton of bipartisanship: you accomodate us.

Boy am I glad Henry Waxman is around.

Kagro X discusses some options.

OK Go!

Cheney:

John McCain is 70, Rudy Giuliani has been married three times and Mitt Romney is
Mormon -- not a problem for being president, Vice President Dick Cheney says.

I would like to thank Dick Cheney for unshackling the right's lip service to values. Now that Biggus has given all of them his benediction, Pat Buchanan et al. will not have to waste any more time talking about family and Christian values.

We can still expect the female, halfrican and trial lawyer to be fair game though.

Running with the Ball

Good job, Democrats!

Fitzgerald, a good prosecutor - unlike a run-amuck partisan named Ken Starr - has concluded Libby's trial and passed the ball onto Congress. In a move that gives me hope for the 110th Congress, Henry Waxman (D-CA) is running with it.

Valerie Plame, the former covert CIA agent whose cover was blown after her
husband accused the White House of manipulating prewar intelligence, will
testify before a congressional committee next week, the committee chairman
said on Thursday.
Plame will testify about the disclosure and how the White House handled it in an appearance before the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, Chairman Henry Waxman said in a statement.

Cheney's involvement in this sordid affair has been known from the beginning and something should be done about it. National security should not be a political tool, but Republicans used it as one to help their power grabs. Corruption must end in order to make this country stronger and safer. Republicans demonstrated that they are incapable of doing that. Democrats are showing us otherwise.

The Spin, the UnSpun and the Media

Christy.

The fact that a British newspaper can see the broader political and ethical issues more clearly than their American counterparts is not surprising. Looking afar at the machinations of the Bush Administration and how it has clawed its way through the upper echelons of the Blair government has become something of a journalistic sport in the UK.
But the fact that an American newspaper, located in the nation's capitol, which made its journalistic bones twenty times over only a few short decades ago digging into the meat of a scandal that shook the very foundations of power — a newspaper which now has an editorial page that begs at the knees of Dick Cheney's sycophants like just another lap dog hoping for a few, paltry scraps?

Congratulations to the entire FDL team on a trial well-covered. I am very grateful.

Merry Fitzmas!

It's finally here!

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty on four
of five counts in his perjury and obstruction of justice trial.
Libby, 56, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.
The five-count indictment against the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney
alleges perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI
and a grand jury investigating how Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA operative.
Libby is not accused of exposing Plame. He resigned in 2005 after the grand
jury indicted him.
Prosecutors contended Libby disclosed Plame's covert profession to reporters as part of a plan to discredit her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who alleged that the Bush administration twisted some intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Dick Cheney needs those blood thinners more than ever.

Discourse

Dick Cheney:

I think, in fact, if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha
are suggesting, all we'll do is validate the al Qaeda strategy. The al Qaeda
strategy is to break the will of the American people -- in fact, knowing they
can't win in a stand-up fight, try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come
home, and then they win because we quit.

Democrats = Al Qaeda supporters. Hooray. I guess even as long as you give money to Republicans you can get out of that category, but support a Democrat and you're screwed. Couple points:

1. This isn't some wingnut 101st fighting keyboarder, this is the vice president of the United States. It is vile and disingenuous for him to characterize the opposition in such a manner
2. I never want to hear anyone on the right complain about the left's lack of civility. We've seen them shed these crocodile tears for decades while they simultaneously make us out to be terrorist sympathizers. That they even have the faux self righteous indignation to call us intemperate if we ever call them on it speaks to how craven and contrived they are
3. [Again,] where's the press? If someone on the left made this kind of comment that person would be hounded and news stories would run night and day about how awful and damning that comment was - see Kerry's troop gaffe, which, even if he fumbled the joke, still got his point across - and there would be incredible pressure for that person to resign. Similar pressure on the right? Never

Something that may be even more damning for our prospects in Iraq is what Cheney revelation of how he thinks about strategy. He knows they can't win in a stand up fight, and they know they can't win in a stand up fight, so they won't fight us in a stand up fight. Therefore, why does Cheney continue to think we can win on our terms when they won't fight us on them? It's like a football coach who can only guarantee a win provided the other team just stands around and doesn't do anything. If heaven forbid they do, then it's their fault for not playing fairly. Well. Please excuse my intemperance, but no wonder this entire thing* has been one colossal clusterfuck from the start.

*the Bush administration

Nobody Likes a Cheney

Indeed.

Cheney re: Russert

p3wned!!!!

Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you.

This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice
president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when
the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of
former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about
how Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played
fast and loose with evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Option 1: "MTP-VP,"
she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on
the Sunday show. Under "pro," she wrote: "control message."

"I suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press,' which was a
tactic we often used," Martin testified. "It's our best format."

Not that this is news to anyone who has ever watched the GOP lapdogs in action and has been pointed out many times by the netroots, but maybe now that one of his fellow guardians of national discourse in the Washington Post has pointed out that the emperor has no clothes Russert will correct his behavior.

But I would not bet on it.