I confess: I have no idea what's going on down there in TX. I do know: 1)Cheney is a monster 2)Gonzo is a liar 3)The American prison system is a horror and 4)It's a time-honored Republican tactic to muddy the waters and meddle with those seeking to prosecute them, by employing countering lawsuits and legal claims.

Anyway, this sounds like a carnival of corruption and anyone who knows more about this should chime in. Via Off the Kuff, and the local SCLM:

McALLEN — A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.

There are more links at Off the Kuff, and someone else suggested that it could be useful for bloggers to peruse the SEIU's Eye on Wackenhut for related background details.

Cheney heads to ex-Soviet nations in show of support

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Vice President Dick Cheney departs Tuesday on a four-nation tour to support US allies Georgia and Ukraine amid a chill in relations with Russia over its military conflict with Georgia.

Because we don't have enough trouble.

I'm posting a long quote from a New York Times book review here, because the quote says something important about the future of our nation.

There is no happy ending to this sordid and shameful story. Despite growing political pressure, despite Supreme Court decisions challenging the detainment policy, despite increasing revelations of the once-hidden program that have shocked the conscience of the world, there is little evidence that the secret camps and the torture programs have been abandoned or even much diminished. New heads of the Defense and Justice Departments have resisted addressing the torture issue, aware that dozens of their colleagues would face legal jeopardy should they do so. And the presidential candidates of both parties have so far shown little interest in confronting the use of torture or recommitting the country to the Geneva Conventions and to America’s own laws and traditions.

Now I wonder -- is that lack of interest in confronting the use of torture or recommitting the nation to abiding by international law really something we could have expected from a different Democratic nominee?

And is that why the Village destroyed them all?

Aqui is an mp3 that is supposedly Allende's last words. My Spanish really sucks, so I have no idea if it's real. But I'm just going to run with the translation I found over at Moon of Alabama which is a really informative blog if you've not read it before and worth some time, particularly the comments, which are very lively and link-rich. Anyway, the coffee is just kicking in, and this made me really tear up:

Surely, this will be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the antennas of Radio Magallanes. My words do not have bitterness but disappointment. May they be a moral punishment for those who have betrayed their oath: soldiers of Chile, titular commanders in chief, Admiral Merino, who has designated himself Commander of the Navy, and Mr. Mendoza, the despicable general who only yesterday pledged his fidelity and loyalty to the Government, and who also has appointed himself Chief of the Carabineros [paramilitary police]. Given these facts, the only thing left for me is to say to workers: I am not going to resign!

Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seeds which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever. They have force and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force. History is ours, and people make history.

Workers of my country: I want to thank you for the loyalty that you always had, the confidence that you deposited in a man who was only an interpreter of great yearnings for justice, who gave his word that he would respect the Constitution and the law and did just that.   Read more…

Boilerplate: There is a legitimate resistance to theocracy in Iran, but I very much doubt those are the people getting our taxdollars. Charles:

The study was made available by Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story (via Avedon and Chris Floyd). The authors are Dan Plesch and Martin Butcher of the University of London. They state that:

Some form of low level US and possibly UK military action as well as armed popular resistance appear underway inside the Iranian provinces or ethnic areas of the Azeri, Balujistan, Kurdistan and Khuzestan.

Almost two years ago (October 19th, 2005 to be precise) I posted the following school-themed post. I repost it here today to remind anyone who doubts or cares: when it came to the Bush Administration, many of us called bullshit before the MSM even looked up from their steno pads. It ain't "I told you so"--it's "We all told you so."

++++

INT: OVAL OFFICE, DAY

A pretty woman speaks with the children, some of whom play with toys on the floor.

Alright, alright, settle down, settle down. Now, do you know why all of you are here today?

"Snacks?"

No, not snacks. Anyone?

"Mom is at the store?"

She might be. Donald, sit down. No, we are here to talk about what the word "treason" means. Does anyone here know what "treason" means?

Guardian:

"Cheney has limited capital left, but if he wanted to use all his capital on this one issue, he could still have an impact," said Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively. They are also reluctant for Israel to carry out any strikes because the US would get the blame in the region anyway.

"The red line is not in Iran. The red line is in Israel. If Israel is adamant it will attack, the US will have to take decisive action," Mr Cronin said. "The choices are: tell Israel no, let Israel do the job, or do the job yourself."

So, if Cheney thinks Israel is "adamant," our guys go in?

Splendid. Outsource our war and peace decision making to another country--one that, needless to say, has its own interests at heart, and not ours.

(Image one day late for Bastille Day.)

Just got finished watching Bill Moyers talk with John Nichols and Bruce Fein.

John Nichols was great, but Bruce Fein sounded pretty Shrill, didn't he?

AP:

Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll out Friday.

This isn't a fucking blowjob we're talking about here. It's saving Constitutional government.

The survey by the American Research Group found that 45 percent support the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush, with 46 percent opposed, and a 54-40 split in favor when it comes to Cheney.

But Democratic leaders appear unlikely to pursue such a course.

(Funny, that word "leaders," isn't it? It's a particularly vicious and pernicious little authoritarian meme that, like herpes, sneaks in everywhere. It's used to mean, kinda sorta, "person holding high office," but because the offices are no longer named, the institution that the offices are part of fall gradually into disrepair and disrepute, and we're left with fuhrerprinzip, which, in the Bush White House, is the lust that dares not speak its name.)

Anyhow, the question before this house is: Should Bush and/or Cheney be impeached?

The LA Times gives the background on Cheney's claim to be a fourth branch of government:

One Cheney staffer familiar with the matter said Thursday that the vice president has not complied with the order because his office has dual functions: It is part of the executive branch — the Bush administration — but also part of the legislative branch, given Cheney's position as president of the Senate.

As such, the vice president's office has no legal obligation to abide by the order because it only applies to the executive branch, said the Cheney staffer, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the inner workings of the office and requested anonymity.

Cheney's position is articulated in the 2004 edition of an annual government directory of senior officials known as the Plum Book:

"The vice presidency is a unique orifice office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch, but is attached by the Constitution to the latter. The vice presidency performs functions in both the legislative branch … and in the executive branch."

Oops! "Office!" Office, not orifice! I misspoke.

The Amazing Froomkin, quoting Steve Clemons:

Clemons writes: "Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney's national security team has been . . . explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not support Bush's tack towards Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously.

"This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an 'end run strategy' around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument.

"The thinking on Cheney's team is to collude with Israel, nudging Israel at some key moment in the ongoing standoff between Iran's nuclear activities and international frustration over this to mount a small-scale conventional strike against Natanz using cruise missiles (i.e., not ballistic missiles). . . .

"The zinger of this information is the admission by this Cheney aide that Cheney himself is frustrated with Bush and believes, much like Richard Perle, that Bush is making a disastrous mistake by aligning himself with the policy course that Condoleezza Rice [and others] have sculpted.

"According to this official, Cheney believes that Bush can not be counted on to make the 'right decision' when it comes to dealing with Iran and thus Cheney believes that he must tie Bush's hands."

Well, splendid.

The Comb-licking One takes a tumble:

[World Bank] President Paul Wolfowitz will resign at the end of June, he and the bank said late Thursday, ending his long fight to survive pressure for his ouster over the generous compensation he arranged for his girlfriend.

Of course, we're not saying "generous compensation package," now are we? Because that would be wrong [snicker].

So, if Wolfie's resigned, why are Gonzo, Cheney, and Bush still in office?

Happy Clusterfuck Day! Good news from the Baltimore Sun:

In the most detailed accounting to date of the origins of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program, former CIA Director George J. Tenet says the effort was started at the urging of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney's role at the inception of the NSA program had been hinted at previously in news reports that quoted anonymous sources, but Tenet's description is the first time [Cheney's role] has been detailed on the record.

In October 2001, Cheney asked Tenet if the NSA could do more to monitor al-Qaida, and Tenet called Gen. Michael V. Hayden, then the NSA's director, to relay the message, Tenet says.

Hayden "made it clear we could do no more with existing authorities," and he and Tenet met with Cheney, Tenet wrote. "Mike laid out what could be done that would be feasible, prudent and effective."

But Cheney doesn't do feasible. Or prudent. Or effective.

The way kids used to take turn standing on each other's shoulders so the one on top could peek through the knothole in the outfield wall and watch the ballgame, we present today's host who frees Krugman from the paywall: the admirably named Free Democracy, bringing us "Sweet Little Lies." Or more accuratly, an honest discussion of the lies, named accurately as lies, and broken down into Little and Big Lies. We've been hearing the Lies of both sorts for some years now, they just haven't been given their proper name.

Four years into a war fought to eliminate a nonexistent threat, we all have renewed appreciation for the power of the Big Lie: people tend to believe false official claims about big issues, because they can’t picture their leaders being dishonest about such things.

But there’s another political lesson I don’t think has sunk in: the power of the Little Lie — the small accusation invented out of thin air, followed by another, and another, and another. Little Lies aren’t meant to have staying power. Instead, they create a sort of background hum, a sense that the person facing all these accusations must have done something wrong.

Oh yes, we know what he's talking about. "Socialized medicine is EEEE-villl!" "Sadaam has 4000 liters of anthrax!" "Welfare dependency weakens the moral fiber!" "The Iraq war will pay for itself just like the last one did" "The jobs we lose to overseas are crappy jobs anyway, and if people will just go back to school and learn computers they'll have nicer, neater jobs and be better off anyway". But go read Froom for the analysis of just how deep some of these have sunk in, and to whose benefit.

Lies. Lies. Just keep saying that word. It's not a "misstatement" or a "rephrasing" or a "lapse of judgement." It's a lie, Mr. Limbaugh. It's a lie, Mr. Gingrich. It's a lie, you filthy pig Cheney. You too, Crashcart.

The Democrats were elected to straighten the Godly mess Bush and his authoritarian comrades-in-spooge made. And slowly, fitfully, the Democrats are starting to do the job. The Bush administration classified the Inspector General's report on pre-war Iraqi intelligence. Now we know why:

Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday.

The declassified version of the report, by acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble, also contains new details about the intelligence community's prewar consensus that the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda figures had only limited contacts, and about its judgments that reports of deeper links were based on dubious or unconfirmed information. The report had been released in summary [censored] form in February.

Can anybody believe that the administration would have disgorged this report if Democrats didn't have subpoena power?

Meanwhile--coincidence? You be the judge--Shooter drags his pasty, bloating, undead body over to Limbaugh's place to repeat the same old lies to the self-contained delusional universe of the 30-percent who still can't undrink the KoolAid:

Oh wait. I forgot. Shooter's not a veteran.

But there's new hope for the undead:

Here's the deal: on March 30, three weeks from today, you go out and buy--or make, if you have such talents--the biggest, greasiest, fat-laden cheeseburger you possibly can. Then you send it to Dick Cheney. Or if you'd rather, eat it yourself and just send the receipt to Deadeye Dick of the Mighty Deep-Vein Thrombosis.

Plans, addresses, options for vegetarian/vegan participation, and some fucking brilliant writing, can be found, logically enough, at CheeseburgersForCheney. Go, click, --it's noon Friday for chrissakes, you're entitled to, and probably in desperate need of, a good giggle anyway. Go read, it's lunchtime here now and I have to do some research.

Color me annoyed. Plenty of links if you'd like to chase down all the other legal opinions out there, but I get really down on the "justice" system if the best Fitz is going to be able to get for Libby is a couple of years. Let's not forget all the poor, black and brown kids rotting away in our jails, locked up for life, thanks to racist 'three strikes and your out' drug laws. Libby didn't sell rock; he covered up the treasonous actions of the Vice President as they consipired to lead this country to an illegal war of choice. He deserves the full sentence of 25 years.

This is why the Republicans act in the ways they do. They know that the years of investigation into their activities will likely last longer than the time they'll spend in jail, should they get convicted. And time served in a posh Federal pen with tennis courts and pool tables, that is hardly something to fear. Our system is deeply flawed.

Now that Scooter's not just guilty but convicted--Bush has, of course, long ago reneged on his promise to fire anyone "involved" in outing Plame--can we impeach Dick Cheney? 'Cause the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate is swinging round to point right at Shooter's pasty, bloating, undead flesh. Even AP gets it:

The case laid bare the inner workings of a presidency under siege and the secretive world of Vice President Dick Cheney.

It showed the lengths to which Cheney went in early summer 2003 to discredit administration critic Joseph Wilson. The former ambassador's assertions had cast doubt on the administration's justification for having taken the country to war in Iraq. And the Libby case showed the president assisting Cheney in the leaked attacks on Wilson.

The verdict "does great damage to the Bush administration," said Paul C. Light, professor of public service at New York University. "It undermines the president's pledge of ethical conduct [snicker]. But the most serious consequence is that it will raise questions about Cheney's durability in office. It may be time for Cheney to submit his resignation."

Hmmm... Wonder if the Cheney's recent health scare is on the up-and-up, or whether he's shortly going to need to spend more time with his lesbian daughter and his turkey-baster grandchild?

Jeebus, when they last thawed Shooter out, did one of the cryogenic technicians on call in the "VIP Container" accidentally knock one of the dials into the red zone before the ceremonial decanting? Because it sounds like Big Time's undead brain tissues are getting a little mushy:

After nine days of almost completely ignoring the small pool of reporters who diligently followed him around through seven countries, Vice President Cheney yesterday finally agreed to a short group interview. But only on one condition: The reporters would have to agree not to tell anyone that the person they talked to was him.

Cheney's insistence on being identified as a "senior administration official" -- even when the transcript shows he spoke in the first person -- is in some ways laughably trivial.

Well, look, let's try to show a little charity, here. Could it be that Cheney, when he recovers consciousness after the rigors of the the cryogenic vat, simply can't remember his own name?

From Mark Silva's blog:

So, the "VIP container" from which Cheney's pasty, bloating, undead body is decanted is a "luxury" Airstream:

This is the Airstream that was parked in the bay of the C-17 which carried Cheney into war zones. Inside, its gray-leather seating and paneled walls provided a comfortable shelter within the loud bay of the transport jet.

And a shelter from the loud noise of exploding bombs. And the less loud noises of splattering bodies.

I just have one very, very important question:

Or at least, I hope he did. Guess that pacemaker of his is more effective than we'd thought.

The important point here is that when the Emperor Vice-President travels to a Middle Eastern country at war, the level of security is almost beyond imagining. It should tell you a great deal about how much "control" we have that they got within the gates with this one.

We have lost this war, and as others have said repeatedly, events like this suggest that scenarios like an overrun Green Zone or the complete collapse of the Afghan government and a nuke-armed and resurgent Taliban are not in the realm of fantasy, but likely probability. Nice goin, Chimpy.

Our friends, the autocoprophagic neocons, are still working tirelessly toward Clusterfuck-alypse Now in the Middle East. Hersh:

The Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Ah. "Redirection..." Some might call it a "do over", but that would be harsh. "Redirection" meaning "what happened was exactly the opposite of what we said would happen":

From the Administration’s perspective, the most profound—and unintended—strategic consequence ["unintended" only if chaos is not the plan] of the Iraq war is the empowerment of Iran. ... To undermine Iran ... the U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

Oh-kay. I'd always thought that Al Qaeda was the main threat, but I guess that's just post-9/11 thinking. And what does a DFH like me know anyhow?

The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said.

Republicans just don't learn, do they? No oversight, no accountability, and another Iran-Contra in the making, with an "off-the-shelf" covert operations capability. Fuck, why don't we just make Ollie North head of the DOD and have done with it?

So guess who's in charge of the "redirection"?

The AP Headline reads:

Cheney criticizes China's arms buildup

Vice President Dick Cheney said [with a completely straight face] Friday that China's recent anti-satellite weapons test and a rapid military buildup were "not consistent" with its stated aim of a peaceful rise as a global power.

Meantime, via Zackpunk (check out the chart), we learn who is really building up arms:

The US military spending was almost 7 times larger than the Chinese budget, the second largest spender.

If you include the $120 billion being poured into Afghanistan and Iraq, we're spending 9 times more than China.

I'm days and days behind on my reading (but I've got two shiny new hardwood floors to brag on!) but this WaPo piece felt like disinformation to me. This part made me laugh out loud:

"Dick was always very realistic," said Kenneth L. Adelman, the Reagan administration arms-control official who has known Cheney for more than three decades. "I don't really understand how month after month he gets briefings showing Iraq's getting worse and worse, and he engages in all this happy talk. Bush has become more realistic. Certainly [Defense Secretary Robert M.] Gates is more realistic, so the happy talk from the Pentagon is over. Yet Cheney is still stuck in the mold."