Off the Bandwagon

First order of business: I am officially off the John McCain bandwagon. It's one thing for McCain to whore himself out on various issues that may not have been critical to him. But he has long defined himself on the two issues of democratic reform and fiscal conservatism. When he declared himself in favor of making the Bush tax cuts permanent (as mentioned in this story) it became crystal clear to me that the John McCain I fell in love with no longer exists. He is, in the immortal words of Obi Wan, more machine now than man, twisted and evil. Perhaps someday when Emperor Cheney is flinging lightning into his son the little sliver of humanity left in McCain will resurface, but I'm not counting on it.

Oh, Well That's Just Fine Then

I love the statement by VP Cheney quoted in story on Wired:

"If our troops had not gone into Iraq, that is 400,000 tonnes of weapons and explosives that would be in the hands of (former Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein..."

Well, who cares that Islamic militants and Al Qaeda affiliates have hundreds tons of high explosives, because otherwise Saddam would have them, and it's Saddam we're fighting here, not Al Qaeda. Right?

On Tubes and Niger

NYT has phenomenally comprehensive coverage of the case the Bush administration made for war, and Vice President Cheney does not look so good. What a shame -- and right before the debates!

Cheney: Vote For Us... Or Die

Dick Cheney on the campaign trail argues that if Kerry and Edwards win, America will probably be attacked again "in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States". That man has a talent for subtlety. Meanwhile, George Bush notes that John Kerry, recognizing the fact that voters still don't have a clue what he represents, is trying to make himself Howard Dean. A pity that our candidate has to pretend to be Howard Dean instead of, well... being Howard Dean.

The Cheney Decision

Today the Supreme Court decided that the DC Circuit wrongly dismissed Vice President Cheney's writ of mandamus challenging discovery orders in the district court (here's the opinion [PDF], or here [HTML or PDF]). The AP provides a brief summary here.

The decision was poorly decided, but in order to explain why I feel that way a couple of facts about the case must be understood. First, Vice President Chaney did not actually raise the executive privilege. Second, none of the defendants argued that the discovery requests were too broad--rather, the defendants argued that plaintiffs were entitled to zero discovery. The defendants argued that they did not need to turn over a freakin' thing, and didn't have to explain themselves either. And the Supreme Court essentially bought it.

The majority was right to note that the executive privilege case involving Nixon was different because it involved criminal and not civil charges. But the majority largely ignored some language in the Nixon opinion, which taught that the Presidnet cannot make some "broad and undifferentiated" assertion of an "absolute, unqualified" privilege. Such an expansive reading of executive power is what the Vice President was looking for--and what it received by this holding. The defendants admitted that their argument was "in the nature of a claim of immunity from discovery." And while the majority did not go that far, it did say that the courts below should have paid more attention to the separation-of-powers concerns and could not in fairness allow broad discovery requests to proceed.

But this case was not about how broad or narrow discovery should be in this case. It was about some over-arching immunity from discovery because of the position of the executive branch in our system--even without raising any executive privilege. The majority argues it would be far too burdensome to require the executive branch to raise objections to discovery in every instance (whether based on executive privilege or other grounds). And this is where things get really strange--the majority argues that the executive privilege should not be required because it is some serious weaponry that should not be used lightly:

Once executive privilege is asserted, coequal branches of the Government are set on a collision course. The Judiciary is forced into the difficult task of balancing the need for information in a judicial proceeding and the Executive's Article II prerogatives. This inquiry places courts in the awkward position of evaluating the Executive's claims of confidentiality and autonomy, and pushes to the fore difficult questions of separation of powers and checks and balances. These "occasions for constitutional confrontation between the two branches" should be avoided whenever possible.

Ok--Let me get this straight: The Executive branch should not have to raise the privilege, because whenever they raise the privilege, some tough questions come about. So we are just going to give them the benefits of the privilege without asking them to raise it. Any questions?

Could It Be?

President Bush has scheduled a press conference at 11:30 ET at the Pentagon...

Update: That press conference was worthless. And my prediction was wrong. I am constantly amazed at the depth of this administration's denial. But I am even more amazed that the people have lost all affect. Rape? Torture? Those are just things that happen during wartime, and anyone who thinks otherwise is hopelessly naive. International disgrace? Who cares, so long as things look good at home. Lies? Everyone's a liar. And anyone accusing this administration of doing bad things is obviously making those accusations for political purposes.

No, the Bush administration isn't giving Rumsfeld walking papers. They are giving him accolades. President Bush (according to the AP): Secretary Rumsfeld "is doing a superb job"--he's a strong secretary and the nation owes him a debt of gratitude. Vice President Cheney (according to Reuters): He's the best Secretary of Defense the United States has ever had. People ought to get off Rumsfeld's case and let him do his job.

God bless America.

For the Record

Henry Waxman, congressman from California, has had congress's Special Investigations Division compile a report studying and cataloguing each false or misleading statement about Iraq made by the President, Vice-President, Secretary Powell, Secretary Rumsfeld, or Security Advisor Rice. The report is 36 pages long and covers 237 statements made by these officials.

Meet Dick Cheney

Here are some excerpts from Meet the Press, Sept. 14, in an interview between Tim Russert and Vice President Cheney. Enjoy...

Regarding the award of a major Iraq reconstruction contract to Haliburton:

MR. RUSSERT: Why is there no bidding?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: I have no idea. Go ask the Corps of Engineers. One of the things to keep in mind is that Halliburton is a unique kind of company.

Regarding the poll of Iraqis I mentioned on Sep 11:

VICE PRES. CHENEY: One of the questions it asked is: “If you could have any model for the kind of government you’d like to have”—and they were given five choices—”which would it be?” The U.S. wins hands down.
[The U.S. was preferred by 37% of respondents, Saudi Arabia by 28%.]
If you want to ask them do they want an Islamic government established, by 2:1 margins they say no, including the Shia population.
[Accurate here, although the Sunnis are split evenly]
If you ask how long they want Americans to stay, over 60 percent of the people polled said they want the U.S. to stay for at least another year.
[Over 60% of those with an opinion said they want the U.S. to stay]

Regarding weapons of mass distruction in Iraq:

VICE PRES. CHENEY: I guess the intriguing thing, Tim, on the whole thing, this question of whether or not the Iraqis were trying to acquire uranium in Africa. In the British report, this week, the Committee of the British Parliament, which just spent 90 days investigating all of this, revalidated their British claim that Saddam was, in fact, trying to acquire uranium in Africa. What was in the State of the Union speech and what was in the original British White papers.

Wow...