Letter from the Editor
by Bruce VanWyngarden
If you're paying attention at all anymore to the shenanigans of this administration, you learned this week that Vice President Cheney has declared he doesn't consider the vice president's office to be a part of the executive branch of our government.
His reasoning? He presides over the Senate. There's 231 years of American history overturned, folks. Who knew? But what's more interesting is the reason for this tortured "logic": A standing executive order requires that all offices of the executive branch submit regular reports to the National Archives on how they are safeguarding classified documents.
This seemingly reasonable requirement is apparently too much of an intrusion on Cheney's lust for secrecy, so he came up with his ludicrous defense. What's even more ludicrous is that it's working — thanks to weasel-boy, aka Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who hasn't even bothered to respond to the National Archives' request for a ruling on the matter.
Cheney's fingerprints are all over this administration's misdeeds: lying to build a case for war with Iraq; the "torture memo"; presidential "signing statements"; warrantless wire-tapping; ordering the outing of a CIA agent and letting his buddy "Scooter" take the fall. (Not to mention, he shot a man in Texas, just to watch him die.)
Republicans have been going along with this farce for six years. It makes me wonder how they'll feel when the president and vice president are not Republicans. Will they regret allowing the executive branch to establish such unilateral power?
It's a bad idea, no matter who's in office. This republic was founded on the principle of three co-equal branches of government. The way it's set up now looks a little different:
Executive
Judicial
Legislative
Dick Cheney
It's way past time for the citizens of this country to rise up and take back our government. These are impeachable offenses. What's it going to take to wake up this Congress? Someone giving Dick Cheney a blow job?
Bruce VanWyngarden
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