How to create a shadow government and an authoritarian state, a Cheney/Addington production

the nyt makes a good case, not only for how cheney has privatized the vice-presidency, but also for how he functions as more of a shadow dictator than either a vice president or a shadow president...


Dick Cheney

points to consider...

• wears the cloak of invisibility in secure "disclosed" locations [quotes added]

• disdain for accountability

• unconcerned about little things like checks and balances and traditional American notions of judicial process

• the driving force behind the Bush administration’s theory of the “unitary executive”

• pays little attention to old-fangled notions of the separation of powers

• does not overly bother himself about the bright line that should exist between his last job as chief of the energy giant Halliburton and his current one on the public payroll

they neglected to mention that darth even refuses to disclose the names of his staff... we do, however, know the name of one of them, and, next to karl rove and darth himself, may be the scariest of them all...


David Addington

[David Addington] has played a central role in shaping the Bush Administration's legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share-namely, that the President has the authority to disregard virtually all legal boundaries, if national security demands it. Under this framework, statutes prohibiting torture, secret detention, and warrantless surveillance have been set aside.

[...]

After 9/11, Addington dominated the debate over how to frame the Administration's legal response to the attacks. On September 25th, the Justice Dept.'s Office of Legal Counsel issued a memo declaring that the Pres. had inherent constitutional authority to take whatever military actions he deemed necessary, not just in response to 9/11, but in the prevention of future attacks. Another memo sanctioned torture when the Pres. deems it necessary. Addington either drafted the memos himself or advised those who drafted them.

keep in mind, all of these unfettered claims to power are only laying a precedent for future administrations, and, until they are "repudiated," they will continue to lie there, ticking like the time bomb they are...

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