So when Satan enters the VP's office through the hole to hell in the floor, does he have to sign in?
In babies' blood?
On asbestos?
We're gonna need a real big asbestos abatement program in 2009 if that's the case.
Open up Dick, if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide, right?
With Cheney and Hastert's "What crime happens in my office stays in my office" stance, that by the people and for the people vanished faster than Saddam's WMD.

Isn't it interesting that it's bad to intrude into the VP's activites but our phone calls are fair game?

If he has nothing to hide, he shouldn't mind. It's not my attitude, but I do think those that have it should be consistent.

If Cheney expected his professional life to remain private, he never should have run for Vice President in the first place. If this isn't a clarion call for Congress to pass legislation mandating that all government business contacts remain available for public scrutiny, then "We the People" are no more than servants of those our Constitution claims should be subservient to us instead of this other way around.

Wouldn't it be great if it turns out he has had repeated visits from Rep. Foley and Jeff Gannon.

If he hasn't got anything to hide, what's he afraid of? Isn't that what they are telling all of us about the intrusions into OUR private lives?

As for "unprecedented intrusion"....they're a real comedy team over there, aren't they? We citizens of the United States are learning all about 'unprecedented intrusions' into OUR personal, daily lives. Cheney can just suck it up like the rest of us. Bet he's never been pulled out of line at an airport because the pins in his leg set off the security alarm. I have to carry a note from my doctor, like I'm some 10 year old out on my own for the first time, saying that I have metal hardware in my leg, like it's anyone else's business! Oh, I know about 'unprecedented intrusion' into MY personal life. And hey, how about that spying on our phone calls? When I make a call, the first thing I do is say hello to whoever is listening and tell them I hope they are bored stiff by now. Cuz hey, you never know, do you? Unprecedented intrusions...LOL!

Dawnglow -- Good call! Hasn't the Bush team used the following logic, "If you're innocent, then you shouldn't have anything to hide."?

Perhaps Cheney was getting late night massages from Foley, Abramoff, Bandar, Ken Lay or Rummy? Along with Cheney's Super-Secret Energy Task Force this VP has been the wiliest, sneakiest and trickiest ever!

from the article: "the Justice Department argued in a 57-page brief"

A 57 page BRIEF? oxymoronic!

I wonder what the American to Saudi Royal ratio is for Cheney's visitor list? I bet it doesn't look to hot.
No, we can't have the American people knowing who has our leaders by the balls. If we do that, the terrorists win.

Lets hear from CONS why the old song "if you don't have anything to hide you don't have anything to worry about" doesn't apply to Dick Shadey...

Isn't he on our payroll?

"Isn't he on our payroll?"

He's on somebody's payroll...you can bet the house on that.

A list of young virgin males would be an emarassment for him.

they can't allow the list to become public because of what that list will imply....

That is; energy policy was only part of the discussion... IRAQ was the major part...Things like what oil fields will be assigned to what multi-national oil company...and of course the realization that they could make the supply shrink thus bring record profits to them all...

And then; of course, that leads to why in the first few months of his admin. mr. bush was planning a war in Iraq,,,,

and then; the realization that the 9-11 attack on the world trade center was the "pearl harbor" they needed...even though there was no real connection to 9-11 through iraq. Many americans would be to pissed to think straight so the facts could be easily muttled by mentioning Iraq in with every mention of 9-11.


This list is the loose thread that will unravel the whole sorted mess that is the bush presidency....

If the media were truly run by big bad liberals then they would start speculating about the possible al-queda members that entered the white house.... bush & cheney would be outraged but it would force them to turn over the public documents to prove everybody wrong.

I agree with you guys, especially Zed and TonyRoma.

They are supposed to be public servants and therefore we have every right to know who they are talking to while in our employ. Instead they have and continue to act as though they are a royal aristocracy and we are mere peasants to be ruled.

Chock up another point in the Republican arrogance and abuse of power column.

i have a bet with my brother that this bunch will not leave in 2008, the work they are doing is too imporant to leave to anyone else.

big difference between trying to find terrorists and allowing the publicity of visitors to the white house which could spark bad national security.... stop being assholes, i care about this country enough to allow this. and your phone calls arent actually "monitored", suspicious words and phrases are looked for by COMPUTERS not people.

Please do explain how making available the names of visitors to an elected public official on property owned by the citizens of the United States could spark "bad" national security.

"suspicious words and phrases are looked for by COMPUTERS not people." And we should be comforted by this because...?

1. How do you know? Because the government says so?

2. Even if true, do you know what words and phrases trigger the monitoring? Where is the oversight? How do you know that the words Bush, or Iraq, or Sheehan don't trigger it?

3. Only assholes call people who are concerned about their civil liberties assholes.

big difference between trying to find terrorists and allowing the publicity of visitors to the white house which could spark bad national security .MGabrial

I think the word you were looking for is "expose", not "spark".

i care about this country enough to allow this.

I am not gullible enough to allow this.

your phone calls arent actually "monitored" .

then Bush wont have any problem notifying FISA about it, seeing as how this power/privlege isn't being abused.

The government's response Wednesday was twofold, focusing largely on the ownership of the records.

There is only one owner of all US Government records..............
WE THE PEOPLE


To make the visitor records public would be an "unprecedented intrusion into the daily operations of the vice presidency," the Justice Department argued

Well, this VP has granted himself unprecedented power, so he must deal with unprecedented scrutiny...seems pretty simple to me.

When hillary tells us the names of the 500 people she had a SECRET meeting with for health care (and she was not an elected official) then they should release the visitor records.

When hillary tells us the names of the 500 people she had a SECRET meeting with for health care
Ahh, the old, "we were kidding when we said we'd be better than the Clintons" defense. So you'd rather know who talked about something that never happened, than who talked about things that did happen?
I'm guessing you really don't want to think about the oil boys talking about Iraq back in 2002.

Plus there's this rub:

(and she was not an elected official)

Dead-eye Dick can meet with who the hell ever he wants to as a private citizen, but whlie he's working for me, I want to see those logs.

How Bush, Cheney and the Gonzales Justice Department think that they can keep up this obstruction for another two years is beyond me. Six months or a year, maybe. Two years, very difficult. I think they are beginning to realize that it is beyond them too now that they don't have a rubber stamp Congress to help them block all investigations into their conduct. Bush is beginning to look his age and looks very worried lately. He should do.

they can't allow the list to become public because of what that list will imply....

That is; energy policy was only part of the discussion... IRAQ was the major part...Things like what oil fields will be assigned to what multi-national oil company...and of course the realization that they could make the supply shrink thus bring record profits to them all...

And then; of course, that leads to why in the first few months of his admin. mr. bush was planning a war in Iraq,,,,

and then; the realization that the 9-11 attack on the world trade center was the "pearl harbor" they needed...even though there was no real connection to 9-11 through iraq. Many americans would be to pissed to think straight so the facts could be easily muttled by mentioning Iraq in with every mention of 9-11.


This list is the loose thread that will unravel the whole sorted mess that is the bush presidency....

Posted by bushblows

Paul O'Neill (Bush's 1st Treasury Secretary) wrote in, "The Price of Loyalty' that the first item on the first cabinet meeting's agenda was Iraq. They rolled out a map, full of oil companies assigned to Iraqi oil fields, and said, "we're going in". Yes, 9/11 was their Pearl Harbor. Paul Wolfowitz was assigned the job of briniging up the subject. Of course, he was a member of PNAC and helped plan the Iraqi war back in the mid 90's. All they needed was a lacky like Bush.

The energy policy is a whole 'nother scandal

This bunch is the most corrupt and arrogant administration in my lifetime. May some go to prison where they belong.

When hillary tells us the names of the 500 people she had a SECRET meeting with for health care (and she was not an elected official) then they should release the visitor records.

Posted by Good_ole_Ted at 2006-12-17 12:04 AM


That's the point. As a private citizen she can meet with whoever she likes. As the Vice President of the United States, Cheney lives in a house paid for by the people and has a job that makes him answerable to the people of the United States. He has no right to keep those records private. He works for us. Hillary wasn't under our employ at the time of which you speak.

big difference between trying to find terrorists and allowing the publicity of visitors to the white house which could spark bad national security.... stop being assholes, i care about this country enough to allow this. and your phone calls arent actually "monitored", suspicious words and phrases are looked for by COMPUTERS not people.

Posted by MGabrail at 2006-12-16 09:59 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag:

Ummmmmmm CLUE PHONE someone that means an actual person has to monitor these COMPUTERS therefore they ARE monitored by a Human Being.

Larry

As the energy crisis grows America will more completely understand the importance of Cheney's secret energy meetings. The forward thinking plan that was developed or the one that really was developed might determine the overall welfare of America in the next several decades and perhaps longer. If you are content to allow oil executives to plot out the course for American energy policy and even foreign policy in secret meetings, never even allowing us lowly serfs to know what they have decided, then fine......baaaaaaaaaah!

I wonder how all these Rethuglicons will feel when there is a democrat in the white house running the police state and it is THEIR records that are being scrutizined and scanned for obvious terrorist keywords like
RNC
Evangelical
Constitution
Oil profits
Enron
plus the, and, if and but...
All of which are obvious flags that will require a human being to sift every record, investigate their friends and families, hack into their computer and listen to all their phone calls WITHOUT oversight or approval.

You Rethuglicons better pull the plug on Frankenstein before he eats us all. If you don't, I'll make sure you get eaten first.

I'll tell you right now who are the TWO groups of people this sob Cheney and the White House is hiding:

1. Names of the visitors to Cheney's office at the time he was putting together the U.S. energy policy right after they got into office. Cheney had Enron's Ken Lay and the other major oil boys at that energy meeting and in the meeting they firmed up plans to divide among themselves the oil spoils they planned on getting from the future invasion of Iraq. Cheney doesn't want to hand out names of who was there in case they were subpoenaed and had to testify under oath because, if they did, then their far rightwing wacko base would be horrified to know that the Iraq war had been planned before Bush even took office in 2001.

2. The most likely hundreds of visits to Cheney by Jack Abramoff and his lobbyist clients.