[url]http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-cheneyjun22,1,4089964.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed[/url]

[QUOTE]WASHINGTON -- [B]Vice President Dick Cheney's office has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules[/B], according to documents released Thursday.

Under the order, executive branch offices are to give the Information Security Oversight Office data on how much material they have classified and declassified.

The vice president's office provided the information in 2001 and 2002, then stopped. When the oversight office objected, Cheney's office suggested the oversight office be shut down, according to documents released by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The oversight office, a unit of the National Archives, appealed the issue to the Justice Department, which has not yet ruled.

[B]Waxman said Cheney's office claims it need not comply with the executive order because it is not an "entity within the executive branch."[/B]

"Your decision to except your office from the president's order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk," Waxman wrote in a letter to Cheney on Thursday.

"I know the vice president wants to operate with unprecedented secrecy," Waxman said in an interview. "But this is absurd. This order is designed to keep classified information safe."

The Tribune reported in April 2006 that Cheney exempts his office from a demand that executive agencies report each year on the volume of documents they classify or declassify. The vice president maintains he is exempt from that reporting requirement because his office is both executive and legislative, Cheney argues, due to his role as president of the Senate. [/QUOTE]

Oh come on. The Vice President is not a member of the executive branch? Trying to shut down the office seeking to enforce the President's Executive Order? These guys are all actors in the Theater of the Absurd. Sweet fancy Moses. :roll:

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

And just when you thought it couldn't get more ridiculous, I saw this line in Fox News' account of the story: [QUOTE] The Information Security Oversight Office has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resolve the legal dispute over whether the order applies to Cheney's office. So far, the Justice Department has not ruled on the issue.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jun22/0,4670,CheneySecrecy,00.html[/url]

Alberto Gonzales is supposed to resolve this dispute? :roll::roll::roll::roll:

That could actually be really interesting, on second thought. It puts Bush's personal lap dog in the awkward position of having to choose between his beloved master and the real guy behind the curtain. We might actually get to see an objective decision out of him.

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

Wow, what an ass! Certainly yet another dick move by dick, but it'll take a lot more than that for him to top the absurdity of shooting a friend of his in the face. :roll:

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

Cheney pulls the ol' "Fourth Branch" strategery.... Love it! Does it get more comical than this???? (Please let it be so!!!)

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

^isn't that fourth branch the press which he reviles so much? ;)

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

Army Logistics really has become a branch in it's own right, not of the government but of the military. Classified info isn't released to the public for a good 30 years, and even then, only after it has been thoroughly censored. I don't see any potential for democratic justice unless the leaders of the self-proclaimed savior of humanity make their actions and policies openly available to public scrutiny. Trying to dissolve the office for demanding information from him? Restructuring the government around a culture of secrecy sounds like a big step towards fascism. Or did I miss something?

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

Communism at its finest

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

Has anyone seen Bush weigh in on this? It is his Executive Order that Cheney is ignoring.

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

I suppose the whitehouse will issue a statement or a draft of the order that includes in the fine print:

'oh yeah, except for Dick, he can pretty much do whatever. I mean he's acting on behalf of our national interests...what are you people, terrorists? from this point forward, the free exchange of information shall be seen as subversive to the goals of this government and the sovereignty of our great nation. That is all.'

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

[quote=runningman;501632]Communism at its finest[/quote]

sad but increasingly true. Slouching Towards Moscow, imo...

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

Yeah, that whole checks & balances thing is complete bullshit... (please note the sarcasm)

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

its not communism, its facism...

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

[quote=day_for_night;503335]its not communism, its facism...[/quote]

ya your right I was gonna fix it but you knew what I meant..:lol:

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

i like moscow.

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

Here's another link to a good article about the VP.

[URL="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/"][COLOR=olive]http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/[/COLOR][/URL]

Re: Cheney -- Kicking the Absurdity Up a Notch

[quote=day_for_night;503335]its not communism, its facism...[/quote]

i'll stick with what Hayek thought on the 'difference'....