Category Archives: Bye-Bye Cheney

Shrub Continues Unprecedented Enron Cover-Up

If there’s nothing to hide, why not cough up the documents? Like every other administration.
It’s called being accountable.
Government Openness at Issue as Bush Holds Onto Records
By Adam Clymer for the New York Times.
I’m beginning to wonder if the Shrub is covering up a lot more than Cheney’s involvement in the Enron mess.
I wish that Enron videotape would resurface…whatever happened to that thing anyway?

The administration’s most publicized fight over secrecy, and its biggest victory to date, has come over its efforts to keep the investigative arm of Congress from gaining access to records of the energy task force led by Vice President Cheney.
This fight is only the showiest of many battles between the Bush administration and members of Congress over information. Such skirmishes happen in every administration. But not only are they especially frequent now, but also many of the loudest Congressional complaints come from the president’s own party, from Republicans like Senator Grassley and Representative Dan Burton of Indiana.
The vice president framed the fight as being less about what the papers sought by the General Accounting Office might show than over power

Tainted Judge Gives Cheney A Break

Comments on the Judge Rebuffs Effort to Obtain Records on Cheney Task Force By David Stout for the New York Times.
(Quote below from William Rivers Pitt for Truthout)

Federal Judge and Bush appointee John D. Bates has thrown out the case, based on a separation of powers argument that claims the GAO “had not suffered any personal injury and had no genuine stake in the outcome of the litigation.” Judge Bates spent two years working for Kenneth Starr and the Independent Counsel’s office during the investigation into President Bill Clinton’s sex life. Section 455 of Title 28 of the United States Code stipulates that a judge “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” That, and the incredible narrowness of the legal parameters of this decision, almost guarantees this case a contentious trip before the United States Supreme Court.

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Statement on the Cheney Energy Task Force

Statement on the Cheney Energy Task Force from Henry Waxman

The decision is another Bush v. Gore. It is a convoluted decision by a Republican judge that gives Bush and Cheney near total immunity from scrutiny. In Bush v. Gore, five Republican justices gave the election to George Bush and Dick Cheney. Today, another Republican judge has decided that, once in office, Bush and Cheney can operate in complete secrecy with no oversight by Congress.
The only good news is that this decision is not the final word. It is inconceivable that the appellate court will uphold the embarrassing reasoning used by the district judge.

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Cheney Continues to Use White House Influence To Defy Federal Judge’s Demands

Judge Again Bars Effort to Keep Cheney Files Secret
By Katharine Q. Seelye

A federal judge today again rejected Bush administration efforts to protect as confidential documents from Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy committee.
The 36-page ruling is the latest step in a lengthy procedural dispute between the White House and Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia.
Nothing of substance was resolved in the ruling. The White House has ignored Judge Sullivan’s rulings, going over his head by asking a higher court to exempt Mr. Cheney from having to comply with the judge’s orders over the last five months to turn over the documents.
The judge set Dec. 12 as the next time for the administration to meet back in court with the two groups, the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, that brought the case. The earlier order compelling the White House to release the documents by Dec. 9 remains in effect.
The case is also in two other forums, and either could see action before Dec. 9.
First, the administration has gone directly to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to appeal Judge Sullivan’s earlier orders that require it to produce nonprivileged documents or explain in detail why it does not want to.
Second, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is suing Mr. Cheney, arguing that the White House has to disclose whom Mr. Cheney met as he formulated energy policy and what they discussed.
The Sierra Club suit says the administration violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by refusing to tell the public how it developed that policy. Environmental groups say energy companies that were big contributors to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000 wielded undue influence in formulating the policy.

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Cheney Pockets Over A Million From War On Terrorism Contracts

Our country’s Vice President is still making money from companies he supposedly doesn’t have any financial interest in anymore (Halliburton and its subsidiaries — which he claimed income from on his 2001 Tax Return).
Let me say that again: The Vice President is personally profiting from the War On Terrorism.
Who knows how much he plans to make directly from defense contracts for the War On Iraq?
Conflict Of Interest For Vice President?
By David Lazarus for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Let’s say there’s a businessman — in China, for example — with stellar public-sector connections. He wins billions of dollars in government contracts for his company. Let’s say this businessman becomes a high-ranking government official himself. And let’s say the government begins throwing its enemies into prison without trials or access to attorneys.
Would anyone be surprised if the official’s former company wins the contract for building all those new prison cells? Probably not. We’d just assume that’s how things work in a place like Beijing. Only this isn’t a hypothetical situation, and it’s not really about China. We’re actually talking about the U.S. government and an American company. And the official in question is none other than Vice President Dick Cheney…
…Cheney, of course, previously served as chief executive officer of Halliburton, the Dallas oil-services giant. Less well-known is that Halliburton owns a subsidiary called Kellogg, Brown & Root, which is one of the Defense Department’s leading contractors.
KBR, as the company’s called, is profiting handsomely from America’s war on terror. Among other things, it’s responsible for feeding most of the troops at Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military’s headquarters in Afghanistan.
KBR’s contract to provide support services for the Army lasts 10 years and contains no limit on spending. It could end up being worth billions. KBR has a similar deal with the Navy.
In July, the government announced that KBR had been awarded a $9.7 million contract to build an additional 204-unit detention center at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of “enemy combatants” have been held since January.
This is on top of $16 million received by KBR in February to get the Guantanamo prison facility off the ground, as well as another $7 million in April to expand the compound.
Most of the detainees have been denied any form of due process since being taken prisoner. This is slippery stuff. Cheney plays a central role in shaping Washington’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks. A company he once ran benefits directly from the government’s actions.
“You can’t get a clearer example of conflict of interest,” said Bill Allison, managing editor for the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan government watchdog group in Washington, DC. “It’s a troubling phenomenon, to say the least.”
…Cheney retired from Halliburton in August 2000. He received $4.3 million in deferred compensation that year, plus $806,332 in salary. He subsequently sold more than $40 million in stock options. Even though he’s no longer in Halliburton’s executive suite, Cheney reported on his 2001 tax return that he received nearly $1.6 million in deferred compensation from the company last year.
Cheney is still receiving deferred compensation from Halliburton, but neither the company nor the White House would specify how large his payment will be this year or how long the payments will continue. This is cash that he’s already earned. Yet it’s also cash that Halliburton is accruing in part from its activities in Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan.
“He’s receiving money from the government and money from a private-sector company with government contracts,” said Allison. “Whose payroll is he on?” The answer: Both of them. And that couldn’t be right.

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Senator Byrd Warns The Public About the President and Vice Presidents’ Dangerous Foreign Policy

Transcription of a clip I saw from Thursday’s session in congress on the Daily Show. They were making fun of Byrd’s dramatic gestures, but if you listen to what he was saying, it’s no laughing matter.

“I’ve been in this Congress fifty years. I have never seen a President of the United States or the Vice President of the United States stoop to such low levels,” said Senator Robert Byrd (D) West Virginia, as he turned and pointed at the people watching at home. “It’s your blood,” he said. “Your sons and daughters.”

Mandela Speaks Out On Cheney and America’s Misguided Foreign Policy

Nelson Mandela: The United
States of America is a Threat to
World Peace

In a rare interview, the South African demands that George W. Bush win United Nations support before attacking Iraq

Nelson: “…there is no doubt that the United States now feels that they are the only superpower in the world and they can do what they like. And of course we must consider the men and the women around the president. Gen. Colin Powell commanded the United States army in peacetime and in wartime during the Gulf war. He knows the disastrous effect of international tension and war, when innocent people are going to die, young men are going to die. He knows and he showed this after September 11 last year. He went around briefing the allies of the United States of America and asking for their support for the war in Afghanistan. But people like Dick Cheney

Lawyers Advise Cheney: Shhh! Button Yer Lip!

Meanwhile, back at the White House, upon the recommendation of his counsel VP Cheney shuts up for awhile, and waits for this whole mess to blow over.

See the NY Daily News story by Thomas M. DeFrank:
Veep zips lip as probers dig
Plans to stay mum till old firm cleared

Sources told the Daily News yesterday that with the urging of his lawyers, Cheney has scaled back his crucial public cheerleading role until a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Halliburton’s accounting practices while Cheney was chairman and CEO has been resolved.

“Contrary to the urgings of some, including the President, he’s decided to lower his profile,” one official said. “He doesn’t want anybody to say later that he was out there trying to jawbone the [SEC] case away.”

Cheney isn’t exactly disappearing – he has several public events each week and a heavy schedule of campaigning for GOP candidates. But as for media appearances and the Sunday talk show circuit, a second source said he’s becoming invisible: “He’s not going to be doing anything for a while.”

Can Cheney Count On Americans To Forget?

A CNN Internet Survey shows that American’s are sick of Cheney’s double talking bullshit and are generally ready to see the guy fry for his criminal activities — just like you or I would be punished.

The results from the survey come as no surprise, of course, but let’s see if these same Americans can remember not to vote for the guy in 2003. Sheesh! We knew all this stuff about him during the presidential campaign three years ago, and lord knows nobody seemed to care then.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that the lawsuit it brought on behalf of Halliburton shareholders against Vice President Dick Cheney, the other involved directors of Halliburton, as well as Halliburton and the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, for alleged fraudulent accounting practices, enjoys overwhelming public support.