Waxman Decries Cheney Security Exemption

[RedEarth]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats on Thursday denounced Vice President Dick Cheney's idea of abolishing a government office charged with safeguarding national security information - and criticized him for refusing to cooperate with the agency.

Cheney's office - over the objections of the National Archives - has exempted itself from a presidential executive order that seeks to protect national security information generated by the government, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Under the order, executive branch offices are required to give the Information Security Oversight Office at the archives data on how much material it has classified and declassified. Cheney's office provided the information in 2001 and 2002, then stopped. Henry Waxman, chairman of the committee, said Cheney's office claims it need not comply with the executive order because it is not an "entity within the executive branch."

"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.

Megan McGinn, a spokeswoman for the vice president, said Cheney's office was not breaking the law, but did not elaborate.



Read more: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070622/D8PTHL9G0.html

[lonestarnot]

1. Finally.

Something to read. The letter was written Thursday. "asks Cheney to respond to a series of questions about why he believes his office is exempt, and what steps his office has taken to ensure that national security information is protected." Go Waxman go! Did you demand a response within a certain period of time for Dick to wipe himself on and send back to you?

[rodeodance]

9. Big article is up on Greatest from this am on this story.

[lonestarnot]

11. Thanks RD.

[wordpix]

12. too bad Waxman isn't running for president. Now that's a man I'd vote for!

Unfortunately, he's not as handsome as a movie star so would never be elected.

[PurityOfEssence]

27. Even though he voted for the Iraq War Resolution?

Just asking...

[acmavm]

2. OOOOOH, they decried and protested and said it was problematic.

I am sooooo impressed.

IMPEACH GODDAMMIT!

[calimary]

14. Are you calling your reps and demanding it?

They're still going to the costume parties dressed as ostriches. TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard numbers conveniently located in my sig line below.

[deutsey]

19. Yeah, I know. I sure bet Cheney's just a-quiverin'

:eyes:

[Massachusetts]

20. Long Overdue, You are Correct!

Put words into ACTION!

[Dr.Phool]

3. Waxman had better get a "strongly worded letter" together real quick.

And when Cheney tells him to "Go fuck yourself".......

We can hold our breath until we turn blue.

I gotta give Cheney credit. At least he has some balls.

[EV_Ares]

5. U are correct and all we can hope for is the Dems will get some

balls someday and we will see some action instead of threats and words.

[still_one]

22. It will be only the later, threats and words, full of sound and fury signifying nothing /nt

[Faux pas]

4. Boy all this denouncing and finger shaking and tsk tsking really

has all the evil ones crapping their pantaloons. Puleeze.

[ninkasi]

6. Yeah, but after that

we might even CHIDE them. :sarcasm:

[Faux pas]

15. OMG!! Not the chiding!!! They'll never survive!!!!

Thanks for the laugh. ;)

[ryanmuegge]

7. Cheney is the President, after all.

[BikeWriter]

8. Hold someone accountable today! cheney's a seditious bastid!

[madeline_con]

10. By what authority can DICK abolish the NA?

Or does he think that by suggesting it, the deed will be done? :shrug:

[emald]

13. how much will we take from this criminally insane individual?

Really, how long will this bs go on? He is not his own separate entity, he is a vp, an almost nothing position of significance only to the show. But not this turd of societies rectum. Crap, when will the law be restored to this country? How long will this evil beset what was once mans greatest try at justice and democracy? Damn, I'm just mad as hell about this idiot. When was chinney given the god seat? Law and justice, gone.
Will no way be found to stop this asshole from ruining our country?

[19jet54]

16. Cheney is partially right...

... Vice President is, per the Constitution, President of the Senate; thus his office is part of the Senate and not the Executive branch.

The part Rep. Waxman, and everyone else except VP Cheney picks up on is this Vice President has become the most powerful person in that office in history by doing Executive type work for the President, and as such the materials he handles either is governed by Senate rules or Executive rules depending on the work preformed.

Pretty simple really!

[radfringe]

17. if he's not part of the executive branch

then he can't hide behind "executive privilege"

when his documents from his "energy meetings" et al were requested, he claimed "executive privilege"

he's hiding behind technical twisiting of whatever legal statute he can find

if he's technically part of the senate, doesn't that mean he has to abide by the rules/laws pertaining to the senate?

roll out the supoena time? time for at least a censure?

[Warren Stupidity]

24. Uh: bullshit.

Yes the Vice President has, as one of his duties, the role of President of the Senate. That function is a congressional function. However, the Vice President is clearly included as part of the executive branch of the government in the constitution.

"Article 2 - The Executive Branch
Section 1 - The President
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:"


"The Separation of Powers devised by the framers of the Constitution was designed to do one primary thing: to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist. Based on their experience, the framers shied away from giving any branch of the new government too much power. The separation of powers provides a system of shared power known as Checks and Balances.

Three branches are created in the Constitution. The Legislative, composed of the House and Senate, is set up in Article 1. The Executive, composed of the President, Vice-President, and the Departments, is set up in Article 2. The Judicial, composed of the federal courts and the Supreme Court, is set up in Article 3.

Each of these branches has certain powers, and each of these powers is limited, or checked, by another branch."
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_sepp.html

Executive Office of the President
The President
The Vice President
The White House Home Page
Offices within the Executive Office of the President
The President's Cabinet

http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/Executive.shtml

Hmmm... cheney better get to work scrubbing that page.


Executive Branch

White House | Departments | Executive Office of the President | Reference

White House

The White House
President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard Cheney

http://www.govspot.com/executive/

Another glaring error.

President Bush's Cabinet


The tradition of the Cabinet dates back to the beginnings of the Presidency itself. One of the principal purposes of the Cabinet (drawn from Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution) is to advise the President on any subject he may require relating to the duties of their respective offices.

The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments-the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. Under President George W. Bush, Cabinet-level rank also has been accorded to the Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency; Director, Office of Management and Budget; the Director, National Drug Control Policy; and the U.S. Trade Representative.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/cabinet.html

I'm confused I guess, I always thought that the cabinet was part of the executive branch. Cheney better talk to bush about this web page too.


The Executive Branch, which executes and enforces the laws, is headed by the President and the Vice President. In addition, it includes the executive departments, which deal with general topics, and the heads of departments, who are known as Secretaries (Attorney-General in the Department of Justice). Each Department, in turn, is divided into a number of bodies, which are known as agencies, services, commissions, councils, bureaus, authorities, offices, administrations, and boards.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/United_States_Government/The_Executive_Branch

They got it wrong too. A pretty common misunderstanding, I guess.

[BlooInBloo]

18. If he didn't say "That's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard", then he spoke too lightly.

[still_one]

21. big deal, nothing will happen to cheney, just like nothing happened to gonzalez

and I have no doubt that nothing will happen in Iraq either

When you have the MAJORITY of Americans believing we should be out of Iraq, what does congress think they are doing?

The Democrats should be leading the charge on this, but they cannot even come together on the Iraq war, even when the people expressed their views in the 2006 election, and in subsequent polls

[TechBear_Seattle]

23. Dicky is running very scared

About damn time! :headbang:

[olddad56]

25. Democracy ended in 2000. The pretense of democracy lingers on.

[LiberalLovinLug]

26. Shell Shocked

....is what the Democrats seem to be. As well as even the the few semi-responsible media outlets left. The Neo-Fascists keep setting new lows of unethical if not criminal behavior, and it seems that because it is such a plethora of ongoing and unprecedented abuse, everyone that could do something about it is like a deer in the headlights. It's like they can't believe anyone would dare to try any of the things this administration has done, and so they can't seem to muster up the cahones to actually DO something about it. And before you know it, the bastards pull another one, which tops the last one. And on and on.......