By Darryl Mason
The so-called 'conspiracy' and alternative news sites have been cataloguing for more than four years that President Bush, through a series of signing statements, and fine-tuning of authoritarian fine print, has been removing both himself and Vice President, Dick Cheney, from the circles of accountability that Congress, and the American people, usually demand and expect from those who occupy office space in the White House.
Slowly, almost reluctantly, the mainstream American media has finally gotten around to examining just WTF Bush and Cheney are really up.
Of course, it's too late now for any huge media or public outrage to change the way the president and vice-president, do their business, and hide their secrets, and avoid being held accountable.
But then, isn't that always the way with the mainstream American media of today? We learn the truth, we learn the facts behind the lies and spin, but only when it's too late, when the damage has already been done, when there is no going back. The WMD fiasco that led to the Iraq War being the prime, but not only, example of this 'Too Late' revelatory news hitting the front pages.
Maybe before the 2004 election all this expose stuff about the secret presidency of Bush, and the ultra-secret vice-presidency of Dick Cheney, would have made a difference. But back then, nearly all the talk of Bush and Cheney rewriting the rules to give themselves the defacto powers of a dictatorship was confined to 'wacko' web sites.
Yes, learning it all back then, when it was first happening, perhaps then all these exposes and investigative stories might have changed the course of current American history. For the better.
But not now, of course. Bush and Cheney can do virtually anything they want between tomorrow and late January, 2009, and the media, Congress and the American people can do nothing to stop them, short of staging a military coup, or pouring five million protesters into Washington and driving the Bush regime from the West Wing.
Still, it's nice to see the New York Times, and the excellent (but late) investigation of Cheneystan from the Washington Post, finally telling the American people just how extreme the Bush administration has become when it comes to keeping their secrets, spying on Americans, lying for war and torture, and changing the rules of all the games so they will never have to pay for their crimes.
Here's a few chunks from the lead editorial of the New York Times, a few days ago, venting superbly. I read an almost identical editorial in mid-2004, but that was on a 'wacko' 'conspiracy' site :
That blood-chilling sound you can hear in the distance is Cheney himself, laughing long and hard and mumbling to himself : "So fucking what? What the fuck are you going to do about any of this? Come on. What are you going to do?"President Bush has turned the executive branch into a two-way mirror. They get to see everything Americans do: our telephone calls, e-mail, and all manner of personal information. And we get to see nothing about what they do.
Everyone knows this administration has disdained openness and accountability since its first days. That is about the only thing it does not hide. But recent weeks have produced disturbing disclosures about just how far Mr. Bush’s team is willing to go to keep lawmakers and the public in the dark.
That applies to big issues — like the C.I.A.’s secret prisons — and to things that would seem too small-bore to order up a cover-up.
Vice President Dick Cheney sets the gold standard, placing himself not just above Congress and the courts but above Mr. Bush himself. For the last four years, he has been defying a presidential order requiring executive branch agencies to account for the classified information they handle. When the agency that enforces this rule tried to do its job, Mr. Cheney proposed abolishing the agency.
Since the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Bush has tried to excuse his administration’s obsession with secrecy by saying that dangerous times require greater discretion. He rammed the Patriot Act through Congress with a promise that national security agencies would make sure the new powers were not abused.
Governments have to keep secrets. But this administration has grossly abused that trust, routinely using claims of national security to hide policies that are immoral and almost certainly illegal, to avoid embarrassment, and to pursue Mr. Bush’s dreams of an imperial presidency.
Do You Want Bush & Cheney, Or Do You Want The Republic? You Can't Have Both
Bush Could Stop Cheney...But Why Would He Want To?
Robert Parry : America's Fragile Republic
Bush's America Becomes The Facsimile Of An Authoritarian State Run By The Mafia
