Our illustrious president says that using taxpayers dollars to destroy human life is immoral and we should not engage in activities that do so. He said this in reference to stem cell research that would destroy human embryos that are slated to be destroyed anyway. I have to ask this, “What does he think is doing in his invasion and occupation of Iraq ?” If he is not using taxpayers dollars to destroy human life I would like to know just what he calls it. What is the loss of over 3500 American service members? What is the loss of over 25000 wounded American service members? What is the loss of over 100000 innocent Iraqi civilians, if not the destruction of human life?
"Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical, and it is not the only option before us," said Bush.
But did he not say the reason he wanted to invade Iraq was to save the innocent Iraqis from the brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein? I wish he had said this before he listened to the minions of the Project for the New American Century and invaded a country that has been shown time and time again to have nothing to do with the September the 11th attacks on our country. I want to know, just who is in charge of America anyway? George or Dick, look at the following and you decide.
Cheney Power Grab: Says White House Rules Don't Apply to Him
By Justin Rood
ABC News Thursday 21 June 2007
Bill Leonard, head of the government's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), told Waxman's staff that Cheney's office has refused to provide his staff with details regarding classified documents or submit to a routine inspection as required by presidential order, according to Waxman.
In pointed letters released today by Waxman, ISOO's Leonard twice questioned Cheney's office on its assertion it was exempt from the rules. He received no reply, but the vice president later tried to get rid of Leonard's office entirely, according to Waxman.Leonard did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a statement e-mailed to the Blotter on ABCNews.com, Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn said, "We are confident that we are conducting the office properly under the law." As director of the tiny, 25-person Information Security Oversight Office, Leonard is responsible for keeping track of the nation's secrets and making sure they are properly protected.
For the first two years of the George W. Bush administration, Cheney's office complied with a presidential order that requires officials to report statistics on the number of documents it classifies and declassifies. Since 2003, however, Cheney's office has refused to submit the data to ISOO. And when ISOO inspectors tried in 2004 to schedule a routine inspection of the vice president's offices, they were rebuffed, Waxman's letter claims. Other White House offices, including the National Security Council, did not object to similar inspections, according to Waxman."Serious questions can be raised about both the legality and advisability of exempting your office from the rules that apply to all other executive branch officials," Waxman said in his letter to the vice president, and asked him to explain why he felt the rules didn't apply to him and his staff and how he was protecting classified information in his office.
Former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was recently convicted on several counts of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the leak of the identity of former covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, Waxman noted, and in 2006, former Cheney aide Leandro Aragoncillo pleaded guilty to sharing classified U.S. documents with foreign nationals. Aragoncillo also worked under former Democratic Vice President Al Gore, who complied with ISOO's requests.
Go to OriginalVice President Exempts His Office From the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information
US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government ReformThursday 21 June 2007
The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch."As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.
In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions.... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President's office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.
Download the PDF to read the letter ...When the vice president of the United States says that a presidential order does not apply to him then there are no other conclusions to be drawn that it is Dick Cheney who is ruling America and it is not George and it is not the congress and it is most assuredly not the American people. No, we gave up that right long ago when we starting demanding the government provide everything for us. We gave up that right when Bill Clinton sent tanks to kill innocent women and children in Texas and he sent f.b.i marksmen to shoot women and 14 year old kids in Idaho and we did not do anything about it.
I remember talking to people I knew at the time of those events and I was told they got what they deserved even if they were only kids and did not have anything to do with the alleged crimes of David Koresh or Randy Weaver. America we are getting what we deserve because we have set back and let this happen in America and it is a sad day. But the reaction we are seeing now is too little, too late, and this is price we pay for becoming lax in our responsibility of being in control of the people we hire to do the work of maintaining our constitutional rights.
