The continuation of our form of government rests entirely on Dick Cheney

We stand poised on the edge of a razor, at a fork in the road, at one of the most important crossroads for our country since its inception. Down the first path lies an end to the Cheney regency government for our child emperor on January 20, 2009; the beginning of the restoration of hopefully more normal relationships with the rest of the world, the beginning of a return to the rule of law for our government. Down the second path lies something quite entirely different: a continuation of the current regime, justified by suspension of elections in response to some deadly event on U.S. soil, which will be pinned on Islamic extremists but blamed on people who dissent against the current administration.

I know this may sound a little tin-foilish, but bear with me for a few minutes. There are several things that we know about the last six years, and together with a bit of logic we may see that the second path is not only possible, but perhaps even probable.

What are these things that we know?

We know that the intelligence community was extremely alert to terror threats in the summer of 2001 (to the point that administration officials stopped flying commercial in favor of private planes).

We know that Bush himself was warned in no uncertain terms about the plans for an attack, in the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing titled “Bin Laden determined to strike in US”.

We know that no one in the administration, certainly not Bush or Cheney or Rice, did a single thing, based on these warnings, to prevent these attacks (or we’d have heard about it by now).

We know that the massive PATRIOT act, far from being written up in a deliberative process in response to the September 11 attacks, had already been prepared prior to the attacks.

We know that Cheney has set up a “shadow government” which is ready to take over from our actual government in the event of a terrorist attack. Its location is unknown, and it seems clear that it is populated by Republicans only. Note that in the initial Washington Post description of this planned coup, the Dauphin is even described as having a chance to survive the attack and give orders himself!



We know that this administration has secretly, and then when discovered boldly, asserted the right to monitor and record every phone conversation, email, and even paper mail correspondence of all US citizens, without warrants, without oversight, without limits. This kind of data mining is most likely next to useless for actually stopping attacks. But it has given them access to all of the communication of every Democratic politician in the country, every journalist, every administration critic, every Presidential candidate, every top businessman. The potential for blackmail and abuse of this information is overwhelming. We are asked to believe that even though Karl Rove could have monitored every conversation of John Kerry and every one of his top advisors in 2004, that he refrained. This administration hasn’t even had to put the denial of that implication on the record, because the press corpse has never even asked them the question.

We know that they have eliminated the right of habeas corpus, and although Democrats are currently trying to get it restored, it remains, as of this writing, dead.

We know that Bush thinks he can nullify any law by attaching a “signing statement” to it.

We know that with his recent executive order, Bush has eliminated the due process protection for people who “pose a risk” of committing an act of violence in order to “undermine efforts” in Iraq.

We know that Cheney has just asserted that once his administration claims “executive privilege”, neither the judicial or legislative branch has any power to enforce subpoenas: the executive is free to break any and all laws at will.

We know that Americans now accept, and that this administration engages in, torture.

We know that right-wingers are salivating at the thought of another big showy terrorist attack against Americans, because to their mind that will justify more powergrabs by Cheney.

We know that Michael Chertoff just knows, deep down in his gut, that we are going to be attacked again, maybe during the summer.

We have just learned that the Department of Justice has given the Office of the Vice President access to information regarding ongoing Justice Department investigations. There is no doubt in my mind that Cheney directly meddled in ongoing investigations, including the Valerie Wilson outing investigation.

And we know that, just recently, a Democratic member of the House Homeland Security Committee asked to review the government’s plan for government continuity after a terrorist attack, and was denied.




Given all of the things that we know, is it really plausible to believe that Cheney is now just going to hand the reins of government over to a Democratic president? That Karl Rove is going to accept that all of his phone conversations and emails could be monitored by agents of a Democratic administration for the next four to eight years? That they are going to leave even the remotest possibility of any of their current crimes seeing the light of day while they are still alive to be prosecuted? I just find that the most implausible kind of thinking.

The dominoes are all in place for our current system of government to fall. All it would take is for this administration to let their vigilance slip, allowing an attack on US soil and the “COG” takes over. The worst part is that it isn’t citizens like you and me who will decide which of the two paths we take. It is Dick Cheney himself. His finger is on the first domino.