A Letter to Senator Mike DeWine

Senator DeWine:

Earlier this week you, and the rest of the Republicans on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, decided that loyalty to party and President outweigh the Constitution and federal law. By declining to launch an investigation into the clearly illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying program initiated by President Bush you abdicated your responsibility and duty to oversee the actions of the executive branch.

This is but the latest, and most egregious, of Congressional lapses in oversight. If you are willing to simply rubber-stamp the policies of the executive branch, regardless of their legality or constitutionality, you and the rest of Congress may as well pack your bags and go home...You have rendered yourselves irrelevant by your own unconstitutional ceding of congressional authority to an increasingly imperious and ever secretive executive branch. The President can do as he pleases, when he pleases by what amounts to royal fiat. And none will gainsay him.

Why do you think the Founding Fathers insisted on the separation of powers? They knew that when too much power was concentrated in one set of hands, despotism would soon follow. By your actions, you and the rest of the lick-spittles in Congress, are laying the foundation for that despotism. If you continue to abdicate your oversight responsibilites, the Republic will perish with nary a whimper from those whose duty it is to protect it...And the terrorists will have won.

A Letter to Senator Pat Roberts

Senator Roberts:

Yesterday, you shamefully abdicated your oversight responsibilities and rubber-stamped President Bush's illegal and un-Constitutional domestic spying program. If you, and your Republican colleagues, are unwilling to do your duty and reign in these abuses of presidential power, you may as well pack your bags and go home as you are no longer needed. The President is a law unto himself, and being able to do as he wishes, when he wishes, he need worry no longer about interference from a spineless Congress unwilling to do its duty.

When you took your oath of office, you swore to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. In shirking your oversight duties, you have foresworn that oath. The Republic is dead...Long live the President.

Cheney’s Got a Gun

(Sung to the Aerosmith tune “Janie’s Got a Gun”)

Dum, dum, dum, dummy what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound of your gun
Dum, dum, dum, dummy what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound, it's the sound...
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah....

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
His whole world's being spun
Look at those news crawls run
Oh what did he do
Where’d the press go to

Cheney declined to be tested
Was there enough oxygen gettin to his brain
But Harry, he wasn’t even runnin’
Now that Cheney's Got A Gun
He ain't never gonna be the same

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
His dogs, they knew to run
But Harry thought it was all just fun
Now he knows that it ain’t true
What did the dummy do

He thought it was a quail
”Oh shit!” his friends did wail
The sneer remained in place
Until Harry took it in the face
His pants now bear the stain

Stonewall, stonewall the press
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn

Stonewall, stonewall the press
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn
Stonewall, stonewall the press

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
His dogs, they knew to run
But Harry thought it was all just fun
Now he knows that it ain’t true
And Cheney, he’s turnin’ blue.

Did they have drinks that went down easy
Or was he just a little queasy
Cause his ticker, it just ain’t right
That pacemaker is just a fright
He ain't never gonna take the blame

Stonewall, stonewall the press
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn
Stonewall, stonewall the press
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn
Stonewall, stonewall the press

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
The story, it’s bein’ spun

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
His dogs, they knew to run (Dummy, dummy what did you do)
'Cause Cheney's Got A Gun (Yeah and that’s a fright)
Cheney's Got A Gun (That vein in his temple throbbin’)
But Harry thought it was all just fun (Now he’s in ICU)
And Cheney, he’s turnin’ blue
The story it’s bein’ spun
Cheney’s got a gun

If You're Innocent...

...Then you don't have anything to hide. Or so goes the argument made by many of those who support Dubbyuh's domestic spying program. So, let's look at a logical extension of this argument.

If they're innocent of any wrong-doing or malfeasence, there is no reason for the Bush administration to withhold information about its response to Hurricane Katrina.

If they're innocent of any wrong-doing, there is no reason for the Bush administration not to turn over the name(s)of the individual(s) responsible for blowing Valerie Plam's cover. And let's not forget that this led to the rolling up of a program to indterdict the transfer of weapons technology...a program vital to national security.

If he is innocent of any wrong-doing, there is no reason for Dick Cheney to withold documents pertaining to his energy policy task force. As it was he fought tooth and nail to keep those documents secret. What's he got to hide if he's done nothing wrong?

If they're innocent of any wrong-doing, why did the Bush administration stonewall the 9-11 Commission? After all, they've nothing to hide...or do they?

If they've done nothing wrong, then the Bush administration will have no difficulty laying out all of the information leading to the decision to go to war with Iraq. But since they seem unwilling to do this, it leaves one wondering what they've got to hide.

If we the people are to be subjected to continuous and ongoing surveillance...If we the people are expected to surrender our right to privacy...Doesn't seem apropriate that our elected leaders and their staff be subjected to the same level of scrutiny? Apparently not. They seem to hold themselves to be above the law and in a nation of laws, this is not just acceptable, it is intolerable.