Cheney: It Would Be A Quagmire

He uses the term 'quagmire.' He describes the sectarian strife, and the likelihood of Iraq splintering into multiple factions. Best of all, he asks, "... what would we replace Saddam with?"

So, knowing all of that, one wonders exactly how Cheney arrived at the conclusion that we would be greeted as liberators, with candy and flowers. And why we went into Iraq with a half-assed plan that still isn't coming together.

"That was after he was Secretary of Defense and before he was Vice President," said a spokesperson for Cheney's office.

And speaking of half-assed plans that aren't coming together, the much-awaited report from General Petraeus and Ambassdor Ryan Crocker about the 'progress' of the surge isn't going to come from them.

It's going to be digested and regurgitated for Congress by Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates.

Not that Petraeus, with his weak explanation for how we lost thousands of assault weapons delegated to the Iraqis, has a lot of credibility in my book. You'd think that in a situation where the police and military were corrupt, and where there were legitimate concerns about Ba'ath Party members seeking power, that we would have been a bit more careful about tracking weapons.

And in yet another 'little-known' provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, Alberto Gonzales has acquired the authority to expedite executions at the state level. Now, this is only supposed to be at a state's request, but we know how fond Alberto is of paperwork.

So the failure here is not just that we have an incompetent at the helm of the Justice Department, but with the folks who ratified the new and improved USA PATRIOT Act as well as confirming said incompetent clown.

Nowhere is this more plain than in the office of Senator Dianne Feinstein. Back when Alberto 'couldn't remember' how many U.S. attorneys had been dismissed, or for what reasons, he offered to get back to the good Senator with the facts.

The Justice Department has told Feinstein to get bent - they're not going to provide anything.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnel, the other half of the comedy team in charge of safeguarding your civil liberties against unreasonable search and seizure, initiated a program in July to allow civil law enforcement to access military surveillance satellites.

Again, it's all supposed to be carefully regulated by paperwork. But if you can't be bothered to file a warrant 72 hours after the face, why should we believe that any precautions are being taken at all?

10:55 AM PDT: Of course, the law governing use of the military within a civilian jurisdiction is posse comitatus ... changes to which were stuffed into another bill, which was duly signed by King George XLIII. All he has to do is declare a state of emergency ...

Certainly, the NYPD is going to be filing requests, having put themselves on high alert for a possible terrorist threat involving a tanker truck and 'radiological material.'

Their source? A website that supposedly has secure information on it. An NYPD spokesman said that the website is 'occasionally wrong,' but also 'occasionally right.'

I'd be willing to allow that a tanker truck could be acquired easily enough, but where would this radiological material come from? Smuggled in from where? Past who?

Smells like a colossal CYA exercise to me. Not to mention the questionable wisdom of trusting a fucking unverified and anonymous website for your security information.

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