The "Cheney branch" of government costs $4.4 million -- in the Executive Branch budget
Dick Cheney's position that he's not part of the Executive branch may cost him. As Melanie Sloan noted on Hardball last night:
He saying that he's a fourth branch of government all by himself. There's the judiciary, the legislative, the executive and then there's the Cheney branch."
The problem for Cheney is that despite what he thinks, there is no Cheney branch. Actually, the budget to pay for his office and its operations comes from the Executive branch budget -- to the tune of $4.4 million according to The Hill. And, leading Democrats on both sides of the aisle are threatening to pull that money -- all of it:
Durbin’s warning came as Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), No. 3 in Democratic leadership, said that he would “seriously consider” joining House counterparts in seeking to yank funding for Cheney’s office after the vice president contended that his office is a hybrid entity that is neither legislative nor executive.
“The decision to exempt your office from this system for protecting classified information is deeply troubling because it could place national security secrets at risk,” Durbin wrote to Cheney yesterday. Durbin did not specify how appropriators would hit Cheney’s funding.
Durbin’s subcommittee is slated to mark up its spending bill just after July 4th recess. The House will take up its version of the bill this week, and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) is vowing a floor push to strike all $4.4 million of the vice president’s budget.
Durbin called on Cheney to avert the funds cut by immediately adhering to the 1995 executive order at issue. That directive refers to executive “agencies,” a designation that both Cheney and President Bush believe does not apply to the vice president.
Senator Kerry to Addington: Clarify OVP Lawlessness For Senate
it is appropriate for the Senate to inquire into the "thinking" that says the Vice President does not need to comply with any security requirements; or can avoid all audits. Senator Kerry's Letter:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/25/191938/668
The only way OVP can argue he's exempt from security guidelines is if he claims he's "not in" the OVP. The problem is that the essential requirements of the EO are duplicated within in the Code of Federal Regulations, which OVP has not denied apply:
A. CFR
This Regulation does apply to the OVP: 32 CFR 2800:
http://law.justia.com/us/cfr/title32/32-6.2.9.19.1.htmlB. EO
Whether this EO "does" or "does not" apply is meaningless in light of the 32 CFR 2800 requirements on Cheney:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/clinton/eo12958.html
For example, note closely the EO in dispute 12958 says, "PART 1 ORIGINAL CLASSIFICATION", or ORCON. This prohibits classification of illegal activity. Now compare this with the 32 CFR 2800 clauses which Addington has also ignored, and not followed: [§ 2800.6 Delegation of classification and declassification authority. ]
OVP needs to explain, if the EO does not apply, why it has not asserted the same argument on all Code of Federal Regulations.
Congress wanted to know what happened to Immtec's platform
We can only hope House and Senate Democrats aren't making this an idle threat! Only if Cheney's office lacks budgetary funding might our national secrets stop being leaked to the Kremlin by VP Cheney!
There was a claim last week at one point that VP Cheney doesn't come into contact with classified information. This is bull and from my own experience I can prove the claim to be a lie.
How many Americans have heard of the "smart wallet" and actually know a thing about this platform? In the summer of 2002 NIST added the "smart wallet"--invented by Immtec, Inc. to its list of biometric technologies within the Biometrics and Security Systems and Applications program after its inventor applied for an Advanced Technology Program grant in May of 2002.
Americans don't know a thing about the smart wallet because it became one giant Cheney secret and its documentation was wrongly classified by the VP! Shouldn't the inventor of the smart wallet--Immtec have had a say in whether its documentation was classified? When management approaches investors all we ask of them is they sign a non-disclosure agreement before we disclose details of the platform. Isn't the purpose of classifying information so that nations and other bodies less than friendly with the US not be able to obtain national secrets? If the smart wallet platform rightfully had been classified then the US would have adopted the platform. Why classify a platform the US chose not to adopt?
This past March I came to realize the order came from the VP's office in early 2002 to spread the false rumor throughout government ranks that smart wallet technology is impossible and won't be ready for deployment for years. I knew of the false rumor that was spread in the course of doing business for Immtec. It just wasn't until this past March I knew who ordered the false rumor to be spread: VP Cheney. The truth is the first smart wallet proof of concept prototype demo system was completed in April of 2001! Immtec proved its platform to be possible 5 months before the attacks of 911!
I have a USPS certified receipt in my possesson that shows Cheney's office received documentation of the smart wallet in 2/02--3 months after the Kremlin learned of the smart wallet and more than 2 months after the Kremlin made the smart wallet inventor a 100 % financing offer. I also have a letter from Cheney's staffer Cecelia Boyer dated 4/18/02 explaining the information I sent was forwarded to the Office of Homeland Security. OHS shared the smart wallet with White House Office of Science and Technology policy. The two latter White House offices then forwarded the same documentation to DOD Combating Terrorism Technology Office Technical Support Working Group (TSWG). TSWG in 7/02 then referred Immtec to the team chief for the Transporatation Worker Identification Credential program that was being handled by a US DOT think tank not yet transitioned over to the TSA. In 10/02 the US GSA banned Immtec from federal procurement because of its monopoly-power (think David Safavian who like Cheney, is tied to Jack Abramoff and Abramoff's Russian clients). Federal Acquisition Regulation prohibits the banning a company from procurement because of monopoly-power so the ban was illicit!
Also, to this day Immtec's management doesn't personally know anyone in the aforementioned offices, agency and departments. Hence, the passing of our documentation wasn't done as a favor to us. Under such circumstances no one passes to others what they don't find of merit so as not to waste the time of others. Our Cheney paper trail "got a lot of mileage" before it ended with an illicit ban of our platform in federal procurement.
Over the last 5 1/2 years while the smart wallet was wrongfully classified by the US federal government, its officials (Cheney facilitated) and contractors (Cheney's Lockheed and Brent Wilkes-Dustin Foggo) stalked the smart wallet inventor's CEO as he moved from one Democratic nation to another trying to escape a US federal government led by Russian mob operatives such as VP Cheney. The secret CIA contracts awarded to take down Immtec's foreign operations were from a CIA controlled by the Executive Branch...where the VP's office is apart of the Executive Branch and knew full well of the contracts!
Also, Americans need to recall the words spoken by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in 2/06: "There are other White House spy programs the President doesn't know about." That is another way of saying the VP knew about them. They're now called NSA Black Ops and they involved the illicit installation of 10 mm and smaller cameras into people's bedrooms including my own! That makes our VP a giant pervert/degenerate since photos of my size 10 naked body more than 300 miles away from D.C. hardly rate as a threat to national security and hardly are considered national infrastructure in need of protection! Furthermore, I am not even listed as a contact at Immtec's website. The installer who put in the cameras always set-off my burglar alarm of a home in a low crime area. I linked the home invasions to my involvement with Immtec and was removed from the website 4 years ago. The cameras were installed in the home of a person who isn't even formally acknowledged by Immtec as doing any work for Immtec!
News clips taught me Cheney likely learned of the smart wallet in 1/02 from Randall Cunningham, Brent Wilkes, Dustin Foggo and Russian representatives in a meeting that already has gotten some press coverage. Since 1/02 VP Cheney has had the mission to deport the smart wallet inventor to Russia! He illegally had our platform classified so that he could conceal his efforts to deport the smart wallet into Kremlin control! So long as Cheney's office remains funded, so do his illicit activities remain funded!
The DHS didn't open its doors until the same month President Bush signed a new executive order regarding the handling of classified documents. Not until the DHS was operational did it become necessary for Cheney to conceal how he illicitly had classified the smart wallet platform so that no American could have access to the smart wallet unless the inventor agreed to become Russian-based. It likely isn't a coincidence that Cheney stopped adhering to the 1995 Executive order regarding the handling of classified information in the same year the DHS opened its doors and Cheney's appointments (extended reach) to office within the DHS adhered to his policy to deport the smart wallet inventor into Kremlin control. The Kremlin's representative did in many words tell our CEO our government's officials had been bought-off. We just didn't envision this went as high as the VP of our home nation and that Americans could have made the mistake to elect an outright traitor to the Vice President post of the USA.
So long as the VP's office remains funded Congress officially is indorsing Cheney crimes regarding the wrongful classification of documents and their mishandling. Since Immtec and its offspring are not made of money and are greatly weakened from years of operations being stalked--facilitated by VP Cheney, and US DOJ's corruption investigations seem nowhere near to reaching conclusions so we could attract private placement financing from emerging related news reports, the odds are growing every single day the smart wallet will land in Kremlin control. Congress was made aware of this this past February when we applied for an earmark (first time), and is a load of deadbeats that did nothing to undo Cheney's illicit handling of the smart wallet. Tom Ridge was fired because Immtec tried to become German in 11/04. Ridge had "failed to fund the next-generation of technologies"--General Hayden. In 7/05 a Congressional committee made reference to the smart wallet as being one of the most monumental technologies of our time that left the US the fall before.
Christopher Cox was not apart of the committee that called for an investigation into Immtec's sabotage, but he was Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee that conspired with Cheney to deport Immtec to Russia. He was not approved to be SEC Chairman before being sworn-in in early August of 2005. Major newspapers didn't even learn of the swearing-in until after it had happened. Cox was later approved and the approval backdated to 7/05. Immtec cannot go IPO! One of our staunchest enemies--a Chairman of a committee designated to get Immtec funded heads the SEC! Christopher Cox's bio at the SEC website boasts of his links to the Kremlin dating back to 1982 when he began spreading Kremlin-controlled propaganda in the US! This was 2 years into Reagan's first term and at the height of the Cold War arms race!
I am very serious our platform after a more than 5 1/2 year battle to keep it from Kremlin control is to land in Kremlin control because of VP Cheney's links to Putin. If Congress continues to fund VP Cheney's office and illicit activities then Congress will have willfully chosen to deport one of the most monumental technologies of our time to a nation that intends to abuse the platform to ruin every American's life. The smart wallet platform was invented for Democracies. The Dem-led Congress' failure to get Immtec funded shows an indorsement of Cheney's policy to deport into Kremlin control the only secure and privacy-respecting biometric platform that, too, is the only biometric credential whose source code wasn't given to the Kremlin so it can make counterfeits. Only time will tell if Congress is a load of hot air or if it is serious that it doesn't want Cheney sharing classified information with President Putin and will prove it is serious by cutting-off Cheney's budget. What Congress hasn't with Immtec is more time!
Clearly Established Precedent To Deny Funds For Unreformed
It is not unprecedented for Parliament to have refused to provide the King funds when he did not reform. Addington, OVP legal counsel, and Cheney have no legal standing to suggest this is "unprecedented"; or that it is not the number one priority.
If the OVP will not comply with the statute, and allow auditors to review 32 CFR 2800, then Congress would be consistent with all precedents to shut off funding. There is one person who can solve this problem: The Vice President, and his decision to comply with the law, and reform OVP.
The Congress has given the Vice President fair notice: Reform, or lose your money. The Vice President refuses. He shall let Addington discuss the precedents of Parliament in re an unreformed King.
Clearly Established Precedent
"When the third Parliament met in 1628, it presented the Petition of Right, a statement demanding that Charles make certain reforms in exchange for war funds. Charles was forced to accept the petition.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566517/Charles_I_(of_England).html
Looming On the Table
The House has the leverage to impose on the President legal demands: If the President and Vice President do not resign; the House can shut down all funding to EOP/OVP and Federal Government, but the President's salary.
The President and Vice President has no power to compel the House put anything in any budget. Comply with the law, or the US Government contractors are going to get sent home. They have on person to blame: The Vice President and his decision to violate 32 CFR 2800:
http://law.justia.com/us/cfr/title32/32-6.2.9.19.1.html
What is the GOP going to do? They are powerless. Even if they move to remove Cheney, Pelosi would become VP: Both Houses of Congress under the 25th Amendment must approve the replacement. The GOP cannot make We the People -- through the House -- assent to this lawlessness by this Vice President; nor assent to his recklessness in re violations of 32 CFR 2800.
Getting the whole picture
Of course, that $4 million does not include the Congressional appropriation for Cheney's split Senate personna. That is probably another $4m plus.
Let's not also forget that OVP can (and extensively does) "detail" employees from throughout the Federal Government to temporarily support OVP. Detailees' salaries and time are not reimbursed to their home agencies, so Cheney could literally have a cast of thousands working for him, but only paying for 25. $4 million does not go far. The costs of Air Force Two, the Naval Observatory residence are also squirreled away in military appropriations bills (or in Bush's case, "emergency" supplementals).
And what about the Secret Service? They only protect current and former Executive Branch occupants. If Cheney is not one of those, then the Secret Service is overstepping its mandate and the Capitol Police should take over.
Congress has the authority
to except the OVP from the budgets of any gov't entity (there's that word again). The bizarre assertions of the VP concerning it's Constitutional status and it's claimed exemptions from security controls mandates any sort of action that Congress deems necessary to the national welfare and the support of Law. Exceptional circumstances call for exceptional measures. There are national security laws that may be invoked to enforce any prohibitions against extending sevices or aid to the OVP. Have at.
One prays that there will be witnesses
to the occasion when Dick Cheney asks Mr Addington how he proposes to fish Cheney out of the mess he's put him in. Please God, let there be witnesses.
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OVP Blinked: Congress Decides To Accept OVP Retreat
Prospect Congress Might Cut Funding -- Framers Liked Threat: If not now, when?
After Congress threatened to shut down funding for OVP, OVP retracted it's stupidty -- somewhat -- and admitted that it was still part of the US government. COngress decided to not block -- for now -- OVP funding. Cheney doesn't have to live in a trailer. yet.
Needed Confrontation: Congress Confronted OVP Stupidity
It was reasonable to discuss shutting down OVP CHeney's fudning in light of his absurd assertion he's in neither branch of government. It forced OVP to back down and agree: They can't make stupid assertions without timely consequences.
Ralph Regula sounds like a lapdog crying wolf. Look at this:
Funding Cuts: An Intended Threat, An Eternal Option
The Famers intended "funding cuts" as a credible check on power, regardless the faction. If Congress does something stupid, the voters can vote them in, or vote them out.
GOP Crocodile Tears: No Real Concern For DNC
Why would anyone in the DNC worry what the GOP was saying about "what might happen" in the futur? GOP ignored the GOP leadership; no reason the DNC should listen to "advice" from the GOP.
If the GOP wants the "threaten" to cut VP funding for absurd reasons, let them suffer more voter backlash. It's absurd to suggest that it's "dangerous" to do what the Framers intended: Shut down funding.
GOP is upset the Framers through of this first, but the GOP did not do this against Clinton:
. . . and why not? If Congress decides it's not needed, then Congress is stuck with the consequences. There's nothing taht says Congrses has to be responsible: Look at the legacy of the GTOM abuses: Congressional inaction on war crimes.
OVP knows Congress is willing to move quickly to challenge OVP stupidity. Fair warning if OVP remains stupid in not responding to subpoenas.