Watch as Rep. Steve Cohen questions David Addington as to the status of the Vice Presidency, resulting in Cohen defining the Veep as "kind of a barnacle" attached to the Executive Branch.

Hat-tip ThinkProgress.

Thus, we can refer to Mr. Cheney as nothing more than a barnacle that should be scraped off the hull of our Ship of State, yes?

This is an Open Thread.

promoted - cho

Dan Froomkin, on WashingtonPost.com, noted today that Vice President Cheney's chief of staff David Addington is going to appear before the House Judiciary Committee this Thursday.

From It Was Top Down, Stupid: The Bush administration's "bad apples" theory goes sour by Phillipe Sands, posted on Slate on Wednesday, June 18, 2008, at 1:19 PM ET:¹

_____

Unless the United States takes remedial actions, it is likely there will be criminal investigations abroad. Why? Because, as acting CIA General Counsel John Rizzo once told Congress, "a crime is a crime." The same point was made to me by a European judge and a prosecutor who have looked at the materials. There can be no doubt that the aggressive interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani (aka Detainee 063, alleged to be the 20th hijacker) amounted to torture and violated Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (prohibiting cruelty and torture) and the 1984 Convention Against Torture. As a war crime and an act of torture, it can thus be prosecuted anywhere in the world.

_____

This is not good news for a nation that likes to pride itself on truth, justice, freedom and humanity.

It gets worse, of course:

_____

This is not just the story of a crime. It is also a cover-up—how the administration spun a false narrative, seeking to blame those on the ground at Guantananmo.

_____

Remember "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up" from the Nixon years? Read the whole article -- it's quite sobering.

For further information, here are two excellent write-ups about the latest revelations, particularly due to their multiple original source references:

_____

Clear Evidence of War Crimes: Stern Letters to Come? by Meteor Blades

WaPo: General Accuses WH of War Crimes (Update x2) by abundance

_____

Another excellent piece, this time showing how an old hand at GOP media manipulation tries to cover the collective exposed bottoms of the Bush Administration and the Republican party, comes from our very own Jeff Huber:

Newt the Impaler

This is an aggressively enhanced Open Thread.

¹ Hat-tip SaintMars.