"The fact of the matter is, he encouraged me to give him my view on a whole range of issues. I did," Cheney said in an interview broadcast on "Fox News Sunday." In the end, being a consummate Washington power player, Cheney plugged his upcoming book to provide the answers about where he butted heads with Bush.  http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/08/cheney_says_he_and_bush_disagreed_at_times.php?ref=fpb

Lawrence B. Wilkerson writes this blog in the Washington Note published last Sunday. Seashell gave it to me knowing I could never ignore such a thing. Damn puppies!!!

Whether oil, gas, forestry, mining, fisheries, national parks, clean air, pharmaceuticals, food, endangered species - you name it - Cheney was the kingpin in the dismantling of relevant oversight and regulation. Cheney managed this principally by putting into the regulatory or oversight positions within the executive branch of our government, people who either hailed from long service in the industry or field they were overseeing or regulating, or who had lobbied for that industry or field for long years, or a combination of the two.

Professor Warshaw describes in some detail what these people did as she discusses the immense power that Cheney wielded. In brief, the people whom Cheney placed in the key regulatory and oversight positions, like wanton little boys, as Shakespeare wrote in King Lear, plucked the wings off the flies. They either intentionally failed to follow the regulations they were supposed to enforce, developed arcane legal opinions or inexpert science that obviated their enforcement (sound like torture, anyone?) or, when necessary and possible, amended or rescinded them in cooperation with their allies in the Congress.

Cheney is the person after all who, as Secretary of Defense in 1992, had asked Halliburton to study whether the Defense Department should outsource more of its activities and, when Halliburton completed its study and said - surprise, surprise - yes, the DOD should indeed outsource more functions, Cheney accelerated the process. He then stepped out the door in 1993 and became Halliburton's CEO and reaped the profits that his decision as Secretary of Defense had made possible. No dummy here, in other words.

So, as Vice President he set out essentially to do much the same, to "outsource to the market" all that previously had been seen as environmentally sensitive, too big not to be watched, too powerful not to be roped in with careful and precise regulation, or too monopolistic not to be kept under constant surveillance. And he largely succeeded.

On May 17, 2001 to set the stage for what was to come, Cheney's Energy Task Force gave its report to the President, with a cover letter signed by Cheney. The plan barely mentioned energy conservation or alternative energy - two hugely important areas of needed government emphasis. Instead, it focused on $33 billion in subsidies, tax credits, and incentives for the coal, oil, and nuclear industries and, of course, the recommendation to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This was corporate welfare on an unprecedented scale. It was made all the more egregious when, for example, ExxonMobil subsequently turned in such record profits that many Americans saw them as obscene, topping $40B in a single fiscal year..

Cheney then moved to ensure his work in the energy field would be appreciated within the bureaucracy. For example, to ensure the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) did not get in his way - in fact, to ensure it helped him - he first packed the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) with his own people. As Professor Warshaw points out, "he chose lawyers, lobbyists, and energy executives who shared his passion for cutting regulation, especially for energy corporations." 

Warshaw states, "Nearly all who managed policy areas that involved energy and environmental regulations came from the industries subject to regulation." Moreover, "[f]rom that moment on, the Bush administration had free rein to rewrite regulations, because no one was watching."

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/09/guest_post_by_l_1/

Oh Larry goes on and on and on as if we are all to glean something new from his take on the 'facts'.

Well, almost 9 years after the fact, the top aide to Colin Powell is telling us something new? You know moderate repubs are as complicit in this rape of America's resources. Or you better know it. I am sick and tired of these 'moderates' comin out now and sayin:

Hey, guess what, we just ended the worst eight year rape of America!!! Golly gee.

I thought I would just supply a bit of history here.

In the spring of 2002, under order from a federal judge, the U.S. Department of Energy released to NRDC roughly 13,500 pages relating to previously secret proceedings of the Bush administration's energy task force. (President Bush formed the task force in early 2001 to develop a national energy policy, with Vice President Cheney at the helm.) Even though the government heavily censored the documents before supplying them to NRDC, they reveal that Bush administration officials sought extensive advice from utility companies and the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries, and incorporated their recommendations, often word for word, into the energy plan.  http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/taskforce/tfinx.asp

Bobby Kennedy was screamin about the foxes runnin the hen houses seven years ago. Here is just a taste from a long, in depth tirade he wrote in the Rolling Stone December 11, 2003:

George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats. The Bush attack was not entirely unexpected. George W. Bush had the grimmest environmental record of any governor during his tenure in Texas. Texas became number one in air and water pollution and in the release of toxic chemicals. In his six years in Austin, he championed a short-term pollution-based prosperity, which enriched his political contributors and corporate cronies by lowering the quality of life for everyone else. Now President Bush is set to do the same to America. After three years, his policies are already bearing fruit, diminishing standards of living for millions of Americans. http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1120-01.htm

Here are some of  Bobby's subject headings:

Back to the Dark Ages

Strangling the Environment

Undermining the Scientists

Cooking the Books on Global Warming

Inside the Cheney Task Force

It might be more worthwhile to read Bobby's article than Wilderson's except we must keep up with those who were in the worst administration in modern times and suddenly feel remorse. Or at least wish to find someone to blame for our woes and the mortal sins committed against us citizens as well as our resources.

I just get pissed off when I read something in 2009 that contains everything that one of my heroes was screaming to high heaven about six and seven years ago. I saw Kennedy's rant on CSPAN and on guest appearances on cable six years ago. Where was Wilkerson in 2004?

Another fun video to watch is here:

Bobby Kennedy Jr. May 29, 2007 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2971387493046861380

Any way I found the following song written by cheney in the stack of documents released by the courts in May of 2002.  It has been previously kept from the public by a right wing media that does not wish you to know the truth of things:

An Abomination by The American Petroleum Institute

This land is my land, this land is our land

From California to the New York Island

From Exxon's oil rigs to the McElroy coal mines

This land was made for me and mine

As I was stalking that hunters refuge

I held my betsy close behind a tree 

I saw the birds all flyin towards us

These birds were all bought and paid for by me.

This land is my land, this land is not your land

It sure is Exxons, it sure is Conoco's

It sure is Mobil's and don't forget Chevron  

This country was bought and paid for too

I've been bribed and I've been extorted  

And I'm still freer than any of those  birds

But how can it be any other way in the end

When I gave all that taxpayer money to my friends

The great big secret; according to Goering 

Is to always maintain the biggest of lies

Don't sweat the scoffs; don't sweat the laughter

After me, there is always my daughter

As I was walkin'  -  I saw a sign there

And that sign said - no tress passin'

And I should know cause I wrote it real clear!

Now both sides are owned by only me.

We ran and lost the national election

It was run too fairly it came to recountin

The counters and counties could not be purchased

So the Supreme Court went ahead and elected me and mine

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple

Near the relief office - I see you people

And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'

Well this land was made not for you but for people like me. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSIy0wq_-8A

 I attempted to contact the former Vice-President of the United States of America, but he refuses to return my post cards.