cheney wanted wiretaps

I know, I know -- news that de facto Vice President Dick "Shotgun" Cheney (and his odious neo-monarchist lawyer, David Addington, who has eroded more constitutional rights than probably any other person that the average American has never heard of, more even than John Yoo) advocated illegal, warrantless wiretaps on domestic telephone communications in the aftermath of September 11 is only slightly less surprising than learning the Pope is, in fact, Catholic.

At the time, lawyers for the National Security Agency pushed back, and the program was limited to calls involving at least one foreign phone number. Former intelligence officials and others are stressing that CIA nominee (at that time, NSA head honcho) General Michael Hayden was caught in the middle between the "I am the law" vice president and the professional lawyers at NSA. Guess they're trying to prepare a case for Hayden before Congress that even though he was the person who basically implemented the warrantless wiretapping, he was Just Following Orders.

Just Following Orders. I suspect that will become an increasingly common refrain as more of this regime's illegal and/or incompetent acts and crimes against the rule of law come to light.