A Couple Noteworthy Items

It's Like Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen Really Are King, Except Without The Funny Part And does anyone still have any doubt whether Cheney actually gave the prospective candidates an honest chance, before he selected himself Bush's VP nominee? Charlie Savage for the Boston Globe reports that "The office of Vice President Dick Cheney routinely reviews pieces of legislation before they reach the president's desk, searching for provisions that Cheney believes would infringe on presidential power, according to former White House and Justice Department officials." --- Well then, so it appears that the very first sentence in the Constitution no longer has any actual meaning to the way our democracy works. Article. I. Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. via Christy Hardin Smith at firedoglake --- Haditha Cover Up John Murtha: "Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?" Murtha said on "This Week" on ABC. "We don't know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command." The incident at Haditha has sparked two investigations — one into the deadly encounter itself and another into whether it was the subject of a cover-up. The second, noncriminal investigation is examining whether Marines sought to cover up what actually occurred that day and, in doing so, lied about having killed civilians without justification. … The Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into the shootings is not expected to be completed earlier than in June. Whether violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including murder, would be pursued would be determined by a senior Marine commander in Iraq. The NCIS also is conducting a criminal investigation into another incident, the death of an Iraqi civilian on April 26, involving Marines in Hamandiyah, west of Baghdad. via HuffPo --- Watergategate Update Mark Hosenball, Jamie Reno and Evan Thomas for Newsweek report on the continuing saga, with their focus on Brent Wilkes. "According to published reports and congressional and law-enforcement sources who did not want to be identified discussing a sensitive investigation, the Feds are also reviewing Wilkes's ties to other powerful House leaders. Former GOP majority leader Tom DeLay, Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter and Appropriations Committee chairman Jerry Lewis all reportedly had dealings with Wilkes." via Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker