Unless PBS has a bombshell revelation or two up their sleeves this really is not news. Cheney, Addington, and company have applied themselves to the expansion of executive power for nearly seven years now. With notable success, unfortunately. I think they have actually succeeded in moving the goal posts.

We discussed this before -- that was such a great cartoon in The New Yorker a while back, accompanying an article focusing on Addington's behind-the-scenes influence. It depicted Addington feeding the Constitution through a shredder while Bush and Cheney looked on with practically orgasmic looks on their faces. Welcome to America in the 00's.


>Tomorrow nites season opening episode:
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>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/
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>For three decades Vice President Dick Cheney conducted a secretive, behind-closed-doors campaign to give the president virtually unlimited wartime power. Finally, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Justice Department and the White House made a number of controversial legal decisions. Orchestrated by Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, the department interpreted executive power in an expansive and extraordinary way, granting President George W. Bush the power to detain, interrogate, torture, wiretap and spy -- without congressional approval or judicial review.