My head hurts just thinking about this...all it takes is on executive order to overturn previouslegislation and exonerate all the wrongdoings of this administration?

"Little people are very stuff-intensive."

Makes one wonder what they are truly afraid of in the oversight of government.  If they have done nothing wrong, they should not be afraid of oversight...Right?..well we all know the answer to this one!  Especially cheney and his office, let alone every other office in the government mostly the WH, of all places.  Oh the dirt oversight would drag up!!!!! shuddering revelation, to say the least!

Bush's oath of office is to defend the Constitution of the United States.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

This is the clearest Bush has ever not preserved, protected or defended the Constitution.  (And for him, that is really an accomplishment.)

Saying that the Executive Branch does not include the President?  

So, a spade is not a spade.  Dead is alive.  Black is white.  Round is square.  The President is not in the Executive Branch.  Dogs are cats.  Big is little.  War is peace.  I got it now.  

Ah, THAT explains why Congress is not part of the government!  What the hell were we all thinking?  We are so lucky to have Bush explain it all to us.  Kings are not subject to the wishes of the people's representatives!  We had it all wrong!

...Does not Article III Section 1 define the President as the head of the Executive Branch?

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

Now, he can revise the Executive (how can he issue executive orders if he is not in the executive branch?) Order and make things in the future whatever he wants within the Executive Branch, but he also cannot make it effective ex post facto.  In the past, Bush was subject to the Executive Order as it was written - until such time as he amends it.  Hell, he isn't even subject to his own edicts!  God has come down from heaven and he is GW Bush.  Oh, for a burning of the Bush!

Man! These fucks don't give a damn about the Constitution.  Waxman and Conyers, please, please, oh please, save us from these demons and have the DC police arrest them for their anti-democratic imperialist ways!

And please, PLEASE, Jury America, let us punish them by hanging them from the yardarm - any kind of hanging except in effigy!

We will not go gently into that good night. . .

"this executive order was issued by the president, and he knows what his intentions were," Fratto said. "He is in compliance with his executive order."

So King George can make up any order he wants to and that is then the law of the land?  Lord, preserve us!

One way or the other, this darkness has to give....

Lying a**holes....

This ISOO scandal is about US Code Title 44, Chapter 22 violation(s). EO 12958 noncompliance is the tip of the iceberg.  Look closely at:

--EO Executive Order 12958-Classified National Security Information which governs how the ISOO will enforce US Code Title 44 statutes.

http://www.archives.gov/isoo/policy-documents/eo-12958-amendment.html  

and

--US Title 44, Chapter 22 Presidential records.  Highlights:

--Proscribes the requirement to preserve documents of "historic" significant documents, discussions, deliberations regardless of classification (Sec 2203)

--The President may not destroy items without National Archivist approval (Sec 2203)

--"Vice-Presidential records shall be subject to the
provisions of this chapter in the same manner as Presidential records." (Sec 2207)

www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title44/chapter22_.html

So this scandal is not about the ISOO.  It is about the OVP attempt to escape US CODE 44, specifically chapter 22 oversight.  I think the executive may exempt itself from Executive Orders.  They may not exempt themselves from the US Code 44.

The ISOO is set up to ensure that the executive branch and its agencies properly classify information, control classified information and properly preserve information for eventual transfer to the National Archivist at the conclusion of the Presidential and Vice Presidential terms.

When government organizations handle classified items they must document

--the creation/receipt of the item

--more important the destruction of classified information.  

Detailed records are kept of classfied item destruction because if you can't prove you burned it--you go to jail.

According to Title 44, the Archivist has final say on which items the President and Vice President can destroy, regardless of classification.  To destroy anything they have to give the National Archivist a heads up and then wait for his office's explicit permission.  So any item destruction should have a document from the Archivist authorizing it.

If the ISOO properly conducted a on site inspection, unlawful destruction would be easily discovered.

Why did the OVP stop cooperating in 2003?  I surmise that as it became clear that WMD were not to be found, the OVP started a "shredding frenzy".  Thereby destroying documents of "historical significance" in direct violation of US Code Title 44.  

The Bush/Cheney administrations have spent 6 years make "their own reality" it comes as no surprise that they want to create "their own history".

Sorry for the very long post, but I routinely handled highly classified material during my career Title 44/ security/retention requirements.

Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.
Alice: The question is, whether you can make words mean so many different things.
Humpty Dumpty: The question is: which is to be master - that's all.

                         

We are all captives of the pictures in our heads -- our belief that the world which we have experienced is the world that really exists. -- Walter Lippman