"If we ever pass out as a great nation we ought to put on our tombstone 'America died from a delusion that she had moral leadership'."

---Will Rogers

"It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil. The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them."

--Noam Chomsky

With the intensity of Dale Earnhardt, Jr vying for victory in the Daytona 500, America's mainstream media outlets have been racing furiously to imbue the citizenry of the Empire with unusually large doses of heavily choreographed agitprop.

Just for fun, let's assume for a moment that Cheney is called as a witness in Libby's court case. It would certainly make sense but what would it all mean? Mind you this isn't worth a hoot if a real news source doesn't confirm it, but here goes anyway.

In 1974, Nixon disputed everything John Dean said until Alexander Butterfield testified that all conversations in the Oval Office were taped.  Archibald Cox subpoenaed the tapes, but Nixon refused to turn them over, citing "executive privilege."  When Cox refused to drop the subppoena, Nixon asked then Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox.  He refused, and resigned.  Then Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus also refused and resigned.  Bork was Solicitor General at the time, and he fired Cox.  (Which, of course, led to the "borking" of Bork as Supreme Court nominee in 1987.)

Leon Jaworski was then appointed special prosecutor, but he pursued the tapes all the way to the Supreme Court.