The transcript reveals that Mr. Cheney – generally credited with razor sharp intellect and recall – demonstrated an astonishing inability to recollect even simple facts much less the numerous conversations others have testified to regarding his involvement in the administration’s efforts to discredit former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Mr. Cheney’s memory frequently failed to improve, even when confronted with his own hand-written notes. The transcript does indicate however, that Mr. Cheney held Mr. Wilson in low regard and called the CIA’s decision to send Mr. Wilson to Niger “amateur-hour.”

I realize I’m not the first to make this point, but it’s an important one, and deserves to be made again.

Conservatives like myself have been having a field day since the Obama White House, in an attempt to stem the tide of protest against the health care reform bill, posted this on its blog:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Conservatives point out that this sounds very much as though the Administration is asking people to rat out anyone propagating “disinformation” (read: criticism of the health care bill) through forwarded e-mails or even in private conversation.  And, naturally, though it must have been too obvious to add, blog posts.

So go ahead, if you feel you must. Report me to the president’s minions, because I’ve written plenty that the folks at the Obama White House might consider fishy.

What many on the right consider fishy is that an American president would ask (by means of his staff) American citizens to report “casual conversation” that “seems fishy”  to the White House. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, for example, wrote to President Obama,

You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.

I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House. I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program — and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action.

Can you just imagine the outrage on the left at the prospect of the demonic Mr. Cheney collecting “fishy” e-mails and comprising an enemies list of which another diabolical Dick back in the pre-internet dark age could not even have dreamed.

There is little outrage from the left at this, since, as Lisa Falkenberg writes on her blog,

The fact is most of us forward dozens of e-mails and links every day. It hardly seems as contemptuous to the Bill of Rights as, say, warrantless wiretapping during the Bush administration.

Ah, yes.  Tapping the phones of people (most of whom were not American citizens) whom the FBI had good reason to suspect were engaged in terrorism and might cause the deaths of thousands was far worse than asking Americans to turn in their friends who make “fishy” comments in e-mail or casual conversation.  Because dissent, you see, is only patriotic when there’s a Republican in the White House.

Back in the bad old Bush-Cheney days, Code Pink activists were considered heroines for their disruptive protests against the war.  Now, in the more enlightened Age of Obama, conservatives are protesting the attempt to ram a 1,018-page bill through Congress before all of its potential ramifications and unintended consequences can be considered. For this, they are being vilified.

Many Democrats are decrying the incivility with which they conduct their protests — unlike the ladylike behavior of the Code Pink protestors, and the genteel manner of left-wing protesters in general.  Others object that the protests are “Astroturf” rather than actual grassroots activity. I beg to differ.

Most astonishingly, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, the two top-ranking Democrats in the House of Representatives, call the protesters “un-American.”  Perhaps they have forgotten true blue liberal Barbara Ehrenreich’s quote, so often repeated by “progressives” during the awful Bush years:

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

I guess hell-raising is okay if you’re wearing a pink t-shirt and shrieking at army generals, but not if you believe the Congress is about to destroy the American health care system and plunge the American government into a fiscal abyss which our grandchildren will be hard pressed to claw themselves free.

In that case, it’s just plain fishy.

Eighteen percent of Democrats, on the other hand, said Rush Limbaugh speaks for Republicans. 

Democrats and Republicans seem to agree that President Barack Obama speaks for Democrats (by 67 and 54 percent respectively), although Republicans are more likely than Democrats (by more than 3 to 1) to say that Nancy Pelosi speaks for the Democratic Party.

In its analysis of the poll, Gallup points out that the lack of leadership is a problem for Republicans, who are gearing up for midterm elections and looking ahead to the next presidential election in 2012.

From the poll:

While being associated with the party of the sitting president gives the Democrats a natural advantage over the Republicans in having a well-defined person representing them, these data clearly underscore the leadership vacuum that confronts the Republican Party today.

Almost half of those who identify with or lean toward the GOP cannot think of a single political or other figure when asked to name the main person who speaks for their party. And none of the three individuals whom Republicans name — Limbaugh, Cheney, and Gingrich — would likely be characterized as new visionaries or individuals bringing a fresh or new face to the Republican political scene. None of the three hold elective office at this time, all are older white males (the youngest of the three is Limbaugh, who is 58), and only one has a realistic chance of running for the presidency in the future (Gingrich).

A random sneeze or two first, then a honking fusillade. The head grew heavy, the throat uncomfortably liquid. By last Tuesday I was miserable and then, the physical became mental.

In this terrible mood, I passed on President Obama’s uplifting “State of the Economy” address in favor of more suffering. Yes, I read Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s GOP response line-by-line.

It was painful until I conjured up the spirit of the late, great Molly Ivins, the syndicated columnist from Texas who always found humor where I am prone to anger.

Take Jindal’s straight-faced admonition against burdening the kids with debt. This, after the Bush Administration spent eight years razing — consciously razing — an inherited surplus!

This, after eight years of building mountains – yea, Everests – of IOUs!

That makes me furious, but Molly, her tongue firmly in cheek, might have prayed, “Hallelujah, they’ve seen the light.”

I bristled, too, when the GOP’s great Asian-American hope stood tall against wasteful spending. This, after they threw away billions, almost all borrowed from the Chinese and the grandkids.

Not Molly — she would credit the GOP with fiscal responsibility for hiding trillions in Iraq war dollars somewhere off budget. “After all, what you cannot find it doesn’t count, right?”

Meanwhile, the GOP’s Jindal preached the virtues of small government. He really did.

Molly might have written, “Now, to be fair, Republicans also privatized. You remember those nifty deals with Halliburton, KBR and Blackwater. And if the companies reciprocated, what’s so wrong?”

Back in Santa Fe, meanwhile, events conspired to remind us the parties aren’t that different. Sen. Dede Feldman’s bill requiring drug companies to reveal gifts to our doctors (a Hawaiian cruise, maybe, or a seminar in Switzerland) lost big, 24-16, despite support from the state Medical Society.

Guess who was opposed? Tim Jennings, the leading Senate Democrat. Also, Republican Sen. Clinton Harden, who was insulted by the implication that “a doctor can be bought for 100 bucks.”

Probably Molly would guffaw and write nothing. Why gild the lily? Bipartisan kowtowing to Big Pharma is perfect.

(For more on corporate government, see David Cay Johnston’s 2008 “Free Lunch”. Vanguard funds founder John Bogle also recommends it.)

Back to Louisiana Bobby, who told us “The strength of America is not found in our government.”

“So true,” Molly might say, thinking about the failures in Iraq, Katrina and the economy. “Particularly when the folks in charge see Washington as a golden goose. But credit the Shrub for taking incompetence to new heights.”

Give Jindal credit for temerity; with Dick Cheney only weeks out of power, the Louisiana governor called for “ethical and transparent” government.

Here not even Molly Ivins can make me smile.

The vice president promoted our Iraq misadventure, a stealth, imperial executive and torture — and we don’t know why. “Dark Vader” is epithet, not explanation.

Paranoia? Maybe, but that is a label, too.

The record shows Cheney was fixated on Iraq and dismissive of terrorists until 9/11. Did he feel great guilt when he failed to protect the country? Might enabling torture help him avoid facing himself? We probably will require a great novelist to explain Cheney to us.

And we may never roll back the executive power he seized.

The juniper is relenting now. Time to stop accentuating the negative. Allergy-free, I must face the world’s Jindals without Molly’s help.

Yes, I can.

Plame Wilson and her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, are currently Santa Fe residents. In July 2003, Joe Wilson wrote an op-ed titled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa.” Later Plame, a covert CIA agent, was outed in news stories.

Eventually, Karl Rove and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage admitted they leaked her agency status to journalists. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the ex-chief of staff of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury for lying to a federal grand jury about his role in the scandal.

President George W. Bush commuted part of Libby’s sentence.

Penn is fresh off of winning a best-actor Oscar for his portrayal of Harvey Milk in the biopic “Milk.” Milk, a a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was the first openly gay elected official in California. He was assassinated after less than a year in office.

So now the question becomes: Who plays Cheney and who plays Rove?

Up in Santa Fe, there’s squabbling over grass on the Plaza, the Santa Fe New Mexican says. The City Council wants the grass to be there for looking at, but not for touching, standing on, playing on, walking dogs on or putting Spanish Market booths on.

In Albuquerque, voters ousted school board President Mary Lee Martin, according to Tuesday’s unofficial returns from the Albuquerque Public Schools and Central New Mexico Community College elections, KRQE reports.

The Legislature is taking up the issue of violent street gangs, and KOB has the story. Sadly, we’re not talking about the kind of violent street gangs that like to fight with dancing.

Meanwhile, a Duke City Fixer sounds off about the Legislature’s failure to get serious about domestic partnerships and encourages readers to get active on the issue. David Cramer writes: “We all know how the role of marriage has changed over centuries. Now we are on the cusp of another evolutionary step. I think the best way we can become ‘traditional’ is by being seen as a regular part of society and no longer hidden from view, where the dark forces of stereotype and fear breed misunderstandings about who we are.”

In national news, the new fun game is to speculate whom President Obama will choose to replace Tom Daschle as his nominee for secretary of health and human services. According to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post’s Fix blog:

Here’s the short list: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, former Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt and John Podesta, the head of Obama’s transition effort and White House chief of staff for Bill Clinton. Sebelius spokeswoman Beth Martino told the Fix that the Kansas governor “will continue to do what she can to help President Obama fix our economy, improve our health care system and get America back on track.” Does that include serving as HHS Secretary? If it does, Senate Democrats lose their top-tier recruit for Sen. Sam Brownback‘s (R) open seat.

And despite all of your fervent prayers, wishes and efforts in the voting booth, former Vice President Dick Cheney is not dead/living in Antarctica/totally mute. “… Cheney warned that there is a ‘high probability’ that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed,” writes The Politico today. Oh boy. I need a Tums.

Don’t worry! Here’s a nice story for you from Frank Bruni of the New York Times. Fancy restaurants in New York are so hard up for cash that they’re taking drastic steps like being nice. Read it here.

"Pleeeeeeeeeease eat at my place," say Mario Batali, Siro Maccioni and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Meanwhile, the network says, debate organizers remain at the ready, having invested $5 million to set up the event and accommodate the 3,000 journalists who have reportedly arrived in the home city of Ole Miss.

Vice President Dick Cheney cancelled today’s scheduled visit to Hobbs, also citing the nation’s financial negotiations as his reason for staying in Washington instead, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports.

Cheney had planned to visit New Mexico to attend a private fundraiser for congressional candidate Ed Tinsley.

Personnel from the Torrance County Detention Facility near Estancia will be interviewed next Tuesday in Washington, D.C. at a public hearing to determine why sexual victimization rates at that facility are highest in the nation among local jails, the Mountain View Telegraph reports. 

A report released in June by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the facility had an overall rate of sexual victimization at 13.4 percent, far higher than the national average of 3.2 percent. Those numbers included both willing and unwilling sexual activities, including unwanted touch. Personnel from other jails around the country will also be in Washington to testify.

Nearly all of the 110 miles of fencing to be constructed along the U.S.-Mexico border in West Texas and New Mexico has been contracted out at a cost of $220 million, the Sun-News also reports.

The Las Cruces paper says three miles of 15- to 18-foot-high fencing has been completed in Dona Ana County, while fence projects have started at Santa Teresa and in Luna County.

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, a vocal skeptic of Gov. Bill Richardson’s spending proposals during a special legislative session in August, says he’s concerned the state’s budget surplus is disappearing and suggests that the executive branch consider placing a freeze on nonessential travel, new hires and contract expansions, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

“If you catch it early and hit the brakes, you can soften the blow,” Smith told the Journal after a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee, of which Smith is chairman.