What digby said.

• This country is currently holding people without charge, in defiance of the law, the constitution and the Geneva Convention
• US Citizens were arrested and detained, without charge, for YEARS. They were not given access to an attorney.
• Both sets of people were tortured.
• We invaded, unprovoked, a sovereign nation, deposed the government and occupied the country
• the government is filled with incompetent ideologues.
• the government, including the legislature, is completely corrupt. Almost all decisions are made to benefit wealthy donors.
• oh yeah, and wtf

This point was made two years ago during the Valerie Plame affair, when Cheney was complicit in leaking her identity as a CIA agent to the press. Now here is another reason to throw him in jail: when a National Archives unit criticized Cheney for resisting their oversight, he suggested abolishing it. Cheney’s legal advisor, David S. Addington, argues that Cheney is exempt from oversight of the executive branch because he is also part of the legislative branch.

Mr. Addington did not reply in writing to Mr. Leonard’s letters, according to officials familiar with their exchanges. But Mr. Addington stated in conversations that the vice president’s office was not an “entity within the executive branch” because, under the Constitution, the vice president also plays a role in the legislative branch, as president of the Senate, able to cast a vote in the event of a tie.

Mr. Waxman rejected that argument. “He doesn’t have classified information because of his legislative function,” Mr. Waxman said of Mr. Cheney. “It’s because of his executive function.”

Cheney’s office is attempting to destroy the balance of power and checks & balances, which have been principles necessary for the U.S. government to serve its ideals of freedom and democracy. Cheney is trying to extend the power of the executive branch over the functions of the legislative, thereby making the U.S. more like a monarchy and aristocracy than a democracy. As John Locke would say, the executive has misused the powers that the public entrusted in him, and thus we are justified in revolt against him.