From the Washington Post:
Specter’s letter accused Cheney of going behind his back to forge an agreement with other Republican members of his committee to prevent testimony from the executives of three major phone companies that reportedly provided a huge cache of call records to the National Security Agency.
Cheney defended his actions in a letter to Specter yesterday, saying his intention was to avert testimony that may involve “extremely sensitive classified information…”
“These communications are not unusual — they are the government at work,” Cheney wrote.
The two men later spoke by phone in what an administration official called a cordial conversation, though no other details emerged.
————————-
SPECTER: Hello?
CHENEY: Hrrrm. Arlen. Dick Cheney. Wanted to talk to ya.
SPECTER: I’m glad, Dick, becuse frankly your letter didn’t address every-
CHENEY: Hrrurrrawrr. ’scuse me. Yeah, there are still some things hangin’.
SPECTER: Frankly, I’m surprised that we’re still handling this through letters. I’m glad you called.
CHENEY: Errr. Yeah. Gotta resolve some things.
SPECTER: Okay, well, let’s hash them out. First off, about the idea of testifying before the comm-
CHENEY: Erm. Ermmerrmerrmmm. Can’t really get into specifics. Maybe we should have lunch.
SPECTER: Well, sure, but let’s lay down some foundations here, as long as we’re talking. For instance, these wire-
CHENEY: Maybe you could tell me in your next letter…
SPECTER: Sure, but there’s a couple of quick things -
CHENEY: Hrruuuhhurrhh! I’m not going to talk about it now. I’m… I’m in the shower.
SPECTER: In the shower?
CHENEY: Yeah, it’s a bad time to be callin’ me. Scrubbin’ stuff right now.
SPECTER: You called me.
CHENEY: Huh? Hrklkrkle…
SPECTER: I said “You called me.”
CHENEY: Oh. Hrmmm. Well, still not a good time. In the middle of a haircut. And I’m drivin’. Gotta-
SPECTER: The whole thing’s out of control, isn’t it?
CHENEY: Hrrff?
SPECTER: It’s because, thanks to the powers that you’ve given the NSA, the ones we know about and the ones we’ve yet to learn, not a single line in this nation is secure. Not even your own damn phone. Is that it? Is it?
CHENEY: Well… hrrf…
[pause]
SPECTER: Is it?
[longer pause]
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Of course not.
SPECTER: Wha-?
CHENEY: Errrrm. Gotta go. [Click.]
SPECTER: Dick? Dick?
[End of transcript.]
Fanny Roborat
30 comments
cooper
June 12, 2006 at 10:59 am
1Indeed!!
I probably shouldn’t say more since blogs aren’t secure, either.
don
June 12, 2006 at 11:38 am
2What??
I thought that these comments were our last refuge!
You mean somebody actually READS these things?
east coast dave
June 12, 2006 at 12:33 pm
3I like to imagine some smarmy Young Republican intern having to wade through the comments at all the lefty blogs for the NSA, getting all flushed and apopleptic at what he/ she sees.
If I’m right- Hi Junior! Everything you believe is wrong!
Nick Danger
June 12, 2006 at 5:03 pm
4No, no, east coast dave, the correct title is - “Everything You Know is Wrong(TM)” - 1974 by The Firesign Theatre. With Philip Austin as Dr. Happy Harry Cox, Philip Proctor as Nino The Mindboggler Peter Bergman as Reebus Caneebus, and David Ossman playing the inimitable Art Wholeflaffer. Even the pimply Republican interns at NSA know this - part of the “Hunting for the Closet Subversives” Good Government Tutorial they took their first week of training.
So, now “they” know that you’re not a subversive and that I probably am. So, just call me…
Nick Danger, Third Eye
Come and get me, Flatfoot!
Nancy
June 12, 2006 at 7:49 pm
5Oh Nick, I’ll never forgive you.
Nick
June 12, 2006 at 8:04 pm
6And I’ll never forget you neither, Nancy.
Steve
June 12, 2006 at 8:14 pm
7If the Proprietor will allow me to plug another satirist and public radio personality, Harry Shearer did an excellent bit in his continuing series “Dick Cheney: Confidential” on “Le Show” this last Sunday (6/11/06).
You can listen to the whole program here or it will be posted to his web site probably within the next 24 hours, broken out by segment.
Murray
June 12, 2006 at 10:09 pm
8The Big Dick.
The only public person who polls at lest 10 points less than the nation’s worst president.
Say you were making a horror movie.
Say you were looking to make it WAY more scary than EVERY thing before. Who would you make it about?
Simple enough.
Mary
June 13, 2006 at 9:28 am
9For some strange reason, none of this surprises me. Could it be? My cynicism has finally caught up?
(I wonder where Ruth is?)
dee
June 13, 2006 at 9:30 am
10I would try to make a pithy comment in French, but all that comes to mind is “Oy”
I’m in Cassis - on to Toulon for the last concert tonight then the last three days in Nice. Good food, incredible wine and gracious hosts who LOVE America “We haff not forget what you deed for us een the war” I get all weepy when we sing The Marseillaise and go right into The Star Spangled Banner.
Maybe we can get a realllly big sheet to set up in the campgrounds and I’ll bring the slides to Felberpalooza.
A bientot!
Murray
June 13, 2006 at 11:29 am
11Dee, Sounds good, I’ll see what I can set up. Maybe others could bring power point presentations of things special to them.
Ann
June 13, 2006 at 1:04 pm
12I’m working on a PowerPoint presentation right now about good technical writing—I’ll be delivering it in Copenhagen next month. It’s no “musical tour of France,” but I think the humorous examples of dangling modifiers should crack everyone up!
Harold
June 13, 2006 at 1:08 pm
13Maybe we should invite Al Gore to Felberpalooza - I hear he has a PowerPoint presentation he’s been travelling around with!
And since it looks like Karl Rove won’t be in Leavenworth come Labor Day, maybe we could invite him, too. We could play a game of “Catch The Greased Pig”!
Murray
June 13, 2006 at 3:10 pm
14Ann, I thought that one of the fun games to play would be “correct the grammatical error”. We could have teams think up outrageously obscure rules for the language and have the other side find the flaws. (NPR listeners are especially experienced at this).
Ann
June 13, 2006 at 4:17 pm
15Ah, yes, Murray. We editors are just a laff riot when we’ve had a bottle or two of hard cider. You don’t know how many times I’ve restrained myself from calling up “This American Life” and shouting at Ira Glass, “It’s ‘produced by Sarah Koenig and ME’! ME!”
Dale
June 13, 2006 at 5:40 pm
16I can hear it now:
“You’ve been listening to ‘This American Life’ produced by I, Meera Glass, and Sarah Koenig…”
Ann
June 13, 2006 at 7:51 pm
17Dale, are you gonna be at Felberpalooza? ‘Cause I might have to hurt you.
SeattleDan
June 13, 2006 at 8:44 pm
18Hey Ann,Dont crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers. If you get a chance, could you email me? I have some interesting news I wanted to share with you.Thanks!
Matt
June 13, 2006 at 9:41 pm
19Son, don’t eat with you’re hands! Use your entrenching tool.
Matt
June 13, 2006 at 9:42 pm
20for the NPR listeners: Son, don’t eat with your hands! Use your entrenching tool.
Dale
June 13, 2006 at 10:40 pm
21Whoa, this blog surveillance has just jumped to a whole new level. SeattleDan–how did you know that I am a little person? Well, take your chances with those pliers, but be warned that I’ve got a lot of friends in low–about 4 1/2 ft–places. Think the Wizard of Oz meets Fight Club.
SeattleTammy
June 13, 2006 at 11:22 pm
22Hey,I’m about 6′2′,so no headbutting.
Wait a minute…it’s Ann who wants to put the hurt on you!
SeattleDan
June 14, 2006 at 12:02 am
23Ok, I dont want to monopolize the posts here,and this link is off-topic (There is a Specter haunting Europe…), but it stunned SeattleTammy and me, and I thought we would share it. The link is a photo-montage and the background music is a song by Johnny Cash, “Hurt”.It is important and please view it if you can…it will take a few moments to download.
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/whatwillyoudo.html
cooper
June 14, 2006 at 12:26 am
24So it turns out that Mr. Rove won’t be playing “Pick up the Soap” with inmate 79281603. A shame! He seemed so perfect for the part.
siobhan
June 14, 2006 at 12:38 am
25Thanks, Dan.
She’s amazing. I can’t wait until she’s old enough to run for office.
siobhan
June 14, 2006 at 12:46 am
26ps -
If you need a light-hearted antidote (albeit depressing in its own way), check out how Ava dealt with the responses to her piece “WWJD”.
Ann
June 14, 2006 at 1:33 am
27Thanks, Dan. I really, um, needed to cry a bit. I couldn’t help thinking throughout that photomontage that people always want to dehumanize their enemies. One way is to say “They just don’t love their families/care about their children/value life and fear death the way we do,” which is convenient when the enemy seems especially reckless, such as with suicide attacks.
The other is to say “The enemy is TOO emotional, what will all this weeping over coffins, tearing of clothes, and hugging of corpses. Civilized people would never act that way–it’s certainly not the dignified way WE would act! Stiff upper lip and all that!”
But when you really look at the anguish those people are experiencing, knowing that so many of them have lost everyone they love, everyone they depend on, their homes and livelihoods, you can feel only shame for what our government has perpetrated. These people will NEVER be grateful to us, no matter what the future brings.
I don’t think we’ll ever be able to atone for this.
SeattleTammy
June 14, 2006 at 2:12 am
28oh Ann- i don’t think we can atone- but Ava is so brave, the way she dealt with the responses. The montage really made me cry.
I have time on Friday so I’ll be going down to the I-90 bridge so I can wave at our glorious leader. Georgie is comin’ to MY neighborhood so the best I can do is go give him a special wave as he goes by. I’ll be wearing my “F-Word Voter” baby-doll tee, in flamingo pink and rhinestones.
It’s dis-heartening to me- the NYT shows pictures of huge crowds of Islamists praying or protesting - the pictures of the crowds are enormous. but when I see the pictures of the Immigrant marches or peace protests in America, it looks like a small crowd, and I was at both immigrant marches on the side where buses have to travel and I can tell you that there were no buses crossing for TWO hours, many more marchers than were shown. It was fun to wave and cheer on the marchers.
I want to go to all the marches and I do urge my peeps, but why can’t we have a showing to rival the pictures from Iraq? We need everyone to show up and stop being sheep- get home late, get a frozen pizza, be some one they have to count. You’re stuck in traffic anyway- go be a part of the solution! Be in the class picture. It’ll be something to tell yer grandkids.
all ya gotta do is show up.
David
June 14, 2006 at 1:00 pm
29I’ll be wearing my “F-Word Voter” baby-doll tee, in flamingo pink and rhinestones.
Tammy,
Whither procured thee this? And can I get one through Jackson Street? A booth at Felberpalooza? Straight though I be, it’s fun to confuse people, not least myself occasionally, like when we scrufty little country boys used to dress up as girls at the Baptist summer camp variety show.
hedera
June 15, 2006 at 12:22 am
30SeattleDan - what a montage. Wow. What ARE we going to do today??
And, no, Ann - we may never be able to atone for this.
I guess the second montage was funny, except that I’m getting to have very little tolerance for people whose idea of argument is to insult those who disagree with them. Even if they could spell.