The NY Times reports today that the Bush Administration is giving President-elect Barack Obama "crisis briefings" to help in the event that Obama is tested in the first days and weeks of his presidency.
The memorandums envision a variety of volatile possibilities, like a North Korean nuclear explosion, a cyberattack on American computer systems, a terrorist strike on United States facilities overseas or a fresh outbreak of instability in the Middle East, according to people briefed on them. Each then outlines options for Mr. Obama to consider.
Have these memos been prepared by Cheney's team? Is this an effort to convert Obama to Cheney's view that the world is a dangerous place and must be dealt with using tools of the unitary executive?
In addition to the White House contingency memorandums, the Department of Homeland Security said it had given crisis training to nearly 100 career officials who may fill in while Mr. Obama’s appointees await Senate confirmation. Starting before the election, those career workers have conducted exercises alongside departing political appointees to test their responses.
Are these career officials the ones that have folks like Dan Froomkin and Think Progress concerned about burrowingwhere the bureaucrats can affect policy for years to come?
The contingency plans, he said, provide the new president a variety of possible responses to certain situations rather than a specific course of action. "It’s a menu of contingencies and potential options," he said. "It’s not exhaustive, and it’s not exclusive, and it’s not prescriptive, as if to say, ‘These are the only things you can do.’ "
As the Bush Administration officially has no regrets on any of its policy decisions over the last eight years, we can assume that the last eight years offers a blueprint of the options they are presenting to Obama in these memorandums. Based on that, let's take a close look at what these options are:
- Disregard and denigrate any practice/policy of the Clinton Administration. It does not matter that they've been out of power for eight years.
- Treat all Presidential Daily Briefings as "cover your ass" efforts by Clinton Administration bureaucrats.
- If your enemy sends you a letter that says they will use a WMD unless you sit down and talk with them, ignore them. It's much better to appear strong than it is to prevent an attack.
- If the country is attacked, it's extremely important to continue what ever you were doing so as not to scare anyone or give the impression that you're scared.
- Go after the enemy who attacked us with a half-assed effort.
- Identify a sworn enemy and figure out a way to use an attack on our country to justify going to war on said sworn enemy. When you attack said sworn enemy, use very impressive explosions, give the attack a catchy name (but not Shock & Awe, as that's a Bush Administration trademark), and enlist the media in your propaganda efforts.
- Identify which parts of the Constitution make you look weak and disregard them. Pay a lawyer to read only Article II of the Constitution and write memorandums that all other parts of the Constitution defer to Article II.
- Arrest our citizens and identify them as enemy combatants. Publicly declare that the arrest saved millions of lives. Put said citizens in military confinement and promptly forgot about them. If the Supreme Court erroneously says that the arrests and subsequent treatments are unconstitutional, change the charges and move the citizen. Remember, the Supreme Court does not have any police authority.
- Ignore any laws that won't let you eavesdrop on American citizens so that you can learn which party they belong to or what political beliefs they hold. This will help determine what charges to indict them on.
- Pay a doctor to state that all enhanced interrogation techniques short of death do not really hurt and have no lasting damage on the body/psyche.
- Pay a lawyer to state that only death qualifies as torture.
- Pay a lawyer to write a memo that the United States is in compliance with the Geneva Convention.
- If an American city is demolished by a hurricane, determine if its people are white before deciding on a course of action.
- If an American city is demolished by an earthquake, determine if its people vote for the opposition party before acting.
- If an American financial institution fails, determine if the Board of Directors, CEO, CFO, or any other highly paid official won't be able to make the down payment on their fifth house before acting on a bailout. Also, check to see if any of them are your friends or political donors, as you would hate to see them down and out.
- If an American manufacturing company fails, check to see if the firm is unionized before acting on a bailout. If unionized, deny the bailout.
- When testifying before Congress, never answer any question or tell the truth. Don't worry, Congress doesn't know about Inherent Contempt and no meaningful consequence will ever land on your doorstep.
- Don't use email or record any of your decision making processes.
- Treat all questions by the press and American public as treasonous.
- Sucker a religious movement into becoming your own personal cult that believes you were sent by God at the right time and place to save America.