Rock stars and other celebrities commonly make special requests when on the road to satisfy their peculiar needs for comfort. Perhaps the most notorious of these was Van Halen’s request for a bowl of peanut M & M’s with all the brown ones removed.

Well, move over Dave. The Smoking Gun has obtained the Downtime Requirements for V.P. Eagle Eye Dick Cheney. Under an instruction that dictates that, “The items list below are required,” number six on the list demands particular attention:

“All Televisions tuned to FOX News.”

I have nothing to add.

In mid February it was announced that Dubai Ports World, a firm owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, was acquiring ownership of several U.S. ports. Within a few days of that annoucement another deal was also revealed by the same UAE parent company.

Istithmar’s purcahse of 109 million shares of Time Warner gave it control of 2.39% of the world’s largest media conglomerate. They also hired one of Carl Icahn’s entities as its advisor. Icahn led an unsuccessful attempt to force the break up of Time Warner into 4 seperate units.

Am I being to suspicious in wondering whether these events were related? Although it doesn’t appear that any advantage was achieved, the potential is a bit creepy. If I were attempting to buy critical U.S. assets with natioanl security implications, I might find it convenient to control a significant chunk of U.S. media. And affiliating with a figure (Icahn) who could hold the firms feet to the fire wouldn’t seem like such a bad idea either.

About a year ago, the New York Times uncovered evidence that the National Security Agency, under direct orders from the President, conducted unlawful surveillance of American citizens. The significance of this cannot be overstated – A foreign intelligence agency, working out of the White House was, spying on Americans! And what does the NYT do with this shocking discovery? At the request of the perpetrators of the unlawful behavior, the Times agreed to spike the story.

A statement by the Times said that they were asked not to run the story because it might interfere with ongoing investigations. Based on that request, with no evidence or corroboration, they capitulated and held back on a story that had implications of impeachable violations of federal law. For a news organization that has recently been stung by revelations of impropriety and bias on the part of its, now former and disgraced, reporter, Judith Miller, I don’t know if it’s surprising or to be expected that this should occur. And for an administration that has been riddled with ethical breaches (no WMDs, Katrina response, Abramoff, election irregularities, etc.) their non-chalant demeanor in the face of this new crime is astonishing.

The administration is not embarrassed by its criminality. On the contrary, it is going on the attack. This morning, the president gave a belligerently defensive speech saying in part:

Yesterday the existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports, after being improperly provided to news organizations. As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk. Revealing classified information is illegal, alerts our enemies, and endangers our country.

Despite offering no evidence that our enemies have benefited from this, he is castigating the media for doing what it should have done a year ago. And if he truly cared about the harm that may result from revealing classified information, you would think he would do something about the members of his circle that disclosed the identity of CIA operative, Valerie Plame. Instead all he does is shift blame to the media, a media that deserves blame, but not for what the President thinks.

American Media Inc., owner of the National Enquirer, paid $20,000 to a woman with whom the then Governor-wannabe was carrying on an affair in order to buy her silence. The deal was executed just days after Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy. Gigi Goyette, whose name alone foreshadowed notoriety as a political harlot, entered into a confidentiality agreement with AMI that prohibited her from disclosing the affair to anyone other than AMI. AMI then pocketed the agreement and never wrote or published Gigi’s story.

Why would this gossip rag pay thousands for a juicy sex scandal and not act on it? Because AMI was also pursuing Arnold to become executive editor of Flex and Muscle and Fitness, magazines published by, you guessed it, AMI. For AMI it was inducement for Arnold to sign on, as well as a measure to protect their newest asset’s reputation and aid his election prospects, which would further boost his market value.

This is, by the way, the same AMI that was recently exposed for having entered into a secret contract with the Governor that would earn him over $13 million. Amidst blistering publicity and charges of conflict of interest, the contract was terminated, but Arnold would not return any of the funds he had already received.

As it turns out, AMI paid Arnold more than money. They effectively bought him the governorship by suppressing the kind of well-documented story that could have sunk him. Ironically, this tale of sex, scandal, and deception is exactly the sort of fare upon which the National Enquirer thrives. Nonetheless, despite the fact that they still own the exclusive, I don’t think we’ll be seeing it on their pages any time soon.

You just have to wonder what’s on the agenda when having document shredder on your resume helps you land a job at the Pentagon. The Los Angeles Times reported that Robert Earl has been hired as Chief of Staff to Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Gordon England. England has been nominated by Bush to replace Paul Wolfowitz, who has gone on to head the World Bank.

Earl was granted immunity in exchange for testifying so we can’t call him a felon. But his criminal behavior should disqualify him for any position in public service, particularly one that requires a security clearance. The audacity of this administration appointing someone with so little regard for the law or national security, is boundless. Imagine the reaction from the right if Democrats were to give a sensitive post to Sandy Berger, the former Clinton National Security Advisor who pled guilty to removing documents from the National Archives. Fox News alone would spend three days on it.

Earl, if confirmed would join his Iran-Contra co-conspirators Elliot Abrams and John Poindexter in an administration rife with corrupt power players. And serving as a role model for these evildoers, and all the young aspiring evildoers, is the master, Karl Rove, who is earning his own criminal stripes even now with his involvement in the Plame affair.

This is the time to call on the Limbaughs, O’Reilly’s, Hannitys, etc., and see if their ethics are functional; see if they’ll support a confessed document shredder who lied to the FBI; see if they would have any problem with a Berger appointment to the DNC or Democratic Senatorial staff; see if there are any limits to their hypocracy.

But who will ask them? The media? Yeah, right. Its up to us…again.