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cheney on our “hopeful” world
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37 Comments
gross.
There’s something really weird about the white house website (I’ve never looked at it before). I can’t quite put my finger on it –> http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/
Check out that header/banner, like it’s his myspace page? Gold ropes?
Good lord!
… and when you die, Mr. Cheney, no tears will be shed.
I like that one little tooth that looks like it’s trying to push its way out of its his mouth, like it really, really doesn’t want to be there, in that evil head.
This is why we cannot allow them to write our history.
Ok, this is the perfect time to use my favorite internetism:
LMAO
I like the comment about the little tooth & the evil head very much. tee hee
man, eating human flesh must be tough on teeth!
I would not want to share a cell with him.
Stone KILLAH!
I can’t wait for that moment when Cheney is suddenly no longer the asset he currently is to the military industrial complex, and instead becomes just another dangerous liability for what he knows. They’ll pull the plug on his ass faster than you can say “Go Fuck Yourself!” I know it’s just my pointless hatred, but I hope his pals take him out William Colby style.
Unfortunately for them, post-apocalyptic mutant cave dwellers don’t spend a lot of time reading history.
If you ever fall out of a plane without a parachute, it’s important to remain “hopeful” for the next several minutes as you plummet to the earth. Aim for a big fluffy-looking tree if you can spot one.
I like how the White House is now referring to the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve exclusively as ANWR. (Nobody wants to drill in a preserve, but ANWR? Sounds like a dusty oil field already.)
A summary of the entire speech is:
Stay in Iraq.(applause)
Drill in Alaska.(applause)
Vote for John McCain.(applause)
Apparently, that’s how Bush/Cheney define “finishing strong.”
In the defense of thinking Americans, those doing the applauding were Oklahomans.
I’m just saying.
Go Sooners
I agree w/ the hatin’ on Cheney, but just wait till the brand of tyrants in the blue jerseys come along and use all the executive’s new (and old) unconstitutional authority for the stuff you agree with. Then the unconstitutionality of it all won’t seem so bad. I know, that’s how the red team tricked me for a while. Civil liberties and human rights just aren’t as important when the guys wearing your team colors are in charge. And don’t think you’re not that stupid. We all are, it’s in the blood. We trust conmen.
You’re wrong about me, Brackache. I’m even more unpopular with Democrats than I am with Republicans, and that’s saying a lot. But these guys who highjacked the GOP and the country have made the 90s look like the golden age. And don’t worry about the Dems being able to abuse power like they’d want to, the Republicans will never let them…not because it’s their duty, but because they absolutely will not let the Dems do anything, regardless of what it is.
By the way, what “stuff” is it that you are you referring to, that you fear the Dems will actually be able to do? I’d like to be prepared if there is really some sort of danger that they might be able to get something acomplished. I’m still not convinced they haven’t already blown this years presidential election.
Robert: “stuff” the executive branch has now created a precident for doing without anybody being able to do anything about in the realms of domestic surveilance, suspension of habeas corpus, undeclared “wars” (I know, an old one since the Korean “war”), and shooting their friends in the face.
I wouldn’t worry about the Democrats losing the election. Even if Hillary and Obama lose, McCain is Republican in name only. The Democrat philosophy of a messianic Federal Government redistributing wealth, legislating via taxation, legislating in areas the Constitution gives the Federal Government no authority to legislate in, spending other people’s stolen income to buy votes, intervening monetarily and militarily in countries we have no jurisdiction over, debasing the purchasing power of the poor and middle classes with inflated fiat currency trickling down to us from the various industrial complexes the Feds throw it at first, and pretending to take care of us from cradle to grave while prison-raping us will prevail regardless.
The GOP has been conservative in name only for years. Sometimes I wonder why the Democrats even hate them so much since they share very similar philosophies (in action at least, if not rhetoric). The two parties just have a different target audience, who we’re all trained to fear and hate, so our brains shut off when we vote.
American politics has become nothing but a giant game of why-ya-hittin-yourself, but the bully gets to show his magnaminity by allowing us a choice of whether to hit ourselves with our left or right hand. Thanks, Mr. Bully. Please continue lording it over us and calling yourself our benefactor. We will learn to love it, or at least be passively resigned in large enough numbers to continue letting it happen… because we’re so free and brave, I guess.
Too bad Mr. Conyers, Mr. Dingell, Mrs. Pelosi and the other 400+ members of the House of Representatives don’t have the guts or the fortitude to hold Mr. Bush & Mr. Cheney accountable for their High Crimes. So much for the Constitution and their Oath of Office swearing to defend it. So much for the rule of law, the right of habeas corpus, and co-equal branches of government.
Granted Mr. Wexler and Mr. Kucinich have been vocal, but they have not been terribly effective at much other than placating those who cite them as examples of hope.
There is a literal buffet of impeachable offenses. Well over a million Americans have signed petitions, made phone calls, written Reps., held marches and sit-ins. There have been books penned, town halls, op-eds, billboards and countless websites devoted to analysis and commentary.
Yet there has not been a peep from Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton on revoking the powers of the Unitary Executive or divorcing our government from the military industrial complex (per Eisenhower).
Yeah… situation normal. Gutless and out maneuvered, the Democrats in the Congress have allowed our Republic to crumble before our eyes. Their reasoning: Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton will be the benevolent leader that will fix everything, then make life pretty and politically correct again; in other words: if we don’t talk about bad stuff it isn’t real and doesn’t need to be addressed.
When I think of history yet penned, as per Mr. Cheney’s comment, I think of the complicity of the Congress. Indeed, to some extent, the complicity of the American people for being too busy and apathetic to do anything about the incumbents they keep re-electing to the Congress.
Great rant, dp!
I like your rant too dp, but as expected I have to take issue with a big part of the general premise. (I can almost hear a collective sigh of “not this crap from that jackass Robert again” from the two or three people who at this point don’t just skip any post as soon as they see my name on it.)
Calling the Democrats in congress “gutless and out maneuvered” is something akin to saying the same things about a bank security guard who arrives for his shift and steps right into a massive, well planned and highly organized robbery while it’s very much still in progress. He’s completely outnumbered, outgunned, and his arrival completely anticipated by the robbers. You can also throw in the fact that the security guard who he was supposed to relieve is a fully participating accomplice in the robbery. You can also consider the likelihood that part of the robbers’ plan is to, at least to some degree, set up our schmuck as a fall guy.
I don’t know that I agree with you, Robert. I believe that the Democrats could have stood up to the Republicans on the war in Iraq, and any number of other things. It might have meant forfeiting their seats in Congress, but they could have done it. Truth is, they were scared shitless to stand up to the President in the wake of 9/11.
Thanks for your feedback, Robert.
Unfortunately, doing the right thing isn’t always the easy thing to do.
On 16 February 2007, members of Congress took the Oath of Office pursuant to Article 6 of the Constitution.
“I, ____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
By your logic and metaphor, David would have never beat Goliath, America should never have declared independence from Britain, Rosa Parks would have meekly moved from her seat, and this world would be completely run by bullies, devoid of social entrepreneurship.
Mr. Conyers, Mr. Dingell, Mrs. Pelosi, etc. do not get a pass because it would have been hard to get beat up in the conservative press. These framing arguments can be won when the Art of War is studied for rhetorical purposes. They have abdicated responsibility because it would take a little too much effort to rock the boat.
In the face of overwhelming force make sure the overwhelming part is not an optical illusion that can’t be overcome with ingenuity and honor.
If little old Ron Paul could stand up to every single member of Congress again and again to keep his oath of office, let alone pressure from his own party and all the lobbyists (and still get reelected to Congress), anybody could have. But they didn’t, because they’re part of the problem, and suck balls.
… yeah. Ditto what Barackache said ;-)
It’s a little unfair to lump all Democrats together as spineless.
We should remember a few things about that Iraq vote in 2002. First of all, a large majority of the American public supported giving the Bush Administration the power to go to war in Iraq. Of course, they were being lied to, but so was congress.
Also, 21 of the Democrats in the Senate voted against the war powers resolution, joined by only one Republican, Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.
In the House of Representatives, 126 Democrats voted against the resolution, joined by 6 Republicans.
Greetings Robert,
I did make the caveat concerning Wexler and Kucinich. While they do have spines, they obviously are not being all that successful in motivating their presently invertebrate colleagues to their/our just cause. There are a dozen or so other Representatives who have co-signed Kucinich’s HR333, which is nice to see. The decision, however, is all up to Conyers and Pelosi to grant hearings in the Judiciary Committee…
That said, none of this excuses Democratic “leadership” from ignoring their legal and Constitutional obligations to investigate and prosecute the Bush/Cheney regime for violations of domestic and international law pursuant to the impeachment clause of the Constitution.
dp, I basically agree with what you say.
I think the only thing you and I might disagree on is exactly how much pressure is put on these people to get them to back down. Even taking the possibilities there into consideration, I have to wonder why these people would work so hard to attain these positions only to back off their sworn duties at such key moments.
Several years ago, I was an appointed member of a school district board of canvassers. For a few election cycles things were pretty uneventful. However, one year on election night I witnessed a series of breaches relating to the handling of the incoming ballots. We were then expected to certify results without any secondary information confirming their legitimacy. This effectively made it impossible for us to know if any of what we were seeing was even accurate. I requested further information which would help the board confirm the numbers we were being given. My request was refused and in turn I refused to put my signature on any of the certification documents. They only needed three of four board members to sign for the results to be officially certified, so they were ok with that. As an added measure I officially resigned from the board that night before the results were certified, and I made sure I had plenty of witnesses to my resignation.
This situation involved just a school district millage vote, so it wasn’t something I’d have to worry would involve a crazy amount of pressure. Still, all I felt I could do about the situation was protect myself legally. I’ve thought about that situation many times since and wondered if maybe I failed to fulfill my sworn oath.
What do you think?
Woo Hoo!!
Gotta love public conversations =-)
Lets see. I guess the amount of pressure should be roughly proportional to the amount of damage being done to our country.
The issue of torture on its own merit should be enough to have the public raising a lot of commotion. There is still warrantless wire tapping, signing statements, imprisoning Americans with out charge, and the 935 documented lies that led to the invasion of Iraq (www.publicintegrity.org).
Integrity is a good word to look at. Incumbents in the Congress are re-elected over 95% of the time. It takes upwards of $2M to win a contested election for a seat in the House of Representatives. Third party and independent candidates are practically barred from ballot access in some states. All this means that the folks in the congress operate in a closed circle.
If you can get your foot in the door, and you don’t try to rock the boat, a Member of Congress can kiss accountability good bye.
This is, of course, what needs to change. It is also the topic of many blogs, books and so on… yadda yadda; I’m guessing Mark probably doesn’t want his site hijacked in the name of saving our Republic.
Regarding your example on election certification, well that is also a whole separate thread. One thing I can say is that many elections in the US would not meet the Carter Center standards as applied to elections in developing nations. I applaud you for resigning rather than participating in an action you thought to be illegal. Additional actions, as you say, are left to pondering in quiet moments.
I’ve been critical of the Dems in Congress, as well. Harry Reid mentioned that their slim majority, which is 1, and actually 0 with one of their senators ill at the moment, leaves them at the mercy of the few Republicans across the aisle to side now and then on a debate. We forget, sometimes, how tough it really is … pluis the fact they have the White House and a VP’s vote in the Senate.
dp, the pressure I was referring to is that on the other side of the equation, applied by very specific interests which hold financial stakes in the outcomes of political decisions.
In certain situations, that pressure could easily be escelated to a point where the pressure of public opinion can not compete.
I could use the example of the contract that was put out on the life of then Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich for his refusal to sell the cities public power plant to private interests who stood to make a lot of money on the deal.
In all fairness to the likes of Cheney and Bush, I think it should be pointed out that high level public officials are always operating under considerable duress.
Apologist Douche Bag
We resent that remark.
Yes, I was kicked out of the American Association of Apologist Douche Bags years ago. I’ve been telling people I resigned.
Right at this moment, Cheney is undergoing a proceedure regarding his heart. Apparently they found it.
Maybe the key to being as “hopeful” as Dick Cheney is to command your own executive assassination ring.
http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investigative_reporter_seymour_hersh_describes_executive_assassination_ring
I wish Cheney was still President. We could use his optimism.