Wednesday, August 31, 2011

CHENEY FEARS TRIAL AS WAR CRIMINAL; No Heads Are Exploding: Just A Growing Number Of Really Pissed Off Politicos!





CHENEY FEARS TRIAL AS WAR CRIMINAL; No Heads Are Exploding: Just A Growing Number Of Really Pissed Off Politicos!





Powell's long-time aide and chief of staff, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson told ABC news Cheney, 'Was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration,' adding, '[He] fears being tried as a war criminal.'

The attack comes in the wake of attempts by Cheney to publicise his new book, with Powell accusing the one-time vice president of taking 'cheap shots' at the former Bush administration.

According to early reports, Cheney's forthcoming book breaks with the former administration's version of events.

But former Secretary of State Powell has dismissed Cheney's sensational claims as 'supermarket tabloid' material designed to 'pump up sales'.

He brushed off Cheney's claims that Powell tried to undercut President Bush's policies in Iraq.

He also dismissed Cheney's assertion that Powell had stood by while his former deputy leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, pointing out that the scandal eventually led to the criminal conviction of Cheney's former chief of staff Scooter Libby.

Cheney had claimed that he would make heads in Washington 'explode' with revelations including that he told George W. Bush to bomb Syria and has ‘no regrets’ about water-boarding terror suspects.

He also revealed that he prepared a secret signed resignation letter, while still in office, in case of health complications.

But Powell branded the former Vice President's promotional tag-line 'cheap' insisting: 'My head isn’t exploding and I haven’t noticed any other heads exploding in Washington DC.

'It’s the kind of headline I would have expect to come out of a gossip columnist or the kind of headline you might see one of the supermarket tabloids write.'

He added: 'Mr Cheney has had a long and distinguished career. I hope in his book that that’s what he focuses on, not these cheap shots that’s he taking at me and other members of the administration.'

Powell also criticised Cheney's approach to former colleagues. In 'In my Time', to be published later this month, he describes former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as naïve and said Colin Powell was right to resign after the 2004 election.









Might Dick Cheney Really Be Tried For War Crimes?
Christian Science Monitor
By Peter Grier, Staff writer / August 31, 2011 Is there a possibility that former Vice President Dick Cheney will be tried as a war criminal? The question arises because Lawrence Wilkerson, a former top aide to ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell, ...See all stories on this topic »

Why I Won't Read Dick Cheney's Book
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Mr. Cheney's approach to these deadly lies was to choose and interpret US intelligence to reinforce his goal, as opposed to arriving at a truth upon which to base US policy. 2) He is a killer. His deliberate actions, probably intended to get himself ...See all stories on this topic »

Taciturn Cheney Can't Stop Talking About Heart Device
USA Today
By Susan Page, USA TODAY Even in his 565-page memoir, Dick Cheney doesn't reveal much about his innermost thoughts and feelings. By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY Former vice president Dick Cheney calls his heart pump "a great piece of equipment. ...See all stories on this topic »-
USA Today

Dick Cheney, Torture And Teshuvah
The Jewish Journal of Greater L.A.
by Aryeh Cohen Vice President Dick Cheney speaks to a crowd of service members on Balad Air Base, Iraq, March 18, 2008. Cheney was in the area visiting with service members deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. (US Air Force photo by Senior ...See all stories on this topic »-
The Jewish Journal of Greater L.A.

Cheney: U.S. Likes Texan 'Arrogance'
Politico
Dick Cheney will support the Republican nominee for president in 2012. And that's just about all he'll say about the election right now. In a Wednesday “Fox and Friends” appearance to promote his memoir, Cheney took a pass on questions about the GOP ...See all stories on this topic »
  
Newly Organized Progressive Coalition Challenges Corporate-Funded Tea Party ...
Between The Lines
Working with MoveOn.org and dozens of other peace, social justice, labor and environmental groups, Rebuild the Dream organized more than 900 house meetings across the US in mid-July, where those attending selected priority issues and hammered out what ...See all stories on this topic »

The Biggest Lie Rick Perry Ever Done Told | MoveOn.Org
By Alicia
In case you were wondering where all that job creation crap came from . . .MoveOn.Org

Condoleezza Rice Rejects Cheney's 'Attack On My Integrity'
Reuters
WASHINGTON Aug 31 (Reuters) - Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday she resented what she viewed as an attack on her integrity by former Vice President Dick Cheney in his just-published memoir. Speaking in an interview with ...
See all stories on this topic »

Shadow Government: Cheney's Unfortunate Legacy For Conservatives
Foreign Policy
It's incredibly discouraging to see former US Vice President Dick Cheney vituperatively reopen disputes from George W. Bush's administration. His scorched-earth excoriation of critics makes little distinction between those who would recklessly endanger ...
See all stories on this topic »
Right Off The Bat, It’s Worth Noting That this is a better field to choose from than we had in 2008. Back then, we had Duncan Hunter (whom I worked for), Fred Thompson, and a bunch of other guys it was impossible to get excited about. Unlike a lot of conservatives, I was at least lukewarm on Mike Huckabee, but I really didn’t like Romney or Giuliani and McCain made my skin crawl. This time around, the field’s better, but the number of potentially viable candidates is probably a little smaller, too. In fact, barring Sarah Palin’s entry into the race or a Rick Perry meltdown, this is perilously close to turning into a two person race already. Let’s start with the front-runner…

1) Rick Perry: Perry’s leading the polls in Iowa and South Carolina, he has money, charisma, and he’s doing well with conservatives. So, he’s definitely the front runner and could certainly win, BUT — and this is a big but — his lead is more fragile than he looks. There are a number of potential pitfalls that could cut Perry down to size.

A) Perry is the front runner and he excites conservatives, which means that the establishment Republicans and the mainstream media hate him with the burning heat of 1000 suns. In addition, the other candidates, the Bushies/Karl Rove contingent, and Ron Paul’s crazier fans who think Perry was helping the Bilderbergers institute a North American Union are ALL going to be gunning for him. If there’s one lesson that can be learned from what was done to Sarah Palin, it’s that there doesn’t have to be much “there there” to damage someone’s reputation. Toss enough smears against the wall for a long enough time and some of them will eventually stick.

B) When the entirety of your political world changes from being one state (Texas) to the whole United States, you will quickly find that you’re way behind on the learning curve. There are undoubtedly huge gaps in Rick Perry’s level of knowledge about certain national issues that could conceivably be exposed in interviews or debates. In the age of YouTube, those mistakes, even if they’re largely inconsequential, like Palin’s weak Katie Couric interview in 2008, live on forever and are ENDLESSLY repeated. Hopefully, Rick Perry’s staff is drilling him non-stop to get him fully up to speed in a hurry.

C) Rick Perry has one very obvious Achilles heel: illegal immigration. He is probably to Bush’s right on the issue, but he’s well to the left of most of the base. I also notice that Perry has yet to stake out an official position on the issue on his website. Could that one issue cost him the nomination? You bet it could. However, he does have a saving grace: Mitt Romney has a terrible record on illegal immigration and has moved to the Right. So, if Perry does the same, that at least gets him back on an even plane with his top competitor.

Christopher Hitchens
: Does Rick Perry believe his idiotic religious rhetoric?

National Post (blog)
I happened to spend several weeks in Texas earlier this year, while the Lone Star State lay under the pitiless glare of an unremitting drought. After a protracted arid interval, the state's immodest governor, Rick Perry, announced that he was using the ...See all stories on this topic »

2) Mitt Romney: Being a Mormon doesn’t help Mitt Romney, but his real problem is that he comes across as a phony, plastic, car salesman of a candidate who doesn’t believe in anything and will say whatever he needs to say to get elected. Although Romney’s not a bad speaker, he inspires no passion or excitement because it’s hard to get jazzed up about a political robot mouthing slogans that are programmed into him based on poll testing. Romney is competent, organized, can raise money, and he has successful private sector experience, but he’s not a movement conservative, he’s not particularly likable, and he reeks of inauthenticity.

3) Michele Bachmann: Before Perry got in, it was shaping up to be a Bachmann vs. Romney fight, but the Texan has stolen a lot of her thunder. To be perfectly honest, Bachmann is probably going to have a tough time getting more traction unless Palin doesn’t get in and Perry collapses. If that were to happen, then Bachmann could have a shot as the Romney alternative. If that doesn’t happen, then she’s going to have to put everything she has into Iowa, hope she pulls off a come-from-behind victory, and then ride the momentum from there.

Bachmann, who’s charismatic, photogenic, genuinely conservative, frighteningly organized, and an enthusiastic campaigner has a couple of problems. She’s a congresswoman, not a governor and she has trouble staying on message. Fiery conservatives can win elections, but they need a lot of message discipline. When those on the opposition are telling everyone that you’re a radical, extremist, crazy person, the public doesn’t take them at their word, but they do watch you very carefully to see what you say. In Bachmann’s case, every two or three weeks, she blurts out a line or two that allows her to be portrayed as a wild-eyed radical. In the race for the presidency, where every comment can become national front page news, those little gaffes can absolutely kill you over the course of a campaign.

4) Sarah Palin: Out of everyone who’s run for the presidency in the last few elections, on both sides of the aisle, I find Sarah Palin to be the most admirable person. She’s extremely competent, charismatic, she’s succeeded in business, politics, raised a big family, made a huge difference for the GOP in 2010, done more for feminism than anyone since Susan B. Anthony — she’s just an extraordinary human being. Of course, because all of that’s true, the Left has put together an unprecedented three year long, incredibly vicious smear campaign aimed at her and her family.

Sadly, it was effective. Sarah Palin has lost some conservative support and her numbers with Independents are mediocre. While I do think she could conceivably win the presidency and the nomination, I think it would be a tremendous uphill fight for her. If she got in the race tomorrow, she would probably get a big enough bounce to put her in second place, but it’s entirely possible that a week later she could be sitting in third place, with roughly 10% of the vote. Additionally, while she would fight to make up that ground, she’d have Bachmann fighting her tooth and nail for her constituency and poll after poll would likely show her performing worse than the other major candidates against Obama.

Although again, I am a great admirer of Sarah Palin and do think she could conceivably win the nomination and the presidency, I would advise her to take a lesson from Richard Nixon in 1964, skip the election and look for her chance to run again in either 2012 or 2016….if she wants to run at all. After all, even though she doesn’t hold political office, Sarah Palin is making millions of dollars and is one of the single most influential people in politics. That’s not to say that the presidency wouldn’t be a step up, but it would be a much smaller step up for her than for any other Republican candidate in the race.

5) Ron Paul: Paul can raise money, dominate online polls, and he has inspired the largest group of rabid, diehard supporters you’ll find anywhere in politics. Unfortunately, most of those fanatical supporters are conspiracy theorists, pacifists, or Big-L Libertarians. In other words, the very traits that have allowed Ron Paul to acquire that frothing mass of zealous supporters who can outwork and out-donate any other candidate’s followers 1-for-1, make it impossible for him to have wider appeal. That’s because most of the primary voters are conservatives, not Libertarians, they’re turned off by conspiracy theories, and Paul’s pacifistic/isolationist foreign policy views are anathema to most conservatives. So, although Ron Paul will generate lots of excitement for a certain segment of the base, he will never be able to acquire the critical mass he needs to win the nomination.

6) The Rest: Herman Cain is an appealing guy, but he’s raw and has made too many rookie mistakes. Rick Santorum is a strong advocate for social conservatives, but he lacks the charisma and necessary stature (He lost his last race as a senator) to take off. Newt Gingrich doesn’t seem to be getting much traction. Jon Huntsman is far too moderate to have any appeal. Buddy Roemer, Gary Johnson, and Thaddeus McCotter don’t seem to be getting enough oxygen right now to even get a serious look from most voters. That’s particularly a shame in the case of McCotter, who’s charismatic and conservative. While you should “never say ‘never,’” at the moment, none of these candidates look likely to move up into the top tier right now.

Is America exceptional? Listen to any politician and the answer must be YES! Apparently one of the requirements to run for office is a willingness to say that America is the greatest nation ever, the most wonderful place on earth. Republican contenders for their party’s Presidential nomination have recently been polishing their exceptionalist credentials.

Rick Perry’s campaign website says, “Rick Perry will restore confidence in the American Dream and American Exceptionalism.” His campaign book, “Fed Up: Our Fight to Save America from Washington” (2010), proclaims that Americans are “a people blessed by the Almighty”. Mitt Romney writes in “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness” (2010) that the US is “the world’s leading nation”. Hermann Cain is behind in the polls, so he may need even stronger words. In The American Spectator, March 2011, he wrote: “There is no denying it: America is the greatest country in the world.” Then he repeats the sentence a few lines later.

President Obama offered a different view at a press conference in 2009: “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” Perry in “Fed Up” comments sarcastically on this statement, and says, “America is unique in its greatness”. Romney also criticized Obama’s statement in his book, saying it means that Obama doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism at all. For conservatives, only Americans can rightfully be exceptionalists.

Throughout our history, Americans have claimed exceptional status for our country. John Winthrop, the Puritan leader, thought of his version of America as a “City upon a Hill”: the Puritans of New England would serve as a model for the rest of the world. As a conscious creation of settlers from many countries, a new nation with an unprecedented Constitution, the US was a exceptional nation. But what about now?

Last week I happened to be taking 11 international students to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield and thinking about what American exceptionalism might mean to them. I have been trying to explain my homeland to Africans, Asians, and Europeans. The US is very different from their home countries: for example, our farms and cars and houses are enormous compared to what they are used to. In those ways, every country is exceptional, with different languages, customs, history and economy. When does exceptional mean better?

As we might expect, the stronger the statements about America as the greatest nation, the more ignorance or disdain is displayed about the rest of the world. It is much more difficult to proclaim that the US is best after getting to know another country. Living elsewhere confronts you with two uncomfortable truths.

The first is that other people’s ways of doing things might actually be better than our own. The Germans and the Chinese have better train systems. The Dutch and the Scandinavians are far better at teaching languages to school children. Many peoples are more hospitable to strangers and we have the highest per capita rate of murders with firearms of any industrialized country. To say “America is the greatest” begs the question, “At what?”

A second truth is that Obama is right: each people sees their own country and culture as exceptional and exceptionally good. It makes no sense to argue for American exceptionalism with a Nigerian or a Swede. They might agree that our buildings are taller or our per capita income higher, but then ask, “So what?” Any claim that we are better people, more moral or more happy or more just, will provoke an argument without end.

American exceptionalism is dangerous. The desire to proclaim superiority leads to stupidity, such as Perry’s claim in “Fed Up” that the US has “the best health care system in the world.” It leads to attempts to hide any possible flaws, especially the most embarrassing ones, like our violent denial of Constitutional rights to black Americans through most of our history or our enormous prison population. Exceptionalism of the “We are the greatest” variety is an adult form of the elementary school boast, “My father can beat up your father.”

Leaving arrogance and ignorance aside, it is worth thinking about what is exceptional about the US. Our exceptional flaws should provoke us to seek corrections. Our exceptional virtues, such as our ability to challenge authority, our free press, our system of higher education, and our wide variety of good beers, can be sources of pride.
Steve Hochstadt
Taking Back Our Lives


In America The Rule Of Law Is Vacated
Center for Research on Globalization
by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts With bank fraudsters, torturers, and war criminals running free, the US Department of Justice (sic) has nothing better to do than to harass the famous Tennessee guitar manufacturer, ...
See all stories on this topic »



Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Hairy Perry: Rick Perry On Evolution...




Remembering Why Americans Loathe Dick Cheney and If You Happen To Be Lucky And Catch One Of Cheney’s Book Signings, Bring Along A Pair Of Handcuffs.





Remembering Why Americans Loathe Dick Cheney and If You Happen To Be Lucky And Catch One Of Cheney’s Book Signings, Bring Along A Pair Of Handcuffs.

 



 If You Happen To Be Lucky And Catch One Of Cheney’s Book Signings, Bring Along A Pair Of Handcuffs.


Dick Cheney's Wars: The Former Vice President on 9/11, Iraq and the Future
Wall Street Journal
Following are excerpts from former Vice President Dick Cheney's new memoir, "In My Time," published by Threshold Editions, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc. In the first excerpt, Mr. Cheney describes his advice to President George W. Bush shortly ...See all stories on this topic »

Mr. Cheney describes the path that led to "enhanced interrogation" of terror detainees and the results of the controversial program:


Inside the mind of Dick Cheney.

Last week, as morsels of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s new memoir began to go public, The New York Times published an odd revelation: After undergoing heart surgery in 2010, Cheney had “a prolonged, vivid dream that he was living in an Italian villa, pacing the stone paths to get coffee and newspapers.” Lacking any additional context, the scene seemed rather opaque. What could it possibly mean? I decided to call up some psychoanalysts and dream experts for their interpretations. While all the analysts took pains to note they couldn’t be sure, they nonetheless provided me with several possible meanings for Cheney’s bizarre and extended dream.
The first two experts with whom I spoke were struck by the quotidian character of Cheney’s vision. French psychiatrist Mathilde Kazes, who practices medicine in Paris, offered that “it might mean that Cheney would like to be like a regular guy, with the little twist of living in an Italian villa—far from U.S. politics? With Berlusconi?” Dr. Paula Ellman, director of the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the New York Freudian Society, agreed with the majority of Kazes’s diagnosis. For her, Cheney’s dream is “lifeless, concrete, [and] devoid of rich symbols.” It might reveal “his desires to have a life of ease, with its ordinary, mundane pleasures.”
Dr. Benjamin Kilborne, a medical doctor, anthropologist, and expert on dreams noted that the most obvious emotional content of the dream is located in Cheney’s wanderings on stone paths. “It may be a manifestation of some sort of anxiety or impatience,” he told me. “Why would he be pacing? Is it because he can’t go somewhere? Is he waiting for someone?” Kilborne added that the dream’s setting in Italy was also curious. In light of Cheney’s actions in the executive branch, he ventured that “it’s possible that he had fantasies of Roman triumphs.”
Dr. Janice Quinn, a Jungian psychologist, gravitated towards a very different position. Having worked with high ranking military and government leaders, she saw many parallels to Cheney’s case. For instance, important officials often feel a professional imperative to keep their passions under wraps, she told me. “They aren’t allowed to have any feelings that could lead them astray.” But occasionally, a vivid dream can force them to reevaluate their monochrome mental approach. “They wake up,” she says. “It’s like, look, there is more to you than just this one-sided consciousness you work with.” The exotic location of the dream gave Quinn a valuable interpretive key. “The Italians are very extroverted, feeling-oriented people. ... In Jungian terms, we would say that the Italian villa could represent the ‘feeling side’ of Cheney’s personality.” After eight stressful years in the public eye and a dangerous heart surgery, it’s possible that Cheney’s unusual dream just might have freed up some pent-up feelings.
But was Cheney’s hospital bed vision truly transformative? Dr. Melanie Starr Costello, a Jungian analyst in private practice in D.C., told me that it isn’t altogether unlikely. The combination of “disease and dreams” often precipitates a personal transformation, she says. “In times of crisis, we have dreams that seem intended to help us digest what’s going on and to provide some needed salve or insight into the experience.”
Despite their differing opinions, most of the experts and practitioners to whom I spoke were able to agree, at least, about one thing: Cheney’s dream may have possessed real significance. “If it was so vivid to him,” says Dr. Quinn, “it means it has some deep meaning.” But at the end of the day, there is only one way to get to the bottom of it: Cheney has to sit down with a trained specialist and discuss. Dr. Quinn, in particular, told me she’d be happy to help the former vice president. All he has to do is call and make an appointment.
Jarad Vary is an intern at The New Republic.
I Think The Shrinks Are Nuts!

DICK CHENEY'S MEMOIR: How To Think (And Satirize) Like A Cartoonist
Washington Post (blog)
By Michael Cavna If you are the Post's reviewer Robert Kaiser, and you have a couple-dozen fat paragraphs with which to register your disdain and disappointment over Dick Cheney's new memoir, you can plot your verbal takedown like a relatively extended ...See all stories on this topic »


Dick Cheney Book 'In My Time': The Biggest Revelations From The ...
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Dick Cheney's new memoir, which officially hits bookstores August 30, reveals new details about the inner workings of the Bush administration and Cheney's life as vice president. In an interview with NBC's Jamie Gangel, Cheney says "There ...The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Be Scared: Dick Cheney’s Memoir Due in August

America's most huggable teddy bear, Dick Cheney, has been working on his memoirs from his CIA-bunker house ever since leaving office.

It should have been on bookstore shelves for a year or so by now, former vice president's rather serious heart problems got in the way.

But now that's all over! In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir will hit shelves on August 30, so grab your sleeping bags and head over to the nearest bookstore entrance now.

Cheney's book is co-written by his clone daughter Liz, who tells the Associated Press that In My Time shows off her father's "sense of storytelling and sense of humor." Yikes!

Did you hear the one about the guy hanging from his thumbs in an isolated prison cell in Cuba? He ate— well, we'll let Dick finish this one, but it's a classic.

10 Reasons to Move Cheney's Book to the Crime Section by Medea ...
By Medea Benjamin
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was given a multi-million-dollar contract to write a book about his political career. According to Cheney's media hype, the book, called In My Time, will have “heads exploding all over Washington.” The Darth ...Antiwar.com Original

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was given a multi-million-dollar contract to write a book about his political career. According to Cheney’s media hype, the book, calledIn My Time, will have “heads exploding all over Washington.” The Darth Vader of the Bush administration offers no apologies and feels no remorse.

But peace activists around the country are stealthily gearing up to visit bookstores, grab a stack of books, and deposit them where they belong — the crime section.
Here are 10 of Cheney’s many offenses to inspire you to move Cheney’s book and to insert these bookmarks explaining why the author of In My Time should be doing time.

1. Cheney lied; Iraqis and U.S. soldiers died. As vice president, Cheney lied about (nonexistent) weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein’s (nonexistent) ties to the 9/11 attack as a way to justify a war with a country that never attacked us. Thanks to Cheney and company, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and over 4,000 American soldiers perished in a war that should never have been fought.
2. Committing war crimes in Iraq. During the course of the Iraq war, the Bush-Cheney administration violated the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances and by using illegal weapons, including white phosphorus, depleted uranium, and a new type of napalm.
3. War profiteering. U.S. taxpayers shelled out about $3 trillion for the Bush-Cheney wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — a major factor in our nation’s present economic meltdown. But Cheney and his cronies at Halliburton made out like bandits, getting billions in contracts for everything from feeding troops in Iraq to constructing the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan to building the infamous Guantanamo prison. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton from 1995-2000, leaving for the VP position with a $20 million retirement package, plus millions in stock options and deferred salary. Before the Iraq War began, Halliburton was 19th on the U.S. Army’s list of top contractors; with Cheney’s help, by 2003 it was number one — increasing the value of Cheney’s stocks by over 3,000 percent.
4. Violating basic rights. Cheney shares responsibility for holding thousands of prisoners without charges and without the fundamental right to the writ of habeas corpus, and for keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross. He sanctioned kidnapping people and simply rendering them to secret overseas prisons. His authorization of the arbitrary detention of Americans, legal residents, and non-Americans — without due process, without charges, and without access to counsel — was in gross violation of U.S. and international law. A fan of indefinite detention in Guantanamo, Cheney writes in his book that he has been “happy to note” that President Obama failed to honor his pledge to close the Guantánamo prison.
5. Advocating torture. Cheney was a prime mover behind the Bush administration’s decision to violate the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention Against Torture and to break with decades of past practice by the U.S. military by supporting “enhanced interrogation techniques.” This led to hundreds of documented cases in Iraq and Afghanistan of abuse, torture, and homicide. The torture included the practice known as “waterboarding,” a form of simulated drowning. After World War II, Japanese soldiers were tried and convicted of war crimes in U.S. courts for waterboarding. The sanctioning of abuses from the top trickled down, as the whole world saw in the photos from Abu Ghraib, becoming a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda and sullying the reputation of our nation.

6. Trying to prolong the Afghan war. Not content with the damage he caused as VP, Cheney continues to encourage more grist for the war machine. In his book, he criticizes President Obama’s decision to withdraw, by September 2012, the 33,000 additional troops Obama sent to Afghanistan in 2009. He has also cautioned Obama not to pull out all the troops from Afghanistan at the planned date of 2014. “I don’t think we need to run for the exits,” he told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.

7. Abusing executive privilege. Cheney used executive privilege to refuse to comply with over a dozen congressional subpoenas related to improper firing of federal attorneys, torture, election violations, and exposing — for political retribution — the identity of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative working on WMD proliferation.
8. Spying on us. Cheney was the mastermind behind the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program that spied on thousands, perhaps millions, of American citizens on American soil. This massive government interference with personal phone calls and emails was in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Federal Telecommunications Act, and 4th Amendment of the Constitution.
9. Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. When Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, the company skirted the law against investing in Iran by using a phony offshore subsidiary. Once VP, however, Cheney advocated bombing Iran. “I was probably a bigger advocate of military action than any of my colleagues,” Cheney said in response to questions about whether the Bush administration should have launched a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities prior to handing over the White House to Barack Obama. Cheney thinks Obama is too soft on Iran, and he has said that the only way for diplomacy with Iran to work is if Obama also threatens to bomb the country. Negotiations are “bound to fail unless we are perceived as very credible” in threatening military action against Iran, he said. It seems that wars with Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, plus drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen, are not enough to satisfy Cheney’s war addiction. But wait, there’s more…

10. Favored bombing Syria — and North Korea — instead of negotiating. One of the key anecdotes in Cheney’s memoir is his recollection of a session with the National Security Council in 2007, when he advised Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site. “After I finished,” he writes, “the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.” Luckily, Cheney’s advice was dismissed in favor of a diplomatic approach (although the Israelis bombed the site in September 2007). As for North Korea, in his book, Cheney calls former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice naive for trying to forge a nuclear weapons agreement with North Korea.

Enough? Since President Obama is not interested in holding Cheney accountable, the least we can do is to show our disgust by dumping his books in the crime section and inserting this bookmark. And if you happen to be lucky and catch one of Cheney’s book signings, bring along a pair of handcuffs.

Remembering Why Americans Loathe Dick Cheney



On 9/11, Rumsfeld Fiddled While Cheney Ran the Country


Powell Says Cheney Book Full Of 'Cheap Shots'


A visibly angry Colin Powell used an appearance on CBS' Face the Nationon Sunday to blast former Vice President Dick Cheney for using "cheap shots" and "barbs" to drive up sales of his new memoir, which accuses Powell of trying to undermine President Bush during the run-up to the Iraq War and tacitly allowing his deputy to leak the name of a covert CIA agent.

Powell, who had a rocky tenure as Bush's first secretary of State, said that the allegations in Cheney's book were better suited to "supermarket tabloids" than the memoir of a former vice president of the United States. He said Cheney was using misleading anecdotes and unfounded personal attacks to "pump up" sales of the memoir, In My Time, which will be officially released on Tuesday. Multiple media outlets have published excerpts from the book in recent days.

"They are cheap shots," Powell told CBS' Bob Schieffer. "It's not necessary to take these kinds of barbs."


Of all of Cheney’s various crimes and corrosive acts, his book may be the cruelest. Not because of its dubious authenticity. Rather, Cheney gives new leases of life to mealy-mouthed Colin Powell and the entire spineless cavalcade of our past.

Across D.C. one can’t escape General Jello’s plaintive, salad fork-like rebuttal. Again we are forced to endure the spectacle of a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and alleged warriorwhining about ‘cheap shots’ — as if he’s in the NBA working refs after getting dunked on. A patent lawyer almost wholly oblivious of anything political couldn’t shut up about seeing Colin Powell on TV. Now that’s evil. Curse you again, Dick Cheney.

It’s Cheney’s misfortune that books themselves mean so little in 2011. As a cultural artifact they no longer command and monopolize the Imperial City hive mind. Not in the way say the former court reporter (in all senses of the words) Woodward’s routinely used to. Certainly not in the way Kissinger’s ghost written memoirs did. In fact, as Palin showed, a few well placed tweets command as much media spotlight. We draw comfort in our assessment because the kids at the WaPo disagree:

The difference between all these books and Cheney’s is the author. While the books listed above were often written by staffers and sometimes by political appointees, Cheney is a former Vice President of the United States. That gives his autobiography a certain amount of heft lacking from the others.

We doubt it. Not just because the WaPo is itself so enfeebled. Cheney, no matter how malefic, can not repeal the Law of Commodification. Already his book has been read, reported on. Thousands have fed its contents into the Twitter, StumbleUpon and other disposals of the modern intellect. Sliced, diced and churned. We doubt there are significant new details remaining that haven’t already been reported whether on Iraq, torture, Wilson/Plame, Rumsfeld, Afghanistan or domestic spying.

Cheney can count on the AEI/Hudson networks for a certain annuity. But his publishers want sales and Cheney clearly relishes attention. So both need Tenet, Rice, Leahy and others rise to the bait (“heads will explode”).

Thus is the full scope of Cheney’s sadism revealed. He is like the manipulator from the Saw movies. He opens a path to escape if the victims immolate themselves. Our only hope is they show the good judgment, courage and fortitude that evaded them when in office and spurn the invitation. General Jello already failed.

And for us, once again, we are forced to recall the bitter taste of pinning expectations on such a sorry bunch of self-serving mediocrities. We can in a way slightly sympathize with Cheney’s contempt for them all.
About Bush The Man, Cheney Has Nothing To Say. Nothing About His Struggle With Alcoholism, His Troubled Relationship With His Father, His Extensive Record Of Two Terms As Governor Of Texas, Or His Efforts To Define A "Compassionate Conservatism." Such Irrelevant Details Do Not Interest Cheney Who Focuses Relentlessly On Power.