Ruthless People: The Cheneys

Last week I earmarked  the Nov 14th Salon article on the biggest Dick of all, Dick Cheney, whose heart-less remarks about his heart donor underscored the ongoing belief of us Munchkins that, he's never had a heart to begin with and the transplant didn't work the way it was supposed to.  Quoth Dick:

"When I came out from under the anesthetic after the transplant, I was euphoric.  I’d had–I’d been given the gift of additional lives, additional years of life.  For the family of the donor, they’d just been [through] some terrible tragedy, they’d lost a family member.  Can’t tell why, obviously, when you don’t know the details, but the way I think of it from a psychological standpoint is that it’s my new heart, not someone else’s old heart. And I always thank the donor, generically thank donors for the gift that I’ve been given, but I don’t spend time wondering who had it, what they’d done, what kind of person."

This week we have another Cheney blunder in the works.  Liz Cheney, daughter of cold hearted Dick and his chilly wife Lynne, has expressed her disdain for same sex a.k.a. gay marriage, dissing her lesbian sister and spouse in her political bid for the Republican Senate race in Wyoming.   Rather than sit on the sidelines, Mary Cheney's spouse took to Facebook: 

I was watching my sister-in-law on Fox News Sunday (yes Liz, in fifteen states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law) and was very disappointed to hear her say “I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage.” 

Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 – she didn’t hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us.  

To have her now say she doesn’t support our right to marry is offensive to say the leas

I can’t help but wonder how Liz would feel if as she moved from state to state, she discovered that her family was protected in one but not the other. 

I always thought freedom meant freedom for EVERYONE.

 

 

 

 The compassion in this family is epic.  Machiavelli ain't got nothin' on them Cheneys.

Can you imagine throwing your sister and her family under the bus in a quest for a Senate seat? 

Can you imagine being the person whose heart ended up in Dick Cheney?  Were it me, if I weren't already dead, I'd kill myself.

Can you say "ruthless"?   



Dick Behaviour

Sanjay Gupta's interview with Dick Cheney aired last night on "60 Minutes".  What could have been an unendurable puff piece by a timid interviewer, turned out to be an intensly challenging give and take between two forceful personalities.  

 

I have no love for Dick Cheney.  He embodies the worst characteristics in Washington politics:  the entitled attitude of those who see themselves as omniscient and omnipotent.  Were he omnipresent, well, we'd have a god.   This is a war profiteer, a sneering know-it-all, an ambitious Iago who, were it not for his extreme health problems, more likely than not, might have run for President. 

That's one scary possibility. Even more scary was the state of his health throughout his Vice Presidency.

Cheney was one over-sized, weakened, barely pumping heartbeat away from the Presidency.   Dr. Gupta (or "Goop-Ta" as Cheney referred to him at one point) recounts the damage inflicted and attempts to keep this man alive:

1. 5 heart attacks
2. Open heart surgery & quadruple bypass
3. Stents and defibrillators inserted (more surgery)
4. Multiple angioplasties and catheterizations
5. Heart pump
6. Heart transplant two years ago

As Dr. Gupta repeatedly points out, these kinds of medical problems result in limited blood flow to the brain with potential side effects in cognition, memory, decline in decision-making, etc.  Cheney refused to acknowledge he had been counseled about these side effects nor was he worried about his decision-making at the time. 

In the "60 Minutes" interview, Reiner says he worried that Cheney couldn't stand the pressure that came on Sept. 11, 2001, the day terrorists attacked the U.S. Medical tests seen that morning showed Cheney had elevated levels of potassium in his blood, a condition called hyperkalemia, which could lead to abnormal heart rhythms and cardiac arrest.

Reiner says he watched news coverage of the day's events on television and thought, "Oh, great, the vice president is going to die tonight from hyperkalemia."  huffingtonpost.com

Cheney proudly recounts the critical decisions he had to make.  What a tough guy.  John Wayne on a defibrillator!  Yet, interestingly enough, in 2007 he had his defibrillator "modified" to prevent terrorists from hacking in and giving him a heart attack.



I do not share his enthusiasm.  It was not that long ago women were considered too "emotional" to serve as leaders of the land due to everything from monthly hormonal changes to crying  to menopause.  Most of you reading this blog will remember when a serious discussion involving a woman running for president included the oft repeated phrase

"I wouldn't trust  a woman with her finger on the button."

Gupta's interview will get scathing reviews from the Right and kudos from the Left.  He did his job.  He did not back down from one of the (formerly) most powerful men on the planet.  He approached this from a medical point of view and showed the emperor-in-waiting without his clothes.



Can't wait to see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert riff on this.

 

Dick Cheney: Still Evil After All These Years

Is Dick Cheney evil?

Is “evil” too harsh a word?  Merriam-Webster defines evil as “morally reprehensible,” “arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct,” “causing discomfort or repulsion,” or “causing harm.”   

Consider this trailer for the new film "The World According to Dick Cheney".

Consider this dialog excerpt from the show as printed by the News Corp owned NY Post.   Not favorable.

CHENEY ON CHENEY:

On war: “ It’s more important to be successful than loved.”

On torture: “‘We’re not going to force you to tell, because it might create a bad image for us,’ is not even a close call for me.”

On his own mistakes: “Ahhh, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my faults.”

On engineering Henry Kissinger’s ouster from the Ford White House: “You needed to mix things up a bit there — so he went down.”

On WMD: “We didn’t find stockpiles, but we know [Saddam Hussein] had intent.”

I don't get Showtime but I'll see it eventually.  The pre-publicity serves only to confirm what I believe to be true.

Dick Cheney is an "evil" man.

Looking for more info?  Salon has a an extremely well-written review of the show

"The War That Did Not Happen"

If anyone thinks we can or should ignore the invasion of Iraq, think again. The Bush Administration perpetrated the jingoistic reaction to 9/11 with a false tie to WMD in Iraq and a bulls eye on Saddam Hussein. Tonight, Rachel Maddow hosts "Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War" at 9PM EST. Taken from the book by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, the documentary follows every false step lie and propoganda strategy by the Bush Administration in what Maddow calls "the war that did not happen."

 

President Bush demanded it.

 

Dick Cheney promoted it.

 

 Congress went along with it.  And we let them.

 

MSNBC explores this now ten year old declaration of war with the lies and fabrications by notables such as V.P. Dick Cheney, Secy of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condi Rice, Deputy Secy of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and more! Tune in tonight to see the heroes and villains (mostly the latter) speak out. Too bad they wouldn't do so at the time. We might have 4,000+ more soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens still with us.


 Petition to bring these people up on war crimes, anyone?

8 Years 4500 Casualties Later

I know I should be happy the war in Iraq is ended and the last troops officially left yesterday.  I am.  But I'm angry.  I'm angry it  in the first place. I'm angry it was sold to us with a lie.  I'm angry we  bought into the lie and I'm angry we didn't call out the perpetrators of this lie once the lie was exposed. 

I'm not the parent of someone in the military.  I am the daughter of a WWII vet and cousin of a lifer in the USAF.  I don't hate the military.  I respect the people who fight for us.  What I don't respect are the men who make these decisions, the so-called "leaders", the Masters of War:  Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush II, Tony Blair, majorities in U.S. Houses of Congress as well as Members of Parliament.

British weekly newsmagazine New Statesman, contains a well written op-ed on the legacy of the Iraq War.  Always interesting to hear how other countries view the U.S., even when they're our bed mates.

"Faces of the Dead" is a NY Times interactive visual of every soldier killed in Iraq & Afghanistan. This is what you call a reality check.

Was it worth it?   We'll be arguing this as long as we live without as much conviction as we argued about Viet Nam.  This perspective was written in 2007 but it's still relevant today; perhaps more so.

As a final note, here's the Iraqi Body Count and their latest estimates on civilian Iraqi deaths.

Dylan's Masters of War music video

Say It Ain't So Maxine

Congresswoman Maxine Waters

I've always admired Maxine Waters. She voted with courage and common sense against the invasion of Iraq. She was also co-sponsor of a House resolution to impeach Dick Cheney for "making allegedly false statements about the war." She has worked hard for the downtrodden in California. She is a ten term congresswoman and one of the most powerful members of the House. Like all powerful leaders, she has her supporters and detractors. She's now under scrutiny now for possible ethics violations.

Waters is under investigation for arranging a meeting between the federal regulators and executives of a bank in which her husband owns $250,000.00 in stock. The investigation involves conflict of interest as to whether she helped steer government aid to the bank while she was a member of the Financial Services Committee.

Not many details have been released. I read the NY Times and HuffPost articles this morning. I can't really glean much from either except to say if she did this, it was pretty darn stupid and maybe that's why I find it harder to believe than the charges against Charlie Rangel who has always seemed a grandstanding, loud-mouthed, showy member of the rank & file. Perhaps he genuinely feels for his constituents but his demeanor and the controversy he continues to inspire belies it. Maxine, on the other hand, has always appeared caught up by the needs of her constituents as well as the greater good. Perhaps this is my wishful thinking but...

...say it ain't so.

Maxine Waters from blackpast.com

 

Liz Cheney: The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

Liz Cheney, daughter of Darth Vader, I mean, Dick Cheney, is being taken to task by members of her own party who see her group Keep America Safe (cough cough) as under handed, over-the-top, McCarthy like, etc.


Now that you've all had a chance to enjoy this bit of unvarnished, unbiased info from the aforesaid group, here's what the media reports.

from The Huffington Post :
The backlash is growing against Liz Cheney after she demonized Department of Justice attorneys as terrorist sympathizers for their past legal work defending Gitmo detainees -- and now it's coming from within deeply conservative legal circles.

from Daily Latest News :
Cheney’s efforts were called “vicious” and “unfounded”, by Author Paul Mirengoff, when she branded DOJ officials the “Al Qaeda 7″, in order to to criticize defense lawyers for doing work on behalf of Gitmo detainees. Mirengoff offered a sharp bawl out when reached on the phone, opposite to what Cheney has done to anti-communist crusades, which have been launched by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, it can still be worse than few assumptions made by Mc Carthy as per the assumptions validated by him as quoted by Mirengoff.

Cannot wait to hear what Stewart & Colbert have to say. 

lifted from one of my favorite blogs, The Political Carnival

Bad Dreams Starring Dick Cheney

Various headlines online today are making me woozy:

Cheney in 2012? Some Key GOPers Aren't Kidding

Hypocrisy Alert: Cheney Relies on the Objectivity of the Justice Dept to Defend Torture

Cheney Says Politics Behind CIA Probe at Justice

last but not least from the WSJ: Cheney for President


And of all things, sanity from the mouth of John McCain:

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Referencing My Last Post

I've read and re-read the comments on my last post and one of then particularly resonates. Sixpence and a Blue Moon remarks she's heard Cheney's daughter is going to "run for something..." and "his poll numbers...going up?". This got me to thinking about the Republican strategy.

The Republicans have no clear cut candidate as of yet. Mitt is trying his best to get air time whenever and wherever. Newt Gingrich continues to make the talk shows. It's just too early to tell. Laying groundwork and testing waters is the best strategy for now.

Which brings up the suddenly ubiquitous Dick Cheney. Why is he all over the air waves? Why is he making the political rounds, firing up the faithful? Is older daughter, Elizabeth, going to run for an office? She's suddenly a news/talk show darling. Her political ambitions could explain Dick's sudden and constant presence on the media trail. Perhaps he's paving the way, keeping the Cheney name front and center until such time as a proper announcement can be made. Political folk live by poll numbers. The fact that anyone reports poll numbers on Cheney at all is a warning signal.

The idea of Dick Cheney running for anything is a frightening thing. I would think, after the heart surgery, running for President would be out of the question. But, "absolute power corrupts absolutely"so who knows? Or, is this about the transfer of power?

Perhaps it's all about his upcoming memoirs his political daughter, Elizabeth, is helping write. Nobody's gonna buy a book by a guy who's no longer news.

Last week he publicly endorsed same sex marriage. Some political pundits say the Republican party will never accept Cheney's stance on same sex marriage because it doesn't jibe with the religious right. But others aren't so sure. There is speculation the religious right may be in political withdrawal; that their power is diminishing. It's possible Cheney is simply supporting his younger daughter, Mary. She came out in 2004 and presented the Cheneys with a baby in 2007. That had to be one hell of a PR issue at the time.

What I do believe is the ongoing public appearances, sound bites and PR are not happenstance. They are purposeful and there is an agenda. We just don't know the agenda.

And, forgive me if I'm just a bit skeptical but I wonder what his position would be if his younger daughter were heterosexual?

More "Dick" from Jon Stewart

The vacation photos have been great but it's time to get back to current events. It's been a while since I included some Cheney bashing from The Daily Show. This excerpt aired Wednesday night. Cheney covers everything from sanctifying same sex marriage (no personal stake here) to disavowing knowledge received from former White House member of the Senior Executive Service and counter-terrorism expert,Richard Clarke. I still can't believe we tolerated EIGHT YEARS OF THIS GUY!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Dick (Uncut)
thedailyshow.com
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Back from Obscurity

photo credit: AP/Rex Features

After eight years of relative silence while acting as the presidential puppet master, Dick Cheney is suddenly front and center in attacks on the new administration. His topic is national security, using the closing of Guantanamo Bay as the focal point. Why?

For once I think the talking heads have it right: he's rallying the GOP. The GOP is a failed party...for now. They have lost the Executive and Legislative branches of the government. They'll probably lose dominance in the Judicial branch once new Supreme Court justices are chosen. They are fighting for their lives and nobody does it better or meaner than Dick Cheney. Who better to represent the arch conservative core? But don't let it fool you.

This is the guy who refused interviews for years. This is the guy who, when he did grant interviews, gave short answers that were typically in-your-face. He refuses to debate his actions. He is always right. His administration made the tough choices. They didn't break any laws. They didn't torture people. They only water boarded when it was absolutely necessary.

Well, you know the old saying:

"Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself." James A. Froude

The public needs to separate fact from fiction and take this for what it is, the first leg of a long road back from obscurity for the Republican party, led by the conservative right. Let's make sure it's a dead end.

Jon Stewart Face Off with Jim Cramer

I stand corrected from my skeptical post yesterday morning about the publicity stunt. I watched The Daily Show with great interest last night. I didn't expect much, reason stemming from an interview Jon Stewart did with Lynn Cheney last year. Stewart made much fun of VP Cheney and all the Bushies, sharpening his wit at their expense. However, when Mrs. Cheney came on the show, to promote a book I think, he practically knelt at her feet. It was a puff piece. Now, had it been Laura Bush, I would understand. Laura Bush seems pretty benign. But Lynne Cheney is no shrinking violet. She is a hard ass with little warmth or charisma who does not inspire anything other than irritation on my part. Campaigning with her husband prior to the second term election left little doubt she is as rigid and uncompromising as is Dick. You remember Dick? Stewart's favorite segment for a long time was "You Don't Know Dick". Anyway, after that softball throwing segment, I felt very let down.

But I digress. Last night, Jon Stewart leveled charge after charge at the feet of Jim Cramer & CNBC. And Cramer pretty much took it. He certainly wasn't hurling epithets at the guy like so many of the crazed talking heads, R.L., Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Joe Scarborough, but Stewart wasn't backing down or accepting Cramer's lame responses about "responsibility" either. I applaud his interview. He did a good job while remaining civil. "Civil" is the operative word. I wish more on air people would use their brains instead of their bombast to make their points. To see the interview, go here. This is part one.

The Daily Show "You Don't Know Dick"

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

You Don't Know Dick - Exit Interview

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Good bye and Good Riddance