Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Song Remains the Same

I wrote this article about Dick Cheney back in May of '09 and to the surprise of no one, nothing has changed. From the first time I saw him in an interview (back in the early 90's at some point), I thought that he was one of the most competent politicians I had ever seen (and I mean that in the most positive way possible). I also thought that he might be one of the most dangerous politicians I had ever seen. His was able to discuss matters of life and death without showing a shred of humanity. I've never seen another expression on his face than the usual look of disdain at having to answer questions from someone or explain something to someone he clearly views as beneath him.

His latest attack on the President is in line with his previous statements regarding this administration's handling of the threat of terrorism. It has become clear that a breakdown in the intelligence community allowed the "Christmas Day Bomber" to be able to get on board a plane headed for the United States. It is not the fault of the President. It's is not the fault of the TSA (which is still without a leader because Jim DeMint is single handedly holding up a vote on his confirmation by the Senate). it's not something that any amount of vigilance by the administration was going to stop. There are policies in place that should have allowed the intelligence agencies to share the information, that was already in house, to prevent this near disaster. However, somewhere along the line, someone dropped the ball. That revelation did not stop the former from Vice President from claiming that the administrations policies are the ones that almost led to and will undoubtedly lead to disaster in the future. He is practically inviting terrorists to try and attack by claiming that the Obama administration has made America more vulnerable to attack than it was under the previous administration.

It is almost comical to anticipate the attacks on the administration from the Republicans these days. The President was on vacation at the time of the attempted bombing. He personally responded to the attack in a news conference in about under a week. Of course a great cry went up that the President was frolicking in the waters of Hawaii (which happens to be his home state), when he should have been back in Washington handling the "crisis" personally. When the shoe bomber tried unsuccessfully to blow up a plane, the President Bush took over a week to have a press conference and there was no harping in the press or the opposition party about how long it was taking. And if President Bush had taken any more vacation days during his first 8 months in office, he would have had to list "vacation" as his occupation on his tax forms. If President Obama had held a press conference immediately, the Republicans would have complained that he had responded before gathering all the facts. Some Republicans even used the attacks to try and scare people into donating money for their campaigns.

Mr. Cheney has a different motivation for taking on the current administration. Franky, he doesn't care about whether Republicans are returned to the White House (since it won't be him). Dick Cheney's only regret about the attempted terrorist act is that it was not successful. His line of attack against this administration has nothing to do with keeping America safe from attack. He is still hoping for ultimate redemption of his sanctioning of clearly illegal acts. He points to the fact that the leaders of the Al Qaeda in Yemen are former Gitmo detainees as proof that President Obama's plan to close the prison is misguided. However, the fact that the leaders of the terrorist group in Yemen are former detainees in Gitmo, says more about the Bush administration and their overzealous activities in rounding up as many people as they could, than it does about the Obama administration's plan to close the doors on that prison. And also it was the Bush administration that released those particular individuals. How is that now the fault of the Obama administration?

I would ask the esteemed former Vice President if he still thinks that the President has the power to detain whomever he wants without due process of the law? During the Bush administration and under the leadership of the Vice President's office, legal opinions were given that stated that during war time (even though no war has been declared by Congress), the President basically had unlimited to power to detain, torture and deny the rights of anyone that he deemed a threat to the country. And since the Vice President was always quick to question the patriotism and loyalty of anyone who questioned the Bush administration, I wonder how he would feel if the President decided that he was a threat to the safety of all Americans. Would he be okay with being detained indefinitely? How about being tortured (sorry, I meant having enhanced interrogation techniques applied to him)? If he followed his own tortured (pun intended) logic, then he would be fine with that. I wish that the President would take him at his word.

Dick Cheney has no intention of supporting this administration. He doesn't care about the success or failure of the President's domestic initiatives. He's rich and he doesn't care who knows it. He only cares that at some point in the near future a terrorist is successful in taking out a large number of Americans. That way, he and George Bush can rest knowing that they will not go down in history as the only administration that allowed a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil during their tenure. His idea of patriotism is "what's good for Dick Cheney, is good".
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12 comments:

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

This is a fascinating study about what makes people tick. Cheney had it all and then decided to become vice president. Not for the benefit of his country, But for the benefit of his clique. An old man with a weak heart working his ass off to make the rich richer. All I know is that if my IRA hits a certain amount in 12 years my ass is retired.

Leslie Parsley said...

Dick ticks with his clique -
a sign that he is a prick.

Commander Zaius said...

From the first time I saw him in an interview (back in the early 90's at some point), I thought that he was one of the most competent politicians I had ever seen (and I mean that in the most positive way possible).

I have heard talk in several different circles on television and radio about Dick's change in behavior. You are not the only one to speak about this change from someone close to acting human to him having a near demonic mindset and total lack of humanity.

Read an article in "New Republic" a couple of years ago that speculated that his heart condition over the years may have impaired his brain activity enough to cause subtle damage resulting in his strange behavior.

Whatever the case I can write with a clear conscious that when that bastard finally dies it will be a benefit to humanity. The problem is that the damage he caused will far out live him.

Mycue23 said...

Beach,
I didn't mean to suggest that his behavior had changed. By competent I was merely talking about his grasp of the facts and his ability to convey his thoughts in a clear and concise manner. He seemed like a Terminator version of a beaurocrat. He still seems to lack any real emotion. However, his current tactic of under cutting the President is something the old Dick Cheney would never have done, but then again, he didn't have a legacy to try and rehabilitate back in the old days.

Jack Jodell said...

DICK Cheney is a paranoid delusional liar and cowardly war criminal who can dish it out but can't take it. The guy has absolutely no credibility whatsoever and should be in a courtroom in The Hague right now being prosecuted and convicted. It is disgusting to see how much unquestioning and uncritical media coverage he constantly gets.

Mycue23 said...

Jack,
all true, my friend.

SJ said...

Exactly Mycue23,
you are removing the very thin pretense of all GOP obstruction right now.

The can only salvage their reputation by hoping that Democrats fail.

If they get their wish, it'll be 12 years of disasters not just eight. But what does he care? He signed off on sending our troops abroad with shitty armor and believes in his heart of hearts that there's no job that his greedy friends can't takeover and submit usurious bids for, no matter who gets hurt.
-SJ
-SJ

SJ said...

"They can"

Don't you just love it when you put one of your own typos in bold.
-SJ

Sue said...

Dick is the definition of evil. Your last paragraph says it all!

Thanks for adding me to your bloglist, I am flattered and will do the same for you!

TomCat said...

By saying our nation is weak, he is encouraging future attacks.

Mycue23 said...

Sue,
We appreciate you stopping by and thanks for the add. Cheney is without a doubt the living incarnation of Darth Vader himself. Trust me, he's home on his ranch trying to figure out how to choke people with the force.

TomCat,
I agree. And he knows this because I'm fairly sure he said something similar when faced with attacks during the Bush administration.

Kentucky Rain said...

He has apparently recruited his entire family. I heard on the news that he communicates with the MSM by email. If he is not available then his daughter will send an email, if neither one of those two are available then Mrs. Cheney sends an email, all, of course, criticizing the president. He truly does make the devil twitch.