From CNN:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration’s national security record Thursday, and argued that President Barack Obama is responsible for weakening the country’s ability to combat al Qaeda and other extremists.

Cheney argued that the Bush administration “didn’t invent” the authority exercised in the war against al Qaeda and others. He said it was clearly granted by the Constitution and legislation passed by Congress after the September 11 attacks.

He also said the use of controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques” was a success that saved thousands of lives.

At the same time, Cheney argued that Obama’s decision to release Bush-era interrogation memos was a reckless and unfair distraction in the fight against extremists.

Fuck this lousy, arrogant treasonous piece of shit. Dick Cheney is no longer our Vice President and thank God for that. His efforts to insert himself into a conversation he has long since proven unskilled at is nothing more than annoying. Furthermore, this misleading bullshit about the congress giving them the authority to do anything they please is getting tired. You lied to us and them about the nature of this war so their votes are uninformed and your argument false.

Here’s a few things to chew on, Dick: Where were when our country was attacked? Are you not aware that 9/11 happened on YOUR watch? Of course not. This prick wants to sour everything and hobble our current President because he’s a belligerent, angry man.

We don’t care what your opinion is on Obama and the majority of us simply want you to go back to Wyoming or Ohio or wherever it is you claim you represent.

Asshole.

Current News, Politics Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Gitmo

Thank you, Sean Penn, for stating so simply what is childish, simple-minded and seriously wrong with the right’s assessment of Obama’s recent encounter (Huffington Post):

I know President Chavez well. Whether or not one agrees with all his policies, what is certainly true of Chavez is that he is a warm and friendly man with a robust sense of humor. To treat such a man coldly is akin to spitting on him. As a country we’ve done enough of that. Say what you will, but it has only resulted in the self-celebration of our smirking spitters, while costing us international respect, American lives, and left wounds in the hands of our children’s future. The Cheneys, down to the O’Reillys and Hannitys and Limbaughs, effectively hate the principles upon which we were founded. They are among the greatest cowards in all of American history. I applaud an American President who’s tough enough…to smile.

The saddest outcome of our last eight years has been the absence of common sense. Even in a leader we disagreed with there was an assumption that foreign policy required finesse. Reagan knew this. Clinton was a master at it. It’s only been recently, with the advent of GW Bush, that the “bully” approach has been given any credence.

If you asked the average conservative person in 1985 whether nastiness, aggressiveness and arrogance would help us in our relations with our world neighbors, you’d get a quick “what, are you fucking kidding me?” look. Ask the same conservative dittohead back in 2004 and you’ll find you’re in a conversation with a frat boy. It’ll start with a gutteral “yeaahhhh!!!”, move into macho posteuring and end with the suggestion that those who don’t feel the way he does about Bush’s approach are traitors and pussies.

In America (and certainly other countries), with every new Leader comes a new personal style - a style that the country adopts into it’s culture. We saw this with the new Monarchy in Britain during the 1870’s when Queen Victoria gave rise to the buttoned-down “Victoria Era.” We’ve seen in recent times the youth culture’s rise during Kennedy, the down-home southern values that followed Carter’s four years, and the political correctness that followed Reagan. If that leader is a spoiled child, like Bush has been, that same me-first attitude poisons the overall culture. If that person is a true adult, one who takes responsibility for his mistakes and treats other with dignity and respect (unless they absolutely don’t deserve it), then we have a country and a culture that shows some promise and maturity once again. It’s seems that Obama is that man.

All I can say is thank God we’re rid of George W. Bush and his ilk. He’s been a poisonous force so lethal it almost did us in. But American’s are not stupid, even though they can vote that way sometimes. Bullies, in the end, never win.

Current News, Politics Barack Obama, Chavez, George W. Bush, republican losers, republican whiners, Sean Penn

From CNN:

Cheney told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Bush administration’s “alternative” interrogation techniques were “absolutely essential” to preventing further assaults like the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Critics said those techniques amounted to the torture of prisoners in American custody.

“President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack,” Cheney said.

“Stuff happens, and an administration has to be able to respond to that and we did,” Cheney told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Stuff does happen. But how you respond to it as a moral country is what’s important. Can we get actionable intelligence from prisoners who are not brought close to death? Some interrogation officials say yes. For me, the issue wasn’t that this country was torturing prisoners (this happens in every war), but that it was a government policy to do so. The second Bush approved waterboarding and other interrogation actions that were considered unlawful by the Geneva Convention, he took us down a road that would actually make us LESS SAFE.

Smartest thing to do would be to use it when absolutely necessary. In our current situation, it was the rule instead of the exception.

And that immoral, bald headed fuck is the last person who should give any advice at all.

Current News Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, terrorist attacks, torture

From CNN:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md, insisted Tuesday that Congress, not President Obama, would decide whether to put more limits on earmarks in upcoming spending bills.

Asked about a statement by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Monday that the Obama Administration was formulating guidelines for earmark reform, Hoyer said flatly, “I don’t think the White House has the ability to tell us what to do.” He paused deliberately and quipped to reporters in the room, “I hope you all got that down.”

For those who don’t quite know, earmarks, as described by the Executive office of the President of the United States is:

Funds provided by the Congress for projects or programs where the congressional direction (in bill or report language) circumvents the merit-based or competitive allocation process, or specifies the location or recipient, or otherwise curtails the ability of the Executive Branch to properly manage funds. Congress includes earmarks in appropriation bills - the annual spending bills that Congress enacts to allocate discretionary spending - and also in authorization bills.

There’s a great scene in “The Untouchables” where Ness and his men decide to raid one of Capone’s secret alcohol supply warehouses. As Sean Connery’s character tells him, “Once you walk through that door, there’s no going back.” There is a similar situation Obama faces with congress over “business as usual” that never should have been so.

The fact that Congress believes they have the privilege to earmark monies is part of the continued residue of corrupt politics in Washington. All earmarks really are are Congressmen and women “paying back” the lobbyists who’ve funded their campaigns or other individuals they’ve personally networked with. It is NOT the honest way to appropriate our tax dollars and it must stop.

Will Obama have the will to put this practice to bed for good? I don’t know. I’m sure the American people would love to do so. I think the only way he might succeed is if he takes it to us and wages war against these career politicians. It would be a nice turn of the screw and I believe he’s trying to alude to that in his guideline reassessment. Personally, I think it’s long overdue and the trashbags in Congress, democrat and republican, need to start working for us again.

Current News, Politics Barack Obama, congress, congressional earmarks, corrupt government, earmarks, Obama, Steny Hoyer

Courtesy CSPAN

That drug-addicted, narrow-minded, lying, mean-spirited, treasonous head of the Republican party delivered his long-awaited speech at CPAC yesterday. For those who watched it, it marked the end of the Republican party of Bush and the beginning of the party of Rush. Just to be clear, both are laughable, rejected options.

In his usual spoiled sport way, Limbaugh blasted Obama for instilling “fear” in the American people:

“He wants people in fear, angst and crisis, fearing the worst each and every day, because that clears the decks for President Obama and his pals to come in with the answers, which are abject failures, historically shown and demonstrated. Doesn’t matter. They’ll have control of it when it’s all over. And that’s what they want,” Limbaugh said.

Once again, outright lies combined with revisionist history. It has been the Bush party that for eight years has done it’s very best to instill fear in the general public for easier manipulation of their agenda. While I agree that Obama has been a bit gloomy on a few occasions, it’s not a mantra like it is with the Republicans.

As always, Rush defies the path of partisanship for the path of obstructionism:

“They see these inequalities, these inequities that capitalism produces. How do they try to fix it? Do they try to elevate those at the bottom? No, they try to tear down the people at the top.”

And still seems to live in this alternative reality where we don’t know who they are and it’s the liberal media that has all the control:

“We conservatives have not done a good enough job of just laying out basically who we are, because we make the mistake of assuming that people know. What they know is largely incorrect, based on the way we’re portrayed in pop culture, in the drive-by media, by the Democrat party.”

Yeah, right. Continue with the childishness. Continue to show that you are not mature enough or selfless enough to actually want to work FOR the American people. Continue to show your callous self-centered side and we, the majority, will continue to see you for who you are: Indifferent assholes who care about no one but themselves and their failed ideas. Bring it on, losers.

Current News, Politics Barack Obama, conservatives, CPAC, liberal media, rush limbaugh

Take a look at this. It’s from Think Progress and really, absolutely beyond belief:

He tries to backtrack on his statement, but it’s pretty clear it’s his knee-jerk reaction to the question. The way he truly feels about Obama and this country deep down. Tomorrow, he’ll try to tell us this was taken out of context, but we know better. Lets make sure that talking point doesn’t stick this time.

This pretty much sums up the attitude of the Republican party. Sure, they’ll try to sugar coat it when they show up on CNN or the Sunday talk shows, but what you see here is the gut reaction of an angry, self-centered prick who doesn’t give a damn about you, your job, your family or your country. It is all about their party over and above everything else.

Seeing this video just makes me angry. We’ve spent years with this party, a party that has ridiculed the children of Presidents they didn’t like, a party that’s stood behind Wall Street’s crooks from Michael Milken to today’s morally corrupt bunch. We’ve watched a slight majority - a scared, uninformed group of Americans - put these people in power without really knowing what they were about.

I don’t think I’m making too much of this. This guy - and those like him who can’t seem to control their disdain for everyone who is not part of the privileged and the ideologically similar - is NOT what we want representing us in Washington.

Santorum has been a boil on the ass of this country for a long time. Please get rid of him. Let him know that his version of America is not even close to what the real America is about. Let him and those like him enter old age angry and bitter that the country never listened to them and followed their path. They may think they were our salvation. We know better.

Current News, Politics American traitors, Barack Obama, CPAC, Obama fails, republican blame, republican ideals, republican obstructionists, Rick Santorum

From AP and Huffington Post:

The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.

Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush’s eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama’s Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration’s bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.

There’s an old phrase: Once you get in a limo, you never get out.

We’ve seen it - the power and position of the office - transform past Presidents who’ve waved off the criminality of both earlier Presidents and members of their administration. There is, I’m sure, an empathy that develops once you’re in the same shoes as that prior person. Nonetheless, like any job, there are duties. The duty of our current President is to perform his job lawfully - and never disregard criminality elsewhere.

The Bush Administration has been criminal in many ways. Sure, they’ve not been forced to confront it thanks to a Congress and Senate that are comprised of hundreds of the biggest cowards on the planet. But they have committed crimes. It would be a shame to read, 20 years from now when all this has long been aired, that our worst crime we’ve committed as a nation was ignoring their crimes. Had it not been for the subpoena Nixon’s tapes over the length of his Presidency we would be none the wiser as to his methods or crimes. Email is the new tape. It’s important that we make these people accountable for the crimes they’ve committed today so similar crimes in the future will be more difficult (hopefully).

Obama should know better.

Politics Barack Obama, Nixon tapes, Obama, Obama haters, republican blame, white house crimes, White House emails

From Associated Press:

Now, former President Clinton says he thinks President Barack Obama should talk more optimistically about the prospects that the nation will recover from its current deep economic woes.

Clinton said he wants Obama to assure the people that America will surmount this problem. But at the same time, the former president said in an interview broadcast Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “I like the fact that he didn’t come in and give us a bunch of happy talk.”

He also said he believes “you will see some good economic news form the stimulus fairly soon.”

For his part, Obama has said he thinks the country will get past the recession, but that it will be a long slog.

I’ll tell ya. I’m with the ex-President on this one. While Obama is proving to be a good steward of the country, he is making a serious misstep in not letting us in on his natural optimism. It might be that he’s just not comfortable putting on “the show.” You know “the show.” You got it from Reagan. You experienced it again with Clinton - those infectous motivational speeches that made you believe the recovery was right around the corner and it was okay to buy that new TV.

Sure, it’s a pile of horseshit most of the time, but our entire economic system is built on this fantasy. Wall Street goes up on good news, down on bad. Why? It’s not always because there are concrete, unchallengable facts. Sometimes there are. But most of the time it’s about a mood. If the mood is good, we’re lifted up. It’s the same feeling as that first day of spring that reaches 60º.

Expect the republicans to try to weight us down with Obama’s pragmatism. They really have nothing left up their sleeves but to hope the economy tanks and find ways to exploit that notion. It’s sad. Nonetheless, we’ve got a smart guy here who hopefully will learn from the mistakes of others.

Politics Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, bush economy, Optimism in politics, stimulus package

My wife lost her job. During the last three years there have been 8 rounds of layoffs in her firm. This new round came just the other day. While the loss in business was steady through the last few declining years, I think it’s only fair to blame Barack Obama for this. He has been in office for almost a month.

Furthermore, my property and school taxes have risen over the past five years. My state has been receiving less money from the federal government due to the tax cuts. My taxes have risen from $4,800 in 2003 to $7,400 this last year. When I pay my next bill this week, I will blame Barack Obama. He was in office when I received that new statement. It must be his doing.

My stock portfolio had gone from something substantial in 2002 to petty change. I know Barack Obama has only been in office less than a month, but he IS responsible for the plunge of the stock market. The day he took office was the same day I received my Merrill Lynch statement. While it may have gone out into the mail before he took oath, it still must be his fault. Everything is, isn’t it?

My house is worth considerably less than it was in 2005. I know, I know. There’s been no regulation in this market and people with the same amount of petty change to their name that I currently have in my stock portfolio were being approved for loans. It’s true that those loans were sold in group packages to my broker, Merrill Lynch, and were then multiplied many more times as derivatives. It’s also true that George Bush was a great friend of business and felt oversight was unseemly. Still, even though my house went up in value in the last week, I blame Barack Obama. He should have known he was going to be President and everything was going to tank. Shame on him.

That guy who beheaded his wife last week? Well, that’s Barack Obama’s fault. He should have intervened. How dare he hold his head up high after not making some effort to thwart that tragedy.

The hundreds of thousands who’ve died in Iraq. You guessed it. His fault. It’s his responsibility now, so he should bear the responsibility for the entire war, even though he was against it. President Bush couldn’t be responsible. He’s too good a man. As we all know, everything bad that happened to him in the first five years of his Presidency was really Bill Clinton’s fault. The Republican congress and senate with their majorities? Nah. They couldn’t stop it. It was the Democrats who bullied them into this war. At the very least they were complicit since all the evidence showed Saddam has WMD’s.

Got a parking ticket the other day. It’s not my fault I parked facing out in the parking slot instead of in. Damn that Barack Obama.

Politics Barack Obama, blame game, George Bush, Katrina, Obama, political cowards, republican blame, stimulus, washington politics

Middle school was when I first discovered what I will call “The Impenetrable Wall.” There was a kid in 8th grade who made fun of me consistently. It became so unbearable that I descended and climbed two flights of stairs just to avoid dealing with him and his friends - three shrimpy hanger-ons’ who acted as a greek chorus. At first I thought I could reason with him. Thus, the introduction to the Impenetrable wall - there’s no reasoning with a bully.

After one particularly tough day in October, I decided I’d had enough. I would take care of this guy now and for good. I asked my dad to teach me how to fight that weekend. On Monday, I put on a flexible T-shirt and informed my parents the Principal’s office would very likely give them a call sometime before 9:00am, resulting in an after school suspension. They were good with it. They understood.

As I ambled down that hallway that I had avoided for so many weeks, sure as rain, this moron began his tirade. His friends chimed in. I had three books in my hands and approached him. I said, “Listen, man. You really don’t need to make fun of me.”

What he didn’t know was that this line was used to make him comfortable - let him think he was dealing with a wimp and that nothing had changed. It gave him carte blanche to say to me whatever was on his puny little mind.

Before he could utter a single word, I cracked him in the jaw. The next four punches were in his stomach, as hard as I could hit him. He had no idea what was happening. He threw a single punch which grazed my left cheek, but really didn’t connect. Then he grabbed my hair and pulled me into a head lock. Tough guy, grabbing hair. At that point I figured everything goes, so I grabbed HIS hair and pulled as hard as I could. Shortly after that a teacher broke it up. I got an out of school suspension - was the superstar the next day. His reputation never recovered. His shrimpy friends abandon him. As far as I was concerned, he brought this on himself.

This is the situation Obama currently finds himself in, with one caviat.

The Republican minority is attempting to present themselves as our champions. They want to trim the bill, make sure it “helps the real people of the country, the middle class.” Funny. They didn’t seem to care all that much about us while in office for 8 years. The democrats, on the other hand, are a little too high on the fumes of the last election success. Much like everything else they fuck up, they are about to do the same here - plugging unnecessary garbage into this stimulus bill.

Obama has been as courteous as he can with both sides of the isle. He’s found out that his brand of unity doesn’t play very well with people who see compromise as a weakness. It’s too bad. The country has some real problems to work out but, unfortunately, we’re dealing with children - 14-year-old’s in the Senate and Congress who think that just because you don’t look like the toughest guy in the room you’re easily manipulated - and they look at this stimulus package as a game.

It’s time for Obama to drop his books, get his punches in and change the game. He has to be tough with these idiots or he’s lose. There is no reasoning with a bully. Change will not come easily. It has to be earned with a few bruises. Now is the time to give that first punch while they still think they’re in control. The rest will be easy.

Politics Barack Obama, democrats, fighting republicans, Obama