There’s been a lot of discussion lately about whether the Bush Administration is likely to initiate a war against Iran.
The country has become so used to Dick Cheney making provocative statements in order to justify a war with Iran that it no longer pays much attention when another story about him doing this surfaces.
Still, one would think this story yesterday would at least raise even a jaded eyebrow or two:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Vice President Dick Cheney had at one point considered asking Israel to launch limited missile strikes at an Iranian nuclear site to provoke a retaliation, Newsweek magazine reported on Sunday.
The news comes amid reports that Israel launched an air strike against Syria this month over a suspected nuclear site.
Citing two unidentified sources, Newsweek said former Cheney Middle East adviser David Wurmser told a small group several months ago that Cheney was considering asking Israel to strike the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz.
A military response by Iran could give Washington an excuse to then launch airstrikes of its own, Newsweek said.
What should the legislative branch of a rational nation with a reasonably clear-headed sense of its own strategic interests, not to mention some regard for national and international opinion, do when confronted by reports that its Vice President was deliberately trying to manufacture an incident to provoke a war with another nation? While I may be alone in this, I think the senior members would haul him before the legislative branch that very afternoon and demand that he either convincingly deny the story or face an immediate impeachment vote before he gets thousands of people killed, including many of the 168,000 sitting ducks troops he helped George Bush get bogged down in the country next door.
But the Senate will probably spend the afternoon passing another warmonger resolution from Joe Lieberman.
Update: CBS 60 Minutes interviews President Ahmadinejad, who seems a better listener than the idiot who interviewed him. My take: The Iranian has much to answer for, but Scott Pelley was so arrogant and insulting in his questioning, prejudging expected answers before hearing them, that it probably convinced the Iranian that it is pointless to talk to Americans. I wouldn’t waste 5 minutes with CBS’s Scott Pelley. Where are the adults? Where is Christiane Amanpour?
Update II: Glenn Greenwald (linking to Ezra Klein) has more on Pelley’s unprofessional, loaded questioning of Ahmadinejad and the demogoguery over his vist to Columbia University. Added: And see Juan Cole on why the neocons are trying to demonize Ahmadinejad.
Photo: His favorite espresso cup, from josesh27566’s photostream
Related posts:
- Early Morning Swim: Special KO and John McCain vs. Dick Cheney Edition
- Biden on Iran: ‘Some Real Doubt’ About The Electoral Outcome
- Cheney: Torturers Can Do No Wrong
- Second Iranian Nuclear Facility Discovered; Obama, Brown, Sarkozy Pledge Sanctions Unless IAEA is Allowed to Investigate
- Early Morning Swim
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Psycho
hi
Good morning.
Ha, like they have the cajones to haul Darth anywhere!
now, that’s a congressional hearing i’d pay good money to see…. sigh.
Caw, caw! Good morning Scarecrow.
Why does Cheney want to start WW3? He’s a total nutjob.
A rational nation?Are you serious?
raven @ 4
Or the winch.
Is there no outrage of which the American People (and yes, I’m talking about the 70 percenters) are intolerant?
Answer: no
alas, my dear scarecrow, you are probably right. the do nothing know nothing congress would rather spend its limited intellectual capacity and energies passing warmongering legislation from the poop farm of herr lieberman and associates rather than challenging a massive war crime in the making (if i do remember the nuremburg trials correctly, planning for and starting a war of aggression against another nation is one of the supreme crimes against humanity for which a good number of nazis were executed)
go figure herr lieberman and pals…..
and they call this a functioning democracy.
let the goopers continue on in their bubble
after the 2007 elections we can review the impact of having the biggest loser be the head of your party
Isn’t it becoming increasingly clear every day that we now live in a fascist country?
Thanks Christy for this informative post.
Kick Cheney’s wheels and haul ‘em in for
a shakedown…
instead we have the kyl/lieberman proposed amendment to the defense authorization bill, S.AMDT.3017. “To express the sense of the Senate regarding Iran.”
from pow wow it looks like this amendment will be debated today and may be voted on as early as tomorrow.
note – see page S11911 of the congressional record for the text of the proposed s.amdt.3017.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 12
what if it isn’t a bubble?
last week’s Senate votes didn’t look like the Dems recognize a position of power.
what if another gooper is elected?
what if a Dem decides that Iran is a valid target?
Personally, I am not all that fuckin optimistic.
Good morning, doggies.
Anyone see CBS 60 Minutes last night — interview with Iran’s Prez? Here’s the link.
Just Asking @ 13
Yes.
This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.
The “sense of the Senate” seems to have left the body.
Scarecrow. thanks for the heads up on “warmongers” new war resolution. This morning they are discussing Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s UN General Assembly address today.
http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs…..mp;Code=CS
Some of the callers are very scary today.
Teddy summed it up pretty well last night (though I just read it this morning). But with Darth et all trying to run the table I wonder if there will ever be a long haul.
If these crazy people are ballsy enough to try this stuff, they have no intention of letting a fair election happen and losing power.
What next?
‘Morning, Scarecrow, FirePups. Happy Monday.
Yeah.
Anyhow, to relieve the tension headaches I’m getting in the morning that I’m getting from chronic gnashing of my teeth, I’ve stopped watching morning new programs. Instead, I turn on my new favorite television program: Sunrise Earth.
Just wish it didn’t remind me so much of what’s at stake.
Kathleen @ 20
Sorry today he will be at Columbia. Later in the week at the UN General Assembly.
what if it isn’t a bubble?
last week’s Senate votes didn’t look like the Dems recognize a position of power.
what if another gooper is elected?
what if a Dem decides that Iran is a valid target?
Personally, I am not all that fuckin optimistic.
in Kentucky the state that give us Jim Bunning post the speech Shrub has the lowest ratings in the history of the Courier Journal Polls
The stuff the goopers are handing out worked in earlier elections because of the the atmosphere of fear –but people are tired of being afraid (notice not as many alerts) but the goopers don’t have anything left in their play book. They signed on with creeps and criminals and you gotta dance with the one you came with…
supporters of getting rid of goopers need to get a spine
mack @ 19
“Congress has lost its institutional pride”
——John Dean, here at FDL
Again, Cheney is working to further the interests of the Republican party and their coroporate puppetmasters at the expense of the American people. His agenda is obvious: inflame the Middle East even more, create more terrorist attacks, then blame the Democrats when they happen, because we’re so “soft on terror” we want the troops out of Iraq. And if there’s a real war with Iran, Cheney couldn’t possibly hand over power to a Democrat. He’ll declare martial law — enforced by Blackwater.
weekly congressional hearing update – the complete list of hearings is over 70 for this week. here are 4 that might be of special interest:
FISA
Tuesday, 9:30 am – Senate Judiciary
To hold hearings to examine streghtening the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
habeas corpus and GITMO
Wednesday, 10 am – House Armed Services
Mark up of H.R. 2826, to restore habeas corpus for individuals detained by the United States at Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and for other purposes.
iraq occupation
Wednesday, 2 pm – Senate Appropriations
To hold hearings to examine proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2008 for the President’s supplemental request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
iran
Thursday, 10 am – House Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on the Middle East & South Asia
Oversight Hearing: Iran Sanctions and Regional Security
for details and links (including live webcasts) see the complete list.
Just to highlight the bar on the right:
CHARLIE SAVAGE will be with us on Sunday for the Book Salon. Read his book, Return of the Imperial Presidency if you can before then.
selise @ 27
Thanks, Selise. They’re missing a hearing; the one where they consider removing the current regime for all around madness, meanness, and reckless behavior, and consider what a caretaker government should look like.
Have to deconstruct this a bit–the nation is not rational, nor is congress, and it absolutely does not have a clear-headed sense of it’s own strategic interests. Especially not in the ME.
Scarecrow @ 29
They don’t know what a caretaker government is. They are all in this mess together, drawing their paychecks, perks and bribes. What do they care?
Good Morning!
“What should the legislative branch of a rational nation with a reasonably clear-headed sense of its own strategic interests, not to mention some regard for national and international opinion, do when confronted by reports that its Vice President was deliberately trying to manufacture an incident to provoke a war with another nation?”
Excellent question, Scarecrow
Rayne @ 22
Sunrise Earth is . . . ?
Selise thank you so much. I wonder whether Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s speech/talk/address at Columbia will be televised or taped?
You can bet your ass the major networks will be making every effort to shut down access to the airwaves. Or doing a damn good job at cherry picking and manipulating the Iranian Presidents words.
I bet Prof Juan Cole will be all over this.
Sunrise Earth is…?
When Cheney resigns.
Spotlight!
egregious @ 36
I thought it was when he went back into his coffin
So far, the only politician I’ve seen willing to say the Iran Prez should be allowed to speak at Columbia is Chuck Hagel. Everyone else is ducking for cover. This is one of the litmus tests that separates grownups from silly people.
‘morning all… coffee is ready – I think we’re going to need it.
egregious @ 36
It will happen when congress finds a serious enough reason to Impeach. Monica where are you?
egregious @ 36
Heh. If only…that would truly be Morning in America, and around the world.
But Sunrise Earth looks like a Discovery Channel production; I can catch it first thing in the morning on Animal Planet. The kids and I have been completely engrossed with it, in spite of its incredible simplicity.
Right now I’m watching and listening to sunrise over the Homosassa Springs in FL, hearing various wading birds and bugs singing as manatees swim in the early morning light.
Manatees are much more graceful and attractive than Dick Cheney, by the way.
Scarecrow @ 29
if we were going by what reality actually warrants… well, then, i think that’s one of the hearings we’d be watching this week.
the 2007 elections will further depress the goopers
that needs to be spotlighted and sent
I also would like to add that I do not believe bush likes thes idea that everyone things he is cheney’s dog on a leach
we know he is but he doesn’t know it
if it’s pointed out to him that cheney is making him look like a child and a fool, bush might (and rightfully should) throw cheney under the bus
let me tell you something;
if bush throws cheney under the bus and get’s him impeached it could salvage this last bit of his presidency, he would look like a uniter, he would demonize the vice president and there would be a new partnership formed between him and the legislative branch
selise @ 27
This looks like last week’s list, and the week before and the week before that…. Same old crap and sh*t done.
It is no good holding all these phony meetings if damn all is done about the WH abuses.
The Dems(?) in charge have to stop the 60 vote crap in the Senate and force every one of these votes into an actual filibuster. Force the goops to stand on the floor and defend the WH madness day in and day out until even the MSM is forced to print the truth.
There… I feel better now. I think I will make some bread.
60 minutes Scott Pelley/Ahmdinejad
Pelley: will you pledge not build a bomb
Ahmadinejad: maybe
Pelley: you won’t answer my question
Ahmadinejad: thank you
Pelley: answer my questions you evil rug-kissing motherf–ker
Ahmadinejad: this isn’t Gitmo you obesquious twit
Pelley: Bush says you’ve isolated your nation, and make your country a pariah in the whole world
Ahmadinejad: holy crap – projection much?
Culture of TrÜth
katherine Graham Cracker @ 46
Oh, KGC — that quote from Bush was priceless. Quote the whole thing.
nomolos @ 45
can’t say i disagree… but i’d still like to keep my eye on them, at the very least so that they can’t get away with their kabuki bs. if we do a good job of oversight, it’s possible that at some point they may decide they have to actually do something instead of pretend to act (don’t forget nixon gave us the epa – it’s not impossible).
perris —
I also would like to add that I do not believe bush likes thes idea that everyone things he is cheney’s dog on a leach
I think you’re on to something. Interesting image.
BUSH: I’d say, first of all, to him, “You’ve made terrible choices for your people. You’ve isolated your nation. You’ve taken a nation of proud and honorable people, and you’ve made your country the pariah of the world. You’ve threatened countries with nuclear weapons. You’ve said you want a nuclear weapon. You’ve defied international accord. And you’re slowly but surely isolating yourself.” And secondly, that “it’s in your interest to have a unified nation on your border. It’s in your interest that there be a flourishing democracy.” And thirdly, you know, “If we catch your people inside the country harming US citizens or Iraqi citizens, you know, we will deal with them.”
your wish is my command
some woman ripping on the warmongers push for a confrontation with Iran on C-span. Wow.
ps credit to
Culture of Truth
http://cultureoftruth.blogspot.com/
I did not know that the Iranian P speaks five lanuguages. Damn.
No wonder Bush does not want to debate the Iranian P, Bush barely speaks one language.
Scarecrow @ 49
I’d go for either leash or leech. Take your pick.
ooh. right now on c-span2:
“Reporting on the Iraq War” at the Harvard University, Kennedy (J.F.) School of Government — Michael R. Gordon , New York Times
i can’t even bring myself to turn it on.
It is generally believed a great majority of the US opposes the war in Iraq as well as a prospective attack on Iran and that our spineless Congress ignores the will of the people. I’m not sure this is correct. The US sees itself as virtue personified. Anything we do is right or justified simply because we do it.
An example is the 60 Minutes interview with Iran’s president (I won’t attempt to spell his name) He was asked how he had the nerve to want to visit ground zero where nearly three thousand Americans died when his government supplies insurgents in Iraq. I’m sure most Americans consider this a legitimate question. They forget (perhaps they are too young to remember) we pushed out Iran’s legitimately elected president because he wanted more money for Iran’s oil. We installed the Shah who tortured and killed far more people than the 3,000 we lost on 9/11. The current chief Ayatollah had his fingernails pulled out and his teeth kicked in by the Shah’s henchmen. It is easy to understand why he might not be the US’s most fervent supporter.
This country has a mindset like the commander in “Doctor Strangelove” who rode the atomic bomb down to earth yelling “Yipee” as he went.
RevDeb @ 54
me just woke up, sleep in my eyes, not one sip of java, read scarecrows morning thread,was so impressed had to type and hit enter without preview
I also substituted “things” for think
must drink more go juice in the future before I post
selise @ 48
Oooops sorry selise I did forget to say… Thanks so much for posting the hearings list it is very helpful.
With Nixon we did not get to the “truth” until AFTER impeachment was initiated why oh why can’t we do the same now. Impeach the bastards to get to the truth instead of the bs of waiting to “get all the facts” before impeachment as Conyers says. Impeach them now to stop the continuing carnage.
wrt to congressional hearings… every once in a while there is a good one.
i think the comey testimony before the SJC was one of them.
and friday’s on “security” contractors (blackwater) and whistle blowers was, imo, another.
video here (transcripts will be posted here too).
audio here.
“but Scott Pelly was so arrogant and insulting in his questioning, prejudging expected answers before hearing them, that it probably convinced the Iranian that it is pointless to talk to Americans.”
well, isn’t?
Thanks for the video and audio for the security contractors hearing, Selise, much appreciated.
perris @ 57
meant not to criticize—just want to get the proper opportunities for poetic license available to us all.
Good morning!
Got through the first 3 weeks now I have Sunday off coming. Bought Charlie Savage’s book the day it was released but haven’t had time to read it. This is the week! (that and Chris Dodd’s book about his father’s Letters from Nuremberg.
And still have more boxes to unpack.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 50
Thank you.
Thank you. For those who missed 60 Minutes, the interviewer, Scott Pelly, told the iran Prez that he asked Bush what Bush would say to the Iran Prez — and this is the quote Bush gave CBS to say to Iran.
Another litmus test for America: to which nation’s President does the following quote apply?
Second question: if you’re from Iran, would you conclude that it’s worth talking to the Bush regime?
selise @ 59
too bad it was a Senate Democratic Policy Committee. But it’s a start.
Columbia’s President on C-Span talking about Iranian President A talk today.
=WJE&ShowVidNum=9&Rot_Cat_CD=WJ&Rot_HT=206&Rot_WD=
&ShowVidDays=100&ShowVidDesc=&ArchiveDays=30″>c-span.org archives link
I was impressed in the laughter that came so easily for the Iranian pres. After the insults one might have expected him to stalk off in a huff.
Ed Kunin @ 56 –
something else… after 911 the iranian people responded with spontanious vigils in support of the victims. no matter what we think of president ahmadinejad, he is the representative of the iranian people… and therefore, imo, he should be welcome to lay a wreath at the site of the former world trade towers. speaking at columbia should not even be an issue.
Good morning friends.
You think that the public has just decided to ignore both Bush and Cheney?
Kathleen @ 51
Kathleen, I wondered when I was listening to a caller from Athens if it was you.
Scarecrow, minor edit. LONG should be LONGER.
[Mod: It no longer says that. Fixed, and thanks]
Kathleen @ 65
I liked the caller who reminded us that America was supposed to be the home of the FREE and the BRAVE.
Scarecrow @ 63
holy cow, i thought it was satire.
shit.
Ed Kunin @ 56
Another interesting thing about Scott Pelly’s question is that it assumed Iran has something to apologize for wrt to 9/11. Iran wasn’t involved in 9/11 and in fact condemned it. And when the US went after al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Iran helped the US with intelligence. But Scott Pelly extends the Saddam = 9/11 to now include Iran = 9/11.
In case I’m being too subtle, Scott Pelly is an idiot.
did anyone see or read hilary’s interview?
I didn’t see it but I read her answers and they hit all the right notes, emphasis are NOT added by me;
that’s an important distinction, look at this, this time emphasis ARE mine;
that’s a great methid right there
that’s a great bit of stopgap she can use…nicely done and I’m surprised I haven’t heard that amendment before
more;
here she missed a great oportunity to parry and attack
she should have alluded to her previous point and built on it like so;
“had I known the president would abuse the authority granted, would rebuke the trust he was given by the American people, would initiate an unprovoked attack when he knew by his own aids there was no threat, nobody in their right mind would grant him the authority.
further
had we known his own aids informed him in no uncertain terms attacking Iraq would actaully breed terrorists exponentially instead of help to fight terrorism it would facilitate terrorism
had we known the president would ignore all his generals advice and he would conduct the attack more inept then any other comander in chief in our history, then nobody in their right mind would have voted yes to that bill”
man, she could have hit it not only out of the park but into posterity
if only I had been on her staff
TexBetsy @ 70
Thank you, typo fairy.
Perris you assume she might have listened to you.
selise @ 72
You can’t make this stuff up fast enough, Selise.
TexBetsy @ 76
yes. cuz I’m HAWT
Scarecrow @ 77
And I’ve given up trying to think either that stupidly or that insanely.
Just plain hurts too much.
selise @ 5
from the kyl/lieberman proposed amendment to the defense authorization bill, S.AMDT.3017.
by the way, here’s the russert hil interview
http://rawstory.com//news/2007…..0923.html,
video and text on that link
Scarecrow @ 73
Or just another tool of the reich wing scream machine. They seem to be everywhere.
keith @ 80
Should we put CSpan on pay-per-view?
Margot @ 69
Not me today. Did not hear the Athens call. How was it? Was it that woman ripping?
TexBetsy @ 84
c-span can’t cover a hearing that congress won’t hold. :(
selise @ 86
we could do a computer simulation
you remember when they did an ali vs marciano?
same thing
selise @ 86
detail!
think progress has this as their lead right now;
hehe
you think the base moves slightly to the left after that?
or do they remain marionttes and repeat corporate trash in spite of the popse
Here’s hoping that President Ahmadinejad has listened to some good speech writers in prep for his address today. He has made some good speeches in the past.
I hope he is a statesman today.
I was just sickened by 60 minutes last night. It was as if Scott Pelley was the official propaganda spokesman for the White House. The Iranian president was more than patient with him.
bg @ 90
The frenzy at Columbia is gonna be live blogged by Bob at BMG.
I hope President Ahmadinejad does not believe that all people in the US are as lame as the ones who have been speaking to him so far.
Scott Pelly has his sights set a big 6 to 7 figure salary and is more than willing to toe the ruling elites party line. There is no objective traditional media in the U.S. yet Americans still believe in the myth of a fair and balanced 4th Estate. Only until such time that the traditional media is supplanted with the new media will the nation have a ghost of a chance of surviving the corporatist coup.
Kathleen @ 85
Yep! She’s the one who made the point (about 4 times)that the Iranian president speaks FIVE languages. That wasn’t her main point, of course, but I remember it.
Margot @ 95
To some of us that is a GOOD thing.
I was hoping that the Pelly interview would be a real interview… It was an aggressive hit piece.
The thing is we have idiots like Bush and Ahmedinijad hurling insults at each other. They both sound like children with their pontification.
Pelly attitude was hostile and perhaps this is how CBS wants to be read.
SanderO @ 97
CBS merely wants the ruling elites to know they are loyal and on board with the Administration.
TexBetsy @ 96,
Oh it’s a great thing!
I have forgotten much of the French and Spanish I ever knew.
Sunrise earth is the best show on television. Although once or twice it did cause me to shut off the t.v and listen to my own birds and watch my own sunrise sitting on my deck. But on a rainy, blizzarding morning…there is nothing more calming that hearing the world again.
And yes, a constant reminder of what is at stake. But also that no matter what they take, the sun will still rise. It may boil us, but it will rise and be magnificent.
dipper @ 91
makes sense in light of the Rather lawsuit
If you thought you’d get off easy, just cause it’s Monday, fugettaboutit. More Bushco insanity in a new thread.
Maybe it is time for this video to make the rounds again. . .(scenes from Tehran with soundtrack of Peace Train . . .)
new thread upstairs
Columbia students will be presenting their questions for Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
Here are my questions for him
Do you support a Nuclear Free Zone in the middle east? How many times has Iran brought this up at the UN?
Professor Juan Cole has stated at his website “Informed Comment” that your words in regard to Israel have been misinterpreted. Is this true? If so why do you think your words were misinterpreted?
Middle east expert Flynt Leverett who is a resident scholar at the New American Foundations has stated that Iran has tried to make contact and negotiate with several US administrations , but has been ignored. Is this true?
bg @ 103
Thank you BG. Fantastic
Good morning everyone. In case you missed my note yesterday, the Australian Psychological Association is meeting Tues. and Wednesday and–like our APA, is struggling with the issue of psychologists participating in interrogations (and torture) of detainees. Most of you probably know that the Amer. Psychological Assoc. has–deplorably–not adopted language prohibiting psychologists’ participation in such situations.
If you wish, you can sign a petition supporting the Australian Psych Assoc. limiting its members’ taking part in interrogations by going here:
“>link and then Go to ORF – Online Research Facility.
Then use this password – apsconf to log in and sign.
THANK YOU>
Michael @ 72
It is not a functional democracy because there is no opposition party.
there is no opposition party because the politically engaged segments of the population whose values would form the core of a new political movement are inexplicably co-dependent on the (D) Party, which does not share those values.
Kathleen @ 105
I never understood why Iran cannot, as a soverign nation, develop nuclear weapons. Israel has them as does Pakistan, India and the US. Iranians are no crazier (or as crazy) as the rest.
if the business roundtable had any sense they would arrange for cheney to have a fake health scare, he goes to bethesda, and gets to retire for health reasons. this accomplishes 2 things. he gets to save face. he is removed.
replacement not important. but i’m thinking mr. establishment, dick lugar. obviously, no one from the presidential pack.
the bus. roundtable would do this because they recognize that they are this close (thumb and forefinger barely separated) to facing a massive boycott of anything made by a fortune 500 company overseas that would just cripple them. becuase, the “uniter not a divider” has got the whole world pissed off at us.
This is just grim reading Scarecrow. I’m calling my Senators again today.
Where in the world is there a country where the most obtuse individual is less sophisticated than the average American? My deepest apologies to the visiting emissary/leader from Iran for the bad behavior and disrespect he has had to suffer while here in America. He must realize that America is a closed society with citizens who have little idea of the world outside the very limited one manufactured in their own heads.
alank @ 112
Well, I doubt the Iranian Prez can credibly lecture the US about being a “closed society.” Each needs to look to his/her own country’s rules. I agree we tend to get a highly prejudiced view of them, but I have no illusions that they get a more objective view of us, especially when Bush presumes to speak for us. The world longs for grownups.
If the US were to provoke an attack by attacking Iran, and then used the response as a legal justification [sic] for war or further acts of war by claiming that the response is actually an “act of aggression” is exactly what one would expect from the Cheney Justice Department and David Addington.
That legal reasoning has been turned on its head. The original provocateur is, of course, the aggressor. The response is a legally justified defensive reaction to an act of war by a foreign power; if appropriately limited and proportional to the damage caused by the original American attack, it would not be a sufficient causus belli to justify further American action. The US would be at fault and, moreover, would very likely commit further crimes if it were to indiscriminately target civilians in its “precision” bombing of military targets. The officials carrying out such a policy would be guilty of war crimes.
Consider who wins in a perpetual state of war. The Ministry of Peace recycles ever larger amounts of tax dollars to ever more profitable defense contractors, the Halliburtons, United Technologies and Blackwaters. The price of oil doubles again, up to four or five times what it was when Lil’ Shrub took office. The US borrows more from foreign bankers, and is forced to quietly accede to ever increasing demands from foreign creditors, er, China and Saudi Arabia without the US public knowing the demands were made.
Civil liberties at home dry up, but not without a fight, giving the Ministry of Love more to do and the nominal legal and financial might with which to do it. George, still frightened of horses and as inarticulate in Spanish as he is in English, floats off to Never Land with its rubber chickens and tens of millions in “speaking” fees. Like a Singaporean or Russian dictator, Cheney “retires” to the Chesapeake shore while never leaving office or giving up control.
Chaos is much more profitable and much more suitable to imposing the wingnut agenda, while the Chosen are rich enough to avoid its effects. What’s not to like?
earlofhuntingdon @ 114
“Cheney of errors”
http://news.independent.co.uk/…..993312.ece
hain of errors’ led to 36-hour US nuclear blunder
By Stephen Foley in New York
Published: 24 September 2007
Nuclear warheads capable of unleashing the equivalent of 10 Hiroshima bombs were mistakenly flown across the United States by a bomber crew who thought they were dummies, and the terrifying security lapse was not discovered for almost 36 hours, it has been revealed.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad has asked the moderator several times where they are getting their information from? WHO?
Ahmadinejad knocked the socks off 60 Minutes a year ago in the summer. The guy may be a maniac, but he has survived in a political context in which brains apparently are required. None of our media or pols seem to need to be able to think — they are just pretty mouthpieces.
Considering they already provoked one war without even getting the country we invaded to do anything and the media helped out…
In addition I think history tends to show these events are manufactured all the time.
Is today’s world all about watching car wrecks in slow motion as they unfold and not being able to do anything about it? Hope not.
GeorgeSimian @ 7
Will no prelate exorcise us of this venal VeeP?
Maybe Congress can imagine their retirement if they do nothing and Cheney starts a major conflagration? We who pay attention to such things would not be amused.
mack @ 19
I no sense is the Senate full of innocents who have no ’sense of the Senate’ statements to make about outrages currently being inspired by Bushies.
Their guilt spreads like an oil slick, ruining everything it touches.
Scarecrow @ 38
Our government has an Office of Silly Talks. It’s known as the Press Secretary who speaks for the White House.
perris @ 74
So, after all that talk about ‘misuse of authority’ where is the obvious conclusion that Bush should have been punished?
Where is the follow-through?
Where is the Congress exercising their oversight and due diligence to end the abuse?
Bluetoe @ 98
Maybe it’s an indication they’re going to settle with Dan Rather and they don’t want to look like the weenies they truly are.
I know it’s late in the day…but wasnt’ there really too much irony in critiques of why he may not have been allowed to speak today at Columbia: he is uneducated, a liar, not with reality, and has blood on his hands…well, after all, what does it take to be a current President. What a tempest.