Cheney, Probably Deserves a Rebuke

He's out setting the political stage for the GOP, for "tough guys", to reap a political benefit if sensible policies fail.

The Dems ought not to take that kind of positioning lightly. We're at over a $1 trillion dollars in debts to the next generation because of "though guys" who make decisions that weren't thought through.

Meanwhile, I wonder what the public is making of this big push into Helmand. Isn't it a testimony to the masterful way that Bush-Cheney kept status a national secret, so that most Americans are probably unaware that there were huge portions of territory 'under Taliban control'.

By comparison, we can remember McCain demanding and answer to "Who is in control of Ramadi?" We have nothing similar for the unattended mess that Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld let drag on in Afghanistan.

For the price of Bush-Cheney's understaffed, under-resourced, mis-conceptualized war in Afghanistan, visit icasualties.org.

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King George's Executioner

GOP LEADER PREPARED TO DECRY U.S. CONSTITUTION AS 'OUTRAGEOUS POLITICAL ACT'

After Cheney's latest FOX appearance on the weekend, it should be clear that Dick Cheney might well seem like Saddam Hussein at his trial, denying the authority of the judge and calling on witnesses to show him their National ID card.

He's a beacon to young conservatives, don't you think?

They can dust-up their resumes, with him as an example: "Position Wanted: Job so senior one can make no mistakes, but only have 'regrets' (usually paid for by others)."

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Why is Cheney Talking

LIKE DeLAY, HE THINKS IT'S ALL A POLICY DIFFERENCE

He doesn't want to leave the field to his "enemies", in particular, the FBI testimony coming up. It's classic Rove-DeLay.

Except, it is really Geobbles, in two doses.

Re, "We do not torture":

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

-Joseph Goebbels

Just for the record, there could well be criminal referrals for torture, despite how you view the "policy pronouncements".

WHY TORTURE IS A "NATURAL" FIT FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

As for constantly telling the American public they are under treat and need the "safeguards" of torture to remain "safe", it's Goering rather than Goebbels:

“Naturally the common people don't want war... That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists [cf. also Krauthammer's Excusionism in which he singles out pacifists] for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

-- Hermann Goering

And that is how you get a very generous and giving people, Americans, to behave like rats and embrace torture.

All in a days work, that, I guess ... like clockwork.

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