Last night I listened (AGAIN) in horror as Dick Cheney was given the “platform” to speak publicly, this time to a cheering crowd at the so-called “C-PAC” convention, as he predicted that Barack Obama will be a “one term president.”  Well, I’ve made the same prediction on this site – but with the caveat that if Obama continues his RIDICULOUS policy of “looking forward instead of back” regarding the crimes of Bush/Cheney et al – he is risking his reelection in 2012.  One of the main reasons I said that is the FACT that our “liberal media” (which, of course is almost totally controlled by conservatives) continues to give Cheney’s voice credibility – when the man SHOULD BE AT GUANTANAMO with the rest of America’s “enemy combatants.”  When someone says to me “how low can they go” when referring to politicians, the first thought that ALWAYS comes to my mind is Dick Cheney.

This man is a thug!  And, that’s putting it nicely.  There’s NOTHING about him that should cause any American who has a clue about what transpired in the eight years prior to Obama’s winning the White House to give Cheney even an ounce of credibility.  I even HATE writing about the guy – but, each time I hear him spewing his CRAP I feel an obligation to respond, even if the democrats – who should be outraged at every word the man says and should be DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT (remember, Congress has the right to investigate no matter what the president says) – won’t do anything to shut this thug up.  Let me start with a little refresher course on how Cheney does things, especially for all of you out there who are thinking President Obama is the “fascist.”

When George W Bush won the nomination of the republicans in 2000, he chose Cheney to “vet” the prospective vice presidential candidates.  Cheney (and, I have to admit, this was brilliant strategy on the part of a true authoritarian personality) collected boxes upon boxes of information on ALL the leading republicans (something in the high teens or twenties) – telling ALL of them they were on the “short list” of 3 or 4 candidates (remember, Cheney’s a pathological liar – meaning he’ll lie to anyone to get what he wants) – telling each one of them they MUST include ALL information, including anything that might prove embarrassing in order to prevent a selection which would backfire in the press.  THEN Cheney CHOSE HIMSELF and “outed” (he’s really good at “outing” people) one of the candidates by leaking info to the press that ruined the guy (I believe it was a governor in a place like Nebraska – a very safe person to SCREW).  Subsequent to ruining this person’s career he reminded the other “candidates” that he had the “goods” (the contents of all the “boxes” of info) on them and they had better “toe the line” or he would ruin them as well.  A beautiful plan, huh?  If you’ve been following this guy for any length of time, this shouldn’t surprise you.  When I read this in Barton Gellman’s book “Angler” for some reason it absolutely didn’t surprise me, other than my thinking that I wouldn’t even be capable of such a dastardly deed.  It takes a REAL SPECIAL person to become a successful republican these days (you can surely see why Rush Limbaugh loves the guy so much!)

Well, that’s just for starters.  It gets “better” (or worse, depending on your perspective).  GW Bush – the great CEO president – gave Cheney the responsibility of filling his cabinet posts.  Hence people like Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and a host of other “neo-cons” in key places in Bush’s White House right from the start.  Cheney started off with the now famous “energy summit” of which the participants were NEVER exposed to the public, but SURELY was headlined by Ken Lay of Enron – this was prior to Enron’s famous demise which took the 401 K’s of millions of Americans into the “tank.”  As a sidenote, I was always curious why the republicans in Congress spent eight years investigating “Whitewater” which was nothing more than a stupid investment by the Clinton’s and spent ZERO time investigating a failed business venture which was clearly ILLEGAL and caused hardship to MILLIONS of American citizens.  I guess it must have had something to do with what was in those boxes – virtually EVERY committee chairman in Congress had been on Cheney’s “short list.”  Are you getting the picture here?

Then there was the nine months that Bush/Cheney was in the White House prior to 9/11.  During that time there are sufficient records showing that both Cheney and his chief of staff I. lewis “Scooter” Libby spent enough time at the CIA “sniffing” out intelligence on Saddam Hussein that they couldn’t possibly have missed ALL the warning signs the CIA had to the impending “bin Laden to attack America” scenario.  In fact, the more I read about what happened in those days, the more I’m convinced that Cheney (and Bush, for that matter) were willing to absorb an attack in order to have an excuse to invade Iraq.  I’m convinced that Iraq’s oil was a big part of the discussion of the “energy summit” that we will hopefully someday know about – which is why Cheney went to such extremes to keep EVERYTHING including who was there a SECRET.  Clearly both Dick Cheney and George W Bush (plus Wolfowitz, Feith, Perle, and others) were planning an invasion of Iraq LONG BEFORE 9/11 ever happened.  The evidence of that is OVERWHELMING – which is why I’m so disappointed there’s NO INVESTIGATION of these thugs.

But, hang on, it gets worse.  Not only were Bush/Cheney planning to invade Iraq, but it appears they never had any intention of capturing Osama bin Laden from the start of the invasion of Afganistan.  US forces (along with others) had bin Laden TRAPPED AT TORA BORA and LET HIM GO.  This appears to have been a calculated decision.  Had they captured bin Laden, there would have been no justification to invade Iraq – SO THEY LET THE GUY WHO KILLED 3000 AMERICANS GO!  And, of course, getting back to our “liberal” mainstream media – there’s PLENTY of evidence of this, but you have to go to the book store and find the books, read them, and figure it out on your own – which apparently, not too many Americans are doing (including Obama, because otherwise there would be at least investigations of these people).

I’m sure you’ve figured this out, but it KEEP’S getting worse!  Both Dick Cheney and George W Bush OPENLY LIED over and over again to “gin” up public support for an invasion of Iraq.  They knew that Saddam Hussein had NOTHING to do with 9/11, had no weapons of “mass destruction,” did not have a nuclear capability, and was NOT a threat to the United States WELL BEFORE THE INVASION.  There was even a memo FORGED by the CIA and “discovered” in some European country suggesting a meeting between Mohammed Atta and someone from Saddam’s government that was ordered out of the Vice President’s office – yep, you guessed it, Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to do something TERRIBLY ILLEGAL. 

Of course, if you’ve been following this guy for any length of time, you know that doing stuff that’s illegal comes naturally to Cheney.  Much of what’s been discussed earlier in this post is more like REALLY unethical, but probably not illegal.  But, once our troops crossed the Kuwaiti border into Iraq, the illegal stuff started happening with ABANDON.  (well, I should say that it appears that the illegal wiretapping actually started PRIOR to 9/11 – and, of course, that would be a felony each time someone was wiretapped without a warrant – everything I’ve been able to find out about this would suggest that Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby were at the forefront of the illegal wiretapping – some of the CRIMES that Obama doesn’t want to investigate for some odd reason)

Let’s look at the “outing” of a CIA agent – which is TREASON – remember, Cheney’s good at “outing” people.  Valerie Plame (Wilson) was the head of a covert CIA group which was in charge of finding and verifying the so-called “WMD’S” (weapons of mass destruction).  Her group had been hard at work for over a year before Bush/Cheney publicly started “pushing” the invasion without them finding ANYTHING.  Bush/Cheney were so “fixed” on this invasion that they had members of the CIA smuggled into Iraq with the “mission” of undermining Saddam to hopefully cause him to strike out at a “target” which would allow our government to “retaliate.”  Well, no one knows to this day how many people died due to Plame’s group being exposed publicly, but the TRUTH is – as mentioned above -disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA agent is TREASON.  This whole scheme came right from the vice president’s office, and most of what I’ve read suggests that President Bush was complicit in the CRIME as well.  Again, NO CONGRESSIONAL OR JUSTICE DEPARTMENT investigation beyond the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation where Scooter Libby was prosecuted for perjuring himself to protect Cheney – which was clearly Fitzgerald’s finding.  Fitzgerald even suggested that Congress should investigate further to uncover how this crime actually happened.  There is NO DOUBT in my mind that Plame was “outed” because her husband, Joe Wilson, wrote an OP Ed in the NY Times which exposed the abusrdity of Bush’s claim, in his state of the union message of 2003, that Iraq had purchased a substantial quantity of “yellow cake uranium” from Niger in Africa.  THE ENTIRE NUCLEAR SCARE WAS FABRICATED – an out and out LIE!

But, we’re not done yet, AMAZINGLY.  You’d think by the time one government official had broken that many laws someone would do something about it.  However, not in today’s America.  Even with all I know – and I’m sure there is MUCH, MUCH more – Cheney is still going around spouting off his lying mouth.  I haven’t even got to the “enhanced interrogation” which was “championed” by Dick Cheney.  In fact, he’s still going around “championing” it – which is one of the main reasons I continue to encourage President Obama to start the investigation of this guy – does anyone think the republicans won’t continue with their “enhanced interrogations” if they get back in power simply because Obama said “we don’t torture.”  Let me remind you, both Bush and Cheney said, “We don’t torture” too!  That is, despite the FACT both Bush and Cheney publicly ADMITTED to authorizing WATERBOARDING on national TV.  Well, let me put it this way, “Earth to Cheney, WATERBOARDING has been considered torture since the inception of the Geneva conventions.  We’ve (the United States) prosecuted Japanese for waterboarding our troops during WW II and we’ve prosecuted our own soldiers for doing it during Viet Nam.  According to the Geneva Conventions WATERBOARDING is a WAR CRIME.  Therefore, both Dick Cheney and George W Bush admitted on national TV to authorizing WAR CRIMES.  If you’re not sure, WAR CRIMES are illegal!

And, in my view, the waterboarding isn’t the worst thing they authorized.  Khalid Shiek Mohammed was known to be afraid of bugs.  So the “enhanced interrogators” put him in an enclosed “box” – supposedly the size of a small casket – filled with bugs – for an extended period of time.  This was the guy who was waterboarded 183 times in one month.  What they (Bush/Cheney) accomplished with all of this was that Sheik Mohammed stopped giving information and they made it virtually impossible to prosecute him in a REAL court of law – due to the “cruel and unusual” punishment they put him through that is a violation of everything this nation stands for.  It appears that Dick Cheney was quick to decide that revenge on the few “enemy combatants” who were really enemy combatants was far more valuable than the liberties our troops have been dying to defend for the past 200+ years.  Dick Cheney is a stong proponent of the Nixon “doctrine” that “if the president does it, it must be legal” and our new president is allowing him to get away with this.  He was so arrogant in breaking one law after another, that it’s SHAMEFUL our democratic leaders seem totally AFRAID to do anything about it.  Do you remember Cheney shooting one of his hunting partners in the face – clearly out shooting a rifle while DRINKING – and putting off the authorities for 24 hours so that he could sober up prior to giving his deposition.  I’m not saying that he was trying to shoot his friend, but the reality is it’s a crime to shoot someone in the face, even if it’s your friend, if you’re DRUNK!  This man has NO BOUNDARIES!

And, speaking of arrogance.  What about the three prisoners who were found DEAD, hanging in their cells at Guantanamo.  There was NO INVESTIGATION of this either.  But, just for the sake of me trying to give a clear picture here, let’s look at the facts of these three “suicides” – at least according to Bush/Cheney.  ALL THREE prisoners were found with a wad of cloth JAMMED so far down their throats that their jaws had to be broken to get the cloth out (I’ve written about this before, so please indulge me on this one).  Furthermore, evidently after JAMMING the cloth down their own throats so far that another breath would be IMPOSSIBLE they, ALL THREE OF THEM, managed to tie their own legs together, then tie their hands behind their backs, then climb onto boxes or something, put their heads in a noose, and then HANG THEMSELVES – ALL THREE OF THEM!  To make it even more interesting, there were guards patrolling the corridor where ALL THREE cells were located REGULARLY (meaning every 10 minutes or so).  The coroner’s findings suggested that ALL THREE men had been DEAD at least 2 hours prior to being noticed HANGING in their cells.  I wasn’t surprised that much that Bush/Cheney saw nothing “curious” about this – but, I was shocked when I heard that Eric Holder, Obama’s Attorney General, saw nothing worth investigating here as well.  It’s like they don’t want to confirm to the WHOLE WORLD what the ENTIRE WORLD already knows, and that is Bush/Cheney authorized their surrogates to commit WAR CRIMES!

I’ll conclude what could seemingly go on forever by wondering what people think everytime they hear republicans complaining about the budget deficit President Obama is “wrestling” with as he tries to “right the ship” – meaning the economy – left behind by Bush/Cheney.  By most accounts it is GW Bush who deserves the blame for almost taking us back into a 1930’s type Great Depression.  However, the reality is it was Dick Cheney who was in charge of all the tax cutting measures that were passed during the Bush administration which led to the RECORD DEFICITS.  In fact, Cheney – with his considerable connections with republicans in the house – managed to get more tax cuts through than even Bush wanted.  Cheney is famously quoted as saying “Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.”  Well, once out of office he’s been spouting quite a different tune – as if to suggest to republicans, tea partyers, and the general public that these HORRIBLE DEFICITS are the work of Barack Obama.  While that kind of rhetoric is not ILLEGAL, it is such blatant B__ SH__ that it makes my stomach curl.  And, the fact that the media and the public gives it ANY TRACTION at all, is very discouraging.  Cheney is a PATHALOGICAL LIAR and by allowing him to continue doing this – as far as I’m concerned – our justice department, our Congress, and our sitting president  – NONE OF THEM – are showing the leadership that would restore the respect for the rule of law, the “concept” of honesty, and the general belief in our system of government that is missing from the public debate today.  Dick Cheney is a lying thug and “we the people” are forced to listen to him repeatedly by this timid government which is presently in charge.

But, of course, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh, and others on the “right” (wrong) continue to give this man a “platform” from which to spew his vitriol and they think he’s the “cat’s meow.”  In fact, I even heard someone say the other day that Cheney’s contemplating a “run for the White House.”  (as Bush once said about Muslim terrorists, “bring em on”) The ironic thing to me is that if Cheney is correct about his latest “charge” – that Obama will be a one term president” – it will be because the very man he’s trying to “undo” is – FOR SOME STRANGE REASON – allowing him to go free.  It is the president’s duty – he takes an oath to defend the constitution and enforce the laws – to make sure that people like Cheney are not allowed to get away with crimes against this nation.  I could go on and on about Cheney – the war profiteering, the encouraging Halliburton to relocate to the middle east to avoid investigation AND taxes, the sweatheart “no-bid” deals with his “buddies,” and his botched ideas about the Iraq invasion which will end up being one of the worst decisions EVER made in the history of this nation – but, suffice it to say;  If President Obama ends up a one term president, one of the main reasons why will be his refusal to allow an investigation of Dick Cheney!  I’ve  said it before (will probably again): Want to shut Dick Cheney up?  Put him in front of a Grand Jury!  If you’re a regular here, forgive me – but everytime I hear this man spewing his garbage, I can’t help but write about it.  Kind of makes me feel a bit better.