Does Dick Cheney believe his lies?
By Paul Begala
CNN) -- As an American, I am appalled by Dick Cheney and his relentless, pathetic and ultimately doomed effort to revise the history of his failures.
But as a Democrat, I am thrilled that an incompetent, dishonest and reviled figure is hell-bent on making himself the face of the Republican Party, hogging the spotlight from rising stars like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- and eclipsing more honorable Republicans from the Bush era, like Colin Powell.
Cheney's endless media appearances, including this remarkable interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, reveal a nearly sociopathic refusal to admit any error, express any remorse, apologize for any mistake.
And so let us review the Cheney record: No vice president has done more damage to our country, not even Vice President Aaron Burr, who shot and killed Alexander Hamilton 210 years ago.
In the first months of the Bush-Cheney administration, Cheney was ordered to convene a task force on terrorism. Instead, he ignored the problem, the Cheney terror task force never met, and the warnings about an impending terrorist attack were ignored.
Later, instead of apologizing, Cheney cravenly blamed the White House counterterrorism czar (PDF), Dick Clarke, who had tried to warn anyone who would listen that an attack was coming.
"Richard Clarke was the head of the counterterrorism program in the run up to 9/11," Cheney said. "He obviously missed it." Blaming the guy who did his job when you're the one who didn't do yours.
From there, it was off to the races, as Cheney did and said anything to drag America into a war with Iraq. The good folks at the Washington Post's Vox have compiled a damning indictment of Cheney's deep dishonesty about Iraq. In the interest of brevity, let me focus on a few lowlights:
He said the lead 9/11 hijacker "did go to Prague, and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service ... several months before the attack." Wrong, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report.
He said Saddam had "an established relationship with al Qaeda." Wrong
Cheney claimed there was "irrefutable evidence" Saddam had reconstituted his nuclear program. Wrong.
He said Saddam "had an established relationship with al Qaeda, providing training to al Qaeda members in areas of poisons, gases and conventional bombs." Wrong
He said there was "overwhelming" evidence of ties between al Qaeda and Iraq. Wrong.
He said that we'd be "greeted as liberators" and that the insurgency was in its "last throes" nine years ago. Wrong and wrong.
And that's just on Iraq. Need I mention that, as CEO of Halliburton, Cheney opposed President Clinton's sanctions on the terrorist regime in Iran, calling the Clinton administration "sanctions-happy"? And he breezily defended doing business with the terrorists in Tehran -- through an overseas-based subsidiary -- explaining that "the good Lord didn't see fit to always put oil and gas resources where there are democratic governments."
Need I mention he told Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill that "deficits don't matter"?
One can debate whether Cheney's misstatements were the result of willful mendacity or incompetence. I believe the former. But at a deeper level, it does not matter. Regardless of whether Cheney is a liar or a fool, thousands of heroic American troops are dead. Tens of thousands are injured. Iraq is a disaster -- and will be for years to come. And America is weaker and poorer because of Cheney.
I know that powerful people don't like admitting error. But Hillary Clinton did so in her new book, candidly admitting that in voting for the Bush-Cheney war in Iraq, "I got it wrong. Plain and simple."
Cheney, however, has no room for such candid introspection. When he turned 70, he was asked his greatest regret. He did not mention the death and devastation he brought to Iraq or that he and others ignored the terror threat before 9/11. He didn't mention his votes in Congress against banning plastic guns or opposing the release of Nelson Mandela.
He said, "My misspent youth." Seriously. A three-word oblique reference to a couple of drunken driving incidents a half century ago are the biggest regrets of this man's life. Other than that, Cheney sees his life as a flawless, virtuous existence.
Were it not for the tragedies of 9/11 and Iraq, perhaps the thing Cheney would be remembered for was that he was the second vice president to shoot a man, albeit Cheney's was in a hunting accident and Harry Whittington, thank God, survived.
Still, as a longtime quail hunter, I have no doubt Cheney was in the wrong. Every hunter is responsible for knowing where his buddies are. And Cheney violated a cardinal rule: He was drinking before he picked up the gun. (He claims to have had only one beer, but even one is too many when you're hunting.)
But here's the thing: Even after Cheney shot him in the face, there's no indication he ever apologized to Harry Whittington. I suppose being a sociopath means never having to say you're sorry.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/17/opinio...html?hpt=hp_t3
- Guest040616
- 07-18-2014, 02:28 AM
- LexusLover
- 07-18-2014, 05:26 AM
[B][SIZE="4"]This is journalism? I wonder if he has ever met Mr. Whittington.
Were it not for the tragedies of 9/11 and Iraq, perhaps the thing Cheney would be remembered for was that he was the second vice president to shoot a man, albeit Cheney's was in a hunting accident and Harry Whittington, thank God, survived.
Still, as a longtime quail hunter, I have no doubt Cheney was in the wrong. Every hunter is responsible for knowing where his buddies are. And Cheney violated a cardinal rule: He was drinking before he picked up the gun. (He claims to have had only one beer, but even one is too many when you're hunting.)
But here's the thing: Even after Cheney shot him in the face, there's no indication he ever apologized to Harry Whittington. I suppose being a sociopath means never having to say you're sorry.
Originally Posted by bigtex
You really grab at straws, BigTitsLyingStalker. And this is A STRAW!
Your obsession is only exceeded by Bengala's ignorance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILqnYx7XnwQ
- IIFFOFRDB
- 07-18-2014, 07:48 AM
Speaking of LIES...
Dare one call it treason?
by LAWRENCE SELLIN, PHD
July 18, 2014
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see - Ayn Rand
Many Americans believe that the US Government, the Democrat and Republican Parties and the media are deliberately misleading the American people, hiding the most heinous fraud and Constitutional crisis in the history of the United States.
Individuals at the highest levels of the federal government may have aided and abetted a deception, which included willful ignorance, misinformation, false interpretations of the Constitution, outright lies and the creation of fraudulent documents and computer records to protect an ineligible, ill-prepared and unworthy candidate for the office of President of the United States.
In the age of Obama we have witnessed the complete metamorphosis of the media, no longer objective journalists, but partisan liberal activists, who control, manipulate, even create news to support a left-wing political agenda.
On April 27, 2011, Barack Obama presented as his official birth certificate a digital image so riddled with anomalies that only counterfeiters or the complicit could vouch for its authenticity.
Evidence has been reported claiming that Barack Obama has been using a fraudulent Connecticut Social Security Number (SSN) since at least 1986. That number, 042-68-4425, issued in 1977, was set aside exclusively for Connecticut residents, a state in which he never lived nor did any member of his immediate family. In addition, SSN Verifier Plus showed the birth year 1890 linked to that number. Because SSNs are not re-issued, multiple birth dates for one card suggest a stolen number.
The data and documents associated with Obama's Selective Service registration also contain inconsistencies. Most noticeably, Obama's registration card has a two digit year ‘80" on the postal stamp, unlike the four digit year stamp "1980" found on all other registration cards completed at the same time in Hawaii and other states. It appears that a 2008 postal stamp was cut, the 08 inverted and reinserted into the stamp to mimic a 1980 registration. Interestingly, Obama's SSN 042-68-4425 appears on his 1980 Selective Service registration, which is six years before that number can be found in personal background databases.
I believe that Barack Obama did not register with the Selective Service in 1980 because he was attending Occidental College in a foreign student status and in 1981 traveled to Pakistan using an Indonesian passport. According to the law, failure to register with the Selective Service would forever prevent Obama from working in the executive branch of the US government.
One could readily conclude that Obama lied and flouted the law to get elected. It should come as no surprise then, that he would lie and flout the law to implement his policies.
I believe Obama succeeded in 2008 because the Republicans struck a deal with the Democrats not to question Obama's eligibility for office and his personal history. Furthermore, the liberal media took radical steps to protect their favored candidate, killing negative stories about Obama and even threatening to accuse his opponents of racism in order to make them "sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction."
In addition to the apparent creation of fraudulent documents and the doctoring of computer records by Obama supporters, then Democratic National Chair Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) prepared two different Certifications of Nomination, an action unprecedented in US history, presumably to hide Obama's ineligibility for office.
And so committed has the liberal media been to protect their investment in Obama, they continue to dispense with gusto misinformation, disinformation or no information.
The conspiracy of silence continues out of complicity or fear. The political-media establishment realizes that if the truth is told about Barack Obama the system from which they accrue enormous personal power and profit will collapse.
Republicans will oppose Obama, but they will not expose him because, by doing so, it will reveal their own dereliction of duty. Many believe, and with reasonable cause, that all the hearings and law suits conducted by the Republicans are a subterfuge meant to run out the clock.
It doesn't matter if Obama thinks he is right or if he thinks he is being virtuous. The policies he is pursuing are destroying the country. Even if one rejects treachery or treason as motives, the unrealistic and impractical far-left liberalism promoted by Obama and his acolytes is an inevitable march from altruistic dreams to coercion, oppression and, ultimately, failure.
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality - Ayn Rand
Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org...#ixzz37p7pIsWN
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Dare one call it treason?
by LAWRENCE SELLIN, PHD
July 18, 2014
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see - Ayn Rand
Many Americans believe that the US Government, the Democrat and Republican Parties and the media are deliberately misleading the American people, hiding the most heinous fraud and Constitutional crisis in the history of the United States.
Individuals at the highest levels of the federal government may have aided and abetted a deception, which included willful ignorance, misinformation, false interpretations of the Constitution, outright lies and the creation of fraudulent documents and computer records to protect an ineligible, ill-prepared and unworthy candidate for the office of President of the United States.
In the age of Obama we have witnessed the complete metamorphosis of the media, no longer objective journalists, but partisan liberal activists, who control, manipulate, even create news to support a left-wing political agenda.
On April 27, 2011, Barack Obama presented as his official birth certificate a digital image so riddled with anomalies that only counterfeiters or the complicit could vouch for its authenticity.
Evidence has been reported claiming that Barack Obama has been using a fraudulent Connecticut Social Security Number (SSN) since at least 1986. That number, 042-68-4425, issued in 1977, was set aside exclusively for Connecticut residents, a state in which he never lived nor did any member of his immediate family. In addition, SSN Verifier Plus showed the birth year 1890 linked to that number. Because SSNs are not re-issued, multiple birth dates for one card suggest a stolen number.
The data and documents associated with Obama's Selective Service registration also contain inconsistencies. Most noticeably, Obama's registration card has a two digit year ‘80" on the postal stamp, unlike the four digit year stamp "1980" found on all other registration cards completed at the same time in Hawaii and other states. It appears that a 2008 postal stamp was cut, the 08 inverted and reinserted into the stamp to mimic a 1980 registration. Interestingly, Obama's SSN 042-68-4425 appears on his 1980 Selective Service registration, which is six years before that number can be found in personal background databases.
I believe that Barack Obama did not register with the Selective Service in 1980 because he was attending Occidental College in a foreign student status and in 1981 traveled to Pakistan using an Indonesian passport. According to the law, failure to register with the Selective Service would forever prevent Obama from working in the executive branch of the US government.
One could readily conclude that Obama lied and flouted the law to get elected. It should come as no surprise then, that he would lie and flout the law to implement his policies.
I believe Obama succeeded in 2008 because the Republicans struck a deal with the Democrats not to question Obama's eligibility for office and his personal history. Furthermore, the liberal media took radical steps to protect their favored candidate, killing negative stories about Obama and even threatening to accuse his opponents of racism in order to make them "sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction."
In addition to the apparent creation of fraudulent documents and the doctoring of computer records by Obama supporters, then Democratic National Chair Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) prepared two different Certifications of Nomination, an action unprecedented in US history, presumably to hide Obama's ineligibility for office.
And so committed has the liberal media been to protect their investment in Obama, they continue to dispense with gusto misinformation, disinformation or no information.
The conspiracy of silence continues out of complicity or fear. The political-media establishment realizes that if the truth is told about Barack Obama the system from which they accrue enormous personal power and profit will collapse.
Republicans will oppose Obama, but they will not expose him because, by doing so, it will reveal their own dereliction of duty. Many believe, and with reasonable cause, that all the hearings and law suits conducted by the Republicans are a subterfuge meant to run out the clock.
It doesn't matter if Obama thinks he is right or if he thinks he is being virtuous. The policies he is pursuing are destroying the country. Even if one rejects treachery or treason as motives, the unrealistic and impractical far-left liberalism promoted by Obama and his acolytes is an inevitable march from altruistic dreams to coercion, oppression and, ultimately, failure.
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality - Ayn Rand
Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org...#ixzz37p7pIsWN
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
- Guest032516
- 07-18-2014, 08:55 AM
Stop posting thread titles in ALL CAPS.
I reflexively ignore them because I think they are Whirlagay threads.
I reflexively ignore them because I think they are Whirlagay threads.
- CuteOldGuy
- 07-19-2014, 11:48 PM
Great column, Iffy!
+1
+1
- Yssup Rider
- 07-20-2014, 08:36 AM
I don't know about Cheney, but it's obvious that Whir-LIE-turd believes his.