Sooner Be Blue

Mostly politics, a few current events, a squirt of seltzer down yer pants .. a little blog for my rambles and rants.

2008/3/21

And then he went fishing...

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@ 07:32 AM (19 months, 26 days ago)
 
The audacity of Dick Cheney never ceases to amaze me.
 
The other morning, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, ABC’s Good Morning America aired an interview with Cheney on the war. During the segment, Cheney flatly told White House correspondent Martha Raddatz that he doesn’t care about the American public’s views on the war:
 
CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.
 
RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting. They’re looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.
 
CHENEY: So? <sinister smirk>
 
RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think?
 
CHENEY: No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls..........
 
“Fluctuations in public opinion polls” my aunt fanny…it's been a pretty consistent drumbeat over the last 2-3 years that two-thirds of Americans think this war has been a colossal failure.
 
Cheney has won elections by talking about protecting life, but when a reporter asks him about the soldiers who have given their lives to the war he helped start, he barely bats an eye. “So?” he says.
 
Let us not forget that Cheney was deferred from military service five times during Vietnam.
 
Cheney doesn't even try to hide that he doesn’t give a flying fig what we the people think.
 
Maybe because his Halliburton stock is up over 3000 percent since he lied us into that war? Cheney and the Corporate Elite War Profiteers are now richer than ever.
 
Words can’t begin to describe my contempt for the man. Some people compare him to Dan Quayle, as being one of the worst VP's we've ever had. I don't agree, Quayle was not very bright, but he wasn't evil.
 
Anyway...Cheney went on to say:
 
"Think about what would have happened if Abraham Lincoln had paid attention to polls, if they had had polls during the Civil War. He never would have succeeded if he hadn’t had a clear objective, a vision for where he wanted to go, and he was willing to withstand the slings and arrows of the political wars in order to get there."
 
This is so infuriating I’m not sure where to start. Comparing himself and George Bush to Abraham Lincoln makes my skin crawl.
 
This Administration has been utterly incompetent in Iraq, everyone says so. And there is no comparison to the Civil War. The two wars have absolutely nothing in common strategically, tactically, culturally, politically...any way you can think of.
 
You wouldn't think Cheney would draw our attention to Lincoln having a clear objective in the Civil War when this White House has NEVER had a clear objective in Iraq. NEVER had a clear vision. They've flip-flopped so many times about why we're there and what we're trying to accomplish.
 
Of course, he couldn't tell Martha Raddatz the truth---that the invasion and occupation of Iraq were carried out primarily to establish permanent military bases so we could squat over all that lovely oil.
 
Oh yes, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion he went fishing... on a boat owned by the Sultan of Oman.

2008/3/18

It is time for this madness to end

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@ 09:37 AM (19 months, 29 days ago)
 
We've spent five years and over a trillion dollars for this war, and we still have bombings within secured areas.
 
Right when Dick Cheney and John McCain were over there cheerleading...trying to draw attention to successes in Iraq....
 
From nytimes.com, March 18, 2008: BAGHDAD — A bombing on Monday evening killed 43 people near the Imam Hussein shrine in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, penetrating one of the most secure perimeters in Iraq. [..]"
 
http://tinyurl.com/343cyo
 
Then on the same day:
 
Two US soldiers were killed Monday north of Baghdad when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
 
And another soldier died last Saturday from small arms fire during combat operations. 19 y/o kid.
 
I already wrote about the five US soldiers in Baghdad who were killed by a suicide bomber while they were on foot patrol. One week ago.
 
But Dick Cheney smiled pretty for the cameras and said the invasion of Iraq was a "successful endeavor...if you look back on those five years it has been a difficult, challenging but nonetheless successful endeavor ... and it has been well worth the effort."
 
http://tinyurl.com/yolmnk
 
Successful endeavor? ... well worth the effort? For whom? Cheney's corporate friends? Blackwater, etc.?
 
Cheney thinks this is progress:
 
From Reuters: "Five years after the United States led an invasion of Iraq, millions of people there are still deprived of clean water and medical care, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday.
 
...Better security in some parts of Iraq must not distract attention from the continuing plight of millions of people who have essentially been left to their own devices," [..]"
 
http://tinyurl.com/yoxy2j
 
Iraqis make $5 a day, and a third of their monthly budget goes just for water.
 
And those millions of people who have been left to their own devices are children and women...elderly and disabled people.
 
While the Iraqi government wallows in oil money, we the US taxpayers continue to pour billions into the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraqis have a budget surplus. We have a budget deficit. Now, tell me, who should be paying?
 
The Iraqis haven't used the gains in security to try to strengthen their government. All they can do is argue about how to spend money....which tribe should get what. And more violence by the day....
 
And yet, the White House and John McCain are selling the 'surge' as a victory.
 
Bush refuses to take any further responsibility for this mess...he's just waiting until he can hand it to the next president.
 
Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to find a spine...again. The Democratic Party candidates (Netroots Caucus) for the US Congress have put together a plan to end the war in Iraq. A plan they have pledged to campaign on and support once elected.
 
http://responsibleplan.com/
 
The plan is being endorsed by people who are for Obama and people who are for Clinton...and everyone in between who's in favor of stopping the war.
 
We're nearing 4,000 US dead, well over 50,000 US wounded, and what could be 1 million dead and wounded Iraqis.
 
The total cost of the war will be more than $3 Trillion taxpayer dollars. It could well be worse. This for a war we were assured wouldn't cost more than $100 Billion, tops, and most of that would come back to us through oil taken from Iraq.
 
It is time for this to end.
 
Ah well...what with our economy crashing, maybe it can't go on much longer anyway.
 

2007/3/2

But it's okay to kick sand if you're a Republican

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@ 07:22 AM (32 months, 21 days ago)

At the very beginning of the Plame leak investigation, leading prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald said something to the effect that it's difficult to get to the truth when someone is kicking sand in the umpire's face. He was talking about Libby.
 
In his closing arguments the other day Fitzgerald said Libby "stole the truth from the justice system."
 
Ah, but the truth is still out there .. waiting to be found. Let's just hope the trail has not gone cold. We do know that Fitzgerald is a little bulldog and holds on 'til the last dog dies. He goes after the underlings first, convicts them, and then gets them to 'flip' when they face a looong prison sentence.
 
There is no doubt -- in my mind at least -- that that's exactly what he intends to do in this case. After all, he didn't go after one of the most powerful men in Washington just to get a little ol' cut-and-dried perjury and obstruction conviction. No, he's after bigger game.
 
Of course, where the Fitzgerald investigation is taking us is anybody's guess .. but there is nothing to stop me from daydreaming that Cheney gets caught. That may be a stretch .. although, we doesn't know what Fitz knows.
 
Cheney may be nervous about the verdict .. when the jury went to deliberate he did take off and fly all over the world. Or, maybe he's trying to deflect attention from the trial .. the press would pay more attention to who the VP is visiting.
 
And while we're waiting for the verdict in the Libby trial, let's remember how the Righties poopooed the importance of the entire Plame-Wilson affair from day one.
 
When it became clear that all the prosecutor was going to get out of the case was perjury and obstruction of justice -- rather than for the more serious crime (sabotage? treason?) of leaking Plame's name -- some Righties began hooting about it being no big deal.
 
I guess lying to a prosecutor just isn't that big a deal in the conservative world.
 
But, let's remember what some of those same Righties were saying about a different perjury case -- when the target was not Dick Cheney's top aide -- but President Clinton, who was accused of lying about something, shall we say, a little less earth-shaking.
 
Here are some choice examples of how some conservatives flip-flop on perjury:
 
GOP Rep. Lindsey Graham (now Senator) on Clinton, 1998: "I believe it is a crime --it's a high crime that should subject any president for removal." Graham also served as one of the GOP's managers of the impeachment case.
 
...and on Libby, 2006: "When it came to the grand jury, he gave false testimony allegedly about his interaction. But the underlying charge that started this investigation never materialized. So you have to put it in that perspective...It's a bad story but it's a different story than the way it started."
 
Then Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes said about Clinton, 1998: "It's going to be hard not to impeach the president for prejury."
 
...and on Libby, 2006: "Fitzgerald should terminate his probe immediately. A correction--perhaps the longest and most overdue in the history of journalism--is in order."
 
GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, on Clinton, 1998: "Something needs to be said that is a clear message that our rule of law is intact and the standards for perjury and obstruction of justice are not gray."
 
...and on Libby, 2005: "I certainly hope that, if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollar."
 
GOP Sen. Don Nickles on Clinton, 1998: "In my opinion, President Clinton is guilty of perjury. He is guilty of obstruction of justice."
 
Nickles now serves on the Libby Defense Board.
 
BTW, speaking of Clinton's troubles -- let us not forget that even in the wake of the impeachment, his approval rating jumped to 73 percent .. not only an all-time high for Clinton, it also beat the highest approval rating President Ronald Reagan ever had.
 
George W, Bush would kill for an approval rating that high .. maybe then his daddy would stop crying in public.
 
Now back to hypocrite Righties. Let's see .. lying about an extramarital affair -- impeachable. Outing a CIA agent for political reasons -- no big deal.
 
It's kind of silly when you compare lying about a consensual BJ to lying about a national security issue.
 
When Plame was exposed, it ruined the entire overseas operation run out of "Brewster-Jennings" .. a "consulting company" that was really a CIA front. All the people she dealt with, all her overseas contacts, were immediately put in danger. And we lost a big chunk of our ability to detect WMD dangers to the US. And the Vice President of the United States had a hand in it .. I know it in my bones.
 
I get so tired of Righties arguing that there can't be an underlying crime because Plame was not a covert agent. OK .. if she *were* a covert agent, Rightie logic says there *was* an underlying crime. I guess that's why the DCIA at the time -- think his name was George Tenet -- asked for this inquiry.
 
The director of the CIA asked for this investigation because he KNEW Plame was a covert agent.
 
Period.