Cheney Keeps Up The Assault On Obama’s Bow
Here’s the latest from Dick Cheney, in which he struggles to breathe life into the flagging attack on Obama’s bow, something even rank-and-file Republicans have dismissed:
“Here’s a guy without much experience, who campaigned against much of what we put in place … and who now travels around the world apologizing,” Cheney said. “I think our adversaries — especially when that’s preceded by a deep bow … — see that as a sign of weakness.”
It’s getting boring to have to repeat this: Cheney was a high-level staffer for Donald Rumsfeld under President Nixon, who bowed very deeply. Cheney was Defense Secretary for President George H.W. Bush, who also bowed very deeply.
What’s more, even a majority of Republicans has no problem with Obama’s bowing.
Let’s put aside the spectacle here, the sight of Cheney’s cynicism and mendacity getting eclipsed by the comedy and buffoonery on display. On another level, something more interesting is going on. The efforts to keep the flagging “bow” meme alive are a proxy for something larger: The rearguard attempt to make the case that Obama is failing the “American exceptionalism” test.
In this sense, Cheney’s increasing marginalization, and the comic aura it has taken on, reflect how rapidly the world is changing, how much the electorate’s rejection of the Bush-Cheney worldview has shifted the landscape of national security politics, and the degree to which attacks rooted in American exceptionalism have mostly lost their traction and resonance.
******************************************
Update: I’ve got a discussion group underway at WashingtonPost.com on a topic dear to many of you: Is the media granting Cheney too much airtime? Post your views on this topic at WaPo.com!
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
Funny how the “liberal media” camps out on Cheney’s street to get a quote from the king of liberal ideas himself, Dick Cheney. I don’t think Cheney’s quotes will hurt President Obama but it shows how Republicans don’t respect the office of the presidency or the idea of supporting a war president when it is not a Republican office. I remember it was a big Beltway scandal when Al Gore criticized the Iraq War at a small event. How dare he question a Republican president? He surely was not invited on all the news programs to discuss his ideas.
So “Dick” is trying to deflect attention away from he and Rumsfeld who let OSAMA BIN LADEN get away ON PURPOSE??
WELL, “Dick”, you and LIZ may get on that plane to the Hague early!!!
Gosh Greg, nothing on the Politico interview with Cheney and their lack of asking the hard questions?
“But Cheney rejected any suggestion that Obama had to decide on a new strategy for Afghanistan because the one employed by the previous administration failed.
Cheney was asked if he thinks the Bush administration bears any responsibility for the disintegration of Afghanistan because of the attention and resources that were diverted to Iraq. “I basically don’t,” he replied without elaborating.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/30024.html
Again, from “emptywheel”, a critique of the interview.
“Don’t you think you’d ask him, explicitly, why he had defended the decision not to send US troops after Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora when it was clear that the decision had allowed bin Laden to escape? “Mr. Cheney,” you might ask, “it has been shown pretty irrefutably that you let OBL get away. Why’d you defend your decision allowing him to escape when you knew it had led to his escape? Why did you ignore Henry Crumpton’s warning–briefed to you and President Bush personally at the end of November 2001–that an escape route to Pakistan was wide open and Afghan troops wouldn’t prevent OBL form escaping through it?”
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/12/01/politicos-vandehei-and-allen-join-the-judy-miller-club-for-cheney-stenographers/
@Greg…Wow I now realize what a difficult job you have!
Alas Palin and Cheney are the only rethug newsmakers. You got grief from some over posting Palin stuff and now from me over Cheney! LOL
Cheney is a loser by definition. If you examine the enemies’(Al Qaeda) strategy it was never to overrun the U.S. or beat us in a military war..they’re too smart for that. It was to “terrorize” us!!!!!
When they see Cheney and his paranoid rants on TV…and believe me they are certainly sophisticated enough to know what is going on in this country politically…they HAVE to be beaming with success.
Was there ever ANYBODY more terrorized than 5 deferment..hide in the basement Cheney. His daughter Liz has more testosterone than this fearful mouse. When Al Qaeda looks at the “Patriot Act” a whole new department called Homeland Security..an economy in shambles..a progressive President ready to commit even more lives and treasure to a failed war…they know they are WINNING!!!
Cheney is the living embodiment of the Al Qaeda success. He is a totally terrorized, paranoid man.
Score One for the bad guys!!!
lmsinca, I saw all that stuff. mulling what to do….
and this post links to the Politico interview, by the way.
“Funny how the “liberal media” camps out on Cheney’s street to get a quote from the king of liberal ideas himself, Dick Cheney. ”
Yeah. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Where were they when the trucks from the shredders pulled up at Blair House every weekend in April?
April ‘08, shoulda said.
Cheney the freak show is at it again I see.
What does Cheney have on the media that he can manipulate it like he does?
I wish I knew.
Okay Greg, I didn’t click on all the links, I guess I’m tired of the bow. I’ll look forward to your take on the Politico piece.
Cheney is coming off more desperate to me everyday, and his popularity is sinking because of it, whatever popularity he had that is.
I’m so sick of this defeated, old man denigrating this President. This has worn thin for me. This literally weak hearted, spineless, draft dodging chickin hawk talks a good game but, clearly his problem is that the President is likely everything Cheney wishes he were. Tall, brilliant, and loved by many here at home and abroad. For someone to trash this President while we’re at war and, constantly trashed anyone who did this to Bush is hypocricy. I have nothing but contempt for this sniveling little man with the broken heart and weak spine. Do us a favor Dick, go hunting again and take that Tonya Harding lookalike daughter of yours with you.
“. For someone to trash this President while we’re at war and, constantly trashed anyone who did this to Bush is hypocricy. I”
Well you got that. Never has an administration made such a big damn deal out of not criticizing a president when the country is at war as the Bush Administration did.
“In this sense, Cheney’s increasing marginalization, and the comic aura it has taken on, reflect how rapidly the world is changing, how much the electorate’s rejection of the Bush-Cheney worldview has shifted the landscape of national security politics, and the degree to which attacks rooted in American exceptionalism have entirely lost their traction and resonance.”
Greg, if that is true, then why is this story worthy of a post?
@Greg & Others…OT but I’m curious about tonight’s speech and if anyone thinks there is an effect on the HCR debate.
Obviously Afghanistan/National Security & Cheney are sucking all the oxygen out of media coverage right now…is that a good thing?
Does it give Reid time & space to maneauver a little behind the scenes. It seems as if all the news the past couple of days on HCR has been positive.
Perhaps working quietly out of the glare of the spotlight is actually a good thing.
The main reason Obama looks weak is because he’s doing exactly what Cheney wants him to do.
In other news – Media outlets and ’serious’ people in DC continue to listen to liar, distortionist, and wildly incompetent former American leader Dick Cheney. Tough questions were not asked, but Cheney offered his opinions and they were duly placed on banners all across the internet and cable news.*
*President Obama supports America’s children, calling for a reinvestment in our future and more people to get into science and engineering as our nation continues to lose its technological edge. His comments will be placed immediately into archives and available only with research grant from Unserious Outsider.
@commonbond…
“The main reason Obama looks weak is because he’s doing exactly what Cheney wants him to do.”
And alas it’s also exactly what the terrorists want him to do!!!
This is OT but I caught this at thinkprogress, Fox is distorting the positive reports on HCR from the CBO. Not a surprise but I keep wondering who gets their talking points from whom, Fox from Repubs or vice versa?
“This morning, Fox News ran a chyron alleging that the new Congressional Budget Office report on premiums concluded that the Senate health care bill won’t lower health care premiums:
The report actually concluded the opposite — that, on average, premiums would substantially decrease for the majority of Americans purchasing coverage in the individual market and maintain or lower premiums in the small and large employer markets. In fact, almost all of the leads in today’s newspapers get it right:”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/01/fox-news-chyron-cbo/
Paul W. If your remarks weren’t so accurate they’d be funny. In this case however the truth hurts.
@lmsinca: Thanks for saying you missed me! _ I missed The Plum Line and you as well (Greg – not so much). I’ve been on a road trip back to visit my better half’s family for Thanksgiving. Back at work now – lucky me. I will have to catch up on all of the politics which I have studiously avoided for the entire week and figure out my typical contrarian angle. I’ll start by saying that I loave the Cheneys and the American exceptionalism argument still resonates with many.
All, I have a discussion group underway at WashingtonPost.com on a topic dear to many of you: Is the media granting Cheney too much airtime?
Check it out here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/groups/index.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aa70e3396-6663-4a8d-ba19-e44939d3c44fForum%3a2a26078c-a45a-4f25-b08e-503aa2eea4e0Discussion%3acec0dec3-80ce-470a-834e-4ddfed1dc7c4
Post your views at WaPo.com, where lots of editors and reporters will see them! But be sure to come back here quickly.
Cheney is a D-I-C-K! Shame on any media that would help such a despicable ingrate who wouldn’t even serve his own nation and now delusionally thinks he speaks for our soldiers.
What a piece of panty waste he be, that Cheney! -Kevo
“Perhaps working quietly out of the glare of the spotlight is actually a good thing.”
Easy answer – yes. Hard answer is – only if you know what you are doing. And because much of the work by the WH, abroad and at home, is below the radar the current media will do a woeful job of informing us about the efficacy of the Obama WH. If they were to dig deeper than offhand anonymous comments and reporting, word for word, opposition opinions as fact then we would have more articles like David Brooks today (which I really liked) and less fluff like Politico’s “interview”.
I hope the general public realizes that the media is projecting onto Obama rather than reporting on him, as in the 2008 campaign only upon the final moments of battle do we find out all the work and thought that brought about a victory (or loss, I suppose). Like delegate counts in the primaries, or the advances made in EVERY demographic going from 2004 to 2008.
Andrew Sullivan has a piece up now on Cheney that is pretty good.
I’d like to see Obama take one of his Barackarate chops at Cheney the freak tonight along the lines of “As I campaigned on, I will NOT get distracted, I will not fail you like the previous administration and I will ensure you have what it takes to capture or kill those that attacked us quickly and get you back to your loved ones once the job is done. This, is my promise to you as your CIC.”
sbj, was that typo loathe or love? If it’s love we are at serious contentious ends of the spectrum here.
ICYMI: I have a discussion group underway at WashingtonPost.com on a topic dear to many of you: Is the media granting Cheney too much airtime?
Check it out here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/groups/index.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aa70e3396-6663-4a8d-ba19-e44939d3c44fForum%3a2a26078c-a45a-4f25-b08e-503aa2eea4e0Discussion%3acec0dec3-80ce-470a-834e-4ddfed1dc7c4
Post your views at WaPo.com, where lots of editors and reporters will see them! But be sure to come back here quickly.
Perhaps you can’t do this without some tut tutting by the Villagers: but Politico strikes me as a “rag” which is desperately trying to replace Drudge as the agenda setting spin sheet in Washington. Allen, Van den Hei and Harris have to work hard to make the financials work; and they have dumbed down content. You rarely see hard reporting. Halperin should join them so that they can continue to make news in addition to suborning it.
@lmsinca: “The new Congressional Budget Office report on premiums concluded that the Senate health care bill won’t lower health care premiums.”
I think if you’ll review the NY Times link Greg provides this is literally true.
“The budget office compared estimates of premiums in 2016 under the new legislation and under current law. In either case, after seven years of inflation, premiums would be substantially higher than they are today.”
Premiums won’t be lowered, but the subsidies will make insurance more affordable for 18 million of 32 million individually insured. The other 14 million – the ones who won’t be eligible for subsidies (I’m thinking that includes you?) – will see an increase in premiums.
“The average premium per person in the individual insurance market would be 10 percent to 13 percent higher than under current law.”
But you will get more services.
Since I have a Cadillac plan – my premiums will go up. And my taxes. Large employer premiums would go up ever so slightly. Small employer premiums would be mostly unchanged.
Not too many things funnier than a bunch of liberal fanatics fulminating about what a cowardly, draft-dodging chickenhawk Dick Cheney is — liberals fanatics who worship at the altar of notable war heros Obama and Biden.
LOLOL
Hey Greg, I saw your discussion at WaPo but couldn’t get the link to the discussions to work, I even registered and everything. Oh well, you raise a lot of interesting questions.
. . . and Bill Clinton — wouldn’t want to forget him.
@Mike from Arlington…Thanks for the link to the Sullivan piece. It was well written and very accurate.
I’m beginning to wonder if Sullivan’s thoughts are not beginning to be represented as the CW. With Cheney’s poll numbers being so pathetic in his own party..it appears the little weasel has been exposed as a mistaken loser and the worst thing the Bush Administration foisted on this nation.
sbj, Here’s some other analysis of the CBO findings.
– “As the Senate opened debate Monday on a landmark plan to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, congressional budget analysts said the measure would leave premiums unchanged or slightly lower for the vast majority of Americans, contradicting assertions by the insurance industry that the average family’s coverage would rise by thousands of dollars if the proposal became law.” [WP, 11/30/2009]
– “The Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the Senate health bill could significantly reduce costs for many people who buy health insurance on their own…” [NYT, 11/30/2009]
– “On average, 134 million Americans insured through large employers will see no rise in premiums and may pay 3 percent less than they would if Congress failed to pass a health-care overhaul plan, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said yesterday. Subsidies also will lower costs as much as 59 percent for 18 million people buying their own insurance.” [Bloomberg, 12/1/2009]“
QB…glad to have you back. We need some comic relief here. As always you go Pee Wee Herman on us and say…”I know you are but what am I?”
Try defending Cheney on the merits of his deeds and statements. Your attempts to distract and obfuscate by continually bringing up people you dislike are thoughtless prattle.
lmsinca, apologies. lemme try to see what’s going on.
“DNC: John McCain’s Hypocrisy Highlights Republican Hollowness”
“Jim Manley, senior spokesman to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, takes a shot at John McCain’s proposed amendment to the health care reform bill:
The self-described foe of all earmarks is with one single amendment providing a big fat wet kiss for his friends in the insurance industry. All at the expense of millions of senior “
Greg, looks like it’s working now thanks.
Link to TPM McCain article.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/reid-spokesman-mccain-amendment-a-big-fat-wet-kiss-to-the-insurance-industry.php?ref=fpblg
@lmsinca: I don’t think that any of those comments are contradictory.
“The Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the Senate health bill could significantly reduce costs for many people who buy health insurance on their own.”
True, 18 million will receive subsidies that will lower their costs – but the premiums will not be lowered. And the other 14 million will see their costs go up.
“congressional budget analysts said the measure would leave premiums unchanged or slightly lower for the vast majority of Americans.”
That’s one of my fundamental criticisms of this entire effort right there. Health care reform was supposed to lower health care costs – it’s not doing that.
And yes, I love Dick Cheney – mostly because he is like catnip to Plum Line readers.
The link works fine but how do you navigate to those discussion groups from the WaPo homepage?
It’s probably obvious but I’m not finding it.
nvm…I found it.
To repeat myself:
Republican owned Politico.com is part of the right wing’s dominance of corporate media. Politico.com’s entire reason for existing is to push Republican talking points.
Politico.com was entirely propped up by a Republican sugar-daddy who was looking for political power.
And again, has Politico.com made money yet? Last I read it was still losing money. Politico.com is just a better financed Moonie Washington Times.
sbj
My point in linking to the Fox news piece was that they only say “Congressional Budget Office report on premiums concluded that the Senate health care bill won’t lower health care premiums” which is not entirely accurate.
You and I could go back and forth all day, as we have before, on whether it is enough or not, but no one can truthfully say what they are claiming.
I don’t consider the Cheneys catnip, but I do think they are a distraction in large part, which may not be a bad thing. While all of us worry and argue over Cheney/Palin/Beck/Bachman, Obama is working under the radar, which is fine by me.
@SBJ…Palin/Bachmann/Beck are catnip. Cheney is a traitor whose very actions have been part of the terrorist wins. They wanted to terrorize us and they’ve obviously succeeded with the cowardly Cheney who then has the temerity to accuse a sitting President of treason on the very day a serious National Defense issue is scheduled to be addressed.
“To repeat myself:”
Which is all you do.
@lmsinca: We certainly do disagree that what FNC said there is not accurate.
“Obama is working under the radar.”
Good Lord I hope so! What I CAN see on the radar doesn’t look too good to me.
Do you think that his Presidency has so far been a success? Is it what you expected? Is it what you hoped for? I can’t imagine that it is…
@ruk: You have to come better than that!
“Your attempts to distract and obfuscate by continually bringing up people you dislike are thoughtless prattle.”
Sorry to distract you from your continual thoughtless prattle about the people you hate by bringing up irrelevant people . . . like Obama and Biden. They aren’t people I dislike; they are people who illustrate your hypocrisy.
I wouldn’t insult Pee Wee Herman by comparing your discourse to his.
Another angle on Cheney and the media: GOPers hate it too!
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/republicans-privately-frustrated-with-dick-cheneys-ability-to-win-caricature-media-attention/
“quarterback”, your hypocrisy was best illustrated when you called some commenters ‘traitors’ and yet your best buddy is a militant traitor who wants to cut America up into little pieces just like the terrorists want.
You are a perfect illustration of the worst of the right wing: Right wingers who hate America, and even more, right wingers who hate democracy.
sbj
“Do you think that his Presidency has so far been a success? Is it what you expected?”
I would say that a little over 10 months in is a bit early to call it successful or not, is it what I expected, pretty much. He was handed a Presidential desk littered with problems and he has been working his way through them, some in ways I approve of and others I’m not crazy about. But while Cheney was moaning about the “bow” he managed to get some committments from China for emmissions reductions, while others were worring about whether the Ft. Hood shooting should be characterized as “terrorism” or not, Homeland Security was revamping how we deport illegal criminals rather than families, and while the rest of us were worrying about the influence of corporate money in the HCR and financial regulation debate, the Administration was setting up entirely new rules for lobbyists.
I believe he’s in this for the long haul more than immediate gratification and I take him at his word that he’s just getting started and he’s not a bit tired.
I won’t even bother asking what you are talking about Reefer, or what your point is supposed to be, since you never have a clue anyway.
You hate America. You are poison within it. You are actively working to undermine and destroy it. Like your Messiah President, and the in-house Canadian enemy of America and official Party theorist who tells you what to think, you want this country to be just another province in a fanciful global “community” run by Eurosocialist technocrats and third world thugs, all of whom hate this country as you do.
qb, since you support the use of torture as a tool of the state the one who hates the USA is you.
“@ruk: You have to come better than that!”
Actually, no he isn’t. He routinely calls conservatives and Republicans traitors, etc. Per Ruk, any Republican who disagress with him and wasn’t in the military is a traitor and chickenhawk.
oddball,
False premise, and non sequitur. Other than that, brilliant.
Don’t worry, if your life is the only one at stake, I would never rough up a terrorist to save you, since you would want it that way.
“quarterback”, how much do your corporate-masters pay you to spam?
Did they pay you for the Holidays you took off?
What’s it cost to get you to sell out America?
I’m betting your cheap. Clearly your unqualified to do anything other than spin lies.
“quarterback” is a perfect right-wing caricature to defend the Republican ****** Cheney: He supports Communist Chinese torture, has no loyalty to our American Constitution, and he lives in a fantasy world that rejects objective evidence and instead simply pushes lies.
quarterback the teabagger,
Precisely who are the, “liberal fanatics who worship at the altar of notable war heros Obama and Biden?” Can you name a single liberal that has referred to either Obama or Biden as a war hero? I doubt if you can find a single reference of anyone using the term “war hero” toward either man, let alone any “worship” taking place. I see that you are still incapable framing an argument without resorting to hyperbole.
We saw at least seven years of Bush and Cheney posturing themselves as mighty war heros. Remember W’s landing on the U.S.S. Kennedy, avec flight suit, then the speech in front of the “Mission Accomplished” banner? Lots of bellicose bluster, saber rattling, and waving of genitalia from two of the least accomplished warriors in history.
In typical fashion, when confronted with reality, you do not rebut issues, you trot out your straw man argument du jour and proceed to do battle with your preferred phony opponent. You then proclaim yourself the victor of an epic rhetorical struggle. Your tactics are ham fisted, comical, and painfully obvious.
You are a teabagger ignorotamus. Keep it up. Your own posts are self parodies which remain laughably entertaining.
Cheney’s increasing marginalization? Give me a break. If he is so marginalized, why do you devote so much time to him? Is your next piece going to have a sentence which details Palin’s increased marginalization? Cheney has scored multiple points against the “president” on topics such as the closing of Gitmo and his “dithering” on Afghanistan. The dithering charge has been an extremely potent one to the point that the word dithering now appears in virtually every article on the Afghanistan situation. Claiming that Cheney has become increasingly marginalized is nothing short of hilarious.
The Obama Record: Record unemployment, record deficits, no legislative accomplishments.
Now that Obama is sending troops into battle, will the left be calling him a chicken hawk? Yeah, I won’t be holding my breath expecting any sort of consistency in that regard any time soom.
The Obama Record: Record unemployment, record deficits, no legislative accomplishments.
The Republican Record: The 2007 Republican Great Recession, record debt, and an evisceration of core Constitutional protections.
Not to mention the Republican Iraq War Lie, Republican war crimes, and right wing economic frauds that handed China our American manufacturing base along with millions of American jobs.
False premise
Yell and scream all you like about risible legal analyses, at the end of the day your “enhanced interrogations” (did you know the Nazis used the very same expression to describe them?) are torture sessions under an Orwellian euphemism.
Your opinion is worth what it is – sh*t. Those who inflicted this nightmare on our legacy will be known througout the rest of history as the ones who destroyed one of the best legacies ever left by any nation.
In addition to orchestrating the invasion and destruction of a country that did not attack this country, in which 4,367 military members died (number is actually higher but the Pentagon does not include in the death count those soldiers who were injured in Iraq, were evacuated out of Iraq, and died later), 31,572 wounded soldiers maimd for life (number is actually over 50,000), and 1,339,771 Iraqi BABIES, TODDLERS, CHILDREN, WOMEN, OLD PEOPLE, MEN, PETS, ETC.,
Cheney ALSO was conducting a war game exercise with the Air Force of ter-rist flying planes into buildings in this country at the same time that ter-rist were actually flying planes into the WTC.
So he got to watch the show as the ter-rist flew the planes into the WTC. He had parallel chain of command given to him by Bush who was reading “My Pet Goat” to some school children in FL.
Cheney could have had the Air Force shoot down the planes on which the ter-rist were flying to prevent the attacks. He ordered the Air Force to stand down, to which they objected.
Cheney, however, using his parallel chain of command, overrode the Air Force objections to his stand down order, which grounded the USAF during the 9/11 attacks.
I should care what he thinks?
Joe Liebermann,
“Now that Obama is sending troops into battle, will the left be calling him a chicken hawk? ”
Why would they? The “chicken hawk” moniker for both Bush and Cheney has nothing to do with them sending troops into battle. It has to do with the fact that both of them, in their own way, displayed extreme aversion to combat in a war they have both steadfastly supported.
Bush got bored with flying cool jets in the safety of domestic skies during Viet Nam, so he decided he needed to devote all of his time to getting drunk and chasing skirts. Because of the political clout of the Bush clan, he got away with it.
Cheney had 5, count ‘em FIVE, deferments that allowed him to remain safely at home during Viet Nam.
That’s why Bush and Cheney are chicken sh*t chicken hawks.
Methinks thou might be a teabagger, too, ne c’est pas?
What a sad state of affairs is our educational system. And even sadder are the number of people who go through life clueless about the world outside of their front door.
The low information and downright uneducated souls in this country can never understand or appreciate how much respect President Obama garners from people in other countries when he shows knowledge and respect for and of their culture. Bowing is a sign of respect, not a sign of weakness, not something Cheney would understand because he lacks the character to respect others.
President obama has done a lot more to gain trust and respect in Japan than Bush/Cheney ever could.
It would do many of the low-infos and undereducated in this country much good to read about the culture and lives of people in Japan and in other parts of the world.
I know few will make the effort because it is just to painful to clutter the brain with knowledge, especially when Fox tell you everything you need to know.
This is one of the reason that people in India, China, Japan and Thailand are surpassing us educationally.
Sammy @ 3:12 p.m.:
FWIW, your Iraqi casualty numbers are pathetically bogus.
Get a damn education will ya.
“Cheney is a traitor whose very actions have been part of the terrorist wins. They wanted to terrorize us and they’ve obviously succeeded with the cowardly Cheney who then has the temerity to accuse a sitting President of treason on the very day a serious National Defense issue is scheduled to be addressed.”
You just gotta love this site. Where else can you find posts in which a poster slams somebody, in this case Cheney, for supposedly accusing Obama of treason (a nonsense accusation if ever there was one) and then turns right around and calls Cheney himself a traitor? Honestly, it makes it difficult to tell if this site is playing it straight or engaging in parody. Even more hilarious is that the very same person who wrote the above quote also wrote this:
“QB…glad to have you back. We need some comic relief here. As always you go Pee Wee Herman on us and say…’I know you are but what am I?’ ”
I know yhou are but what am I? You mean kind of like what you did with the whole Cheney-traitor thing?
“Cheney is a loser by definition. If you examine the enemies’(Al Qaeda) strategy it was never to overrun the U.S. or beat us in a military war..they’re too smart for that. It was to “terrorize” us!!!!!”
So the al qaeda that is engaging us in military conflicts in two separate nations is not trying to defeat us militarily? That can’t be them. They were too smart to realize that murdering 3000 Americans would provoke a military response. Man, that is some trenchant analysis, rukidding? Cheney is by definition a loser? So it is nothing he did that makes him a loser, he is just inherently one? Again, top-notch analysis.
“Funny how the ‘liberal media’ camps out on Cheney’s street to get a quote from the king of liberal ideas himself, Dick Cheney. I don’t think Cheney’s quotes will hurt President Obama but it shows how Republicans don’t respect the office of the presidency or the idea of supporting a war president when it is not a Republican office”
You are so right. How could anyone think a man who was VP while we were in Afghanistan for 7+ years and was also a former Secretary of Defense might have anything relevant at all to say about the Afghanistan situation?
Republicans don’t respect the office of the presidency when it comes to war? Never mind the fact it is the Republican Party calling for more troops and never mind the fact it is the Democrats who are telling Obama he is making a mistake. And given the vitriol spewed at Bush over Iraq and Afghanistan, it is absolutely mind-boggling that anyone on the left could be hypocritical enough to even level such asinine charges. Which side of the political spectrum engages in anti-war protests again? Furthermore, didn’t the left’s favorite expression used to be “dissent is the highest form of patriotism”? Seems that has been replaced with “dissent was the highest form of patriotism up until January 20, 2009, but now unquestioning ‘respect’ for the office of the presidency is much more cool, and patriotic too”. The above-quoted paragraph almost convinces me that this IS supposed to be some sort of parody.
“Why’d you defend your decision allowing him to escape when you knew it had led to his escape.”
Let Bin Laden escape? You have to be a complete moron and a partisan hack to believe that the Bush administration “let” bin Laden escape. But perhaps the most hilarious part of the above quote is that someone actually cites as their source, I am not kidding, firedoglake. That is hilarious, to say the least. Hey, I heard that there are FEMA concentration camps. You don’t believe me? Check out the Glenn Beck website (actually this is for illustration purposes as Beck has stated unequivocally that he doesn’t believe that nonsense)
“This is OT but I caught this at thinkprogress, Fox is distorting the positive reports on HCR from the CBO. Not a surprise but I keep wondering who gets their talking points from whom, Fox from Repubs or vice versa”
Wrong, yet again. The report on Fox News reported exactly what the CBO concluded: The health care bill will have minimal effect on most premiums and will actually increase the premiums for tens of millions of people. Furthermore the CBO concluded that the only reason premiums would decline for anyone is because of government subsidies. Without those subsidies, almost all premiums increase.
This is the headline for the Fox News report: Senate Health Bill will Increase Premiums for SOME, Report says” (emphasis mine). There is no lying going on here because that is exactly what the CBO has concluded. The Fox News piece also states:
The Senate’s health care reform package would drive up insurance premiums for people not covered through their jobs but taxpayer-footed subsidies would help bring those costs down for some.
Again, this is a faithful reporting of the CBO report. The CBO has stated that the only individuals who will see any signficant savings at all are those who receive government subsidies. Everybody else will see either an increase or their premiums will stay almost exactly the same. This can be read at virtually any news site on the web. “The Hill” headline reads: “CBO:THE SENATE BILL WILL INCREASE PREMIUMS”. Even the CNN headline yesterday stated that premiums would increase. But not surprisingly, since you obviously never leave your left-wing echochamber, you have no idea of what is actually going on. That is evidenced by the fact you quoted firedoglake and thinkprogress. That is like a conservative quoting MichelleMalkin and RedState and expecting everyone to take what he says at face value.
“All, I have a discussion group underway at WashingtonPost.com on a topic dear to many of you: Is the media granting Cheney too much airtime?”
And of course when Jimmy Carter was spouting off every five minutes during the Bush administration and was receiving Peace Prizes for it, I am sure you had a similar piece about him, right? Yeah, sure you did. To claim that a guy who was VP during almost the entirety of the Afghanistan war is somehow getting too much airtime is ludicrous. The only reason you, and your syco…I mean readers, care is because he is criticizing your hero, a man you believe is beyond reproach no matter how bad he screws up.
“Cheney is coming off more desperate to me everyday, and his popularity is sinking because of it, whatever popularity he had that is”
Cheney coming off as more desperate? How exactly is he desperate? Furthermore, replace “Cheney” with “Obama” for the part about declining popularity and you would be far more accurate. Only losers on this site and other left-wing sites deny the fact that Cheney has scored some serious points on Obama. As I pointed out earlier, virtually every article on the subject mentions the word dithering, and a British Cabinet Minister actually used the word and mentioned Cheney when slamming Obama for his weakness and indecision. To claim that Cheney is the desperate one is f’ing hilarious.
“Perhaps you can’t do this without some tut tutting by the Villagers: but Politico strikes me as a “rag” which is desperately trying to replace Drudge as the agenda setting spin sheet in Washington.”
Here let me translate the above quote for the readers here: I don’t like Politico anymore because they have too many pieces that are critical of the present administration. I only like sites that uncritically fawn over my hero.
There you go.
“I’m so sick of this defeated, old man denigrating this President. This has worn thin for me. This literally weak hearted, spineless, draft dodging chickin hawk talks a good game but…”
But of course. Someone, somewhere had to throw in the chicken-hawk charge. Obama is sending more troops into combat. In fact the majority in Afghanistan will have been sent by him. How much military experience does he have again? And remind me, which presidents that conducted major wars had military experience? The United States is a representative democracy with an all-volunteer military, not a fascist state whereby citizenship is somehow linked to military service. The chicken-hawk charge is an absurd one.
You just gotta love how the people on this site think citing other left-wing blogs somehow makes their case stronger. In addition to the idiot who cited firedoglake and thinkprogress, Liam (an idiot of the “highest” order) has copied a headline from Talking Points Memo. Naturally no discussion is engaged in whereby someone can explain how removing Medicare cuts and protecting Medicare Advantage subsidies amounts to the mother of all earmarks.
”
Do you think that his Presidency has so far been a success? Is it what you expected?”
There is absolutely no objective measure whereby this presidency can be called anything but a failure. Double-digit unemployment, record deficits, a foreign policy that has been a complete failure, as the China trip so clearly illustrated. No legislative accomplishments, aside from a stimulus bill that, by the administrations own standards, has been a total failure as it has clearly not kept unemployment under 8%. Even prominent liberals such as Arianna Huffington are writing pieces about Obama that include the phrases “Obama’s Katrina”. You can’t go a day without visiting a left-wing site that tries to tell its readers that things are not really as bad as EVERYONE IS SAYING THEY ARE. Just look at the guys approval ratings. They are abysmal.
“@lmsinca: We certainly do disagree that what FNC said there is not accurate.”
Read the piece and then list the inaccuracies. As the piece states, premiums will go up on certain individuals and they will go down for those receiving subsidies. There are no inaccuracies in that piece, and if there are, I challenge you to list them and show me the evidence. I will now list the headlines for pieces done by a few news organizations to demonstrate that Fox was not the only one sharing the news of premium increases with their readers. I will not be linking them because that will cause this post to be moderated.
1. The Washington Post Capital Briefing:
CBO: Senate health plan will increase some premiums — and expand coverage
2. The Hill: CBO: Senate bill would increase individual insurance premiums
3. The Wall Street Journal: Some Health Premiums to Rise
4. Talking Points memo wrote this about the CBO report: “According to CBO, average premiums in the individual market would increase 10 to 13 percent because of provisions in the Senate health care bill.” And this: …”most people (about 57 percent) would actually find themselves paying significantly less money for insurance, thanks to federal subsidies for low- and middle-class consumers, than they would under current law.”
Even the piece linked by an above poster in an attempt to demonstrate that Fox News was lying about premium increases concedes that premium increases will occur. It also concedes that over 40% of Americans will either see a premium increase or almost no change at all. This is almost exactly what the Fox News piece stated when it reported that premiums would go down for those who received taxpayer-provided subsidies. Evidently those on the left think it is misleading for news agencies to tell people that premiums for almost 20% of insurance holders will go up, in some cases as much as 13% and that an additional 20% would see almost no change. That the Democrats are willing to accept increases in premiums for a fifth of the population in a bill that was designed to lower prices proves they no longer care about the substance of the bill, they merely want to pass a bill they are calling “health care reform” because they believe it will give them some huge political victory.
The Obama Record: Record unemployment, record deficits, no legislative accomplishments.
Gasbag said:
“Precisely who are the, “liberal fanatics who worship at the altar of notable war heros Obama and Biden?” Can you name a single liberal that has referred to either Obama or Biden as a war hero?”
You are monunmentally stupid. You can’t even read.
“I see that you are still incapable framing an argument without resorting to hyperbole.”
LOLOL — Let the readers who want to be entertained search “Gasman” and “hyperbole” — what a riot.
And, please, at least find some new rhetorical cliches. You no longer even manage bufoonish grandiloguence very well.
“Yell and scream all you like about risible legal analyses, at the end of the day your “enhanced interrogations” (did you know the Nazis used the very same expression to describe them?) are torture sessions under an Orwellian euphemism.”
Indeed, grabbing a poor terrorist’s collar or confining him with a harmless insect are “torture.” Says a morally vain coward and America hater like you. All decent people wish that malicious haters like you could be placed outside the curtain of all the protections of which you seek to strip the country. You and your twisted kind will be remembered in history as the people who turned against our country and civilization, perverted our culture and politics, and pushed us down the road to destruction.
I love how qb thinks I’m the moral reprobate for defending the historic norm of the rule of law in the USA while “he” wants us to be torturers, something we’ve never been until his buddies were in office during the last administration.
Isn’t it nice to know a war criminal wannabe thinks I hate America?
If I hate America, so also did George Washington, who deliberately, and specifically forbade his troops from torturing the Hessian mercenaries who had tortured them. Yeah, George was a real reprobate weakling America hater………..
Shove it, you loser.
Joe Leibermann you’ve selected a great name because like your namesake you are an overinflated blowhard short on facts…
You said….”You just gotta love this site. Where else can you find posts in which a poster slams somebody, in this case Cheney, for supposedly accusing Obama of treason (a nonsense accusation if ever there was one)”
In yesterday’s interview with Politico Cheney is quoted as saying in reference to the Obama administration’s decision to try KSM
. “I think it’s likely to give encouragement — aid and comfort — to the enemy.”
Blowhard Leibermann giving aid and comfort to the enemy is treason. Ergo Cheney accused the Obama Administration of treason you idiot!!!!
Of course what the cowardly Cheney truly fears is the revelation of all the torture…but that’s another subject.
“So the al qaeda that is engaging us in military conflicts in two separate nations is not trying to defeat us militarily? “
Where are they engaging us militarily. I have yet to see their navy, their air force, their tanks…are you referring to a criminal conspiracy of less than two dozen hijackers on 9/11 as military engagement? Brilliant bozo!
“Let Bin Laden escape? You have to be a complete moron and a partisan hack to believe that the Bush administration “let” bin Laden escape.”
That is precisely what the Senate investigation uncovered. It was Cheney who refused to back the military when they requested more troops at Tora Bora as well as making sure OBL’s escape routes were blocked with additional troops. But I know…you…a bag of hot air have far more credibility than the U.S. Senate!
Windbag you cannot face the obvious. YOU LOST THE ELECTION! BUSH/CHENEY FAILED TO WIN YOUR WARS. WE WERE ATTACKED ON 9/11 DURING THE BUSH/CHENEY ADMINISTRATION. SPIN THOSE FACTS AND WHILE YOU’RE AT IT SIT ON IT AND SPIN SOME MORE YOU RIGHT WING HACK!!!
“President obama has done a lot more to gain trust and respect in Japan than Bush/Cheney ever could.”
And exactly what evidence do you have for that statement? The above sentence is the MO of Obama supporters. They claim that Obama has done more to gain the respect of the [insert country here] than Bush/Cheney ever did, yet when you ask them to provide one single accomplishment, one iota of evidence such as a commitment to do something the US wants, they can’t point to anything. Obama’s first trip to Europe is the perfect example. We were told repeatedly that the trip was a smashing success, but when Obamabots were asked to tell us why it was such a success, there answer was something like this: “because they like us more”. The fact that Obama was rebuffed on his requests for greater stimulus spending and increased troop commitments in Afghanistan? Who cares about that when you can mention touchy-feely **** about how people like us.
By all accounts the China trip was an absolute disaster, yet when you talk to the Obamabots, what do they say? They again mention how China respects us more, never mind that there is absolutely no tangible evidence of that fact and there are no commitments from the Chinese on any of the topics Obama discussed. The same can be said of Japan. I challenge one person here to demonstrate to me how Obama has made the US more respected in Japan now than we were under the Bush adminstration.
This administration’s foreign policy has been an absolute blunder-fest, and as the former head of the Council on Foreign Relations, Leslie Gelb, stated in a piece entitled “Amateur Hour at the White House”, Obama has actually made things worse everywhere he has gone. Newsweek, the most liberal newsmagazine in the US, wrote this about Obama’s foreign policy: “Well, not only are things not getting fixed, they may be getting more broken.”
Whether it be the Iranians building more nuclear plants, the Israelis building more settlements, the British Defense Secretary insulting Obama for his weakness, Hu Jintao making absolutely no concessions to Obama(some are even comparing this to the first Kennedy-Kruschev meeting), refusals of EU nations to spend more money or send more troops to Afghanistan, Obama’s blundering on Honduras,his very public indecisiveness, much to the chagrin of our NATO allies, on Afghanistan, the list goes on and on. Obamabots can point to no foreign policy successes from this adminstration, and when pressed, all they can do is mention insignificant speeches he gave in foreign countries and spout vague platitudes about how we are more liked. His foreign policy has been just like every other aspect of his presidency, a complete and utter disaster. Unless of course you think 17.6% real unemployment, record deficits, record foreclosures, etc. are measures of success. The president has accomplished nothing and he has made us a laughingstock on the world stage. After only ten months there are already growing whispers of him being the worst president of all-time, and his sub-50 approval ratings in about seven polls show that the American public has already tired of his incompetence.
There is a reason Nikolas Sarkozy mocked Obama months ago and told him to start living in the real world.
PS How much do you want to bet that the very same people who have been saying for months that we should be leaving Afghanistan will state, after Obama’s speech, that we need to stay there. How many Obamabots will use the term “game-changer” to describe a speech that will change nothing? Obama gives so many prime-time addresses because his meaningless speeches(quick someone tell me what we have gained from the Cairo speech) are the only “accomplishments” his pathetic worhippers can point to.
The Obama Record: Record unemployment, record deficits, no legislative accomplishments.
Clearly right winger “quarterback” and “Joe Lie” have NO loyalty to America or American ideals.
But neither does their war criminal leader Republican Cheney.
Right wing authoritarian followers unthinkingly do exactly what their authoritarian leaders dictate, even if it involves torture and the betrayal of their country.
By all accounts the China trip was an absolute disaster
For links to six examples of how the White House Press Corps manufactured a failed China visit that didn’t happen, go here.
Teabagger quarterback,
In your continued defense of torture, you place yourself on the same side of the fence as some very most unsavory characters in the history of mankind – Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot – and on the opposite side of some of our greatest patriots and legal minds.
For one, how about George Washington:
“Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause… for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.”
So said George Washington, at a time when foreign troops were on our soil, at a time when our national peril was far greater than that faced today. Notice, he didn’t just oppose it, he said that U.S. troops who engage in torture should themselves face the death penalty. Maybe you think Washington was weak on national defense, or maybe he was a “morally vain coward and America hater,” or maybe you think he was just a liberal wimp.
As for your statement: “You and your twisted kind will be remembered in history as the people who turned against our country and civilization, perverted our culture and politics, and pushed us down the road to destruction,” I’d be willing to bet large sums of money that if it came to a vote by regulars on this site, you would be the most likely person deserving of such an admonition.