Who Is Dick Cheney? Questions and Answers
Who is Dick Cheney? Really?
What is the man doing?
Is he a patriot?
Does he love America?
Does he fear for the safety of its citizens?
Is he a statesman who values what America stands for?
Does he value its history?
Here are some answers:
He is exercising his right to express himself. But given the responsibility inherent in having served high profile terms in government and given the content of his recent pronouncements set against the current instability of the economy at home and abroad he is, in the exercise of that right, practicing nothing less than sedition.
This is a man who arranged to be deferred from military service five times yet has stood behind the crucifying of actual war heroes like Max Cleland and John Kerry and behind the devaluing of all those American soldiers who went into engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan underfunded, under-supplied and under-protected, as well as their care after they had so nobly served.
He has been behind the unprecedented manipulation and gutting of the Constitution of the United States, taking power from The People and placing it squarely in the Oval Office.
He has presided over the spreading of paranoia and fear across the psychological expanse of this country in order to execute his personal agenda of profit.
He has determined that America take a unilateral course of aggressive action in order to secure its position as the world's only super power.
He values his country's history the way Machiavelli valued his. To him, American history is not the story of a people struggling with the responsibility of freedom for all men and women, a concept that is not instinctive in the human animal but one which must be fought for and nurtured with precision and care. For Dick Cheney rather, his behavior both private and public points clearly to a man who has disdain for his country and the people who live in it, who views America as a business which has turned only a paltry profit, hasn't flexed its muscles with sufficient cruelty, has employed too little civil restraint, has given too much freedom to a people who neither deserve nor have the intelligence to understand it.
And even though he clothes himself in the trappings of the patriot, he is in fact the traitor in our midst. His recent media tour, again while within his right, is every bit as disturbing and incendiary as the vitriol that issues forth from the froth-flecked mouths of religious zealots who cry for holy war. His pronouncements about the various dangers to our country -- dangers he and his cadre of neo-con co-conspirators have helped create and/or exacerbate -- are not well-meant warnings but attempts to extend his nefarious influence over the national landscape, to keep people jittery and vulnerable enough to preserve his own relentless agenda of personal profit and perpetual power.
With the help of his ministry of propaganda Fox News and the autonomous bilge pump Limbaugh, Dick Cheney broadcasts his fear mongering messages, fomenting a shadow illegitimate movement more potentially virulent than any media-fanned terror of Swine Flu and exploiting the very fear he helped to create. If not dealt with, if his actions are left unchallenged and unchecked, the potential for civil division and instability is greater than it has been since the days leading up to the Civil War.
The stark contrast between Dick Cheney and President Obama bespeaks the contrast in devotion to this country and its citizens.
President Obama respects and values America and all for which and for whom it stands. Dick Cheney on the other hand, simply does not. That's who Dick Cheney really is.
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Cheney sounds like a water boarded man, a drowning man, indeed!
Who is looking for something to grab.
He is finding a voice he didn't have while in office.
Mccain has more honor that this fellow.
At least McCain knew when he lost, and moved on
Cheney is not in power and doesn't even know it!
President Obama, is president, which means he is in charge,
Which means he decides American foreign policy,
This means everyone else can shut up.
Watching former VP Cheney belittle President Obama was disturbing. More troubling was his complete disdain for the rule of law and the constitution. Cheney has reached the point of absurdity, claiming absolution for himself while professing his foul deeds as virtue. No, Mr. Cheney,yours are not American values.
There's nothing left to say after this blog.
Co-sign
Can somebody say AMEN?
That would be a nondenomin
Oh, and I would rather have to deal with Machiavelli than Mr. Cheney. Machiavelli was just a suck up; Cheney is much more dangerous.
Steven - What a great article! It's about time someone actually wrote what I believe many of us are thinking.
I've admired you as an actor but now I have a greater appreciation of you as a writer!! Right on!
Now if we can all just get Cheney to shut up .... but he's too enamoured with the sound of his voice ... and too worried about an investigation. I find him to be such an embarrassment - and to think that there are actually Americans out there who belive him and agree with his "ideals". I'll never understand how people don't take into account the whole picture - he personally profited from this war. He sentenced thousands upon thousands of people to die for his profit. Good Lord, he shot his "friend" in the face! I can only imagine what his friend said to him to warrent a shot in the face - oh, sorry, I forgot, "it was an accident." I keep forgetting that Cheney believes we can't figure out the difference between "profit" and "prophet".
Keep writing!! You've got a new fan.
See K.J. Dwyer's Profile
The image of a former Vice President of the United States advocating torture is without a doubt one of the the lowest points in American History.
The mere fact that there is a "debate" over the efficacy of torture illustrates -- in start relief -- just how far we have descended as a culture and as a nation.
After 100+ years of subverting democracies all over the world, this is what we've come to.
Anyone who can't or won't connect the dots is either ignorant or malevolent and given the reticence to investigate and prosecute this latest band of war criminals, they will no doubt enjoy the faux statesmanship afforded previous bad actors. They'll have airports named after them (Dulles), be invited to speak at commencement ceremonies of major universities and to be interviewed in the cosy confines of the Charlie Rose show (Kissinger) or make nearly successful runs for US Senate seats (North).
It is to vomit and while the vast majority of Americans remain embarrassingly ignorant of their country's crimes over more than a century now, the world does not. As our stature in the world inevitably declines (do the math), so will the tolerance of the wanton, irresponsible, hegemenous narrow interests who instigate and prosecute these crimes.
There needs to be a Nuremburg type tribunal to suss all of this out. These crimes and criminals need to be prosecuted and sentenced. Period. Anything less will only facilitate the next great American atrocity.
Cheney's most telling trait is his refusal to make public apologies. Cheney shot a man in the face and made no public apology. Not only that, the guy he shot publicly apologized to Cheney. Look it up. In his big interview with Brit Hume about the incident, the words "sorry" or "apologize" don't leave his mouth once. Even in telling the story, he doesn't say he apologized. If I shot a friend in the face, I know I'd spit out a few expletives at first, followed by "Are you okay?" and "I'm so sorry." But according to Cheney himself, his first response was: "Harry, I had no idea you were there." Not concern for the friend he shot. Not an apology. His first response was to cover his ass. How this man dealt with this personal mistake speaks volumes to his character or, more accurately, lack thereof.
See Dave Hackel's Profile
Excellent article!
I keep wondering why anyone cares. Why do media outlets -- who know exactly what he's doing -- keep giving him their time?
I always come up with the same two answers.
1. The 24/7 news cycle looks for any tiny ember that they might be able to fan into enough flames to get them to their next report.
2. Dick Cheney's got Hoover-like files on everyone and uses them as leverage to get air time.
uhh... because he's one of the owners of this club. they don't really have a choice. come man. its not difficult to see or understand.
#1 for sure; #2, a distinct possibility.
It's really rather embarrassing: Cheney's time is LONG past! The shame is, there's still a minority of (low-info) people who share in his rancor and buy into his bunker mentality.
Great piece, Steven. you are one of the few reasons I come back to visit here.
Mr. Cheenee seems to be DoubleDick Daring the President. I'm just wondering when Obama is going to say ENOUGH!
"...Double
...nicely coined !
See Steven Weber's Profile
And you are one of mine!
let's not forget CNN, which headlines their own "poll" as an increase in Cheney's popularity :
'A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Wednesday morning, indicates that a majority of Americans still have an unfavorable opinion of Cheney. Fifty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say they have an unfavorable opinion of the former vice president. Thirty-seven percent say they have a favorable opinion of Cheney, up eight points from January when he left office. The poll suggests that 41 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the former president, with 57 percent viewing him unfavorabl
and yet again, CNN is shining Cheney's shoes and blatantly licking parts of his anatomy when they contrasted the popular (elected) President Barack Obama's speech to the nation on foreign policy with Dick Cheney's speech for a fee in front of a room full of cronies -- after this manufactured mano-a-mano concluded, this is how Chuck Todd greeted fellow newsman David Gregory :
" David, this seemed like this is the ultimate debate! That if you love American politics, American government, you got THE MOST CREDIBLE people you could have arguing each side. President Obama, former Vice President Cheney."
that's "who" CNN is, another member of the Cheney/Bushco ministry of propaganda ........
Todd and the clueless gregory work at msnbc.
Cheney - credible?!? what a joke!
You forgot to mention that the Dick was able, from a lifetime of government jobs (other that his Halliburton ("He can introduce us to all the oil sheiks") gig, to amass a fortune of almost a hundred million dollars. Someone should investigate that whole scene. And why is daughter Liz so passionately defending him -- because that $100 million, half of which she'll inherit, could be eaten up by a platoon of attorneys that he will need to protect him if spineless congress and president every summon up the courage to investigate him.
Probably still defending her college thesis of 1988 about the necessary unchecked powers of the executive during war. A thesis her father later brought to fruition.
There doesn't seem to be any suggestion of the unchecked powers of the VP though - that was Papa's own 'thesis' perhaps. Wonder if they compared notes when he was asked to select a VP and ultimately chose himself.
http://www
Great Steven!
Brilliant, Steven. You help keep me sane when insanity promises to rule the day.
not since benedict arnold....
d
Cheney is a traitor--pure and simple. Why don't the Democrats call him out on that?
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