Face the Nation, May 11, 2009: "Give us the memos, release them to the press, let everyone take a look and see," cheney said gleefully.

 

I did not feel like working that hard today so I thought, hell, go for the easy take down today. Go after dickyc. Let us take a walk through yesterday and begin in December of 2000 when our vice-president elect had this to say on Face the Nation:

 

Cheney: The campaign's over with. And, in fact, as President-elect Bush has made very clear, he ran on a particular platform that was very carefully developed. It's his program, it's his agenda, and we have no intention at all of backing off of it. It's why we got elected.

So we're going to aggressively pursue tax changes, tax reform, tax cuts, because it's important to do so, partly for economic reasons, partly because we have this growing surplus and some of it ought to be returned. We're going to pursue education reform and Social Security and Medicare reform, because those are important national priorities and need to be addressed.

The suggestion that somehow, because this was a close election, we should fundamentally change our beliefs, I just think is silly. These are not radical positions. These are good, solid proposals to address important national issues, and we'll continue to pursue them.

 

And this notion that somehow a tax cut is divisive I just don't think is the case. We've got a $4.6 trillion anticipated surplus. We've got a tax cut proposed $1.3 trillion over the course of the next 10 years. We've got an economy that's slowing down where we could conceivably get into a recession down the road where tax cuts will be important. And it's not just cuts. It's also tax reform. So I think this is a very good program, a very sound program. My guess is we can in fact get it passed and that it won't be divisive.

 

So we look back at that 4.6 trillion dollar surplus and.....ooooops. Did not exactly work out that well, did it dicky?

 

Or let us take a look at his appearance in November 2001 on the same show:

 

Gloria Borger: Well, you know that Muhammad Atta the ringleader of the hijackers actually met with Iraqi intelligence.

Vice President Cheney: I know this. In Prague in April of this year as well as earlier. And that information has been made public. The Czechs made that public. Obviously that's an interesting piece of information.

Gloria Borger: Sounds like you have your suspicions?

Vice President Cheney: I can't operate on suspicions. The President and the rest of us who are involved in this effort have to make what we think are the right decisions for the United States and the national security arena and that's what we're doing. And it doesn't do a lot of good for us to speculate. We'd rather operate based on facts and make announcements when we've got announcements to make.

 

dicky you got some splainin to do.  How do you like that?  He'd rather operate based on facts.

 

A couple of years later, Gloria had another chat with dicky:

 

Gloria Borger: Are we now going to have secret trials?

Vice President Cheney: The question of tribunals, the precedent for it is there. It was used by FBI in World War II with respect to German saboteurs who were sent into the United States to commit acts of sabotage. We set up a military tribunal. These individuals were tried, found guilty and executed.

The same kind of arrangement was used for Abraham Lincoln's assassins during the Civil War. So, it's been done before. The Supreme Court has upheld the president's ability to establish this kind of process. And that's what we've done.

These people are not American citizens. They come into the United States or they conspire to support attacks designed to kill thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Americans, innocent people - men, women and children. They should not be entitled to the same kind of treatment that an American citizen would, going through the normal law enforcement process.

They will get a fair trial. But when the President designates certain individuals who we believe are members of Al Qaeda or another kind of terrorist network who have committed terrorist acts against the United States or who have provided sanctuary for terrorists, he'll have the authority under this procedure to designate hose individuals to be tried, prosecuted if you will, through this military tribunal system. And that's as it should be. It's the right thing to do.

 

Oh, everybody is going to get a fair trial. Aint that something? NOBODY GOT TRIED.

 

Face the Nation 3/2006:  CHENEY: Well, I made sure both in 2000 and 2004 that the president had other options. I mean, I didn't ask for this job. I didn't campaign for it. I got drafted. And delighted to serve. And it's been the highlight of my career, to be part of this administration. I've now been elected to a second term; I'll serve out my term. CHENEY: And what I've got left is gray. Circumstances have changed, I think, Bob.

The job I have now as vice president is to be an adviser to the president, primarily. I don't run anything. I'm not in charge of the White House. I'm not in charge of the Defense Department, as I once was, or a congressman from Wyoming.

And the most valuable service I render to him is to give him advice. And that advice is most valuable when it's totally private, when he knows what I've recommended and I don't talk about it.

I don't talk about the conversations I have with him. I think presidents need to have somebody around them that is totally reliable and trustworthy and is going to protect those communications they have with the president.

They need to be able to have somebody they can level with. And I, sort of, see that as my role in this administration.

What all humility, I mean he did not ask for the job, he never campaigned for it. I mean he was assigned to find a vice president and once he and his company worked out a SEVERENCE PACKAGE worth 20 mill that magically morphed into 80 mill (that we know of), he volunteered!!!

 

And of course anything dickyc says or writes is CONFIDENTIAL and it is PRIVATE and it is not to be released to the public for national security interests, blah blah blah.

Oh I could do this all day. This son of a bitch could not tell the truth or make any decent predictions about the future. And we are supposed to listen to him now?  But there has come to light some interesting memos from his buddy Rummy, and that is the basis for this post.

 

This from GQ: on the morning of Thursday, April 10, 2003, Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon prepared a top-secret briefing for George W. Bush. This document, known as the Worldwide Intelligence Update, was a daily digest of critical military intelligence so classified that it circulated among only a handful of Pentagon leaders and the president; Rumsfeld himself often delivered it, by hand, to the White House. The briefing's cover sheet generally featured triumphant, color images from the previous days' war efforts: On this particular morning, it showed the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down in

Firdos Square

, a grateful Iraqi child kissing an American soldier, and jubilant crowds thronging the streets of newly liberated Baghdad. And above these images, and just below the headline secretary of defense, was a quote that may have raised some eyebrows. It came from the Bible, from the book of Psalms: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him...To deliver their soul from death."

This mixing of Crusades-like messaging with war imagery, which until now has not been revealed, had become routine. On March 31, a U.S. tank roared through the desert beneath a quote from Ephesians: "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." On April 7, Saddam Hussein struck a dictatorial pose, under this passage from the First Epistle of Peter: "It is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men." http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_9217

I have only one response to rummy or dicky and it comes out of the mouth of Jules (Samuel Jackson) in that monumental epic, PULP FICTION:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

 

WOULD IT NOT BE GREAT, AT LEAST SOMETIMES, IF THERE REALLY WERE A VENGEFUL GOD READY TO SMITE THE LIARS, THE DECEIVERS, THE MURDERERS?