PAST — VP DICK CHENEY
THE FUTURE — REP. LIZ CHENEY
EDITOR — Again there are two sides of the coin — I am not for torture, abuse, imprisonment as dictated by rule for people who commit crimes — But terrorists in my book, are not human driven by lies and corruption, and I have witnessed the carnage, who kill civilians without merit or cause are not entitled to be treated as prisoners, or even humans. They are combatants and if they have information that we need, do what you have to do and then if no mercy kill them —
CURRENT BREAKING NEWS — First Anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection —
August marked one and a half years since pro-Trump fanatics stormed the US Capitol under the belief that they could halt the counting of electoral votes and install the loser of an election as president.
Democrats marked the occasion by remembering the breaching of the Capitol as an attack on democracy (featuring a bizarre musical interlude from the cast of Hamilton);
Republicans were less eager to do so. During the official congressional ceremony, only two Republicans chose to attend.
One was Liz Cheney, currently a US representative for Wyoming; the other was her father, Former VP Dick Cheney (as a former member of Congress, Cheney has lifetime congressional floor privileges). Numerous Democrats reportedly walked over to Cheney to shake his hand.
VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD CHENEY
BACK TO THE WAR YEARS
THE BOOK — TOUGH WAR FOOTED HISTORY — “Hubris”, the true story of the lies Dick (Darth) Cheney brought to the table. The distortions and mistruths he championed costing 190,000 dead, 7000 American soldiers and other combatants, almost three trillion dollars we know of and 50,000 wounded. The truth is out now and the coverup exposed. He should have been charged with Treason for lying to Congress, the American people, the President and the world.
Filled with news-making revelations that made it a New York Times bestseller, Hubris takes us behind the scenes at the White House, CIA, Pentagon, State Department, and Congress to show how George W. Bush came to invade Iraq - and how his administration struggled with the devastating fallout.
Hubris connects the dots between Bush's expletive-laden outbursts at Saddam Hussein, the bitter battles between the CIA and the White House, the fights within the intelligence community over Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, the outing of an undercover CIA officer, and the Bush administration's misleading sales campaign for war. Written by veteran reporters…
Michael Isikoff and David Corn, this is an inside look at how a president took the nation to war using faulty and fraudulent intelligence. It's a dramatic page-turner and an intriguing account of conspiracy, backstabbing, bureaucratic ineptitude, journalistic malfeasance, and arrogance. Available at Amazon.
THE MEDIA PLAYS A ROLE — False gods, read Exodus, your time will come. Who are these spinners and what are their qualifications? It will surprise you to know many of them have no political experience, nor military served time, no college or higher learning, but consider themselves experts in the fields.
They all start in Radio. Why Radio? Simple you can hide. You may start in talk radio where no one sees your face so you can wear your uniform and not be seen, recognized or assaulted. That must be "where the expression talk is cheap came from". Makes sense to me. If you said some of the things they said to someones face, they would in some cases be lying horizontal on the ground.
In TV, we start with an introduction to media, not necessarily journalism. Pretty faces and lots of prompters make anyone into a faux journalist. The real journalists have one commodity these folks don't have…integrity.
Radio attracts a lot of folks who are dissidents they too hide when they express themselves and frankly violence sells on talk radio as the only other stations on AM are fundamentalist religionists who are even more boring…. read on, it was this combination of radio and TV that sold the war to the American people and most of it was never verified.
DRAFT DODGER — When Cheney became eligible for the draft, during the Vietnam War, he applied for and received five draft deferments. In 1989, The Washington Post writer George C. Wilson interviewed Cheney as the next Secretary of Defense; when asked about his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, “I had other priorities in the '60s than military service”.
Cheney testified during his confirmation hearings in 1989 that he received deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, owing to sub-par academic performance and the need to work to pay for his education. Initially, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was only taking older men.
When he became eligible for the draft, he applied for four deferments in sequence. He applied for his fifth exemption on January 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant. He was granted 3-A status, the "hardship" exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.
Note: Though I respect the office of the Vice-President this man should have been arrested for treason, murder, lying to Congress and the people of the United States.
A TRUE WAR CRIMINAL — “ The US doesn't prosecute its war criminals. It honors them” — Glenn Greenwald. The truth in Greenwald’s quote, and the sentiment, was probably felt around the world as former Vice President Dick Cheney was honored Thursday.
A white bust was created that now sits at the US Capitol. The event brought out Cheney’s poignantly associate former President George W. Bush.
George Bush 41 is quoted criticizing Cheney for being “hard-line,” “ Iron-ass,” and “ knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East."
George Bush 43 made light of the comments about the former vice president, who has recently used his considerable media platform to rail against the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, declare he is unapologetic about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and call for military escalation towards ISIS.
Lazare reports that when Bush told his father about the Cheney ceremony, Bush said, “ Send my best regards to old iron-ass.” Dick Cheney is responsible for the deaths of over 7,200 US troops— and reportedly hundreds of thousands innocent civilians. It was all just collateral damage. It’s called war —
IN THE PAST DECADE — Cheney’s company Halliburton was involved in a kickback scheme that prompted Halliburton to fire two workers and reimburse the Pentagon $6.3 million. Yea, two guys just happened to skip with millions. Sacrificial lambs. additionally, the possible overcharging for food services which Halliburton reimbursed the Defense Department for nearly $30 million. Halliburton has set aside $141 million to pay other possible reimbursements.
A separate DCAA audit which accused KBR of overcharging by $61 million for gasoline delivered to serve the civilian market in Iraq last year. Halliburton has said the charges were proper. Right... like I believe them. Critics say Halliburton is an example of war profiteering by companies friendly to the Bush administration. Company and administration officials say politics had nothing to do with Halliburton's contracts in Iraq.
CIA Leak Scandal (Guess Who Blabbed) — Plame affair - CIA leak grand jury investigation and United States v. Libby. On October 18, 2005, The Washington Post reported that the vice president's office was central to the investigation of the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, for Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was one of the figures under investigation.
Following an indictment, Libby resigned his positions as Cheney's chief of staff and assistant on national security affairs. On September 8, 2006, Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State, publicly announced that he was the source of the revelation of Plame's status. Armitage said he was not a part of a conspiracy to reveal Plame's identity and did not know whether one existed.
In February 2006, The National Journal reported that Libby had stated before a grand jury that his superiors, including Cheney, had authorized him to disclose classified information to the press regarding intelligence on Iraq's weapons.
March 6, 2007, Libby was convicted on four felony counts for obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to federal investigators. In his closing arguments, independent prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that there was “ a cloud over the vice president”, an apparent reference to Cheney's interview with FBI agents investigating the case, which was made public in 2009.
Cheney lobbied President George W. Bush vigorously and unsuccessfully to grant Libby a full Presidential pardon up to the day of Barack Obama's inauguration, likening Libby to a "soldier on the battlefield".
WHO REALLY RAN THE WHITE HOUSE? — Cheney has been characterized as the most powerful and influential Vice President in history. He has been characterized as a “War monger and cold hearted bastard” yet his supporters and critics of Cheney regard him as a shrewd and knowledgeable politician who knows the functions and intricacies of the federal government. Which is a nice way of saying he knows how to beat the system.
He also liked to stay close to the bone, one sign of Cheney's active policy-making role was an office near the House floor for Cheney in addition to his office in the West Wing, his ceremonial office in the Old Executive Office Building, and his Senate offices (one in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and another off the floor of the Senate). Nothing got passed him.
Barack Obama could of used Cheney who actively promoted an expansion of the powers of the presidency, saying that the Bush administration’s challenges to the laws which Congress passed after Vietnam and Watergate to contain and oversee the executive branch—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Presidential Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act and the War Powers Resolution—
Are, in Cheney's words, "a restoration, if you will, of the power and authority of the president”. But when Barack Obama exercises those rights, Cheney is out there plummeting him with his unique kind of bitting rhetoric.
POWER HUNGRY SURFACES IN A DOCUMENTARY — In June 2007, the Washington Post summarized Cheney’s vice presidency in a Pulitzer Prize-winning four-part series, based in part on interviews with former administration officials. The articles characterized Cheney not as a “ shadow" president, but as someone who usually has the last words of counsel to the president on policies, which in many cases would reshape the powers of the presidency.
When former Vice President Dan Quayle suggested to Cheney that the office was largely ceremonial, Cheney reportedly replied, “ I have a different understanding with the president." The articles described Cheney as having a secretive approach to the tools of government, indicated by the use of his own security classification and three man-sized safes in his offices plus whips and chains, running water and boards, portable generators and other assorted devices.
The articles described Cheney’s influence on decisions pertaining to detention of suspected terrorists and the legal limits that apply to their questioning, especially what constitutes torture. Obviously this was a man of medieval institutional thinking pertaining to questioning and he would rewrite the laws if needed as to their usage.
U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Colin Powell's chief of staff when he was both Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the same time Cheney was Secretary of Defense, and then later when Powell was Secretary of State, stated in an in-depth interview that Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld established an alternative program to interrogate post-9/11 detainees because of their mutual distrust of CIA.
The Washington Post articles, principally written by Barton Gellman, further characterized Cheney as having the strongest influence within the administration in shaping budget and tax policy in a manner that assures "conservative orthodoxy." They also highlighted Cheney’s behind-the-scenes influence on the administration’s environmental policy to ease pollution controls for power plants, facilitate the disposal of nuclear waste, open access to federal timber resources, and avoid federal constraints on greenhouse gas emissions, among other issues. The articles characterized his approach to policy formulation as favoring business over the environment.
MODERN GODLESS EMPTY SOUL LEADER — No one should downplay the crimes of Donald Trump. His erratic and demagogic behavior during the COVID-19 crisis and George Floyd uprisings, his green lighting of police terror and white-supremacist violence, and his love of callousness and cruelty, even to migrant children, made him a real threat.
Compared to Dick Cheney’s crimes against democracy, Trump is just another brother from the same mother— Dick Cheney reduced nations to rubble, shredded the Bill of Rights, and enacted programs of surveillance, abduction, detention, and torture more in line with the state terrorism of military dictatorships than the norms of liberal democracy.
To venerate Cheney, as Democrats in Congress did yesterday, for some to show forgiveness, and for some to show complete contempt for democracy. And the next thing you hear about Cheney is all about his daughter.
He has spawned a daughter who has strength, courage, a strong love of country and sheer guts as a Republican to stand up for truth. I may personally not like him, but I do love her courage — she stood up against an entire cabal of useless politicians encased in corruption, bribes, goose stepping to the Mcconnell T-RUMP Washington Two Step.
CONVERSATIONS OBSERVED —
✦ Asked about the Republican leadership's reaction to Jan. 6, Cheney said that the leadership did not resemble "any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years.” Cheney served as a Republican House member from 1979 to 1989, including stints as the Republican conference chair and the Republican whip.
✦ When asked about Republicans' treatment of his daughter, who was ousted as conference chair last year, he said, "My daughter can take care of herself.” - The former vice president said in a statement later Thursday that he is “ Deeply disappointed at the failure of many members of my party to recognize the grave nature of the January 6 attacks and the ongoing threat to our nation.”
✦ A former House member with lifetime floor privileges, he joined his daughter on the floor during a pro forma session of the House Thursday. There were roughly 30 Democrats in the chamber. Cheney participated in the prayer, pledge and moment of silence in honor of Jan. 6. No other Republicans were present.
✦ After leading the House in the moment of silence and adjourning the session, Pelosi chatted with the Cheneys. Numerous House Democrats were lined up to shake hands with and talk to the former vice president. Asked about the reception he received from members, Cheney said it was “ great" to return to the Capitol. "They're doing a hell of a job, and I'm here to support it.”
✦ “The importance of January 6th as an historic event cannot be overstated. I was honored and proud to join my daughter on the House floor to recognize this anniversary, to commend the heroic actions of law enforcement that day, and to reaffirm our dedication to the Constitution.
✦ Former Vice President Dick Cheney assailed ex-President Donald Trump as a “coward” and a prime threat to the United States in a new campaign ad for his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, days before her Republican primary election in Wyoming.
✦ “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who has posed a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” the elder Cheney said in a straight-to-camera ad, which was shared online Thursday afternoon.
✦ “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” said Cheney, 81, who served for eight years as vice president in the George W. Bush administration. “He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters,” Cheney said. “He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know it.”
✦ Cheney is Trump’s biggest Republican critic in Congress and a leading member of the House select committee investigating him over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. For her refusal to back down from her criticisms of the former president, she has been largely ostracized by her party and condemned by Trump’s loyal base of Republican voters.
✦ Polls of the Aug. 16 Wyoming primary show Cheney trailing her top Republican opponent, Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, by wide margins. Hageman has echoed Trump’s false claims that his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election was “rigged” by widespread fraud.
✦ Yet Cheney, unlike some other House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot, has kept up her vocal attacks on Trump over the “Big Lie.” Her persistence may have damaged her standing among some Republican voters, but it has not hampered her fundraising efforts: She has far outraised her competitors while assuring key donors and supporters that she will continue to hold Trump accountable. Dick Cheney has been involved in these talks as well, CNBC previously reported.
✦ “Lynne and I are so proud of Liz for standing up for the truth, doing what’s right, honoring her oath to the Constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do so,” Dick Cheney said in the ad. “Liz is fearless. She never backs down from a fight. There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office. And she will succeed,” he said in the ad. “I’m Dick Cheney. I proudly voted for my daughter. I hope you will too,” he said.
REP. LIZ CHENEY
Elizabeth Lynne Cheney born July 28, 1966) is an American attorney and politician who has been the US representative for Wyoming's at-large congressional district since 2017. She chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership, from 2019 to 2021.
Cheney is the elder daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Second Lady Lynne Cheney. She held several positions in the U.S. State Department during the George W. Bush administration, notably as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Coordinator for Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiatives. She promoted regime change in Iran while chairing the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group with Elliott Abrams. In 2009 Cheney and Bill Kristol founded Keep America Safe, a nonprofit organization concerned with national security issues, which advocated the Bush–Cheney administration's positions. She was a candidate for the 2014 election to the U.S. Senate in Wyoming, challenging three-term incumbent Mike Enzi, before withdrawing from the race. In the House of Representatives, she holds the seat her father held from 1979 to 1989.
Regarded as a leading ideological conservative in the Bush–Cheney-era tradition and a representative of the Republican establishment, Cheney is a neoconservative, known for her focus on national security, support for the U.S. military, a pro-business stance, hawkish foreign policy views, and fiscal and social conservatism. She is considered one of the leaders of the Republican Party's neoconservative wing and was critical of the foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration while simultaneously voting steadfastly in support of its overall agenda.
Cheney supported the second impeachment of Donald Trump for his role in the 2021 storming of the US Capitol. Because of her stance on the Capitol riot, her impeachment vote and opposition to Trump's false stolen-election narrative, pro-Trump Freedom Caucus members of the House Republican Conference attempted to remove her from party leadership in February 2021.
That effort failed, and Cheney remained conference chair until mid-May, when pro-Trump members of the House again pushed for her removal. With House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy supporting the effort, Cheney was removed from her position.
After her battles with Republican leadership, Cheney received death threats, leading her to spend $58,000 on a private security detail. She has said that she intends to be "the leader, one of the leaders, in a fight to help to restore our party” and that she may be interested in a future presidential run.
In July 2021, Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Cheney to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Two months later, she was made vice chair of the committee. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Cheney criticized what she called the "Putin wing" of the Republican Party.
ED : MY MIXED EMOTIONS WILL SHIFT — PAST IS PAST — All of my spirituality leaves me when I think and write of Dick Cheney. The world damage he created, and the lives he destroyed is beyond forgiveness, much less worthy of an honor but my other side tells me this was a war and there is nothing nice about war if you were there and saw what some of us saw.
I'm writing about this because all of his wrong did not seep down to his daughter who is an American hero with guts and beliefs in whats right about America and the will power it took to break from her party because of truth, the right way, belief in the Constitution and the system of Judicial, Executive and Legislative powers.
Her sacrifice of position with the corrupt Republican party took courage and other than one other person shared that courage. The U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is a select committee of the US House of Representatives to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, which was the culmination of then-President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election in part by telling many falsehoods about it instead of conceding defeat to Joe Biden.
The committee has said that Trump knew he did not win the election and was thus perpetrating a fraud, and it has referred to a "criminal conspiracy" that led to the attack on the Capitol.
The committee was formed through a largely party-line vote on July 1, 2021. Its membership was a point of significant political contention. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who both voted in favor to impeach T-RUMP, were the only two House Republicans to serve on the committee, and the Republican National Committee eventually censured them for their participation.
By May 2022, the committee had interviewed more than 1,000 people. Some members of Trump's inner circle cooperated with the committee, while others defied it. Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were indicted by federal grand juries for refusing to testify; Bannon has been convicted. Congress also held Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino in criminal contempt for refusing to testify, but the Justice Department said it would not prosecute them.
I WOULD SUPPORT HER IN A HEARTBEAT — Liz Cheney is facing an awkward challenge. A few days from now, she will deliver the most consequential speech of her career to date. The polls indicate it will almost certainly be a concession speech.
Rhetorically, the assignment is clear: Accept defeat while sounding like a winner. More specifically, Cheney needs to signal that the loss of her Wyoming House seat in a GOP primary is in no way the end of her career, but the opening of a new phase in which she intends to be one of the most important people in American political life.
She needs to invite the audience to imagine that they are not listening to a soon-to-be former congresswoman but instead to a possible future president.
Psychologically, however, Cheney’s assignment is complex. For starters, a loss is a loss — never easy for a competitive person. It is also unambiguously a victory, at least in the near-term, for the man she loathes and who loathes her: Donald Trump. What’s more, a concession speech is always hard to prepare for in advance. Even the most realistic and practical-minded politician has trouble thinking about defeat while there remains a maybe-an-asteroid-will-strike possibility of victory. I don’t know if an asteroid would work but a bullet would —
“First of all, to all my friends in Wyoming and around the country, let me assure you I made peace with this moment long ago. This is not the result we wanted, but it is a victory — for everyone who believes that standing up for what’s right, for the Constitution, for the future of our democracy is more important than clinging to power or holding some fancy title. This fight is not over — it may take many years. For anyone wondering about my own future, let me say this: I will do everything in my power to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office.”
WHAT SHE MEANS IS SOMETHING LIKE THIS — I still can’t believe that people in Wyoming — tough, stoical no-BS people — would turn their back on a Cheney in favor of such an obvious fraud. So, no, I’m not exactly at peace. But, yes, I saw this coming 17 months ago and once I started down the path of confronting Trump there was no turning back. Why do you think I left so much of the money gushing to me from Dems and Never Trumpers unspent in this primary — it’s the war chest that will keep me relevant on the national stage. No, I won’t ever be Speaker of the House.
But no need to be too coy about it: I do plan to run for president. I’ve already dropped plenty of breadcrumbs, like that ABC interview last month when I hardly denied my interest, and I’ll soon be dropping more. Does that mean a “kamikaze run” against Trump in 2024? Or a declaration that the Republican Party for now is beyond saving, and therefore I’m leading a third-party movement? Standby — still working on my options.
“I think of others who lost elections. Ronald Reagan lost his fight for the presidential nomination in 1976 and came back four years later to become one of our greatest presidents. We’ve learned lately that it’s possible to keep your job and lose your dignity as a man. I’d rather keep my self-respect as a woman.”
Let’s hope the media properly interprets that manhood jab. As much as Trump appalls me, I know he’s probably a clinical psycho. That spineless wimp Kevin McCarthy, on the other hand, knows exactly what he’s doing, when he told me after January 6, he was going to stand up to Trump and then wet his pants and forced me out of leadership…
Do those references to the Reagan-Ford matchup in ’76 seem a little dated? Not in my family!... Meanwhile, I gotta say I’ve enjoyed doing this whole feminist warrior thing a lot more than I ever expected. I always wanted to barf when Hillary Clinton did her whole “let me say this to those girls and young women watching out there” thing.
“Let me say this to those girls and young women watching out there tonight. My hero, Margaret Thatcher, had a saying: ‘Let it never be said that the dedication of those who love freedom is less than the determination of those who would destroy it.’”
If I’m going to do identity politics I might as well mix it with a dash conservatism, and conservatives love their British history. Dad and his neo-con friends were always channeling Churchill after 9-11. My best hope for political revival is to cast myself as an American “Iron Lady.”
Whether my future is staying as a Republican or venturing out as an Independent, you can be sure I won’t make the error of Hillary Clinton and so many Democrats to this day. You have to distinguish Trump from Trump supporters. His whole movement is about harnessing contempt, and giving his backers the thrill of spitting back at politicians and journalists who think Trump supporters are “deplorables.”
DICK CHENEY CALLS TRUMP A ‘COWARD’ IN AD FOR DAUGHTER’S REELECTION
“Let me close with thanks and love to some very special people. I thank my sister Mary Cheney and her spouse, Heather Poe, and their wonderful children. And, of course, to my parents, Lynne Cheney and the great vice president I call Dad.”
If nothing else, I have accomplished a nice rehab job on the Cheney family image. My conflicts with Mary over gay marriage were not my finest hour, and my own lesson in the hazards of putting short-term politics over long-term values. As for Dad, can you believe he went viral on social media with a video that had nothing to do with Iraq or “enhanced interrogations”?
More irony: He believed that the effort to hold presidents more accountable after Watergate had diluted the authority of the presidency, and spent his whole career trying to reverse that. Now my career is devoted to holding a lawless president accountable and educating people on the difference between democracy and dictatorship. What more evidence do you need that life’s paths are long and winding. Let’s see where this one leads. . .