dickhead's Scared of Canadians . . . .

Score one for Our Side!

From today's Seattle Times:

Cheney deems Canada too dangerous for visit

Toronto - Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney canceled a Canadian speaking appearance because of security concerns sparked by demonstrations during a visit he made to Vancouver last fall.

Cheney was scheduled to talk about his experiences in office and the current American political situation at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on April 24.

 But Ryan Ruppert of Spectre Live Corp. said on Monday that Cheney and his daughter Elizabeth had begged off through their agent.

"After speaking with their security advisers, they changed their mind on coming to the event," Ruppert said. He said they had "decided it was better for their personal safety they stay out of Canada."

Last Sept. 26, Cheney was forced to stay holed up in the Vancouver Club for seven hours before it was deemed safe for him to leave. Demonstrators blocked the entrances and at one point scuffled with police.

Cheney critics accuse him of endorsing the use of water boarding and sleep deprivation against detainees while serving in former President George W. Bush's administration.

Before the Vancouver event, Human Rights Watch urged the federal government to bring criminal charges against Cheney, accusing him of playing a role in the torture of detainees.

It pays to participate, 'cuz occasionally we win one . . . .

dickhead Comes to Vancouver . . . .

dickhead cheney came to The Vancouver Club tonight to promote his book.

Of course I participated to see Vancouverites welcome him in style.

To the best of my knowledge, he signed no autographs for the crowd outside the facility . . . .

dickhead cheney Involved. Quelle Surprise . . . .

When does this guy get his comeuppance, anyway?

Can't he share a room with Bernie Madoff or something?

Today's New York Times has the story:

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project
By SCOTT SHANE | July 12, 2009

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.

_______________


Efforts to reach Mr. Cheney through relatives and associates were unsuccessful.

Damn.

The past couple of months he's been hard to miss on the cable news networks.

Guess he's gone back to the "undisclosed location" . . . .

"Goodbye George" from McClatchy . . . .

McClatchy's Washington Bureau bids an early farewell to george bush today.

Commentary: Bush makes a farewell tour. Good riddance

Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers

December 18, 2008

We've been treated to a real spectacle this week as President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney limped into the home stretch of their Magical History Tour, employing distortions, half-truths and untruths in a final, desperate attempt to pervert or somehow prevent history from judging them accurately.

_______________

The great gray eminence himself, Dick Cheney, of no known address, went on national television pleading guilty to committing a war crime. Yes, Cheney said, he participated in the White House discussions on the use of torture in the interrogations of suspected terrorists. Yes, he said proudly, he approved the use of such outlawed practices as water-boarding, the simulated drowning of bound and helpless prisoners to make them talk. So what?

Photo credit: Kevin Seirs of the Charlotte Observer

_______________

Over in the White House, the president was busy signing a flood of executive orders opening the gates to oil drilling on massive chunks of previously protected public lands in the West; protecting big corporations from lawsuits in state courts when their products harm or kill innocent Americans, and generally giving his fat cat friends one last shot at looting a national Treasury of any remaining table scraps.

The president and his spinmeisters keep talking about how, with the passage of time, historians will come to judge his presidency a huge success, much as history has come to judge the administration of Harry S. Truman.

Balderdash. Or as I much prefer to say in situations like this: Bullshit!

_______________


Bush told his War College audience that of all the things he loved about the job, he was proudest of all of his role as their commander-in-chief.

Why then did he and his minions oppose virtually every attempt to reinforce their numbers and shorten the time they spent in Hell? Why did they oppose virtually every attempt to increase their pay and their benefits, and those of millions of American veterans of these and other wars?

How could so proud a commander sit idly by while soldiers and Marines were sent off to war without the armored vehicles and body armor they so desperately needed in this new kind of war?

How could his administration pinch pennies when it came to funding and manning the military hospitals that treat the thousands of wounded troops flowing home from his wars?

How can this man talk about making the world a safer and freer place by his actions when so much innocent blood has been shed by civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan? When millions have been turned into homeless refugees inside and outside Iraq? When America is left with far fewer friends and allies among the nations of the world?

The only good news left to us this gloomy, cold December is that we only have to put up with this wretched spectacle for another 30 days or so.

George W. Bush should make a hurry-up call to his architect and see if it's not too late to substitute firing slits for the ground floor windows in his new Presidential Library in Dallas.

Good-bye George, and good riddance.

Well done, Mr. Galloway.

Well done . . . .

Congressional Lying . . . .

This should come as no surprise to readers out there in Blogland.

Per McClatchy today:

White House interfered in climate testimony, ex-EPA official says

Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers

July 08, 2008

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney's office and the White House demanded that all mention of how global warming harms human health be cut from testimony to Congress last fall, a former Environmental Protection Agency official who had a key role on climate policy said Tuesday.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., charged that the new information from the former official showed that the White House and Cheney were covering up the dangers of global warming in an attempt to block the EPA from taking action.

_______________


The former EPA official, Jason Burnett, said in a letter to Boxer dated Sunday that the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Cheney's office wanted to cut any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change from testimony to Congress last October by Julie Gerberding, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

_______________


"We now know that this censorship was not haphazard. It was part of a master plan" meant to ensure that the EPA's response to a Supreme Court decision that found that greenhouse gases are air pollutants "would be as weak as possible," Boxer charged.

_______________


In his letter, Burnett said that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson had asked the staff to draft a provisional finding that greenhouse gases do endanger public welfare. Burnett sent the report by e-mail, but the White House has refused to open it. As a result, the finding isn't available to the public.

Boxer said Johnson should release the e-mailed finding and all other documents related to the EPA's conclusions about the dangers of global warming. The agency also should indicate what rules it will impose to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping gases, she said.

"If Mr. Johnson refuses to do these things I'm asking him to do, if he doesn't have the strength to do them, he should resign," Boxer said.

Based on how well the dems are standing up to the lame-duck, unpopular, incompetent jerk occupying the Oval Office on the FISA debacle, hopes of them acting on this bit of news are nil.

One would think that with a majority in both houses of Congress they might be a little more responsive to the will of the people and the rule of law. Whatever happened to three equal branches of government?

This crowd apparently does not have the spine to do the right thing.

There aren't enough Russ Feingolds to go around . . . .

Not In That Order, I'll Bet . . . .

The two topics noted in the title of the Reuter's report will no doubt be reversed:

Cheney to discuss peace and oil on Mideast trip
Mon Mar 10, 2008 - By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney leaves on Sunday for the Middle East where he will raise U.S. concerns about record-high oil prices and try to push Israeli-Palestinian peace talks forward, the White House said.

Cheney will visit Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Turkey and Oman in a trip expected to last about a week or more, his office said on Monday.

"His goal is to reassure people that the United States is committed to a vision of peace in the Middle East," U.S. President George W. Bush said after meeting with Poland's prime minister at the White House.

Cheney will also take the message "that we fully see the threats facing the Middle East, one such threat is Iran, and that we will continue to bolster our security agreements and relationships with our friends and allies," Bush said.

_______________

Cheney also will meet with Saudi King Abdullah when oil prices are hitting record highs, reaching above $106 a barrel last week.

He was expected to reinforce the message from Bush, who had urged OPEC to increase production during his visit to Saudi Arabia in January. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided not to boost output.

_______________

"When the president traveled there in January at every stop Iran was of interest and concern. And so I don't expect that that changed in the last two months since Iran hasn't changed its behavior at all," Perino said.

The United States has led efforts to pressure Iran, and the U.N. Security Council voted last week for a third sanctions resolution against Tehran over its refusal to halt its nuclear program.

References to Iran above were emboldened by moi for obvious reasons.

This crowd has ample time to ramp up the anti-Iranian rhetoric to get that war started before they leave office.

dickhead cheney needs more Halliburton stock options for his retirement, you know . . . .

The Vote That REALLY Counts . . . .

From Reuters this morning:

Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney
Wed Mar 5, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.

The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."

Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics.

State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney, and several towns have also passed resolutions of impeachment. None of them have caught on in Washington.

Vermont.

The state the rest of them should look to for leadership . . . .