Archive for category Dick Cheney
Where Did All the Money Go For Iraq Reconstruction? Hint, Hint, Hint . . .
Posted by Lance Haley in Business and Money, Conservatives, Corruption, Dick Cheney on August 2nd, 2010
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) cannot account for $8.7 Billion of the $9.1 Billion allocated for the rebuilding of Iraq – that is 96% of the money.
96% of the money just vanished?
The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) has just released a report outlining the extent of the problem, and made recommendations for a plan that will ensure future accountability of the expenditures. Think that hindsight might be a little short of 20/20 vision? How about $8.7 Billion U.S. taxpayer dollars short?
Hey, Mitch McConnell! Now there is some deficit-busting waste and fraud. How about going after Halliburton and it’s executives for that money? Oh, I almost forgot. You’re programmed to just say “No”.
What’s that old saying . . . follow the money? First, check with “Slick” Dick Cheney and KBR – the Halliburton subsidiary that was awarded the no-bid contract for reconstruction of Iraq. Somewhere deep in that corrupt wallet rife with fraud, they will be certain to find some of that cash. Oh, and by the way, you are not the only one who was curious how KBR just happened to get a no-bid contract for an unjustified war that Dick Cheney – former CEO for Hallburton – was instrumental in orchestrating.
Adding insult to injury, KBR hired 10,000 of its American workers through an offshore shell company that exists in a computer file on the 4th floor of a building in the Cayman Islands. That allowed KBR to avoid withholding millions of dollars in Federal Social Security and Medicare taxes. DoD discovered this in 2004, but said nothing, because it saved money on the reconstruction budget. And now DoD cannot even account for 96% of the money?
After all of these issues were brought out into the light of day, and investigations into widespread corruption started ramping-up, Halliburton immediately relocated its corporate headquarters to Dubai, ostensibly for business reasons. Talk about pouring salt into the wound.
Mission Accomplished?
At least for ”Slick” Dick and his Halliburton cronies, it was. Right up the U.S. taxpayers wahzoo – and he didn’t even have the common courtesy to kiss us on the back of the neck when he was done. No heart, no soul, no shame, and no accountability. Nothing but a big fat capital gain on your Halliburton stock.
All from war profiteering with the spilled blood of young American men and women on your hands.
There will be a special pit in Hell for you, Slick Dick.
Why Aren’t Neo-Cons Calling for the Invasion of N. Korea?
Posted by Lance Haley in Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Fox News, Media & Communication, National Security, Republicans, Sarah Palin, War on Terror on July 28th, 2010
KIM JUNG IL
First they claimed Saddam Hussein was insane? And in the last year or so they were clamoring about how mad Ahmadinejad of Iran is, what with all of his Holocaust-denial crap (sounds like the “birther” movement, eh?).
But Kim Jung IL of North Korea is in a category all his own – this guy is simply crazier than a rat in a tin shithouse.
Weapons of Mass Destruction? Check.
Threat to U.S. National Security and World Peace? Check.
State sponsor of terrorism? Check.
Has all the trappings of another “Operation Iraqi Freedom” – you know, “Mission Accomplished“?
So where are those “drum beats for war“, and WTF is Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Fox News, and the rest of those sabre-rattling Neo-Cons doing sitting on their hands? They were wrong on Iraq. They keep talking about Iran. But in this case – we can call it “Operation N. Korea Freedom” – they even have a damn good chance at being right for a change! Or are they too scared to let Obama wag the dog ?
We’re waiting . . . . . . . . . . ?
Man, this silence is deafening.
Tin Man Had Heart Surgery?
Posted by Lance Haley in Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Humor on July 14th, 2010
“IF I ONLY HAD A HEART . . . “
Obama and Democrats Played Republicans on Healthcare?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Bill O'Reilly, Campaigns, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Economics, Glenn Beck, Government, Health Insurance Industry, Healthcare Reform, House of Representatives, Medicaid, Medicare, Politics, Populists, Sarah Palin, Senate, Tea Party, White House, economy on March 24th, 2010
Now the blame game begins about how Health Care Reform got passed.
You are just going to love this one . . .
William Saletan reports today in Slate.com that the Bipartisan Health Care Summit organized by the Whitehouse and attended by the President and party leaders on February 25, 2010 , was in fact a total ruse orchestrated by President Obama to set-up the Republicans; Saletan cites accounts from four different media outlets who quote anonymous Democratic aides that “paint a picture of deception” as follows:
“Obama never believed he could persuade Republicans. He had already decided the shape of the bill. He called the meeting to create an illusion of outreach, put Republicans on the spot, discredit their ideas, and embolden Democrats.”
Oh, Horror of Horrors! How sinister of President Obama. You know they say he is one Hell of a poker player. Republicans should have known just how shrewd and conniving this beast was when they sat down at the table with him. Obama went “all in”, and the Repubs folded. How could he do this to them?
The Republicans spent over a year trying to play Obama and the Democrats like a fiddle, and in the end, it was the Republicans who got played? Hee Hee Hee.
KARMA BABY. KARMA.
Hey Repubs: I think God does have a sense of humor.
What’s the Big F@%King Deal Fox News? V.P. Biden Did Not Tell Anyone “Go F@%K Yourself”
Posted by Lance Haley in Bill O'Reilly, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Culture Wars, Dick Cheney, Fox News, Government, Healthcare Reform, Media & Communication, Politics, Senate, White House on March 23rd, 2010
So Joe Biden speaks honestly with President Obama today when congratulating him over the passage of the Health Care Reform bill after the President signed-off on it today at the Whitehouse.
BFD!
Well, keeping in line with their usual hypocrisy, Fox News is all a “twitter” - YES, the pun is intended – over the “party-like” atmosphere surrounding the celebration of the President and the Democrats in achieving a step towards reforming the U.S. health care system. According to Fox and friends, you would think this was a drunken frat party. And from reading their viewers’ responses, you would think Biden’s comment was a blasphemy to the image of the Office of the President.
So how did Fox News treat Dick Cheney’s admonition to Senator Patrick Leahy to “Go F@%K Yourself”, while standing on the floor of the Senate Chamber in 2004?
Like no BFD . . .
In fact, on The O’Reilly Factor, Karl Rove and Bill O’Reilly rationalized away Cheney dropping the “F’ Bomb on Leahy because the Senator had previously called for an investigation of Bush Administration ties to Halliburton after the company was granted a “no-bid” contract for the re-construction of Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Cheney was the former CEO of Halliburton from 1996-2000.
Yeah, Cheney, there was certainly no appearance of impropriety there. WTF???
However, Rove and O”Reilly NEVER referenced the rest of the story regarding Leahy’s attempt to address prior accusations – a veiled smear tactic – by Cheney and company that he (Leahy) was a bad Catholic. When Leahy approached Cheney in very a gentlemanly manner to inquire about that, Cheney gave his infamous response.
So where was Fox News’ indignation? Or their readers outrage?
Fox News is a F@%King Joke!
Having the final word over today’s meaningless flap, Whitehouse Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said it best when questioned about Biden’s comment:
“And yes Mr. Vice President, you’re right.”
Going to War With Iraq Was “A Done Deal”
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, National Security, Politics, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 17th, 2010
Former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) agent John Kiriakou has just released his new book, “The Reluctant Spy“.
According to reviews, the book reveals the inner-workings of the U.S. intelligence agency, and regales it’s readers with stories from the front lines in the War on Terror. Kiriakou’s participation in the capture of Abu Zubaydah, one of Al Qaeda’s senior commanders, as well as his prior support of the use of water-boarding as a legitimate means for acquiring intelligence, are just two of the many highlights in the book.
However, the most poignant experience of his career may well be the day he was called into a top-secret meeting while working at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia in the summer of 2002. During that briefing, he was told that the Bush Administration had already made the decision to go to war with Iraq the following Spring (2003). His job was to support the decision.
In other words, it was “A Done Deal”.
Kiriakou was stunned that the question of going to war with Iraq was already pre-determined by the Bush Administration in spite of the fact that Congress and the public were still undecided over the basis for invading another country that posed no serious imminent threat to our national security:
“Here was someone at the CIA, obviously plugged into the plans of the executive branch, telling us that the public debate in Congress, reflected almost daily in the press, meant nothing.”
Approximately seven years later, George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” is anything but. Those elusive WMD’s are yet to be found. And brave young American men and women are still fighting and dying over there.
As Paul Harvey would say, “and now you know the rest of the story”.
Can Liz Cheney Really Keep America Safe?
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Conservatives, Crime & Punishment, Dick Cheney, Fox News, Legal & Justice, Media & Communication, National Security, Politics, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 11th, 2010
ATTICUS FINCH (Gregory Peck) in “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”
Hardly!
Why? Because she advocates the use of fear that rises to the level of McCarthyism, as demonstrated in the recent video released by her political organization, Keep America Safe.
A significant number of well-respected Conservatives have deeply criticized the video’s characterization of current Justice Department lawyers as Un-American because of their previous legal representation of suspected terrorist detainees. One of the greatest callings in the American legal system is defending both the unpopular and the guilty. This role is epitomized by the lawyer Atticus Finch in the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird“, rated as the best courtroom movie of all time by the American Film Institute.
Liz Cheney is a lawyer. If she attended her classes in law school, she should have a basic understanding of the Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent, as well as the principles of American Jurisprudence, all of which ensure due process for everyone who is charged with a violation of the laws of the United States, regardless of citizenship. Her failure to grasp those most fundamental principles of the American justice system only further undermines any semblance of credibility regarding her legal or political opinion.
One of her former law professors, the esteemed Richard A. Epstein, of the University of Chicago School of Law. said it best: “There’s something truly bizarre about this.” Which only begs the question: Is she a moron, or just pathologically shameless and void of any conscience? Maybe it runs in the family?
Most importantly, however, is the real reason why Liz Cheney cannot “Keep America Safe”.
If she relies on the argument that America was much safer from an attack by terrorists during her father’s tenure with the Bush Administration, one need look no further than the Presidential Daily Brief of August 6, 2001, titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”, in order to completely discredit this notion. Her father publicly admitted in May of 2002 on Fox News that he read the brief, and then attempted in vain to dismiss it’s warnings as inconclusive, while simultanously advocating that the brief not be released for public disclosure. Interesting . . .
As this author has pointed out in the post titled “Failing to Connect the Dots: The Lights Were Blinking Red“, that evidence is the most damning indictment of Dick Cheney’s part in the collective negligence of the Bush Administration’s failure to prevent the attacks on 9/11. No wonder he did not want you to read it’s contents. To compound matters even further was their colossal failure to capture or kill Osama bin Laden at the battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in December of 2001. Simply put, Dick Cheney obviously has no valid standing to criticize the Obama Administration’s policies regarding terrorism and the prosecution of terrorists.
By extension, as well as by her own volition, neither does Liz Cheney.
Case closed.
Were Dick Cheney’s Chest Pains and Terrorist Najibullah Zazi’s Guilty Plea in NY Federal District Court Earlier Today Just a Coincidence?
Posted by Lance Haley in Conservatives, Crime & Punishment, Dick Cheney, Government, Legal & Justice, National Security, Politics, U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. District Courts, War on Terror, al Qaida on February 22nd, 2010
It would take a really big washrag to wipe that huge grin off my face right now. 
Click here and here – then read ScrewedUS.com Memo to Dick Cheney.
Don’t you just love life’s little ironies?
Memo To Dick Cheney: Me Thinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Politics, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on February 14th, 2010
Shoe Bomber Richard Reid – Poster Child for Dick Cheney’s Hypocrisy
This morning on NBC’s Meet the Press, Vice President Joe Biden responded to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s attacks on the Obama Administration’s handling of accused Christmas Day terrorist bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. As Biden accurately stated, Cheney is “”not entitled to rewrite history. He’s not entitled to his own facts“, correctly pointing out that the Bush Administration also prosecuted shoe bomber Richard Reid in a civilian court. This author just commented this past week on the duplicity with which you and other Republicans are terrorizing the American people over this nonsense, after your Administration tried over 150 terrorists in civilians courts – including one of the 9/11 co-conspirators.
This blog contains a number of entries addressing Cheney’s constant attacks on the current Administration, and why he has absolutely no standing to criticize Obama; particularly because of the hypocrisy pertaining to the decisions and policies of the Bush Administration – specifically, their failure to prevent the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and the subsequent blunder that led to Osama bin Laden’s escape from Tora Bora, Afghanistan ninety days later.
Playing armchair psychologist is fraught with dangers of misdiagnosis, as well as the tendency towards over-generalization of certain symptoms as definitive indicators of a specific pathology. Nevertheless, and admittedly at the risk of the cognitive dissonance in ignoring my own advice to the contrary, I will venture a psychological explanation on why Dick Cheney’s persistent revisionist history reveals the depth of his pathological dissonance. Which may be why Cheney is rated the most unpopular Vice President in modern history – even surpassing Dan Quayle (say it ain’t so Dick).
“If an action has been completed and cannot be undone, then the after-the-fact dissonance compels us to change our beliefs.” What most often occurs in the aftermath of undeniable factual evidence of an action that betrays our personal beliefs or opinions is a growing increase in dissonance in direct relationship to “the importance of the subject to us, how strongly the dissonant thoughts conflict, and our inability to rationalize and explain away the conflict.
In other words, when we cannot reconcile our beliefs and opinions with the undeniable existence of facts that contradicts them, we defend our position even more zealously. Denial of the Holocaust by people like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – who ironically may be Jewish - is a stark example of this behavior.
It is William Shakespeare’s often misquoted poetic commentary [as in the body of the subject line of this entry] that is the most famous historical observation on this human condition:
“The lady doth protest too much, me thinks.”
Homer Simpson Republicans Terrorize U.S. Over Terrorists’ Trials
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Sarah Palin, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on February 7th, 2010
Terrorism is about creating fear.
Republicans are now clearly trying to create fear in the minds of the American public about the Obama Administration’s prosecution of terrorists in civilian courts. They are insinuating several things: one, that terrorists are “enemy combatants”, and therefore should be tried in military courts; two, that allowing them to be tried in civilian courts will only invite another attack on U.S. soil; third that these defendants are not entitled to any constitutional rights; and finally, that Obama is soft on terrorism.
These constitutional law geniuses include half-term Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), former Vice President Dick Cheney (Chief Republican Hypocrite – Washington, D.C.), and Chief Conservative spokesman Rush Limbaugh (former drug addict, and college drop-out).
Amazing how incensed these Conservatives are about this “recent” decision to take accused terrorists to trial in civilian courts, particularly after the Bush Administration tried over ONE HUNDRED FIFTY terrorists in the same federal courts, including such high-profile cases as 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Just in case any of you other hypocrites out there have also conveniently forgotten, Reid was going to blow up a plane on an international flight bound for the U.S.
“D’oh“!
P.S. Since yesterday, when this was posted, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) has proposed cutting off federal funding for terrorists trials in civil court. Add his name to the rapidly growing list of Homer Simpson constitutional law geniuses and conservative hypocrites.