The Cheneyspere & Fitzgerald

Dog bless Raw Story for keeping a stiff upper lip in the darkest of times. In this story by Brian Beutler Raw Story claims prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is stalking Vice President Cheney, like a wolf in search of a fat arrogant bullfrog. With all due regards to the office of the Vice President, Cheney's blithe participation in the information war surrounding the Plame scandal has seemed like a Very Bad Thing from the start.

The "Cheneysphere," "crying wolf," and deterioration of our infrastructure

Two articles I read recently on Raw Story.com jibed nicely with and articulated a couple topics that have been on my mind lately.

One is Cheney. More and more, he seems like the real criminal behind what is apparently, and sadly, a fascist takeover of our government. He's been around since the Reagan days, when all this crap started happening, and increasingly seems like the man pulling the strings of the respective puppets. Now that the right wing radicals are on shaky footing and their massive unpopularity is public knowledge and receiving media coverage, Cheney's bile-spewing is starting to seem desperate and is becoming more and more negative and insane-sounding. They call Gore crazy every time he gives a speech but that's just a cheap effort to smear him. Cheney and the rest of the right wing radicals don't need a smear campaign to lose support- people can just listen to the things they are saying.

The Raw Story article I'm talking about is where the boy who cried wolf comes up. The writer, a Hannah Selinger, points out that anytime anyone, in this case Connecticut senatorial candidate Ned Lamont, starts talking about failed Bush policies or the fact that the so-called war in Iraq was a grave mistake and was justified with lies, Cheney starts saying that that person is actually helping Middle Eastern morons who would bomb and kill us, that that person is in line with religious fundamentalists who want to fuck over anyone that doesn't believe their fundamentalist bullshit. So Cheney here is crying wolf again and again these days.

Out of his mouth comes some of most negative, bile-infused, twisted lies and smears you'll hear these days. He never has anything good to say about anything. This is our Vice President, the most powerful vice president ever. But to what effect?

The other article, this one in the Seattle Post by a Chuck McCutcheon, deals with something that's on my mind a lot lately. We all pay a lot of tax dollars, but the Bush Administration is squandering all of it on some truly moronic things, while the country suffers. We are left in the lurch while the Bush Administration slowly destroys the economy and puts the nation in debt. I'm talking about infrastructure, one of those things a government is responsible for, one of the reasons we pay taxes. Roads, power grids, protection and assistance in emergencies and natural disasters, prevention of natural disasters, protection from outside aggression and home grown crazies (yes BushCo does a horrible job protecting us from threats- they've weakened a strong military, exported our National Guard, and used a false war on terrorism to override laws, democracy and the constitution) are some of the things we pay for. But when a government stops respresenting us, stops protecting us, avoids its role as a helper and supporter of the people, then what kind of government is that?

New Orleans was the first thing that got me thinking about it- the wasteland it became and the apparent utter failure of government assistance after the hurricane of nearly a year ago. Why did that all happen? Would it have happened under Kerry? Global warming has made weather much more dangerous. BushCo has famously done nothing to reverse it, and is instead denying that global warming exists. BushCo is also famously involved in denying a lot of scientific evidence, even covering it up, scientific evidence of anything that blows the whistle on BushCo's tendency to destroy the environment.

Power failures are getting worse. Mental health services are a disaster, and ever since the Reagan days people who should be in a home somewhere are walking the streets and often end up in jail. The Seattle Post article points out a few other key points and makes the obvious point that we are less, secure, less safe under Bush and Company than we would be under an administration that wasn't burning our tax dollars in a war that is destructive, unnecessary, and toxic.

So my point is, when Cheney tells us Democrats are going to make us less safe, he's lying.

Information War

Bullshit the enemy to death. More terrifying visions of the future summed up nicely by Scottish paper the Sunday Herald. Article is here, entitled "America's war on the web."

Has me thinking somebody somewhere has decided the internet is a big threat to a system of organized lies. Information is a big threat to any lie. Get ready to start printing fliers and stuff like that when they stop your blog from being seen, and when they stop your favorite journalism sites from being seen by you, I guess.

The Sunday Herald article does a nice job of citing evidence and tying it in with Bush Administration's neo-con aims and principles:

This revolution in information warfare is merely an extension of the politics of the “neoconservative” Bush White House. Even before getting into power, key players in Team Bush were planning total military and political domination of the globe. In September 2000, the now notorious document Rebuilding America’s Defences – written by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a think-tank staffed by some of the Bush presidency’s leading lights – said that America needed a “blueprint for maintaining US global pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power-rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests”.

The PNAC was founded by Dick Cheney, the vice-president; Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary; Bush’s younger brother, Jeb; Paul Wolfowitz, once Rumsfeld’s deputy and now head of the World Bank; and Lewis Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, now indicted for perjury in America.

This point just cannot be stated enough these days.

This is Phoenix Friday 3/24, as thousands protested against Republican senator John Kyl's attempts at border policy. There was a protest in Tucson too, and protests across the nation too, according to this story in the Arizona Daily Star.

What's interesting to me is the massive opposition to Republicans and republican policy in general right now, which this photo demonstrates (pun acknowledged).

I've always hated Kyl, he's been around since the Reagan/Bush the 1st days. Kyl was immediately identified as the kind of Republican that doesn't acknowledge constituents that are not right wing fundamentalist morons. For example, when I argued against cutting overtime pay, since this move pretty much makes slaves out of us- and treating people like slaves should never be tolerated- Kyl's office sent a letter back that was loaded with the most moronic business-speak drivel I've ever seen. Kyl doesn't really serve the rest of us or represent us in Washington- although he supposed to. Kyl serves people like Dick Cheney and represents the kind of idiotic policy that is ruining our country.

Another thing interesting about this story and photo is the contrast with another story published in the Star Friday morning. The headline?

Cheney: Keep Kyl in Senate
Vice president's visit raises $500,000 for re-election bid and Arizona GOP

Great.

Cheney's motorcade came right up the main boulevard in my neighborhood. Riding home from work Thursday there were police positioned up and and down the street- I wondered what that was all about. I figured it was a VIP since they looked so bored.
Anyway the story was basically the Star pissing all over itself giving a pep talk about old Dick. A strong contrast to the massive public opposition to the Bush administration.

To quote Cheney:

"As democracy advances, ideologies that stir anger and hostility lose their appeal," he said.

Fox backs up Cheney

Don't worry Dick, Fox has got your back.

However, I dub thee the Bulletproof Corporate Asshole.

Anybody shooting birds has to be shooting pretty low to hit somebody at 30 yards with buckshot!! This sounds more like 13 feet. I'm posting the entire text of this article:

Birdshot Pellet Migrates to Heart of Man Shot by Cheney
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
By Sharon Kehnemui Liss

Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter in Texas
A birdshot pellet that hit Harry Whittington, the friend Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot on Saturday, has migrated to his heart, causing a "minor" heart attack, hospital representatives said on Tuesday outside the hospital where Whittington is being treated.

"He has not had a heart attack in the traditional sense. As I said before, he was asymptomatic," said Corpus Spohn Hospital Memorial administrator Peter Banko.

"He will have a full life the Lord intended to have, and this shouldn't affect him one way or the other," he added.

Dr. David Blanchard, director of emergency services at the hospital, said Whittington, 78, suffered a "silent heart attack," meaning he did not exhibit any signs of a heart attack, the sweating, shoulder pain or crushing chest pain, but an EKG showed that he suffered an atrial fibrillation. The event occurred around 6:30 a.m. CST, the doctor said, and Whittington was immediately moved to the cardiac catheterization lab in the intensive care unit where a blockage in blood flow was discovered.

"The BB basically has lodged in a certain area that has caused inflammatory changes. When that occurs, there is irritability to the heart muscle ... it is basically like an electrical short circuit," Blanchard said, adding that it is "easily treated with medications" and is a nonsurgical condition.

(Story continues below)

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Whittington was accidentally shot by Cheney, an experienced hunter, during a quail hunting trip on Armstrong Ranch in south Texas on Saturday afternoon. Not aware that his hunting partner had returned from retrieving a bird he had shot, Cheney turned right to shoot a covey of quail and sprayed his hunting partner with shotgun pellets instead. Whittington was shot in the face, neck and chest but never lost consciousness, Katharine Armstrong, the owner of the ranch, reported.

Commenting publicly on the incident for the first time Tuesday, the vice president's office issued a statement saying Cheney had called Whittington around 1:30 p.m. EST to check up on him.

"The vice president wished Mr. Whittington well and asked if there was anything he needed. The vice president said that he stood ready to assist. Mr. Whittington's spirits were good, but obviously his situation deserves the careful monitoring that his doctors are providing. The vice president said that his thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Whittington and his family," the statement reads.

Blanchard said that one birdshot pellet is the focus of concern, and other birdshot pellets have not endangered Whittington. Banko said that cardiologists tending to the Austin attorney do not want to perform any surgery on him, particularly as the birdshot has not entered any chambers of the heart or coronary arteries.

"It's not moving and ... the cardiologists do not feel it's going to move. ... If it were in a position where it's going to move they would have gone in and done surgery immediately. It's not in a position where they think it's going to move any further to endanger his health," Banko said, adding that Whittington's heart is as healthy or healthier than that of a much younger man.

Blanchard said the birdshot pellet is a rounded, smooth object, which in itself is good news since it won't pierce the body at a later time. He added that thousands of Americans are walking around with shrapnel in their bodies without any complications, and he said Whittington has shown no signs of developing any infection.

"We are very, very optimistic that with Mr. Whittington's strong heart, his personality, his stamina, the will, that he will do very well, and we're prepared to deal with anything that may develop," Blanchard said, adding that doctors make daily rounds of all patients to check for these types of eventualities.

Blanchard added that doctors were taking a "conservative" approach in treating Whittington and that he and other cardiologists at the hospital had the "concurrence" of the White House medical team.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan did not mention the medical report during his daily briefing, though Blanchard said the White House had been informed around 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. EST. McClellan said later that he was not asked about Whittington's health nor did he volunteer the information. He said he did not think it was his place to reveal the development out of respect for doctor-patient confidentiality.

As reporters scold the White House for skimming on the details, Democrats also called on the vice president to be more forthcoming. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged Cheney to hold a press conference, which he has not done since 2002. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused the administration of being the most secretive in "modern history."

"Talk about secrecy, the vice president accidentally shoots someone and keeps that a secret for nearly a day. That man, of course, is now very sick," Reid said.

Cheney's office said that he had been informed around 12:30 p.m. EST that hospital officials were going to hold a 1 p.m. press conference. When the vice president returned from a meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill, he watched part of the news conference, his office said.

On Monday, the state gave Cheney and Whittington warning citations for breaking Texas hunting law by failing to buy a $7 stamp allowing them to shoot upland game birds. A spokesman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said warnings are being issued in most cases because the stamp requirement only went into effect five months ago and many hunters weren't aware of it.

The Parks and Wildlife Department report said Whittington was retrieving a downed bird and stepped out of the hunting line he was sharing with Cheney. "Another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest at approximately 30 yards," the report said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Who runs our country? Cheney does

And who fucks it up? Same person. That rat Cheney.

Who pulls the puppet strings? Why is this guy there? Beats me.

See James Carrol's 11/7/05 column in the Boston Globe for a pretty good rundown of Cheney career highlights going back to the Nixon days.

Let me tell you, this guy might make a pretty good petty tyrant in a McDonald's or a Walmart in Peoria, yelling at minumun wage employees and etc, but he should not be vice president and he should not be dominating the president.

Blame it on Scooter

I don't need to tell you this is a BIG THING. Libby getting indicted shows someone somewhere in the federal government thinks Bush and company is responsible for following the law. Of course I don't need to tell you if Rove or Cheney turns out to be officially responsible for revealing Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent, this is going to be thicker kettle of fish.

Things on my mind right now:

1. Clinton. The whole rightwing/psycho-based shitstorm over the impeachment they drummed up: So who in the Clinton team revealed the identity of CIA agents as the result of getting pissed off about op ed pieces regarding phony reasons for invading a petty dictator's country? C'mon man, the Clinton administration bombed Iraq every time they even farted outside the no-fly zone. I (and the rest of us who don't suck up whatever Fox News feeds them) think that was about enough.

2. What I should be doing is focusing on the coverage of the Libby indictment by comparing the local TV news coverage vs. NPR, vs. PBS, vs. Reuters, vs. Fox, vs. LA Times, vs. the Guardian vs. polarized & equatorial blogosphere statements. There is a lot of emotional edging and dramatic cues as the bullshit factor increases in any given version of statement of facts. Example: local TV broadcast statement RIGHT AFTER the basic statement of facts regarding the Libby case, "Libby has stated he is completely innocent and is confident he will be fully exonerated of all charges after due legal process." Not much more to the story than that on good ol' channel 13. Poof, take the wind out of the sails of that nastly 'ol argument. Now for some commercials about diapers and constipation.

Of course the national TV news via the networks was not so kind, nor were most newspapers.

My point here is that I think there is a lot more to this story that indicates its seriousness to the Bush admistration that is not getting expressed, and backed up with evidence, in the major media.

Example? Well 2 of the cockiest rightwing neocon sonofabitches ( DeLay & Libby ) are now in deep doodoo. For, naturally, doing the dirtywork of the rats at the top of the tree. In other words, Scooter was a good man to them cuz he agreed to take the fall for rat-bastard Cheney & Rove.

Who's running our goddamn government, eh? You ever wonder what your tax dollars are doing besides building roads? I've said it before & I'll restate it here: These fucks are the kind of person who should be running a McDonald's in Peoria or Chatanooga, that's the kind of management we're looking at- petty tyrants at best. Good at yelling at 14 year olds or disrespecting someone who's had tough a time and who's just trying to get a job. This type of person ought to be in charge of a charity think-tank, a food shelter or a private disater aid foundation. And stick to the respective principles.

Momentum and the fall of BushCo

"Big Mo," it used to be called by a football loving jock I used to work with.

Momentum 1: DeLay in trouble, actually indicted in Texas of all places, for what amounts to political money laundering. DeLay is one of the most cocky and negative of the Neocons, working to pack Texas with republican congresspeople, simply so the rightwing could get their way in Washington.

Momentum 2: Judith Miller, accompanied by the publisher of the New York Times, testifies in the Grand Jury looking into the matter of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA covert operative being revealed by someone close to the top in Washington. The revelation came after Plame's husband, in a New York Times op-ed piece, criticized BushCo's rationale for the invasion of Iraq. The op-ed piece was written after evidence was published suggesting Iraq was not really a global threat after all. It's a crime to reveal info about agents, and that's the reason for the Grand Jury.

Basically it looks like BushCo stepped on its own foot in trying to punish Plame's husband for speaking out against BushCo and the invasion of Iraq.

But what a story, somewhat twisted- involving the not only the op-ed piece, but a column by Robert Novak, which was where Plame's association with the CIA was supposedly revealed. Rove's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is supposedly the source the Times reporter Judith Miller wouldn't identify- Miller spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify, btw. The source finally agreed to being identified and that's what led to Miller's 4-hour testimony yesterday.

Apparently Libby, Rove's [actually Cheney's] chief of staff, confirmed to Times reporter Miller that CIA operative Plame's role had indeed been revealed to the columnist Novak by Rove. Libby and Rove, according the AP, also met with another reporter from Time magazine, a Matthew Cooper, and told Cooper something about Plame. It looks like Wilson's testimony was key to the Grand Jury since she can corroborate what the Time magazine reporter testified to.

Convoluted. I'll have to dig up the press articles involved- the article by Novak from, I believe, 2003, the op-ed by Plame's husband in the NYT. Wonder what Matthew Cooper from Time and Miller from the NYT wrote, as well.

Didn't mean to go on and on but my point is this makes the Bush administration look very bad. This is this kind of thing that can go a long way towards showing some of the supporters exactly how those people do business. The supporters seem to bury their heads in sand, buying into myths about a liberal media, and etc. See my site re BushCo- the Oliver page.