Cheney still not slithering back under his rock

[catsittingstill]

Cheney gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute (right-wing "think" tank). All about how what He and Bush and the rest of their crew did was right and Obama should do the same things. He had some things to say that really caught my eye.

But I’ll freely admit that watching a coordinated, devastating attack on our country from an underground bunker at the White House can affect how you view your responsibilities.

As opposed to watching the attack without a bunker, the way the rest of us did, for example. I, for my part, freely admit that watching such an attack, while knowing I had brushed off repeated warnings about terrorists with "Yeah, yeah, whatever. What can you tell me about Iraq?" would have had a profound effect on me. Not, apparently, the same profound effect it had on Cheney and his ilk, however.

Of torture--oh, pardon me, "enhanced interrogation techniques"--(I feel slimy even typing that), he said:

They were legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do.

Now, that's really impressive. Look that over. Five lies in a single sentence, ladies and gentlemen. That's not easy to do.

Some are even demanding that those who recommended and approved the interrogations be prosecuted, in effect treating political disagreements as a punishable offense, and political opponents as criminals.

Mr Cheney is mistaken. I wouldn't for a second treat a political disagreement as a punishable offense (though I understand that he's been keeping company for quite some time with people who would be happy to treat political disagreements as punishable offenses, so I understand why he's confused.) Crimes, on the other hand, are punishable offenses. Torture is not a "political disagreement"; torture is a crime..

Comments

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Because, of course, holding Cheney and all his buddies accountable for what they've done would be nothing but political maneuvering.

Like winning the election just proved Obama was a charismatic demagogue.

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Addendum:

I maintain what I've suggested elsewhere: We take Cheney, et al, and subject 'em to "enhanced interrogation techniques" (and once again, doesn't that sound sooooo very PC?) until they recant.

"How very Soviet of them!"

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

That was always my sardonic snipe at Bush & Co.,'s latest tricks, whenever I noticed them repeating the misdeeds that I was "carefully taught" to hate the Communists for, by my parents & parental figures, back in the Cold War days. Torture. Oppression. Thought-policing. Restriction of economic opportunities. By comparison, America was orders of magnitude better than that.

Now I've found out that Cheney was using the Communist Chinese Torture Handbook for real ?!?! To ELICIT false confessions ?! {EXPLETIVES DELETED!!!@&%^$#*^&} Not even a hope that the motivation was Stupidity; instead it was Malice. And Sadism.

When will these evil tyrants admit that the only reason Osama bin Laden didn't re-attack us after he escaped post-9/11 is because THEY WERE DOING HIS WILL by invading Iraq and prying that secularist Saddam Hussein off of his throne? No Way was bin Laden going to to do anything to derail That train off the tracks!

America is supposed to be better than that. We better take this opportunity to get back to being that.

Re: "How very Soviet of them!"

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

"In Oceania the prevailing philosophy is called Ingsoc, in Eurasia it is called Neo-Bolshevism, and in Eastasia it is called by a Chinese name usually translated as Death-Worship, but perhaps better rendered as Obliteration of the Self. The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense. Actually the three philosophies are barely distinguishable, and the social systems which they support are not distinguishable at all."

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

One of these days, I'm going to have a client convicted of a violent crime, and maybe I'll advise the judge that we need to just move along because dwelling on these unpleasant things of the past might tend to make our area look bad to people from someplace else.

You think that'd be worth a shot?

Problem is, these Cheney rules only apply to rich elite old Republican white guys.

A while back, I really did represent a guy who shot someone in the face. And I really did think about asking the victim to apologize to him. But I didn't do it, because, what's the use? No one would understand. There's no real justice out there for anyone but Cheney. For someone who isn't a Republican vice president, the result was 70 months in prison with no good-time credits.

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

See, that's one of the multitude of things about Cheney's speech that sickens me: We can't prosecute anyone for war crimes because -- all together now -- the terrorists would win.

He talks about what a bad precedent it would set, to enable a new administration to prosecute a previous one. So instead, he would have us set a worse precedent: Once your term in office is up, you can't be prosecuted.

And they say MY party is soft on crime?!

[telynor.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing Cheney stays in the US, is all I'm saying. Bush, too. Now that they're no longer in office, the chances they'll be arrested for war crimes in other countries is higher than Americans might think.

[danceswithlife]

Keith Olbermann took him to task in a special comment:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#30877373

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

The thing that offended me the most was Cheney's repeated statements that the outrage many people feel about using torture was "contrived", is being "feigned", and the like.

He's accusing us not only of lying, but of secretly supporting torture, presumably for political gain.

I guess his worldview is so small he can't conceive of anyone actually disagreeing with him. Or being honest.

I mean, he's entitled to his opinions. But that doesn't mean our opinions are "just pretend"!

[occams_pyramid]

Or he simply cannot accept that he personally has been horribly, vilely, criminally wrong. So the people who tell him so must be lying.