Politiks As Usual: In The News 7/30/12

Electoral College Tie Possible In Obama-Romney Race

Scalia Opens Door For Gun-Control Legislation, Extends Slow Burning Debate

Dick Cheney: John McCain Made A Mistake Choosing Sarah Palin For VP In 2008

Chicago Values And The Fruit of Islam

Catholic Business Owners Score Win Against ObamaCare Mandate

Mitt Romney Captures Jerusalem

2012 Campaign Very Different Than Kerry vs. Bush 

Can It Be Un-American To Be A Christian?

Pope Names 'Father of Proposition 8' Archbishop of San Francisco

Sports Media Launches Olympic-Sized Blitz from Left

Newsweek Cover Story: 'Mitt Romney: A Candidate With a Serious Wimp Problem'

Cantor: Pelosi Remarks About Jews 'Patronizing and Deeply Insulting'

Hey, Boston: Leave Chick-fil-A Alone

Obama’s Team Taking Gamble Going Negative

Politiks As Usual: In The News 3/26/12

U.S. Gives $860,000 To Afghan Families

Health Care Law Brawl Arrives At Supreme Court Steps

The Dark, Intolerant, And Abusive Nature Of The Gay Agenda

Santorum Beats Romney By 22 Points In Louisiana

Cheney Waited Longer Than Average For Heart Transplant

Black Panthers: $10,000 To 'Capture' Trayvon's Killer

John Heilemann: Bush v. Gore Ruling 'Pure Politics and Purely Corrupt'

CBS’s O’Donnell Hits Ryan With White House Talking Points, Then Cues Up Softballs to Schumer

Green Is Taking Us For A Ride

Beware Of The Mob, Hey, Remember When High Gas Prices Were All Bush’s Fault?

Obama Campaign Capitalizes On Foul-mouthed Biden With Profane T-shirts

After Anwar Al-Awlaki Killing Dick Cheney Wants Obama Administration To Apologize

Oh sure, the apology is never coming, but you gotta love Cheney calling out Barry for the hypocrite that he is:

On CNN’s State of the Union today, former vice president Dick Cheney went out of his way to praise the drone strikes that took out a top al-Qaeda member, but asked for the Obama administration to apologize for their previous criticisms of the Bush administration’s “overreaction” to the international terrorism threat.


Host Candy Crowley asked the former vice president what he thought of the recent military strike that took out Anwar al-Awlaki. Cheney praised it as a good strategy and an effective use of the drone technology, but immediately used the opportunity to point out that the Bush administration adopted similar strategies in fighting the war on terror. Cheney found this ironic because of the Obama administration’s past comments accusing their predecessors of being too aggressive.


“I’m waiting for… the administration to go back and correct something they said two years ago when they criticized us for, quote, ‘overreacting’ to the events of 9/11. They, in effect, said we had walked away from our ideals, taking a policy contrary to our ideals. We had enhanced interrogation techniques, they clearly had moved in the direction of taking robust action if they feel it’s justified. In this case, I think it was, but I think they need to go back and reconsider what the president said when he was in Cairo.”


Crowley asked Cheney if he had absolutely no problem with an American citizen (Awlaki) being taken out overseas instead of being subjected to due process and the U.S. legal system. Cheney countered that such an action would have to be approved by the Justice Department, and in this particular case it was.

Dick Cheney: U.S. Would Be Different If Hillary Clinton Was President

Hey, whoever said Dick Cheney wasn't flexible?:

To promote his new memoir, former vice president Dick Cheney has been making the media rounds, discussing the inner workings of the Bush administration and sharing his thoughts on the policies of the Obama administration. On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked Cheney if he thinks Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have been a better president than the current officeholder.


Cheney did not say outright that Clinton would be a better president, but thought it was a likely possibility and suggested she might have been “easier to work with” than President Obama.


I have the sense that she’s one of the more competent members of the current administration, and it would be interesting to speculate about how she might perform if she’d be president… but I don’t want to be in the position where I’m supporting Hillary Clinton. That might be the kiss of death for her.


The vice president said he wouldn’t discourage Clinton from running, but insisted his support would be firmly behind the Republican nominee. However, Wallace pointed out that when current GOP frontrunner Rick Perry ran for reelection last year in the Texas governor’s race, Cheney threw his support to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison instead.


Cheney clarified that he has not officially thrown his support by any one candidate yet, before explaining that his endorsement of Hutchison was not meant to be a slight to Perry, but rather as a testament to his close relationship with the senator.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 8/29/11

Al Gore Calls Climate Change Skeptics 'Racists'

Why Is The MSM So Ignorant About Religion?

Colin Powell Blasts Dick Cheney's 'Cheap Shots'

Did Major Media Overdo Coverage Of Hurricane Irene?

Excluding Prayer From 9/11 Memorial Compounds The Tragedy Of That Day

Obama's War On The Secret Ballot

Surprise! New Fall TV Lineup Heavy On Sex

Rick Perry Bills Feds $349M For Incarcerating Illegals

Minister: Obama's $50,000-a-Week Vacation A 'Disgrace' In Light Of Economy

NBC's Ann Curry, CNN's Don Lemon Headline 'Revolutionary' Gay Journalist Convention

Pollsters: Modern History Shows Obama Can't Win In 2012

Genocide Continues In Sudan, Christian Group Seeks Congressional Help

Battle For New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina

Rep. Steve King: Waterboarding Led To Death Of Osama bin Laden

Congressman Steve King confirms the Left's worse nightmare: the strategic use of waterboarding led to the death of the man responsible for 9/11 and many other tragedies that happened on U.S. soil and the world over. If this is true then it reaffirms that George W. Bush deserves the most credit for killing Osama bin Laden:

Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican, says there are a number of questions that need to be answered now that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has been killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan. King says whoever emerges as the next leader of the terrorist group needs to be killed, too, and the U.S. needs to be “less forgiving than we’ve been” in terms of how Pakistan may have aided bin Laden.


The house where the 9-11 mastermind was staying was reportedly within 100 yards of a Pakistani military compound, and if that’s true, King says there had to be suspicions and secrets being kept.


King wonders if this episode may change President Obama’s mind about so-called torture techniques. King says the information on bin Laden’s where-abouts came from the U.S. compound at Guantanamo Bay and through the use of water boarding. He believes President Obama may change his mind on how to approach the War on Terror.


King also wonders if the U.S. government needs to reconsider its diplomacy with Pakistan and the billions of dollars that nation is receiving as the result of the War on Terror.


“We need to take another look at Pakistan and we need to rethink that,” King says. “They have a nuclear arsenal and if they’re working sometimes as our enemy and sometimes as our friend, we’re going to have to rethink that relationship. We need to rethink how we operate inside of Pakistan. It looks like it worked pretty good this time.”

RELATED: Cheney Says Enhanced Interrogation Probably Led To UBL Death

Richard Dreyfuss: Liberal Celebrity And Hypocrite

Newsbusters.org:

Last fall, Richard Dreyfuss launched a civics education program called the Dreyfuss Initiative that promised among other things to look at "a purposeful diverse variety of websites representing disparate political opinions... to foster a discussion related to the future of America." But the Academy Award-winning actor apparently thinks civil political discourse includes left-wing radio hosts wishing for Dick Cheney's death.


At a January 25 press conference at the National Press Club, CNSNews.com's* Nicholas Ballasy asked Dreyfuss about comments that liberal MSNBC host Ed Schultz had made on his March 11, 2009 radio program wherein he wished that "enemy of the country" former Vice President Dick Cheney would be taken by God to "the Promised Land."


"No, that’s not uncivil. That’s actually kind of a beautifully phrased way of saying something that could be uncivil," Dreyfuss told Ballasy.


"Civility is not not saying negative or harsh things. It is not the absence of critical analysis. It is the manner in which we are sharing this territorial freedom of political discussion. If our discourse is yelled and screamed and interrupted and patronized, that’s uncivil. I don’t care what the issue is and I don’t care who the people and the players are," Dreyfuss added.


By that standard, one has to wonder if Dreyfuss would draw the line at Schultz wishing he could rip Dick Cheney's heart out, as he did on his February 24 program last year, or if that's merely just another "harsh" jab thrown in the "territorial freedom of political discussion."

Dick Cheney Says He Still Sees Obama As One-Termer

At this point Barry's only a one-termer if the economy doesn't get back in shape and if he faces off against Mike Huckabee--the only person with a chance to beat him in 2012:

In his first television interview since he underwent heart surgery last summer, former Vice President Dick Cheney says rebounding poll figures haven’t changed his mind on President Obama. In the interview, set to air Tuesday morning on TODAY, Cheney tells NBC News national correspondent Jamie Gangel “I think he’s enacted a program that a great many people are very worried about.”


Cheney, who talks about his recent surgery and weight loss, said he believes the president has “learned a lot” since he entered office, but not enough to earn him a second term:


I think his overall approach to expanding the size of government, expanding the deficit, and giving more and more authority and power to the government over the private sector is a lack of– sort of a feel for the role of the private sector in– in creating jobs, in creating wealth and getting our economy back on track. Those are all weaknesses, as I look at Barack Obama. And I think he’ll be a one term President.

Dick Cheney Quote of the Day!

"That's sort of the best thing I ever did."

- Dick Cheney, on Dennis Miller's radio show, recalling the 2004 incident in which he told Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy to "go f___ yourself" after a heated debate on the Senate floor.

Obama Follows Bush, To Renew Patriot Act

Wired.com:

Congress is sending President Barack Obama legislation that extends three provisions of the Patriot Act — despite heated debate among lawmakers that the surveillance measure goes too far.

The act, hastily adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks, greatly expands the government’s ability to spy on Americans in the name of national security. Three measures of the act were set to expire at the end of 2009, but in December lawmakers extended the deadline to the end of February in hopes of reaching a compromise.

But no deal was reached by the end of the new Feb. 28 deadline. Instead, the Senate and House of Representatives ditched their two conflicting measures and extended the Patriot Act for another year without any changes. The final package was sent to the president Thursday for his expected signature.

Geez, maybe Colin Powell was right in criticizing Dick Cheney's allegations that Barry's been keeping us "less safe", when you consider that Obama has pretty much kept in place every national security policy that Bush started. See our enemies a lot different now that you're Prez, huh Barry?

Obama Calls Dick Cheney To Wish Him Well

NYTimes.com:

President Obama called former Vice President Dick Cheney at home to wish him a speedy recovery from his latest heart attack, a rare truce in the fiery, arms-length debate the two have been having about national security over the last year.

A White House official said Thursday that the president called Mr. Cheney on Wednesday after the former vice president was released from George Washington University Hospital. Mr. Cheney was treated for what his office called a “mild heart attack,” his fifth over the last three decades.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had previously called his predecessor while Mr. Cheney was still at the hospital. The White House did not announce Mr. Obama’s call on Wednesday but the official confirmed it in response to an inquiry. Mr. Cheney’s spokesman, Peter Long, said the former vice president “thanked him or the call and they enjoyed a pleasant, non-substantive conversation.”

In the year since Mr. Obama assumed the presidency, Mr. Cheney has become his fiercest and highest profile critic, particularly in terms of his handling of terrorism. At one point last year, Mr. Obama and Mr. Cheney gave back-to-back speeches assailing each other’s approach to detaining and interrogating suspected terrorists and just this month, Mr. Cheney appeared opposite Mr. Biden on Sunday talk shows in what amounted to a debate about the Obama presidency.

Hey when Barry does sometimes right for a change, we gotta give him credit. Unlike pricks like Ed Schultz, this was a classy move by the Teleprompter-in-Chief.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 2/15/10

ClimateGate: What Did Phil Jones Actually Admit? Was He Correct?

Counterterrorism Czar Brennan Draws Fire For Comments On Gitmo Recidivism

General: U.S. 'Deeply Regrets' Afghan Civilian Deaths

Is This Former Stay-at-Home Mom Our Greatest Security Threat?

The ACLU Giveth, The ACLU Taketh Away

The Re-Invention Of Mitt Romney

Actress Anne Hathaway Leaves Catholic Church To Media Cheers

Is The 'Gay' Fix In On Prop. 8?

Cheney: Biden 'Dead Wrong' On Al-Qaida Threat

Rep. Patrick Kennedy 'Taking A New Direction,' Leaving Congress

Cut From "American Idol", But Thrilled For Chance To Spread Pro-life Message

Liberal Sportswriter Mike Lupica Still Blames Dick Cheney For Everything Wrong With Planet

Hate to give this loon any more attention than half-baked ego already gets from the NY Daily News, but considering it's my local paper and this Lupica's political columns (which are nothing but idiot rants drenched in Bush Derangement Syndrome) gets Page 6 features every Monday, sometimes you're just left with no choice but to call out the sheer lunacy:

As usual it starts with a has-been like Dick Cheney acting as if that war is some party issue, as if the country is somehow more vulnerable to fanatics because Democrats have the White House and the Congress, as if all those who hate America and want to kill Americans see this tremendous opening to do that because Barack Obama is in charge now.

The idea is dumber than that television show about the Jersey Shore.

Still there was Cheney - who once was able to hide almost as well as Osama Bin Laden - out in front after a failed attempt to blow up a Northwest airplane on its way into Detroit on Christmas Day, like he wanted to be the first Obama hater to take his swings.

Only Cheney looks at a near tragedy on Christmas and sees opportunity. When he does, he doesn't just sound like some old crank in the park. He sounds like a bum.

But then partisan attacks like this are the real national pastime now in American politics, why we seem unable to get out of our own way even on the big things, why the constant war of words between the left and the right can somehow trivialize the most crucial issues of a world that becomes less safe by the day.

So Dick Cheney, who finished his second term as VP just last year, is now a "has-been"?!? Funny how that works. With that kind of logic, what's Al Gore then? Of course we know that Gore, last a VP some 9 years ago, can still go around the world, use his influence as a former-VP to get on cable news networks and continue milking billions from yahoos with deep pockets for his self-righteous global warming scam (that he still refuses to debate anyone about), but Dick Cheney, a private citizen now, is supposed to STFU about the war on terror? Double standards much, Mike? But then when you're talking about Lupica, you're talking about an egocentric, far-Left loon whose been taking snide shots at conservatives and the Right for years now. I've seen Lupica in person, the guy is literally...short, so it wouldn't surprise if he suffered from some kind of Napoleon-complex (on top of his obvious BDS) too. But really, if you're going to be a Bush/Cheney-hater (even in 2010), and you're going to write a column complaining about partisan politics, at least have the balls to admit that you've been nothing but way beyond partisan yourself. In other words the same theatrics you now pretend to hate, you've been contributing to yourself for years now. Hypocrite much, Mike?

Dick Cheney Reprimands Barack Obama

ABCNews.com:

One day after President Obama called the "human and systemic failures" leading to the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest flight 253 "totally unacceptable," former Vice President Dick Cheney is accusing the president of being part of the problem.

"We are at war, and when President Obama pretends we aren't, it makes us less safe," Cheney said in a statement to Politico.

Cheney said Obama's "low key response" to the failed attack, refusal to use the phrase "war on terror" and the pending closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center all reflect an attitude that terrorism is a law enforcement problem, not a military one.

"Why doesn't he want to admit we're at war? It doesn't fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn't fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency -- social transformation -- the restructuring of American society," Cheney said.

Dick Cheney's words are welcome.

RELATED: White House Forcefully Responds To Cheney

Dick Cheney Calls 9/11 Terror Trials a 'Huge Mistake'

Despite Lawsuit Being Dismissed, Liberals Still Chasing Dick Cheney For Valerie Plame

CNN.com:

Former vice president Dick Cheney told a special prosecutor in 2004 that he had no idea who leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, according to newly released FBI documents.

Cheney was questioned as part of an investigation on how journalists came to know the identity of Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was a critic of the Iraq war.

In the interview, Cheney responded to many questions with "I do not recall."

However, he took a few stabs at the CIA in its handling of White House allegations that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium from Niger to manufacture nuclear weapons.

Wilson was dispatched to Niger on a CIA assignment to explore the charges and later said that the Bush administration was twisting facts to support an invasion of Iraq. He implied in a newspaper article that his trip was at the behest of the vice president.

Cheney's reaction to the article was that it was "amateur hour" at the CIA, according to the FBI documents, released after the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a watchdog group in Washington, sued under the Freedom of Information Act. The 28-page summary of the Cheney interview was made public more than five years after it took place.

Cheney, his chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and presidential adviser Karl Rove, were named in a 2006 federal civil lawsuit by Plame and Wilson. Plame contended she was the victim of intentional and malicious exposure and that both she and Wilson suffered a violation of rights. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2007.

Only Libby was tried and convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about the Plame leak. President George W. Bush later commuted his sentence.

Bush Derangement Syndrome once again rears its ugly head. Dick Cheney dares to speak out against The One and his minions on the Left will do anything to shut him up, including trying to get him brought up on charges he released information on a former CIA secretary that no one cares about. Of course, what they never mention is that Richard Armitage was the sole person responsible for "leaking" Plame identity, but why let something like facts get in the way when you're suffering from major BDS.

Dick Cheney: Barack Obama "Seems Afraid" of Facing His Responsibilities in Afghanistan

Dick Cheney will not stay silent, much less be bullied. Good for him.

Dick Cheney: "I Am Not A Fan Of President Obama"

Hey Dick, most Americans are starting to feel the exact same way you do.

Obama Caters To Vengeance-Seeking Liberals By Opening CIA Probe

ChicagoTribune.com:

Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday opened a preliminary investigation into whether some CIA operatives broke the law in their coercive interrogations of suspected terrorists in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- presenting President Barack Obama with the prospect of a long, distracting battle over policies and actions carried out under his predecessor.

Holder said he decided to establish what he called a "preliminary review" after he conducted a thorough examination of past reviews of the interrogations, including an internal Central Intelligence Agency investigation completed in 2004 by the CIA's inspector general and separate reviews by Justice Department internal affairs watchdogs and prosecutors.

He noted "that neither the opening of a preliminary review nor, if evidence warrants it, the commencement of a full investigation, means that charges will necessarily follow."

But the decision plunged the Obama administration into the kind of controversy it most wanted to avoid -- a polarizing, backward-looking fight over issues far removed from the president's top priorities. And the furor is likely to be all the sharper and more distracting because it pits the most liberal elements of Obama's base against the most unyielding elements of the Republican Party.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs sought to position Obama out of the line of fire on Monday. "Ultimately," Gibbs argued, "determinations about whether someone broke the law are made independently by the attorney general."

Holder tapped Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead the review, saying Durham is best positioned to do so because he is already investigating the CIA. Last year, Michael Mukasey, then the attorney general, appointed the Connecticut-based Durham to investigate the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations.

I know that former President Bush wants to remain respectful of Obama by keeping quiet, but when your successor caters to his terrorist-soothing, vengeance-seeking, Dick Cheney-hating base and makes a clearly partisan move like this, it's time to speak up. Consider too that most Americans are opposed to this leftwing treachery.

Liz Cheney Fires Back At Dems Charging Her Father Hid CIA Program

Dick Cheney = Distraction.