David Pleasant

I’m sick of Dick Cheney and Mini-Cheney Liz Cheney trotting out their propaganda and it being accepted as The Holy Gospel by the news media. Let’s end this debate.

Dick Cheney has been exposed for telling lies time-after-time. He has been proven to be wrong over and over again, so why should anyone afford him any credibility? They should not. Bearing that in mind, let’s examine Dick Cheney’s credibility. Can anyone tell me a single time when Dick Cheney was right about anything over the past nine years?

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Sam Stein at Huffington Post: “Cheney Accuses Obama of Politicizing Justice Department”

Zachary Roth at TPM and Spencer Ackerman at the Washington Independent take Dick Cheney to task over the lies he propagated yesterday.

It’s hardly news that Dick Cheney is a liar. But yesterday offered yet another exhibit in the case.

During the debate over torture this spring, Cheney claimed that CIA memos, which he had asked to be declassified, would prove that torture proved effective in obtaining actionable intelligence.

Well, yesterday, those memos were released, along with the CIA inspector general’s report. And, surprise surprise, they don’t begin to show what Cheney said they did.

The memos, from 2004 and 2005, do say that some detainees, particularly Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, gave up useful information during debriefing sessions. But nowhere do they suggest that that information was gleaned through torture.

Indeed, as Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent shows, most of the evidence suggests they came through traditional interrogation techniques. As Spencer puts it: “Cheney’s public account of these documents have conflated the difference between information acquired from detainees, which the documents present, and information acquired from detainees through the enhanced interrogation program, which they don’t.”

It’s no wonder that in his response to the memos’ release, Cheney is reduced to playing silly semantic games that a reasonably intelligent junior high-schooler could see through. “The documents released Monday,” said Cheney in a statement, “clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda.” That’s true, but it’s totally different from Cheney’s earlier claim — that the documents would show it was the EITs themselves that elicited the information.

Dick Cheney released his fear-mongering, lying statement on the CIA Inspector General’s 2004 report and Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to prosecute the criminals in the CIA.

The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda. This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. These detainees also, according to the documents, played a role in nearly every capture of al Qaeda members and associates since 2002. The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States. The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. President Obama’s decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security.

Dear God. President Cheney wanted to turn the U.S. military on its own people, people living in the United States, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and the Posse Comitatus Act.

Top Bush administration officials in 2002 debated testing the Constitution by sending American troops into the suburbs of Buffalo to arrest a group of men suspected of plotting with Al Qaeda, according to former administration officials.

Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that a president had the power to use the military on domestic soil to sweep up the terrorism suspects, who came to be known as the Lackawanna Six, and declare them enemy combatants.

Well now, was President Cheney contemplating attacks with Predator Drones or would people have just woken up one morning to discover tanks rolling down the streets of their neighborhood?

I’ve thought this for quite some time: the Cheney administration declared civil war on this country a long time ago. We just didn’t see it so easily because there had not been a general call to arms. Obviously the government was preparing to remove even that thinly veiled cover.

What else will we find out that Congress and President Obama intend to ignore. Remember, looking forward is what we’re supposed to do according to President Obama. Nothing to see here folks, just move along now. We’re not supposed to concern ourselves with the past. I’m not sure why The New York Times wastes their time and ink reporting such god awful stories.

Politico reports the end of the Darth Vader era.

Joe Biden is laying plans to significantly shrink the role of the vice presidency in Barack Obama’s White House, according to an official familiar with his thinking.

It’s not just that Biden won’t sit in on Senate Democrats’ weekly caucus meetings – a privilege Republicans afforded outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney. He won’t have an office outside the House floor, as House Speaker Dennis Hastert gave Cheney early on.

Biden will not begin every day with his own intelligence briefing before sitting in on the president’s. He will not always be the last person Obama speaks to before making a decision.

He also will not, as a transition official calls it, operate a “shadow government” within an Obama administration.

[snip]

In short, Biden will be no Dick Cheney – who redefined the office of the vice presidency to gather unto himself unprecedented influence and reach. Instead, Biden will serve the role of trusted backup, but someone who won’t be mistaken for a co-president single-handedly crafting and promoting policy.