CNN, the cozen news network, interviewed former Vice President Dick Cheney who did all he could to instill his usual fear-mongering fallacies we’ve all grown to despise and loathe the past eight years while badmouthing the Obama administration.
One reason Cheney may be making the rounds is because of renewed calls for a probe of Bush administration policies. The cozen news network, in their typical lapdog fashion, accepted Cheney’s diarrhetic rhetoric — intended to justify and rewrite his malfeasance — without question.
CNN is one perfect example of why media is failing and going bankrupt. Instead of reporting actual factual news, they willingly spread propaganda while repeatedly trying to rewrite the illicit history of the most corrupt, never-elected presidential administration with libelous ‘interviews’ while trying to stir up more political controversy — a neverending propaganda parade and misinformation campaign.
During his recent interview on CNN’s State of the Union, host John King, as noted by Media Matters, asked Cheney several leading questions, most of which were premised on conservative or Republican talking points that provided Cheney ample opportunities to attack President Obama.
Cheney continued spewing his verbal diarrhea regarding achievements by the U.S. in Iraq and lamented over Scooter Libby not being pardoned by former President Bush. Cheney also blasted President Obama’s decisions on discontinuing some Bush administration ‘War on Terror’ policies, used fear-mongering to insinuate that Obama was opening the door for another 9/11, admitted torture and tried absolving the Bush administration of any blame for the financial crisis inherited by the Obama administration.
Denying Responsibility For Economic Crisis
Between 2001 and 2008 under Bush and Cheney, unemployment leaped from 4.2% to 7.6%, there were substantial increases in the ranks of the poor and uninsured, and the federal budget, even with their intentionally deceptive accounting practices, went from a $128 billion surplus to a $1.3 trillion deficit. According to Cheney, “stuff happens.”
During the interview on Cozen News Network, Cheney said he didn’t think you can blame the Bush administration for creating those circumstances, and he noted that he didn’t think anybody really cares about that.
Without addressing the employment figures, Cheney instead tried playing the 9/11 card, saying that after almost three thousand Americans died — to further the illicit actions of a politically corrupt Presidential appointee — that they immediately had to go into wartime mode. Cheney blamed the deficit on that and Hurricane Katrina, both of which “required us to spend money.”
Cheney said the Obama administration was using the economic crisis to justify a massive expansion in the government and more authority over the private sector. He would know.
Trumpeting The Risk of Another Catastrophic Attack
President Obama’s discontinuing Bush’s “war on terror” policies, in Cheney’s mind, raises the risk of another 9/11 attack to Americans. He believes the nation is less safe now. This nation is safer now than it has been the past eight years under the ‘leadership’ of the Bush administration.
Closing CIA ‘Black Sites’ abroad and defining waterboarding as torture were, according to Cheney, absolutely essential to the ‘success’ the Bush administration enjoyed of being able to collect ‘intelligence’ that allowed them to defeat all further attempts to attack the U.S. since 9/11. No mention of the anthrax attacks that occurred after 9/11…
Cheney is still trying to peddle his belief that all the illegal, secret activities utilized by the Bush administration were not only successful, but legal and in accordance to our constitutional practices and principles.
As noted by Think Progress, Bush’s torture policies made Americans — both at home and serving overseas — less safe. If another catastrophic attack occurred, presuming it wouldn’t be allowed to happen by the Obama administration, it would probably occur as an act of revenge because of Bush’s policies.
Incompetence Covered Up By Fear-Mongering And Sadism
Despite Cheney’s delusions, the programs implemented by the Bush administration were not legal. I have no idea what constitution he was referring to, but torture is not now, nor has it ever been, constitutional and many of Bush’s policies have proven to be illegal, despite delusional ‘legal’ justification from politicized Bush administration lawyers who colluded with the White House.
Not once during the interview did King ask about the revelation of Cheney’s personal assassins or any follow up questions. King just gave Cheney a platform to spread his lies and misconceptions. As noted by Andrew Sullivan from the Atlantic, what people forget about Cheney is his rank incompetence — which he covers up with fear-mongering and sadism.
Cheney says the Bush administration accomplished nearly everything they set out to do. They certainly did. As noted by Juan Cole: “The real question is whether anyone will have the gumption to put Cheney on trial for treason and crimes against humanity.”
In just about any other country, Bush and Cheney would have been locked up long ago for the plethora of crimes they committed. Unfortunately American politics is riddled with corruption that implicates most politicians in Washington, including President Obama. Consequently, politicians regard themselves as being above the law. That’s a practice in Washington that has gone on entirely too long and needs to be stopped.
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