Politico hypes Cheney attack on Obama's response to plane plot; doesn't mention plotters released by Cheney administration
December 30, 2009 9:19 am ET by Jamison Foser
If you were typing up Dick Cheney's attack on Barack Obama's response to the Christmas Day attack in which someone tried to blow up a plane bound for Detroit, and hyping the GOP "strategy for next year's midterm congressional elections" of "portray[ing] Democrats as weak on security," would you maybe include mention of the fact that two of the four people who allegedly plotted that attack were released from U.W. custody in 2007, while Dick Cheney was Vice President?
Oh, you would, would you? Well, that's the difference between you and Mike Allen. Because Politico really is just a GOP bulletin board.
UPDATE: And just to be clear, Allen didn't get an interview with Cheney. No, he describes the source of Cheney's attacks as "Cheney said in a statement to POLITICO" -- which is a fancy way of saying "Cheney said in a press release." So to sum up: Dick Cheney sends Mike Allen a press release, which Mike Allen then copies-and-pastes it into a "news article" without mentioning key facts that would undermine Cheney's press release. Aren't you glad Politico got a spot on the Pulitzer committee?
Hell, Cheney even wanted to torture Colin Powell because he doubted his patriotism.
It's all Obama's fault...! ;>)
And, of course, his wife LOVES to be tortured. I think she's writing a novel with that theme.
which is the reason she married him in the first place?
/snark
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The Midnight Review
In a world of international flights, the rule is you police your own.
Just sayin'
While I favor military tribunals to determine the status of Gitmo detainees...the lack of action by military tribunals has always been puzzling to me.
What the heck is the hold up?
But I guess the target audience for Cheney's opinions aren't supposed to think about things like that.
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The Midnight Review
Dick Cheney... (emphasis added)
- Ten total sentences.
- Ten uses of the word "war."
- Eight sentences ending in "war."
I am starting to think that Cheney is convinced we are, "at war."
/shudder
Terrorism has always been with us.
What started WW I? Terrorism. What happened in the Munich Olympic Games? Terrorism. What was it when Sarin Gas was let loose in Japan? Terrorism. What was it when the Federal Building was blown up in OKC? Terrorism!
We can't stop all terrorism via military methods. We can stymie many efforts. We can calm some breeding grounds. We can get the cooperation of other nations to monitor and capture dangerous men. But we can't carpet bomb areas!
For the price of a few box cutters, some plane tickets, accomidations, and a pilot simulator training, a small group of men managed to accomplish their very real goals.
An event that will instill a sense of fear in the American people that is so deep that they will agree to anything if it satiates their bloodlust. They will spend themselves into oblivion chasing after ghosts and apparitions that threaten to come after them in the night. They will spare no expese in their own defense even if it means borrowing money from the former enemies. They will act without regard for themselves while believing that the massive debt they will accumulate has somehow saved themselves from certain peril.
They will risk inernational condemnation on everything from invasions to detentions of those they would consider their enemies. Their fear will know no bounds.
And when the money is gone, and their own social servie programs have no funding, and their infrastructure is decaying, and the people are spent on the toll of American lives being lost, they will ask themselves, "how did we get here?" They will blame the politicians, and their leaders, and the enemies within their own system. They will blame everyone else without blaming themselves and in the end... they will turn on one another.
Bush didn't like the UN. Bush didn't staff the position that helped with diplomatic efforts around the world for much of his presidency, and then he finally gave the role to an ineffective Karen Hughes!
It was certainly a perfect storm. Bush couldn't hardly have done a worse job and he did tremendous damage to our reputation and our foreign policy infrastructure.
Thanks for the discussion!
There's no problem with a journalist reacting to a press release by writing a story about it. The problem appears when they don't do the research necessary or inform their readers of OTHER aspects of the story that the press release might have either glossed over, deceptively portrayed, or lied about.
This are the same flaws that FoxNews displays all the time - they omit, they distort, or they outright lie.
The flawed approach to fighting terrorism was the Bush/Cheney way.
They're the ones who blew the goodwill we had around the world after 9/11, a time and an attitude shift that we should have exploited to our advantage to gain footholds in countries to help tamp down terrorist breeding grounds.
They're the ones who changed it into a global war, fought with our military, when virtually all of our successes have either been through covert methods or through police actions. The war in Afghanistan? Necessary because the leadership of that country was complicit with Al Qaeda. The Global War on Terror? A bad idea that clearly failed.
But do journalists mention these failures in leadership and insight? Nope. Do they mention that Bush and company failed to take terrorism seriously until 9/11 happened? Nope. They should, but they don't.
The real way to end, forever, the threat of foreigners attacking America is two-fold:
Kill everyone who isn't American
and, or
Conquer every land that isn't America, and make it a part of America.
End of Problem.
You can thank me later.