Cheney Has Hated America For A Long Time

[Syrinx]

This if from Vice: Dick Cheney And The Hijacking Of The American Presidency, by Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein, pages 34-35.

But on May 25, 1975, with Chief of Staff Rumsfeld out of the country, The New York Times dropped another (Seymour) Hersh bombshell. It revealed that U.S. spy submarines were tapping into Soviet communication cables inside the USSR's three-mile territorial limit. Hersh admitted in the story that his sources gave him the information in the hope that it would move policy. They believed that the submarine program violated the spirit of dètente and that using satellites to obtain the same information was less risky. Rumsfeld, traveling with the president in Europe, put Cheney in charge of devising an administration response to the story. Cheney's answer was as stunning as it was predictive of positions he would take when he had real power as George W. Bush's co-president.

Cheney called a meeting with Attorney General Edward Levi and White House counsel Philip Buchen to discuss options. Levi, a short man with a towering intellect, unimmpeachable integrity, and a nonpartisan bent, served as a bridge between the Democratic Congress and Ford, winning the president's approval for intelligence reforms over the objections of exeuctive absolutists like Cheney. "Ed Levi was a voice of wisdom and counsel," says Jack Marsh, a Ford senior adviser who worked on intelligence matters with Levi. "His contributions have never been appreciated."

In the case of Hersh's submarine exposè, it would be Levi, the designated adult, who would rein in Cheney. Faced with the possible leak of classified information, the thirty-four-year-old Cheney's first thoughts involved breaking into the home of a reporter. Among the options the three men explored, according to Cheney's handwritten notes, were grand jury indictments, threatening the Times with prosecution if they didn't stop reporting classified information, and obtaining a search warrant to "go after Hersh papers in his apt." They also discussed political considerations. "Will we get hit with violating the 1st amendment to the constitution?" Cheney wrote. Ultimately, Levi put the kibosh on searching Hersh's apartment. Since the leak did not endanger the Soviet eavesdropping, with Levi's prodding, the White House decided to do nothing rather than draw more attention to it.

Fast forward thirty years to the spring and summer of 2006. The New York Times has exposed details of the government's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program and its surveillance of banking transactions. The Bush administration responds by threatening a criminal investigation and launching a political smear campaign -- to punish the newspaper. In June, Cheney takes the opportunity of a congressional fundraising lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to lash out at the hometown daily. "Some in the press, in particular The New York Times, have made it harder to defend America against attack by insisting on publishing detailed information about vital national security programs," the vice president declares.

[melody]

1. Terrifying, but true

One of our greatest enemies is in the White House.

[babylonsister]

2. Nah, it's power and control that Cheney craves. He's made a shitload

of money for him and his buddies; could that have been the 'plan'?
Per Hersh on Real Time w/Maher, Cheney actually believes 'we're surrounded'. Nothing indicates that, so why don't I (believe that?) He lives in a bubble and is just exacerbating the problem imo.

[Syrinx]

3. I don't believe he thinks to himself "I hate America"

But he is actively opposed to every principle that makes the idea of America a great one.

[babylonsister]

5. That's what makes him so very dangerous; he slipped a sprocket

somewhere. Now he's loaded with scary things haunting and taunting him, things of his own creation.
I wish he's just go away, retire, whatever. Then the prince will really be naked.

[Syrinx]

6. I think he was born with a slipped sprocket

That's got a funny ring to it, doesn't it?

Dick Cheney was evil before evil was cool. He voted against Headstart, for goodness sake. He was even against letting Nelson Mandela out of prison.

And those so-called "hunting" trips he loves so much are the epitomè of sadism -- blasting tame, pen-raised birds, elderly lawyers and assorted critters at point-blank range.

What a vile person. And the gall of his wife Lynne to call John Kerry a bad man. :grr:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. Psychotic turd-brains never change their ways... n/t