Dueling banjos in Washington; Updated
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It’s the Obama-Cheney showdown this morning. I, for one, am gratified to see this White House forced to put national security on the front burner. If not for the forceful public defenses by Vice President Cheney of the aggressive, proactive measures the last administration took to keep us safe, the current commander-in-chief would be happily gabbling about solar panels and weatherization subsidies or somesuch.
National security is and always will be the Democrats’ soft spot. And they know it.
Which is why Team Obama scrambled to preempt Cheney’s AEI speech.
Which is why the same Senate Democrats who cheered so lustily when Obama declared his Gitmo closure date turned around and denied him the funds to implement it.
Which is why Obama is embracing the very same principles of preventive detention that the Left went bananas over for the past eight years.
And which is why you woke up this morning to news of one of countless terror busts whose results were, ahem, inherited by the Obama administration.
The men and women who worked tirelessly the past eight years to prevent and disrupt jihadist plots at home and abroad aren’t the ones who’ve “lost their way.”
It’s the unreality-grounded civil rights absolutists, grievance-mongers, and 9/10 juveniles who have been and remain, in Andrew McCarthy’s apt description, willfully blind.
***
Related thoughts from Meghan Clyne in the NYPost on national security and the SCOTUS wars:
A poll released this week shows Democrats have closed the gap with Republicans on national security. There are few media circuses like Supreme Court hearings — and if the GOP seizes the spotlight to focus attention on some of the left’s more bizarre and dangerous legal theories on the War on Terror, it can only work to its advantage.
After all, by placing terrorism center stage, they might just accomplish one more thing: reminding Washington, and the American people, that we are still at war. With a Democratic supermajority in the Senate, it’s unlikely that Republicans will be able to block Obama’s nominee, no matter how unappealing. Yet if they can use the Souter vacancy to show that the War on Terror isn’t just about preening lawyers, but a real battle fought by real Americans whom a lot of judges are endangering . . . well, there are worse things to get out of a confirmation hearing.
***
Update: Here is the text of Cheney’s speech.
Cliff Notes’ version of Obama’s speech: I blame Bush (but, uh, I will follow his “lost way” on preventive detention. Just in a kinder, gentler, more, uh, moral way).
Update: I second Kathy Shaidle on Dick Cheney’s speech:
“Cheney’s speech was the best speech of the Bush administration. Too bad it was months/years late.”
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Categories: Barack Obama,Dick Cheney,Gitmo,Homeland Security
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Dick Cheney is showing the leadership that the Republicans are sadly lacking. He has now put the Obama administration on defense mode, Republicans should take note. Though, not holding my breath.
has Ed left hotair? does anyone know?
thank you in advance
Cheney’s macho &^%$# might make you happy, but Obama’s favorable rating is three times Cheney’s. After “weeks rather than months” and “greeted as liberators” and “operational ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam” and “you wouldn’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud” (sorry, that’s Rice), you would think Cheney’s credibility rating would be zero.
kinda off topic but you all should enjoy this little video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxDwBYjL3Fc
The aggressive illegal measures?
And happily gabbling about energy of the future -now- and less reliance on the middle east and less involved in their lives. I think that’s a good idea.
Personally, I think their soft spot is everything between their ears.
Being popular usually entails being all things to all people, which usually means you stand for nothing.
are you calling the first black president, and the most moral man in america, Bill Clinton, a LIAR???
you know he bombed the sudan because of those operational links.
Only to the lunatic fringe – like you and lgm.
Drill here, drill now!
oh and of course these 4 guys just arrested in a terrorist plot are VICTIMS of ameriKKKan imperialism. they should be set up in a fashionable NY pad, and given all the weapons they want, just to prove that we mean then no harm.
and then they, and all of the islamic world, will understand that we care, and are their friends!
I answered in another thread: he’s on vacation this week, maybe longer. Just keep checking.
The parent who gives their children anything they want and never punishes them is more popular with the kids than the parent who teaches the value of a dollar and disciplines, but which is the better parent?
The sad thing is, that the main stream media will drown out Dick Cheney’s speech with the Obama lies . Even when he is defending the country, I don’t believe him. In fact I don’t believe anything he says.
Who cares about popularity-contest ratings? Drop the personality and run the poll of Obama’s stand against Cheney’s stand, and the country sides two-to-one with Cheney.
We want Cheney on that wall; we need him on that wall!
LGM, I would think tha today of all days you would reconsider your position on terror. Four terrorists who have plotted to blowup a Jewish Synogouge in NYC, who were discovered and infiltrated long before Obama appeared get busted.
LGM, you should be sending a thank you note to President Bush and VP Cheney today. My first thought this morning was I wonder if that’s where LGM worships?
LGM, Bush and Cheney NEVER have cared about favorability polls. They are PATRIOTS and public servants who kept their oath to do their utmost to keep you and me safe.
How you can sit literally in a city that is Ground Zero and have the attitudes you have is a total mystery to me.
BuckeyeSam said (#15):
How about elections? The American people decide what the country does. They elected Bush and Cheney and now see that was a mistake. Maybe Obama will turn out to be a mistake — we’ll see. Maybe he’ll remain popular as Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan have.
lgm – troll – You can’t handle the truth! he he…. twit
Yeah, but Al Capone was popular, too. Cheney has been subjected to a media character assassination the like of which this nation has never seen. The vast majority of it was a lie. Obama is a new BLACK president, which artificially keeps his popularity numbers high.
Funny how so many Americans can see truth through lies.
Like the one about us not being the victim of another attack on our soil for the last seven, nearly eight years…
Umm…
Bush wasn’t running against THE ONE. That was McAnus, the weakest possible choice of the field. And the election was buggered by the MSM, who openingly and fawningly tanked for THE ONE.
We already have seen. HUGE mistake, based on HUGE lies.
Bill who…?
Obama has already proved to be a mistake.
I thought Obama was going to close gitmo and release those poor victims of ameriKKKan racism and imperialism??
and I thought he was going to do away with EVIL military tribunals?
and I thought he was going to release those photos that show just how evil ameriKKKa is!!
and he’s AIR RAIDING innocent civilians in afghanistan!!!
guess he’s just another WAR CRIMINAL like BOOOOSSSSSHHHHHH
ah….you beat me Ragspierre
thats a good one!
How about elections? The
AmericanACORN people decide what the country does.Perhaps we will see it as a mistake to have made such a 180.
Remember, Cheney is an eligible candidate for 2012.
But yet, there is Obama, rushing to get out there to talk about national security on the same day Cheney is. For a dead party with a bunch of nobodies that no one listens to, the left sure is still making a big deal out of them. If my numbers were so up there I think I would be secure enough to ignore someone like Cheney talking, but that is just me.
***
LGM is living safe in NYC thanks to the way President Bush, Vice President Dick Chaney, and others came up with the ways to “listen in” to the terrorists and hit them as hard as was possible.
***
If President Obama (PBUH) and his minions in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government get their ways LGM will end up with some of these TERRORISTS (not “misunderstood religous community organizers”)as neighbors.
***
I would be afraid to live in NYC or Washington DC after the democrats / liberals / socialists / marxists /communists implement their new U.S.S.A. policies.
***
The good news is that only 10 percent of the Muslims in the world have accepted the Jihadi tactics–that the only good non-Muslim is a dead non-Muslim.
***
The bad news is that 10 percent of 1,000 million Muslims is 100 million people that want us dead. Wake up and smell the cordite. The only thing that has changed since 9/11/2001 is our new government’s desire to stop engaging and hunting down the enemy.
***
John Bibb
***
Don’t bring a teleprompter to a gun fight.
EXCELLENT…!!!!
Off prompter, Cheney can form a coherent sentence, with nary an “UH, AH, UM…”
THE ONE can’t.
Just shows you how completely irrelevant the elected members of the GOP have become that the Cheney, a retired VP, has to be the one to defend policy. Time for the GOP to fold up shop and go home and fine tune their “electability theory” on waging losing campaigns. Since they don’t stand for anything, they don’t have to fight for anything. I recommend that their symbol should be blank flag. They can spend their time trying to explain that it is a BLANK flag, not a white flag.
Morning all long time no post! I have been doing a lot of overtime for the past 10 weeks standing up a new Fighter Squadron at our Wing and have been too brain dead to offer anything useful on this site other than to keep up with the latest outrage from “dear leader” or his minions. I keep jumping between FOX buisness new watching the tax cheat tank the market and watching what Chenney has to say about national security and “dear leader’s” arrogance and stupidity on the subject. When the hell will “dear leader” quit flapping his gums and let someone that understands how to protect Americans the opportunity to speak? Time to get myself into town to get my driver’s license renewed and then back to work. Stay safe and hoping to be able to get back in the grove over the long weekend.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE (mo-lone lah-veh) Translation: Come and take them!
Sad, but true.
Anyone else getting Michael Steele’s “Weekly Trunk” emails?
Just my opinion, but what a lame title, sort of the type socialists/elitists might come up with.
Did the GOP get the idea for the “Trunk” from The New Yorker, or from a Woody Allen movie?
(Apologies to fans of the last two.)
zero continues to prove what a true failure and mistake he truly is. he lacks any leadership qualities. the sheep may be impressed, but then again, that’s why sheep need sheep dogs, to tell them what they need to do.
Cheney. ROX!
He has a penchant for using 10 words when 1 would suffice.
Spare me. He got the votes of the hardcore left and then enough of the middle who thought it was a time to vote for a cool black guy.
Walter Williams said Obama would set blacks back for decade, and Williams is right.
With all the trashing from the media over the last 8 years, that’s certainly what you hope.
lgm, can you explain why Obama is following Cheney’s lead on national security?
I just had a flash of insight…
Like ABORTION…
Water-boarding should be SAFE, LEGAL, AND RARE….!!!!!
Obama says we’re not a Christian nation overseas, yet he invokes God’s name and blessings as he closes his speech.
Which is it, O?
This is the left’s mindset. Pouring water in the mouth of a person to simulate drowning is torture.
However, if an attempt to abort a baby fails and the child is born alive, it is not torture to deny the infant medical care; leaving it to cry and gasp for air without showing any mercy whatsoever until it dies.
Rags & Flyoverman–LOL.
Did you both read Ann Coulter’s newest column?
Where does someone come off listing Cheney as a “retired VP”? Did he ever say he was retiring from politics? Dick Cheney kept his mouth shut and his head down as VP because that’s what the job required him to do (mostly). I’m sure he now sees his current position as simply “unemployed”, and as such, he’s allowed to do whatever he wants and say whatever he wants, because that’s what we do here in America.
Think if you’d been the VP of a major company, for example, and you’d just been ousted by the members of the board. The new President of the company strolls in and bashes everything you just did, while turning around in secret and continuing YOUR SAME POLICIES… Wouldn’t you want to have a soapbox to stand on?
Cheney’s only pointing out that the new Emperor is naked… in the immortal words of Pete Townsend and the Who; “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”!
BTW-with all of the actual jobs that Cheney’s held, I’ll take HIS version of GOP principles any day of the week over the sitting members of Congress and the so-called leaders of the GOP!
There is NO evidence than anyone water-boarded his died, or been permanently damaged.
On the other hand, every human being subjected to abortion (with a very few exceptions) has been killed, and the mother OFTEN permanently DAMAGED, as well.
The more I consider that THE ONE has taken whole classes of interrogation off the table, the more I realize how irresponsible he is, and how MUCH MORE DANGEROUS our world has become.
The GOP have become irrelevant because the GOP leadership and elected officials have marginalized their GOP positions… NOT because there’s not a significant portion of this country which still believes in small government, low taxes, and personal freedom.
Obama got elected on a fluke… people wanted “new” because they were constantly told by the MSM that the “old was bad”. By the time 2010 arrives, it’ll be a new ballgame, folks!
“Half-measures leave you HALF EXPOSED”
Dick Cheney.
With weapons of mass destruction including airliners crammed with passengers…
happily employed by people who want to kill our culture and civilization…
ANY exposure is too freaking much.
If the recidivism rate of GITMO detainees is 14%…
that kills the “recruitment” bullspit the LEFTISTS keep chanting.
Errah, the GOP erroneously chose the “Trunk” in lieu of the “Sphincter” which would have been more appropiate, but harder to spell. This is where their (skat/message) emminates. Cutsie things like this as well as a lack of conservative voice are why you can color me and my $ gohn.
Trunk = Junk
Cheney/Palin ’12
Michelle Malkin for Secretary of State.
LMAO!
Glad I wasn’t drinking my coffee when I saw that!
Good one! Exceptional!!
Kudos!
And hard to distinguish from Specter.
So what? Effective, instrumental leaders like VP Cheney are seldom seen as popular while in office, or shortly thereafter; even Churchill lost power after saving Britain from Nazis invasion.
Cheney was and is concerned with making the right decisions to keep this country safe, despite the polls, which is what instrumental leadership is all about – not wetting a finger and holding it in the air to determine which way the political winds are blowing (that’s weakness), and he will be seen as a great VP.
Oh really? What about the “tax cut for 95% of all Americans” or “Gitmo will close upon my inauguration” or “out of Iraq in sixteen months” or “most transparent administration” and the host of Obama’s other distractions-as-promises that will never come to realization? Obama is a one termer.
LOVE IT!!!
Errah, Spector = Sphincter
Errah in my alternate universe a Headline in Steele’s rag would have read “Spector has left the Sphincter!”
That’s a powerful speech. Can’t wait to see the response by the “O” on releasing the intelligence uncovered during the EIT phase.
They’re both liars. Its not a good feeling to believe in no one anymore.
No one.
Half right.
NO contest on this…Professor Cheney skewered the pre-schoolers in the Obama administration!
Also….considering Obama’s defensiveness, narcissism, and arrogance:
My mom watched Obama’s full speech this morning and she counted the words “I” or “my” was spoken 143 times in his speech…and she herself admitted she probably missed a few!
I just counted the words “I” and “me” in Cheney’s speech…. just over 30 times were those words used!
VP Cheney:
The perfect speech – the highlighted part exactly summarizes the differences in strategy and approach, between the two parties in caring for this nation’s security – VP Cheney is a magnificent leader and effective speaker!
Unfortunately, it was a popularity contest and not substance that put Obama in office….
Obama is still popular but many polls show much of his policy initiatives are NOT!
The time is over to keep gauging the leadership of this country by popularity….
Truth.
There isnt a dem since JFK that has had the vaguest GD clue as to how to defend our nation. While pantywaist liberals whine and cry about the rights of people that want to butcher us, it has been the policies of the Bush administration that have decimated Al Queda and kept us safe for the past 8 years.
The consequence of liberals undoing all of those policies will of course be another attack. And what will sniveling liberal a**holes say then???
PS: PLEASE, don’t feed the attention starved little trolls on this board, who spew lib talking points, poll results and mantras (as opposed to relevant facts). We know who they are.
oh yea; the one that never answers any question put to it…
That is because Dick Cheney is now allowed by convention to say what really should have been said.
Dick Cheney should have been President- not the playboy from Texas we ended up with who right now is more concerned with his stupid memoirs than fighting the good fight.
If his views on fiscal conservatism before he was yoked to GW Bush are favorable, he should be the Repubs standard-bearer, with Sarah Palin as VP.
“Cheney and the Lady, 2012″(?)
lol, yeah, maybe lgm. Lets just hope he doesnt trash the place before he leaves.
I read the text of Cheney’s speech. Excellent. Really hit on the problems with tactics of the new administration. Gotta hand it to him, he’s one tough bird, and refuses to be trashed without a fight, in this case, simply pointing out the facts.
Perhaps your confidence in The One is beginning to wane, LGM?
I watched every second of Cheney’s speech; he is a national hero, period.
That he is being desecrated in the strident/hysterical/apoplectically-apologist/defeatist left-wing media makes me so mad I find myself almost wishing for another 9/11 — just so these sub-humans can get the reminder they so desperately need that…
… Cheney is (and was) right!!!!!
I couldn’t agree more.
Ah and theres the rub. The measures were LEGAL. Until you learn to deal with the truth, you will have difficulty in life making intelligent decisions. LGM is in the same boat. MS falsehoods are clouding your judgement.
I voted for this LOTE, and although I am grateful to him for some things, the reason he was an LOTE became so very apparent during the last 2 years of his admin., when he was simply unable to resist the liberal majority in Congress (Dems and Repubs, BTW).
He as Pres w/Cheney as VP is the converse to Reagan picking his dad as VP. Sadly, his legacy is tarnished and our country’s future is in a precarious state because of his last 2 years, which allowed this nation to slip into the hands of an unrepentant Marxist.
FYI – Cheney’s approval rating is rising by the day lgm. Your post sounds desperate. I haven’t been on here much, but to compare your current diatribes with past ones, I’d say you sound a bit nervous – and honestly, you should be.
Bush was a FAR from optimal President, BUT…
as Milton Friedman said, “You have to compare something with something”.
Bush was the right choice as between Gore and Kerry.
Just imagine where we would be now…
***
The honorable and honest Vice President Dick Cheney laid out why President Bush’s administration had to take the actions they did to protect the U.S.A. against further 9/11/2001 attacks.
***
President Obama (PBUH) talked about looking forward and moving on–in between bashing President Bush’s administration and blaming him for all our problems.
***
V.P. Chaney called out the “Messiah” on torture–limited prisoner abuse–waterboarding–was used on 3 terrorists with real knowledge of impending attacks and paid off bigtime in saving American lives. President Obama would have given up these lives for his “high moral principles”.
***
The Italian Red Brigade terrorists kidnapped and murdered Prime Minister Aldo Morrow. Italian special police caught one of the terrorists that had knowledge on where a kidnap victim was being held by the terrorists.
***
He didn’t want to talk. They sat him on a vise in the police garage and tightened it up on his “private parts”. A few minutes later he outed his compadres. All the Red Brigade members were caught and imprisoned, and the victim set free.
***
Who do you want protecting you–and what approaches do you want used on those with knowledge that can save your life?
***
I vote for the Dick Cheney limited abuse approach.
***
John Bibb
***
Leadership is not a popularity contest. Cheney gets it, believe Bush did too. I would venture a guess that neither one gave their poll numbers much thought over the course of their tenure. So bringing up poll numbers is a tactic of the clueless.
Obamageddon just got Bitch Slapped by Cheney! ROTFLMAO!
Obama just got B(&)(*_) Slapped by Cheney
And what a great moment in our history…
the two camps of American ideology so well displayed for all to see.
Thanks, Mr. Cheney…
Again.
Communist News Network just reported a poll showing that Cheney’s popularity is on the rise.
(giggle)
You simply cannot equate Cheney’s superb intellect and rational thought progression with Obama and his mindless teleprompter babble.
Interesting that Obama gave his speech in a room that houses the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights.
I would bet you a crsip $100 bill that other than in college when he had to for an assignment, Obama has never read voluntarily any of those documents.
I am sure he views them as impediments to his agenda.
We need a T-shirt or poster of VP Cheney with this inscription.
Dick Cheney
An American Patriot
“Still in the Fight”
I have never been more proud of V.P. Dick Cheney. Without emotion or hysteria he completely explained why things were done and also why we must keep vigilant today. Mr. Cheney told us why, better than anyone.
Pres. Obama cannot ever take blame for his actions. It’s always someone else’s fault. That’s not a very comforting trait to those of us depending on him keeping the country safe. I have far more reservations after watching the spectacle today than I had before. The wagging finger, the blaming of actions taken over the incident that killed 3000 in NY and thousands of our soldiers on the battlefield. He does not get it and our enemies now know he’ll not lift a finger to protect us unless he can claim innocence.
HHHHMMMM one would think that Obamageddon would know his Sec of Defense’s name right?
He called him William Gates LMAO!
BuckeyeSam
BuckeyeSam
what the heck
THANK YOU lets see if that works
He’s often the only adult in the room.
True. That’s one reason why I voted for him. However, the downhill slide of his presidency illustrates why voting for an LOTE produces less than optimum results, and can have a devastating long-term effect (re Obama taking the helm).
You know, the thing with the New York Terror bust yesterday is more than just proof the Bush Admin was doing more about protecting us than Der Fuhrer.
Yesterday proved just how much we need Git-Mo, and how horrible of an idea it is to place these jihadist ba**ards into the American prison system.
It is one thing when you have all these terrorists that have been taken off the field of battle in one location, one prison in a foreign country, albeit on an American base, where all they have to talk to is themselves.
It is another thing entirely when you place these same people, filled with hatred and plans of destroying America, killing Americans and laying waste to everything they deem non-Islamic into the general population of a Super-Max prison and get them talking to those who WILL get out at some point…those who have made “jailhouse conversions” to Islam and who already have a vendetta against this nation and those who live here.
Three of those captured yesterday were “jailhouse converts”. They came up with their plot all on their own. What does the Obama Admin and the rest of the Liberal jack-a**es think is going to happen once they get the fine, upstanding gentlemen housed currently in Git-Mo around these same people in an American prison?
No, the danger is not in these Club Git-Mo rejects getting out. It is in the damage they can do to those in prison who WILL get out and who are legally allowed to remain in this country and who cannot be sent elsewhere.
And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is the prime example of how Liberals, and more to the point, the Obama Administration DOES NOT THINK and they DO NOT have the safety and security of this nation and her people in mind or in their hearts in anything they do.
Ad don’t give me the crap about how they will be kept away from others, or in solitary or anything like that. IF that were the case, then there would be no reason to bring them here in the first place. They won’t allow that to happen, for all the idiotic Liberal peace-nics will be all up in arms about discrimination and other nonsense. Look at what they do now.
Also, 64% of Americans say that the balance between individual rights and national security is either about right, or is weighted toward individual rights too much.
Unless you’re still in jr. high.
Obama is the first Anti-American President.
Being popular is no replacement for leadership; speaking well is not a replacement for the truth; being cool is not a replacement for competence; pandering to wackos will not keep us safe!
Can you ever in your wildest imagination think of Obama saying that – or even “getting it”?
Well said. I’m still trying to figure out what’s wrong with Gitmo in the first place.
lgm sez:
No maybe about it lgm. He is.
My favorite phrase!
Pretty much sums up the Leftards.
If America is hit again…
No Obama grandiloquence will avail.
Nothing on his teleprompter will suffice.
Americans will be telling him and his cohort…
“Tell it to the pitchfork…!!!”