Cheney Admits to War Crimes, Media Yawns, Obama Turns the Other Cheek

My pleasure. We can share our quail hunting adventures and discuss freedom and democracy.

I din't know what the hell to make of this at first...

What are the prerequisites? For example, is it OK if she smells like fish and has a really grating voice?

You are not a liberal. Let's hear what specifically about this article is wrong, from a liberal perspective. Good luck.

Oh, Im not disagreeing with the article. Im disagreeing with how it was written. I dont feel that this was well written at all. There was no need to call that man a sadist. Even if his views are mad and uncanny. Read the article again and try to view it from a more middle ground. It's just not well written. There are other ways to get a point across without sounding pompous. You don't have to degrade a man to make your point seem better. Your views should be so sound that name calling isn't necessary.

It's perfectly well-written. I don't detect even a trace of pomposity, and yes Cheney is a sadist.
What middle ground? Cheney has admitted to his crimes. They. Are. Crimes.
Let me know if you feel the need to argue the point and I'll be happy to produce the relevant statutes.

"I want some straight up facts and honorable statements that will actually hold up in an argument."

All straight up and well-researched facts that would hold up in any argument or a court of law.

And by the way, Jason Leopold's writing is very well regarded by people whose opinion I respect, including his own peers in journalism and numerous reviewers in major publications.

http://processmediainc.com/press/mini_sites/news_junkie/praise.php

I'll put the opinion of Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller up against yours any day of the week.

Your objections don't hold up to scrutiny. Perhaps consider taking another year off and hug some more trees. Lots of trees.

I think if you actually took the time to read the article you will see that it has "straight up facts," lots of them, with links to documents and reports and testimony and books. It appears you read the first sentence only. When you have a former vice president stating, flatly, "I was a big supporter of waterboarding...I was a big supporter of enhanced interrogation techniques" what you have is a sadist, a man who has a fondness for torture and has also admitted to war crimes, since torture is a war crime. Obama, as well as AG Eric Holder, have both said, publicly, that waterboarding is torture. You're well within your right to criticize the writing, and I am sorry it did not appeal to you. But your statement about "you want straight up facts" proves you haven't read the story in its entirety. Everything in this report is backed up by a variety of sources.

Thanks for the kind words and for taking the time to share this article with readers of current. I am very appreciative.

You're welcome. Anytime!

I apologize if Ive offended you in any way. I just dislike the writing. And when I said "I want some straight up facts and honorable statements that will actually hold up in an argument.", I wasn't trying to put down your sources. I was still kind of ticked off by the initial "sadist" comment. I will admit that this probably had a decent hand in how I felt about the article in general. A bit more than half way through it, I was still irritated and that's about when I wrote the comment in question. I just feel like that was an improper name calling kind of situation. Saying he gets a sick kind of pleasure from torturing people without actually knowing if that's the case just seems rude to me. As much as I dislike that man, I still try to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe he feels that way because he believes it to be the only way of extracting information to save his country. Maybe he thinks it to be honorable.
Im not trying to condone him. Oh, no no no. I just was annoyed by the writing like I said. And I apologize for the way I went about discussing it. I hope you can forgive me.

And to Sleepdirt? I don't plan on taking any breaks from my schooling, friend. I just dive right in to things. Head first, usually. It gets me into trouble sometimes (see above flippancy). But I feel that if I sit and think about the things I'm doing BEFORE I do them, I lose the moment and that just plain sucks. I'll always be the first to admit that I'm naive/childish/lacking in common sense. But please don't talk down to me.

"Know how many Iraqi civilians died as a result? 100,000 to 500,000 (depending on the source)."

And literally millions displaced to other countries where they live in camps and are treated like enemies or 2nd class (non) citizens.
Then there is the US military whose ranks are committing suicide at a rate that exceeds the general population. CNN reported just today that the suicide numbers are rising still more.

Yes, he is a sadist. I am not personally fond of the term 'evil' but it applies here.
Dick Cheney is consummately evil and he is a sadist.
This is not partisan invective, it is factual and appropriate. Just because he appointed himself VP does not make him exempt or due some kind of undeserved artificial respect. I can respect the office while disrespecting the occupant.

Right, it's certainly not partisan from my perspective. I never followed politics until after 9/11. I didn't know the difference between Republicans and Democrats or conservatives and liberals. I strongly supported the Bush administration and the war... until I *really* started paying attention. The atrocities committed by the Bush administration are the main reasons why I am politically active now. Sometimes I wish I never started paying attention, though. It's so depressing.

Thanks for your note. No offense taken at all. I appreciate your feedback and was simply just trying to point out that there are quite a bit of facts in the story. You are absolutely entitled to hold your opinion on my use of "sadist." It was a conscious effort on my part to use that word and I recognize that it will not appeal to everyone.

That was a great joke!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

WOW, i haven't laughed like that in a long time! thanks bud!!

I love to inspire a chuckle here and there

He is a coward who weaseled out of serving his country no less than five times, possibly a record. I can't say I have ever even heard of anyone so cowardly. AND he outed a CIA agent during a time of war.
Can you say treason, skippy?

How big would your balls be if you were a Politician who wanted to change things, but were threatened by the Shadow Government not to make waves or risk being killed, or your family being killed?

Good point. fun_size's point was good too, though. So what's the answer? Education? Is it even possible for the people of this country to cut through all the BS and decide what is right based on facts (rather than political propaganda). I just think the people really could hold politicians more accountable if they really understood the difference between facts, opinions, lies, science, fiction, and propaganda. The people (we) are the answer, somehow, but, our democratic republic is basically a circus right now. People don't know who to believe. They just pick their favorite "facts". True facts, logic, and reason are taking a back seat. It's really sad.

"When oil prices rise once again this country is going to be crippled."

Which they will, and before the recession 'ends' (as though it truly will end), which will make things really messy.
But don't worry, Obama has thrown the right another freebie. Nuclear power subsidies on the taxpayers dime! Corporate socialism deluxe!
Which takes a decade to bring online, by the way. Wait, it gets better.
Nuclear power is the one industry in America this 100% uninsurable. That's right, the American taxpayer is fully liable for any uneventful occurrences with respect to nuclear accidents, leaking elements in the groundwater, etc. Then there is the corruption and cost overruns associated with all projects of this scale. AND, an adequate means of storage for nuclear waste is still way over the horizon.
So much for the green revolution. Same old, same old, only worse.

I'm ready to stand in front of the tank. We're going to need to grow some cajones among the citizenship if anything is going to change. Obama promised change but he either lied or is helpless against the Fed and the lobbyists. Change only truly happens when it happens among the people. The tank came down Tian'namen Square and one man stood in front of it to stop the violence. We send our boys off to die in illegal wars abroad, some of us should be willing to shed a few drops for freedom over here if that becomes necessary. Before we get to that we need to take to the phones, the airwaves and the streets and demand the change we want.

Excellent points. Honestly im not sure if its our shitty educational systems or just the american people's general lack of interest in politics or information in general. People can get a lot further by talking out of their ass than by actually using facts. Whats worse is that people here love to ignore the truth and instead they buy into whatever they want to hear.

Yeah i said the exact same thing in the nuclear energy story. These plants not only take forever to come online but theres still the issue of what to do with the nuclear waste(of which several barrels go missing and unaccounted for every year) and potential contamination of the surrounding environment. What about investing into solar technologies or even wind or wave based energies? So much for the "Green Revolution" i was hoping for.

Good one

Of course, this is a moot point because the White House has openly admitted to war crimes.

See Jane Mayer's "Predator War" in the New Yorker.

If the current administration prosecutes, they set a precedent that gov'ts are-gasp!-accountable for their actions. Every administration has one thing in common: they all do things that are, or could be interpreted as, illegal.
No one in any administration wants to set this precedent.

did ya take your pills today?

Sounds like somebody forgot to take their medication today.

what the hell are you talking about yomamaisajoke? do you read these articles or do you just pollute them with anti-obama sentiments? do you think it's funny when thousands of people are unjustly killed for corporate gain? is that a joke to you? i guess people dying in the name of greed doesn't tickle my funny bone. could you please explain how you can laugh at the suffering of other people?

That's what defines a true Republican. Expect no less.

Corporate gain? Like how the corporations would have gained by not having their headquarters in the World Trade Centers blown up. Having to relocate and then hire a bunch of new people to replace the ones who died. That was probably pretty costly.

i knew it from your other post(cali pot tax)....this explain why your so fucking retarded. we will all be laughing when the history books state that bush and cheney were both criminals, & were lining their pockets with money made from the blood of our nation. and you are worried about taxes. with a 9 Billion dollar war budget. i dont think the "leeching parasites" of the welfare program are really that big of a deal.
people like you are the reason the rest of the world despises the U.S.
Thank for your ignorant views on life without these. the posts would be really boring.

Pretty sure we were talking about the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, not 9/11. But since you're all about "never forgetting", there were quite a few individuals who benefitted financially from this kind of terrorist attack. And quite a few of these individuals aren't too far from the Bush/Cheney political camp. All theories aside, since this Iraq war had nothing to do with WMDs, or freeing the Iraqi's from a cruel dictator (if that were the case, we'd be shocking and awing a whole hell of a lot of other countries), it seems to me that this conflict seems to be about a control of a very lucrative resource [read] corporate gain.

hismamaisajoke thinks watching American soldiers die for nothing is both amusing and profitable.

And that is because the Democrats are explicitly guilty and in full knowledge at least some or all of the war crimes themselves. There is nothing they either can or would dare do.

However, it is the legal obligation of other signatories of the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to investigate war crimes and prosecute where appropriate. And they will. It will take time.

**2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

Prosecuting cases of torture is not optional and failing to do so or intentionally blocking the process is in itself both a federal and international crime.

Treaty obligations, under the US Constitution, supercede all other laws and statutes, becoming the supreme law of the land.