Note: Though I respect the office of the Vice-President this man should have been arrested for treason, murder, lying to Congress and the people of the United States.
“US doesn't prosecute its war criminals. It honors them” — Glenn Greenwald
The truth in Greenwald’s quote, and the sentiment, is felt around the world as former Vice President Dick Cheney was honored Thursday. A white bust was created that now sits at the U.S. Capitol, bought and paid for by the American people.
The event brought out Cheney’s (poignantly) true “partner in crime,” former President George W. Bush.
Sarah Lazare at Common Dreams remarks: The ceremony was the first public appearance of Cheney and Bush together since Jon Meacham's biography of George H.W. Bush was released in November. George Bush 41 is quoted criticizing Cheney for being “hard-line,” “ Iron-ass,” and "knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East."
George Bush 43 made light of the comments about the former vice president, who has recently used his considerable media platform to rail against the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, declare he is unapologetic about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and call for military escalation towards ISIS.
Lazare reports that when Bush told his father about the Cheney ceremony, Bush said “send my best regards to old iron-ass.” How about “old torturer” or “old murderer” or “old war criminal?”
Dick Cheney is responsible for the deaths of over 4,500 US troops—and reportedly hundreds of thousands innocent civilians. All of my spirituality leaves me when I think of Dick Cheney. The world damage he created, and the lives he destroyed is beyond forgiveness, much less worthy of an honor. Shame on US for allowing this man to walk free.
THE RISE TO POWER
Jon Meecham new biography, Destiny And Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president usually called Bush 41 lets fly a few cruise missiles at the Bush 433 war staff.
Meecham received information from two reliable sources audio tapes Bush 41 made and actual up to date interviews.
Fox News reports that Bush told Meecham he felt both Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld were too hawkish after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"I don't know, he just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with," Bush said. "The reaction to Sept. 11, what to do about the Middle East. Just iron-ass. His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East...."
Bush also said he thought it was a “Big mistake” to let Cheney (Code name Dick the Head) “Bring in kind of his own State Department,” and suggested Cheney might have been egged on by his wife, Lynne, (Code name Momma Bitch) and daughter Liz. ( Code Name Nex-GenBitch) “ You know, I’ve concluded that Lynne Cheney is a lot of the éminence rise here… tough as nails, driving.”
When talking about Rumsfeld, Bush took an even harsher tone, telling Meacham, "I don't like what he did, and I think it hurt the president." Bush said he was never that close to Rumsfeld, and believes he has "a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He's more kick ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that. Rumsfeld was an arrogant fellow."
Cheney, who served as the elder Bush's defense secretary, told Fox News: "It's his view, perhaps, of what happened, but my family was not conspiring to somehow turn me into a tougher, more hardnosed individual. I got there all by myself." Rumsfeld did not comment.
CREATE YOUR OWN KARMA
In early 2000, while serving as the CEO of Halliburton, Cheney headed George W. Bush's vice-presidential search committee. How unfortunate for the country and how fortunate for Cheney. You make everyone else look bad and then you go ahead and stand there like a lightbulb in the middle of the desert. And George Bush not the most brilliant of people reviewed Cheney's findings, and surprised the world by proving it only takes one man to screw in a lightbulb and screw the country.
Pres. Bush asked Cheney himself to join the Republican ticket. Halliburton reportedly reached agreement on July 20 to allow Cheney to retire, with a package estimated at $20 million. Oh, I think it’s a lot more when you consider commissions for the burning oil fields in IRAQ, stock options and and a host of other benefits.
Just before the election Cheney put his home in Dallas up for sale and changed his drivers' license and voter registration back to Wyoming. This change was necessary to allow Texas' presidential electors to vote for both Bush and Cheney without contravening the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits electors from voting for someone from their own state for both President and Vice President.
This pitted VP hopeful Cheney against VP hopeful Joseph Lieberman. And since the Bush-Cheney team was not eligible for public funding to plan a transition to a new administration, Slick Dick Cheney opened a privately funded transition office in Washington. This office worked to identify candidates for all important positions in the cabinet and that was the birth of the “Neocons”. Donald Rumsfeld for the post of Secretary of Defense to counter the influence of Colin Powell at the State Department, and Paul Wolfowitz replace George Tenet as director of the Central Intelligence Agency which failed.
Vice Presidency Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Cheney remained physically apart from Bush for security reasons. For a period, Cheney stayed at a variety of undisclosed locations, out of public view. Cheney later revealed in his autobiographical memoir "In My Time" that these "undisclosed locations" included his official Vice Presidential residence, his home in Wyoming, and Camp David. He also utilized a heavy security detail, employing a motorcade of 12 to 18 government vehicles for his daily commute from the Vice Presidential residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory to the White House.
SCUMBAG DRAFT DODGER
When Cheney became eligible for the draft, during the Vietnam War, he applied for and received five draft deferments. In 1989, The Washington Post writer George C. Wilson interviewed Cheney as the next Secretary of Defense; when asked about his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service”. Cheney testified during his confirmation hearings in 1989 that he received deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, owing to sub-par academic performance and the need to work to pay for his education. Initially, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was only taking older men. When he became eligible for the draft, he applied for four deferments in sequence. He applied for his fifth exemption on January 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant. He was granted 3-A status, the "hardship" exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.
ASSHOLES TO ASSHOLES
On the morning of June 29, 2002, Cheney served as Acting President of the United States under the terms of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, while Bush was undergoing a colonoscopy. Cheney acted as President from 11:09 UTC that day until Bush resumed the powers of the presidency at 13:24 UT.
THE BIG LIE AND THE BIGGER LIE TELLER
Following 9/11, Cheney was instrumental in providing a primary justification for a renewed war against Iraq. Cheney did a difficult Vulcan mind meld on Pres. George Bush’s (took three hours to find his mind) approach to the "War on Terror", making numerous public statements alleging Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, and making several personal visits to CIA headquarters, where he questioned mid-level agency analysts on their conclusions which he paid no frickin attention to. History proved he was not only wrong but his intentions were evil.
Cheney continued to allege links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, even though President Bush received a classified President’s Daily Brief on September 21, 2001 indicating the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the September 11 attacks Furthermore, in 2004, the 9/11 Commission concluded that there was no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda. and that "there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda".
ABOUT AS CREDIBLE AS THE AYOYOLLAH ASSAHOLA
Following the US invasion of Iraq, Cheney remained steadfast in his support of the war, stating that it would be an "enormous success story", and made many visits to the country. He often criticized war critics, calling them "opportunists" who were peddling "cynical and pernicious falsehoods" to gain political advantage while US soldiers died in Iraq. In response, Senator John Kerry asserted, "It is hard to name a government official with less credibility on Iraq than Cheney.”
In a March 24, 2008 extended interview conducted in Ankara, Turkey with ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz on the fifth anniversary of the original U.S. military assault on Iraq, Cheney responded to a question about public opinion polls showing that Americans had lost confidence in the war by simply replying "So?" video This remark prompted widespread criticism, including from former Oklahoma Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards, a long-time personal friend of Cheney.
HIS SECOND TERM
Bush and Cheney were re-elected in the 2004 presidential election, running against John Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards. During the election, the pregnancy of his daughter Mary and her sexual orientation as a lesbian became a source of public attention for Cheney in light of the same-sex marriage debate. Cheney has stated that he is in favor of gay marriages but that each individual state should decide whether to permit it. This really is interesting. The public did not know at this point what the war was really costing us. Trillions of dollars not factored in our economy and Dick was making money hand over fist.
Cheney's former chief legal counsel, David Addington, became his chief of staff and remained in that office until Cheney's departure from office. John P. Hannah served as Cheney's national security adviser. Until his indictment and resignation in 2005, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. served in both roles. Great teammates, the indictment should have gone against Cheney.
CLOSE CALL - GEORGE MADE IT
On the morning of July 21, 2007, Cheney once again served as acting president, from 7:16 am to 9:21 am. Bush transferred the power of the presidency prior to undergoing a medical procedure, requiring sedation, and later resumed his powers and duties that same day.
After his term began in 2001, Cheney was occasionally asked if he was interested in the Republican nomination for the 2008 elections. However, he always maintained that he wished to retire upon the expiration of his term and he did not run in the 2008 presidential primaries. The Republicans nominated Arizona Senator John McCain who begat Sara Palin. (A whole other story)
HE IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE A LIER AND CROOK
Cheney was a prominent member of the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), commonly known as the Energy task force, which comprised energy industry representatives, including several Enron executives. After the Enron scandal, the Bush administration was accused of improper political and business ties. In July 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that the US Department of Commerce must disclose NEPDG documents, containing references to companies that had made agreements with the previous Iraqi government to extract Iraq's petroleum.
Beginning in 2003, Cheney's staff opted not to file required reports with the National Archives and Records Administration office charged with assuring that the executive branch protects classified information, nor did it allow inspection of its record keeping. Cheney refused to release the documents, citing his executive privilege to deny congressional information requests. Media outlets such as Time magazine and CBS News questioned whether Cheney had created a "fourth branch of government" that was not subject to any laws.
A group of historians and open-government advocates filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to declare that Cheney's vice-presidential records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld from the public without proper review.
THE TROIKA
Halliburton got a lot of business from that administration also known as having the nickname, the TROIKA. A general meaning of the Russian word troika (Cyrillic alphabet: тройка) is three of a kind, a collection of three. Cheney Bush, Rove. You will here more about their exploits, I promise you. During the disastrous Bush Administration, Halliburton received a large share of the Military and "Humanitarian" contracts from the government. Dick Cheney’s former employer.
George "the conquerer" Bush and his Dad, "Bushido the first", made a lot of money in that black stuff called oil. They were magnates, more like magnets as the money just seemed to come to them and their friends. Richard Cheney was the head of Halliburton and resigned in title only, it seems they still send him lots of money, to take the Vice-presidency where even more contracts went on to Halliburton and on a no-bid basis.
IN THE PAST DECADE
Halliburton was involved in a kickback scheme that prompted Halliburton to fire two workers and reimburse the Pentagon $6.3 million. Yea, two guys just happened to skip with millions. Sacrificial lambs. additionally, the possible overcharging for food services which Halliburton reimbursed the Defense Department for nearly $30 million. Halliburton has set aside $141 million to pay other possible reimbursements.
A separate DCAA audit which accused KBR of overcharging by $61 million for gasoline delivered to serve the civilian market in Iraq last year. Halliburton has said the charges were proper. Right... like i believe them. Critics say Halliburton is an example of war profiteering by companies friendly to the Bush administration. Company and administration officials say politics had nothing to do with Halliburton's contracts in Iraq.
CIA LEAK SCANDAL
Plame affair - CIA leak grand jury investigation and United States v. Libby. On October 18, 2005, The Washington Post reported that the vice president's office was central to the investigation of the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, for Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was one of the figures under investigation. Following an indictment, Libby resigned his positions as Cheney's chief of staff and assistant on national security affairs. On September 8, 2006, Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State, publicly announced that he was the source of the revelation of Plame's status. Armitage said he was not a part of a conspiracy to reveal Plame's identity and did not know whether one existed.
In February 2006, The National Journal reported that Libby had stated before a grand jury that his superiors, including Cheney, had authorized him to disclose classified information to the press regarding intelligence on Iraq's weapons.
On March 6, 2007, Libby was convicted on four felony counts for obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to federal investigators. In his closing arguments, independent prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that there was "a cloud over the vice president”, an apparent reference to Cheney's interview with FBI agents investigating the case, which was made public in 2009. Cheney lobbied President George W. Bush vigorously and unsuccessfully to grant Libby a full Presidential pardon up to the day of Barack Obama's inauguration, likening Libby to a "soldier on the battlefield".
FAILED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT (Better luck next time fellas)
2007 Bagram Airfield bombing On February 27, 2007, at about 10 am, a suicide bomber killed 23 people and wounded 20 more outside Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan during a visit by Cheney. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and declared that Cheney was its intended target. They also claimed that Osama Bin Laden supervised the operation.
The bomb went off outside the front gate while Cheney was inside the base and half a mile away. He reported hearing the blast, saying "I heard a loud boom...The Secret Service came in and told me there had been an attack on the main gate." The purpose of Cheney's visit to the region had been to press Pakistan for a united front against the Taliban.
WHO REALLY RAN THE WHITEHORSE WHITE HOUSE?
Cheney has been characterized as the most powerful and influential Vice President in history. He has been characterized as a "war monger and cold hearted bastard” yet his supporters and critics of Cheney regard him as a shrewd and knowledgeable politician who knows the functions and intricacies of the federal government. ( which is a nice way of saying he knows how to beat the system) He also liked to stay close to the bone, one sign of Cheney's active policy-making role was an office near the House floor for Cheney in addition to his office in the West Wing, his ceremonial office in the Old Executive Office Building, and his Senate offices (one in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and another off the floor of the Senate). Nothing got passed him.
Barack Obama could of used Cheney who actively promoted an expansion of the powers of the presidency, saying that the Bush administration’s challenges to the laws which Congress passed after Vietnam and Watergate to contain and oversee the executive branch—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Presidential Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act and the War Powers Resolution—are, in Cheney's words, "a restoration, if you will, of the power and authority of the president”. But when Barack Obama exercises those rights, Cheney is out there plummeting him with his unique kind of bitting rhetoric.
POWER HUNGRY SURFACES IN A DOCUMENTARY
In June 2007, the Washington Post summarized Cheney’s vice presidency in a Pulitzer Prize-winning four-part series, based in part on interviews with former administration officials. The articles characterized Cheney not as a "shadow" president, but as someone who usually has the last words of counsel to the president on policies, which in many cases would reshape the powers of the presidency.
When former Vice President Dan Quayle suggested to Cheney that the office was largely ceremonial, Cheney reportedly replied, "I have a different understanding with the president." The articles described Cheney as having a secretive approach to the tools of government, indicated by the use of his own security classification and three man-sized safes in his offices plus whips and chains, running water and boards, portable generators and other assorted devices.
The articles described Cheney’s influence on decisions pertaining to detention of suspected terrorists and the legal limits that apply to their questioning, especially what constitutes torture. Obviously this was a man of medieval institutional thinking pertaining to questioning and he would rewrite the laws if needed as to their usage.
U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Colin Powell's chief of staff when he was both Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the same time Cheney was Secretary of Defense, and then later when Powell was Secretary of State, stated in an in-depth interview that Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld established an alternative program to interrogate post-9/11 detainees because of their mutual distrust of CIA.
The Washington Post articles, principally written by Barton Gellman, further characterized Cheney as having the strongest influence within the administration in shaping budget and tax policy in a manner that assures "conservative orthodoxy." They also highlighted Cheney’s behind-the-scenes influence on the administration’s environmental policy to ease pollution controls for power plants, facilitate the disposal of nuclear waste, open access to federal timber resources, and avoid federal constraints on greenhouse gas emissions, among other issues. The articles characterized his approach to policy formulation as favoring business over the environment.
HIS EARLY CAREER
- President George H. W. Bush nominated Cheney for the office of Secretary of Defense immediately after the U.S. Senate failed to confirm John Tower for that position.
- The senate confirmed Cheney by a vote of 92 to 0 and he served in that office from March 1989 to January 1993.
- He directed the United States invasion of Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East.
- In 1991, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bush.
- Later that year, he received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
- Cheney worked closely with Pete Williams, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, and Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, from the beginning of his tenure. He focused primarily on external matters, and left most of the internal DoD management to Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Atwood.
THE FUDGET BUDGET - MORE BAD MOVES
- Cheney's most immediate issue as Secretary of Defense was the Department of Defense budget. Cheney deemed it appropriate to cut the budget and downsize the military, following the Reagan Administration’s peacetime defense buildup at the height of the Cold War.
- As part of the fiscal year 1990 budget, Cheney assessed the requests from each of the branches of the armed services for such expensive programs as the Avenger II Naval attack aircraft, the B-2 stealth bomber, the V-22 Osprey tilt-wing helicopter, the Aegis destroyer and the MX missile, totaling approximately $4.5 billion in light of changed world politics.
- Cheney opposed the V-22 program, which Congress had already appropriated funds for, and initially refused to issue contracts for it before relenting. When the 1990 Budget came before Congress in the summer of 1989, it settled on a figure between the Administration’s request and the House Armed Services Committee's recommendation.
- In subsequent years under Cheney, the proposed and adopted budgets followed patterns similar to that of 1990. Early in 1991, he unveiled a plan to reduce military strength by the mid-1990s to 1.6 million, compared with 2.2 million when he entered office. Cheney’s 1993 defense budget was reduced from 1992, omitting programs that Congress had directed the Department of Defense to buy weapons that it did not want, and omitting unrequested reserve forces.
- Over his four years as Secretary of Defense, Cheney downsized the military and his budgets showed negative real growth, despite pressures to acquire weapon systems advocated by Congress. The Department of Defense’s total obligational authority in current dollars declined from $291 billion to $270 billion.
- Total military personnel strength decreased by 19 percent, from about 2.2 million in 1989 to about 1.8 million in 1993. Notwithstanding the overall reduction in military spending, Cheney directed the development of a Pentagon plan to ensure U.S. military dominance in the post-Cold War era.
HIS AGENDA - ALL FOR ONE AND ONE GETS IT ALL
Cheney publicly expressed concern that nations such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, could acquire nuclear components after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The end of the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact obliged the first Bush Administration to reevaluate the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) purpose and makeup. Cheney believed that NATO should remain the foundation of European security relationships and that it would remain important to the United States in the long term; he urged the alliance to lend more assistance to the new democracies in Eastern Europe.
Cheney's views on NATO reflected his skepticism about prospects for peaceful social development in the former Eastern Bloc countries, where he saw a high potential for political uncertainty and instability. He felt that the Bush Administration was too optimistic in supporting General Secretary of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor, Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Cheney worked to maintain strong ties between the United States and its European allies.
Cheney persuaded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to allow bases for U.S. ground troops and war planes in the nation. This was an important element of the success of the Gulf War, as well as a lightning-rod for Islamists, such as Osama bin Laden, who opposed having non-Muslim armies near their holy sites.
HIS LIFE STORY
Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Marjorie Lorraine (née Dickey) and Richard Herbert Cheney. He is of predominantly English, as well as Welsh, Irish, and French Huguenot, ancestry; Cheney's 8th great-grandfather, William Cheney, immigrated from England to Massachusetts in the 17th century. Although not a direct descendant, he is collaterally related to Benjamin Pierce Cheney (1815–1895), the early American expressman.
Cheney is a very distant cousin of both Harry S. Truman and Barack Obama; the three share a common ancestor in Mareen Duvall, a Huguenot who fled from France to England in the 17th century and later settled in Maryland. His father was a soil conservation agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his mother was a softball star in the 1930s, Cheney was one of three children.
He attended Calvert Elementary School before his family moved to Casper, Wyoming, where he attended Natrona County High School.
He attended Yale University, but by his own account had problems adjusting to the college, and failed out twice. Among the influential teachers from his days in New Haven was Professor H. Bradford Westerfield, whom Cheney repeatedly credited with having helped to shape his approach to foreign policy. He later attended the University of Wyoming, where he earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in political science. He subsequently started, but did not finish, doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
In November 1962, at the age of 21, Cheney was convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI). He was arrested for DWI again the following year.Cheney said that the arrests made him "think about where I was and where I was headed. I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course”. In 1964, he married Lynne Vincent, his high school sweetheart, whom he had met at age 14.
Early White House appointments
Cheney's political career began in 1969, as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger during the Richard Nixon Administration. He then joined the staff of Donald Rumsfeld, who was then Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969–70.[19] He held several positions in the years that followed: White House Staff Assistant in 1971, Assistant Director of the Cost of Living Council from 1971–73, and Deputy Assistant to the president from 1974–1975. As deputy assistant, Cheney suggested several options in a memo to Rumsfeld, including use of the US Justice Department, that the Ford administration could use to limit damage from an article, published by The New York Times, in which investigative reporter Seymour Hersh reported that Navy submarines had tapped into Soviet undersea communications as part of a highly classified program, Operation Ivy Bells.
Cheney was Assistant to the President under Gerald Ford. When Rumsfeld was named Secretary of Defense, Cheney became White House Chief of Staff, succeeding Rumsfeld. He later was campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign. Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that the Obama administration's talks with Iran are "almost certainly doomed to fail" and that military strikes are the most effective way to limit nuclear proliferation.
"There have been a number of times when we've been faced with the potential threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. What's worked is military force," Cheney said during an appearance in Woodland Park. "Unfortunately, Barack Obama doesn't seem to understand that."
Cheney also said Obama's tenure has been "the most damaging, certainly, since World War II."
Cheney made the remarks to about 1,000 New Jersey Republicans at the annual Reagan Day Dinner, held at a catering hall in this suburb 20 miles from Manhattan. He was questioned by state Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris), who organized the event, and former Republican Gov. Tom Kean.
The talk centered mostly on foreign policy and the Iran negotiations, which also involve several other world powers and have pushed beyond their April 1 deadline, according to the Associated Press.
"There's been enough talk about it, enough leaks, enough discussions, that I'm deeply suspicious that he's going to produce anything nearly as effective as we did together with the Israelis in limiting other nuclear programs," he said, referring to Israeli strikes in Iraq and Libya.
Cheney said Iran has "lied and cheated and deceived continuously."
"They're motivated and led by a man who believes in a radical view of Islam. I don't see any good that could come out of this current effort," he said.
And Cheney called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial March congressional address on the topic "superb."
Asked about the 2016 presidential election, Cheney said he has not endorsed a candidate. But he said he thinks the party's nominee should be a person who will not "mince words" about breaking from Obama administration policies and will "tell the truth."
"Start by rebuilding our military," Cheney said
Cheney never mentioned Gov. Chris Christie, who was not present, although Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno was.
Cheney also said he's concerned that American students are being taught a "warped" version of history because of "some left-leaning effort not to tell the true story of America."
Webber said tickets to the event cost $50 and that the point was to "celebrate the life and legacy of President Reagan." Attendees guessed the number of jelly beans in jars to win Reagan memorabilia and bid on a "Dick Cheney cowboy hat."
"We keep it very low-dollar because there are people in this room who could never afford to go to a fundraiser with Vice President Cheney, who have an opportunity to come and be a part of it," Webber said.
Webber said he did not know why Christie did not attend but “he's always welcome."
JON STEWART APRIL 2015
Jon Stewart Host and known for his extremely terrific comedy that tells it like it is, blasted Dick Cheney’s criticism of President Obama’s negotiations with Iran. Calling the former vice president “ man rotten to his very core, which is in itself a tiny black hole from which no joy or light can escape" and "the jagged-toothed forest demon who steals our children,"
Stewart went on to say that "now and then Cheney slithers out from his lair inside a mountain of kitten corpses and goes on TV or radio saying awful things. Usually we ignore it … but sometimes, we just can’t."
Jon Stewart then obliterates Cheney's radio remarks with a little detective work—and a history lesson. Here are some highlights:
But basically the vice president’s point appears to be this: anyone who strengthens the strategic position of Iran is by definition working to weaken the Unites States of America. So I guess the formulation would be whoever strengthened Iran more would be the greater threat to America. Using Dick Cheney’s own metric as our baseline, can we uncover a greater threat to America than even Barack Obama?
And if invading Iraq not only removed Iran’s closest foe but complicated America’s ability to actively countervail Iran’s nuclear program … according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, by the end of your administration, Mr. Vice President Cheney, Iran had over 20 times the uranium-enriching centrifuges as when you came into office. Could that not be considered handing Iran a nuclear weapon.
Yes, Dick Cheney. You took out Iran’s enemies while giving Iran time to build up their nuclear program. But surely you could course correct this by just installing, in Iraq, another strong anti-Iranian government to take Saddam Hussein’s place, as any America-loving vice president would do. What was your move, sir?
For an American administration to replace Saddam Hussein with a man emboldened and indebted to our greatest regional enemy, according to Dick Cheney’s own logic, anyone who trusted Maliki would have to be naïve or deliberately trying to weaken America.
You, sir, were arguing for the United States to lift sanctions on Iran so your company Halliburton could get contracts with this radical regime! Contracts worth millions of dollars.
What would you make of a man whose final act in the business world before joining the American government as vice president would be to enter into contracts with the number one state sponsor of terror before leaving to become Bush’s running mate? Contracts that were only legal because you did them through a foreign subsidiary, Mr. Cheney, and then once you were in office, in gratitude for Iran’s money, you hand Iran the greatest prize of all—Iraq. Isn’t it you, sir, who is the double agent determined to bring America down?