Little Miss Sunshine Liz Cheney helped make This Week a dreary, dreary show.
I was left with the feeling that we're all going to hell in a handbasket, from terror to the economy to healthcare. End times are now. The Cheneys should do us all a favor and get lost.
Her counterpart on the left Robert Reich has turned out to be a thorn in the side of the administration. Reich is still coming down from the disappointment that Obama isn't a liberal. There's a lot of negative forces out there.
It seems too many are hoping for the nation's failure for their own agendas.
Little Miss Sunshine's agenda is to keep pushing the incompetent narrative. She does a good job.
It was interesting, though, when George Will defended Harry Reid against Miss Sunshine's criticism of Reid.
Lynn Cheney gave us a taste of what's to come when Obama announces his strategy in Afghanistan. Unless the strategy of Stanley McChrystal, who ought to be straight up fired, is put into place, republicans won't support Obama:
BEIJING — Millions of people come here to look at the delights of the Forbidden City. Now add President Obama to that list.
Mr. Obama, his hands jammed into the pockets of his distressed brown leather jacket to ward off the frigid Beijing temperatures, took a moment out of his day of meetings to check out the storied old residence of China’s former imperial leaders.
Situated just behind Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City was called “forbidden” because normal people weren’t allowed in, the better to conceal how well the rulers were living. Apparently there is now a new “forbidden city,” where China’s present leaders live, and normal people don’t go in there much either.
But we digress. Mr. Obama arrived around 2:15, and was escorted by the Forbidden City Museum director, Zheng Xinmiao, and a cast of, well, a lot of people: the senior advisers David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, and the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. NYT
I'll post video when it's available. Watch a Chinese reporter talk about Obama's visit here. Obama's schedule for today and tomorrow and next up, South Korea:
On November 17, Obama will hold a bilateral with Hu, followed by a joint press conference, after which he will sightsee in Beijing. There will be a state dinner that night.
On November 18, Obama will hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and do more sightseeing, before traveling to South Korea.
November 18-19 - SEOUL
Obama arrives in Seoul the night of November 18. The morning of the 19th, he holds a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, after which the two will hold a press conference.
Obama will then meet with U.S. troops stationed in Korea, before leaving on his trip back to the United States, where he is scheduled to arrive early on November 20. Reuters
Where U.S. and China agree and disagree. Gibbs says it best:
Meanwhile, Dick Cheney is blustering about how Obama shouldn't be bowing. I can't believe that showing respect and to our allies is even being discussed. Those with REAL power and might don't have to belittle others. But Dick wouldn't know anything about that. His ego is so large that he can't see how he helped bring the nation to tatters. If I were him, I'd do a little soul searching. But noooooo. Then Liz Cheney has to taunt everyone with the suggestion that her father might run for president and worse, it could be a Cheney Palin ticket. I'm sure she was mostly jesting but the thought of that makes me nauseous.
The Obama administration may buy a near-empty prison in rural northwestern Illinois to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay along with federal inmates, a White House official said Saturday. The maximum-security Thomson Correctional Facility, about 150 miles west of Chicago, was one of several evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and emerged as a leading option to house the detainees, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because a decision has not been made. President Barack Obama wants alleged terrorism suspects from the controversial military-run detention center in Cuba to be transferred to U.S. soil so they can be prosecuted for their suspected crimes. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has been hinting at a possible new use for Thomson, and he issued a statement saying he would hold a news conference Sunday to outline those plans. AP
Fox News Sunday panel discussed this today:
Not on the video, is the discussion they had about Sarah Palin. Liz Cheney says it would be sexist to say that Sarah Palin couldn't be president. Bill Kristol fawns over Palin and Juan Williams sets them straight. I'm surprised that they only briefly talked about Obama's bow to the Japanese emperor. It's on fire in wingnut circles. Bill Kristol says Palin wouldn't bow or even curtsy to anyone. That's because she doesn't know enough to know whether she should. Republicans always talk about the need for less political correctness, well how about this, Palin is an idiot when it comes to international relations. Let's not pretend. Liz Cheney also suggests Cheney 2012? Cheney Palin? Never. Never. Never. Ever.
Liz Cheney says it would be sexist to say that Sarah Palin couldn't be president. Bill Kristol fawns over Palin, as usual, and Juan Williams sets them straight. I'm surprised that they only briefly talked about Obama's bow to the Japanese emperor. It's on fire in wingnut circles. The panel also talks about the trials of KSM and holding terrorists in U.S. prisons. The Obama administration is looking to hold Gitmo detainees at a prison in Illinois:
The Obama administration may buy a near-empty prison in rural northwestern Illinois to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay along with federal inmates, a White House official said Saturday. The maximum-security Thomson Correctional Facility, about 150 miles west of Chicago, was one of several evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and emerged as a leading option to house the detainees, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because a decision has not been made. President Barack Obama wants alleged terrorism suspects from the controversial military-run detention center in Cuba to be transferred to U.S. soil so they can be prosecuted for their suspected crimes. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has been hinting at a possible new use for Thomson, and he issued a statement saying he would hold a news conference Sunday to outline those plans. AP
Some sense at the ABC roundtable. David Brooks calls Palin a joke:
In her own unique way, Liz Cheney, nearly as bad as dad, criticizes Obama on Afghanistan. She says Obama's going against his own strategy. No. Obama is rethinking strategy given new information. Cheney can't even keep up with her own argument.
Then she says the loss of the Olympics led to the loss of "American prestige." America lost the world's respect under her father's leadership. Liz Cheney lives in a bubble.
David Frum, who came up with the "axis of evil," didn't like the speech. Neither did Liz Cheney or Rush Limbaugh, or Hezbollah or Osama bin Laden. What a motley crew, eh? Too bad for them. Obama's speech spoke to the decent and the rational, not the extremes.
Just like the fuzzball (that's what Rush calls himself), Cheney just wants to be loved:
Despite his storied stoicism, Cheney does not want to be remembered as the man behind the most dismal era in American foreign policy in modern history. He began his now infamous Face the Nation interview by saying, jokingly we presume, that “it’s nice to know that you’re still loved and are invited out in public sometimes.”
This is a great look at Cheney's motivations and it humanizes him:
The Cheney currently on display is a unique specimen of a special time. At the end of the day, the former vice president is a Cold Warrior, a man formed by the United States' long confrontation with the Soviet Union. Cheney's experience as part of the administration that declared America the victorious superpower tells us three important things about him relevant to his current behavior:
He is conditioned for protracted fights. The more ideological, the better. He always needs a “foremost adversary” in order to organize his world. This explains his attraction to the neo-con obsession with Saddam Hussein, in the face of real al-Qaeda dangers. It also explains his implacability in his battles with the Obama administration in defense of the Bush administration. It's hard for him to believe that the world can change, despite all the contradictory evidence. He keeps fighting the same war, in the same way. In March 1989, when he was officially sworn in as defense secretary, he assessed the changes taking place in the Soviet Union in the following manner: “Containment has worked. Deterrence has held. Principle has paid off. Still, dangers abound. ... We must guard against gambling our nation's security on what may be a temporary aberration in the behavior of our foremost adversary.” That is the same Dick Cheney we have now. Read the rest at The Prospect
In the debate over harsh interrogation techniques outlawed by President Barack Obama, one question remains unresolved:
Does torture work?
It’s hardly academic.
Wrong question. It makes no difference if torture works. It's wrong. On one hand it's good that we're having this debate. On the other hand, it's sad that we're having this debate. Politico delves into three different arguments: torture works sometimes and it's wrong, torture works and should be used and torture doesn't work. Gary Kamiya of Salon: Torture may work in certain instances but it's always wrong.
Torture is not morally justifiable. In addition, it has severe negative consequences. Once a nation embraces torture, it forfeits any claim to a moral high ground. It becomes no better than those it is fighting. It may win a battle, but it will lose the war. As America struggles to win hearts and minds in the Arab/Muslim world, the use of torture is more harmful in the long run than any "high-value" intelligence gained by its use. And U.S. torture not only builds hatred in the Muslim world, it turns our allies against us -- and erodes us from within. As historian Horne pointed out, "When the news came out in France of what the army was doing, it caused such a revulsion that it led directly to the French capitulation. And not only revulsion in France, but revulsion here. JFK, as a senator, took up the Algerian cause quite strongly partly because of the human rights issue." Horne's conclusion: "I feel myself absolutely clear in my own mind that you do not, whatever the excuse, use torture, let alone abuse."
His conclusion:
Led astray by leaders who played on their fear and anger, Americans have been deaf and blind and mute for too long. It is past time for our country to say an absolute no. No torture today, no torture tomorrow, no torture ever.
Dick Cheney's daughter Liz defends her father. Her argument: it wasn't even torture. She says the country is headed toward danger. Man, the apple didn't fall far from the tree with her. She's as disturbed as pop. Snarky and arrogant too. I'm now convinced our country was run by the wackos, the ones that we see at the tea parties. Now we know Cheney is running scared:
Part 2
Liz Cheney reacts to Meghan McCain and says Obama won because of a masterful campaign. When are these creeps going to realize they're in the sorry minority and we voted them out because we're wiser now. We voted against everything they stand for.
