Let's talk Turkey. Trump is owned by Erdogan.

Thank you Prime Minister Erdogan for joining us yesterday to celebrate the launch of #TrumpTowers Istanbul!—Ivanka Trump 4/20/12

And the rush by Rightwing liars to justify whatever Trump does is off!!!

Conservatives #dgaf about the chaos in the Middle East or the struggle of the Kurdish people. The only thing conservatives care about is #OwntheLibs. DJ Traitor Trump has never and will never care enough about anything difficult to understand. Trump is a vile and venal creature who views the world and people as how they can aid him and whether or not they can make him pay his debts. Turkish President Erdogan clearly can make Trump pay,

"I have a little conflict of interest ’cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul" - Traitor Trump 2015

As Trump's impeachment is certain; Putin, Erdogan and others are going to call in their chits. And Trump is uncaring or too dumb to see the whole timing of the US pullout shows it. Turkey declares they are moving forward with a long planned military operation into Northern Syria and Trump gets a phone call from Turkish President Erdogan demanding payback.

So Trump being stupid but, needing the fawning adoration of his #Magat Horde declares he defeated ISIS and is now pulling back US Forces;

“Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,’ will no longer be in the immediate area,” according to a White House statement.

Trump knows his rabid base only care about the semblance of victory. Conservatives long ago abandoned objective reality and treat Trump or a Republican administrations statements as stone-cold facts. So Trump tweeted out,

As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over... the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT! Oct 7, 2019

It's shades of the conservative reaction to the Iraq War. Conservatives proclaimed Iraq a Glorious Victory dozens of times during W(orst POTUS Ever) pResidency, beginning when C+ Augustus awarded himself a Triumph aboard the USS Enterprise on May 1, 2003 and continuing until right-wingers declared V-I Day on November 8, 2008 in order to "get it on the record".

But, while the Iraq War Crimes and Middle East chaos were exactly what Dick Cheney and the Republican Party wanted in order to make off with Trillions of dollars in Wealth stolen from the American and Iraqi people, Trump's decision is actually more pathetic.

Ultimately, the chaos in the Middle East ties back directly to George W(worst President of All-Time) Bush ginning up a war in Iraq and ISIS is the unholy muslim love-child of Ronnie Raygun and W(orst) but, that doesn't matter right now because Trump's weakness is going to get a massive number of people killed, destroy any semblance of stability in the Middle East, and cede geopolitical dominance in the region.

Bush and Cheney screwed America but, they hope you forget and Blame Barack Obama (Update) Iraq War Crimes

"Hold on! You can't blame George Bush for that!" Stephanie Ruhle informed Donald Trump he had violated the 0th Law of the Republican Party for blaming George W. Bush for 9/11.

Everyone knows the First Law, that is Ronald Reagan was a Modern Day Gilgamesh who single-handedly defeated the Soviet Union, balanced the budget, cut taxes and created a budgetary surplus simultaneously.

But, mentioning any of the massive failures of George W. Bush, especially the worst disaster on the CONUS since the War of 1812 is anathema. Bush kept US safe, hosannah, hosannah, hosannah.

9/11 happened over 14 years ago and no I will never forgive W(orst POTUS Ever), Dick Cheney or the Republican Party. I do not believe any of the MIHOP or LIHOP or other 9/11 related Conspiracies, this was sheer incompetence.

But, Bush's incompetence, especially ignoring the August 6th Memo which specifically warned Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US, was massively compounded by Right-Wing failures during the Phony Global War on Terror and the Conservative policies of oppression, intolerance and adulation of the rich, which created the Republican Recession of 2007 after the Guard Dogs of the Plutocracy passed law after law, and ruling after ruling designed to grind the working class into penury and ensure the recreation of a Neo-Feudalist State.

Jeb Bush called the elimination of Saddam Hussein a pretty good deal. Perhaps it was a "pretty good deal", if like all NeoCons you have no skin in the game because Never Forget you can't get any skin from a Bush... But, just as was predicted it completely destabilized the region, empowered Iran, and led to the creation of ISIS.

When Faux News Chris Wallace, of all people, pointed out the Bush/Cheney Cabal left President Obama with a mess, Dick "5 Deferments" Cheney tersely replied, "I don't think of it that way."

Of course, he doesn't in Dick-less Cheney's Universe everything he and Bush did was a resounding success, which the Mainstream Media, who slavishly wish to show they don't have those icky, evil liberal tendencies is only too eager to agree with as Stephanie Buhle demonstrated when she was shocked, SHOCKED! anyone would imply George W. Bush did anything other than keep us safe.

Edward Said accurately described the insane pathos that drove Bush/Cheney to adopt the Right-Wing Reverse-Domino Theory,

My strong opinion, though I don't have any proof, in the classical sense of the word, is that they want to change the entire Middle East, and the Arab world, perhaps terminate some countries, destroy the so-called terrorist groups they dislike, and install régimes friendly to the United States. I think this is a dream that has very little basis in reality. The knowledge they have of the Middle East, to judge from the people who advise them, is, to say the least, out of date and widely speculative.

When 9/11, is combined with Hurricane Katrina, the bungled Phony War on Terror, and the Republican Recession of 2007, no other President has a been such a disaster and hurt America so badly since Jefferson Davis.

Update:
George W. Bush and Tony Blair determined to Strike in Iraq April 2002 - the title of another memo.
Despite their claims of working for a Diplomatic Solution Bush and Blair were set on war over a full year before the March 2003 invasion. Not only was W(orst Potus) a Disaster but a War Criminal, too.

The Torturous Bush Presidency was a Cabal of War Criminals

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows..." - Dick Cheney

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. The US finally released a report on the Torture used at the behest and urging of the Bush/Cheney Regime shedding light on one of the most heinous, unconscionable crimes of the 21st Century. Of course, We, the People and the rest of the World have known for over a decade the Bush/Cheney Regime requested, created, oversaw and protected the Use of Torture or as it euphemistically became known as "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques".

Right after 9/11 Dick Cheney told the Nation and the World, the New American Policy was Torture. Who would be tortured? Anyone. Everyone. Innocence and Guilt were non-factors. Bush and Cheney wanted Torture.

Whole sections of the Executive Branch were devoted to making Torture Official US Policy, the Justice Department was co-opted into crafting "legal" arguments for the efficacy of Torture and the rescinding of the "quaint" Geneva Conventions. White House officials made repeated Sunday Talk Show appearances hinting at the dozens of plots stopped by Torture. Jack Bauer would save Fox America through Torture. Torture was the Universal Panacea of the Bush White House.

But, Americans have known since the Philippine Insurrection, that Torture is wrong. Until 2001 and the Bush/Cheney Regime and their duped or willing accomplices. A Harvard Student Research Paper found that when Americans learned of the Abu Gharib scandal suddenly Bush Torture Lawyers began to push the notion of "Harsh" or "Enhanced Interrogation" methods to their media contacts and the Media stopped calling referring to The Bush Regime's War Crimes Torture and began to pretend as though there was a hotly contested debate about what is and what isn't Torture. Thus, we magically invented "two sides" of the Torture issue.

The report is just the latest reveal of the brutal War Crimes committed by the Bush Regime. And those war crimes were enabled by the worst Traitors in American History: Conservatives.

So, while Torture doesn't work it was successful,

"The United States of America is awesome, we are awesome. But we’ve had this discussion. We’ve closed the book on it, and we’ve stopped doing it. And the reason they want to have this discussion is not to show how awesome we are. This administration wants to have this discussion to show us how we’re not awesome." - Andrea Tantaros

Awesome?!? What childish drivel. What codswallop. Either Awesome Tantaros and many conservatives are lying or they don't have the courage of their convictions. Torturing people under the rubric of the Global War on Terror was either harmless Frat Boy pranks or an invaluable tool which stopped hundreds of Terrorist Attacks, saved thousands of lives and led to the kill of Osama Bin Laden.

But, besides giving Cheney Sadistic Thrills Torture doesn't work. Anyone who supported or voted for John McCain should know Torture is not useful in gaining information and gaining information through coercion is not only futile but criminal.

The clearest example of an interrogation practice that will void a confession is the infliction of physical force or pain upon the person under interrogation, because it is an incontestable fact that harm of this nature may produce a confession of guilt from an innocent person. This is also true as regards indirect physical harm - for instance, an unduly prolonged continuous interrogation, especially by two or more interrogators working in relays or the deprivation of food, water, or access to toilet facilities for an unreasonable period of time. A threat of physical harm may have a similar effect --- the extraction of confession from innocent persons. - Fred E. Inbau

Unless, that is, you actually believe that all those woman tortured by the Inquisition were, in fact, really Witches.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Ari Fleischer, Liz Cheney, Monica Goodling, Jay Bybee and hundreds of others in the Bush Cabal are War Criminals. Indeed the worst of sort of war criminals for they, safely ensconced in air-conditioned state-side offices, far from the battlefield, coldly crafted Torture memos and policies. Clear cut criminal intent not influenced by the heat of the moment or fear of imminent danger.

President Obama still cleaning up Dick Cheney's Colossal Blunder(s)

One would be hard pressed to find a single Man responsible for more pain and damage to the American People and the Nation than Dick Cheney; Tojo and Robert E. Lee come to mind.

Cheney and his daughter whose only credentials are she's ridden Dick to further her political career and of being 1/5th of Dick's Deferments wrote an Op-ed in the Wall Street Journal which is a case study in projection and holds the key to the entire Conservative Mindset.

Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. 

This one sentence encapsulates the entire pathological evil which drives the chicken hawk cowardly warmonger criminals who infest the Republican Party. Republicans are everything they claim they hate and are the antithesis of everything they claim to support.

"In the last five years America has receded from leadership in the world. And into that vacuum has stpeed Nations like Iran, like Russia, like China. As we abandoned our allies the consequences has been to make the world a much less safer place."

Chicken Hawk Senator Ted Cruz, proposes what exactly? The US military should have invaded Russia to defend Crimea? Does Senator Croooze think we should station soldiers on micro-islands in the South China Sea? Does he propose we back the Sunni Insurgents agains the Iranian back Maliki Government? Ted Cruz is an unserious boob who wishes he could have voted for the AUMF in 2002 because that's when brave tough REMF could tell libtards to suck on this.

The Bush/Cheney Crusade in Iraq has resulted only in the destabilizing of the region. Everything which has happened in Iraq, happened because of deliberate lies and ignorant fantasies, from W(orst POTUS Ever) and his staff of NeoCon war criminal buffoons stated Casus Belli (Smoking Gun=Mushroom Cloud, Saddam's connection to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden), the ever rotating reason for remaining, all the lies of progress we were making, all the fallout, the loss of American lives, the destruction of thousands of families, a million dead Iraqis and $5 Trillion stolen.

Of course, as Dick Cheney would say, "So?"

President Obama announced today that the US would be providing 300 advisors and established JOC (Joint Operation Centers) in Baghdad and Northern Iraq. Additionally, surveillance elements would be dispatched and re-tasked to provide US additional intel on the situation involving the ISIL/ISIS.

The President also declared he would make Congress take the lead in determining a further course of action. Congress, of course, wants nothing to do with Iraq and will demagogue hoping President Obama will choose an official course of action which, either way they can attack as wrong.

The Bush/Cheney Crusade was naught but a massive list of monstrous crimes against Humanity which continue to this day.

The Nations of Iran and Turkey now must turn a large amount of their attention and resources towards containing the violence unleashed by Cheney's Evil.

The continuing Civil War in Syria will create a stable of potential fighters. Additionally, thousands of displaced innocent people are in a humanitarian crisis.

If the Kurdish People begin a push for an independent state, the Turks and the Persians aren't just going to let the areas of their countries slip away. As late as the 1990's the Turkish Government made the Kurdish language, Kurdish names and Kurdish newspapers and radio illegal.

In Iraq, families haven't yet recovered from Bush's War of Lies and now they face a tripartite Civil War, which will eventually end a mess of semi-functioning states. So, the Middle East will be a cauldron of Death and Mayhem. All thanks to the despicable evil humanoid creature Dick Cheney.

Thom Hartmann wrote a better take down of the War Criminal Cheney,

He lied his way into an illegal war, profited off that war, and shredded the Constitution. He's a war criminal and has the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people on his hands. 

Dick Cheney should be rotting in a prison cell at The Hague, not writing editorials for the Wall Street Journal.

Undying War Criminal Dick Cheney says If You Were Wealthy You'd Be Healthy

If you're Poor there's the Door.

Dick Cheney is both the best and worst example of what Socialized Government Healthcare can do for people. Without the access to U.S. Socialized Medical care for his flabby, large-waisted chicken hawk ass, Cheney would have been uninsurable due to his repeated heart attacks and dead. 

As an undying war criminal Cheney is back to emitting his noisome neocon rhetoric into the Right-Wing Echo Chamber where it'll be sucked up and lovingly regurgitated by right-wing nut jobs.

"The same people that brought us ‘you can keep your insurance if you want’ are telling us they’ve got a great deal in Iran with respect to their nuclear program. I don’t believe it." - Dick Cheney

Of course, Dick Cheney doesn't like Obama's Masterful Diplomatic Manuevers with Iran, he wants War. Because Cheney's made massive profits off of wars which other Americans will fight in and suffer from but which will never place Cheney or his family in danger.

Why exactly is Dick Cheney who loafed around for 40 years in Government, but not in the military because of his 5 Vietnam War Deferments, a font of reputable knowledge? Even his vaunted private sector work experience was merely the selling of high-level access to Government contacts and the negotiating of government backed contracts. Dick Cheney is an unqualified lazy socialist bum who has lived his whole life getting paid to "work" with the Federal Government.

Of course, the You can keep it "controversey" is another right-wing nothing-burger. Similar to the You didn't build it bs the Republicans tried to gin-up with the help of the epistemic closure of the conservative thought-process.

Meanwhile, in multiple US States under the tyrannical control of Reactionary Republican Governors or Legislatures, millions of Americans are being denied coverage under Obamacare because Right-Wing Fascists refused to set up exchanges or accept the Medicaid expansion.

The Republican Health Care Plan continues to be If You are Poor and get Sick --- Die Quickly.

Of course, just passively undermining Obamacare isn't good enough for the Ultra-Reactionary American Right in their quest to oppress and subjugate the 99%.

From The BradBlog, we learn that in California Republicans sent out mailers funded by taxpayer money which directed Californians to a anti-Obamacare fake site;

Rather than the official CoveredCA.com website, the new mailers direct the recipient to CoveringHealthCareCA.com, a bogus Republican site which, though attempting to appear to be the official CA health care exchange site, doesn't actually provide the ability to shop for or purchase policies. 

"Though it launched in August," ABC News reports, "the site made waves this week after a number of GOP Assembly members sent out mailers to their constituents, highlighting the page as a 'resource guide' for information on the Affordable Care Act." 

The deceptive, publicly funded mailers sent by the self-described "fiscal conservatives" cost CA taxpayers $77,496, according to the Star's public records request. The money, they report, came from the state Assembly's "taxpayer-funded operating budget." 

Since the fraud was exposed, the LA Times reports, the GOP site has added some links to the official CA health care site. The original site, according to Karoli at Crooks and Liars who helped expose the scam, included "links to negative articles and twisted messages intended to sour people on signing up for health insurance before they ever land at the official health exchange site."

Hillary Clinton's and Mark Kirk's Health

Senator Mark Kirk is back in DC for the 113th Congress. A year long arduous journey has brought him from the brink of death back to the US Senate.

Having spent a year undergoing intense physical therapy to relearn to walk and speech therapy to relearn speech after his brain was severely damaged I wonder if Kirk feels at all bad about his anti-Obamacare vote.

Kirk ran on this slogan in 2010, “I’m Mark Kirk and I can’t wait to vote against the health care bill next week.”

Probably not. Doctrinal Republicans never feel sorry for their I Got Mine-ism. Had Senator Kirk been a working man, a teacher, or an enlisted Veteran he'd have been bankrupted and probably forced to choose to discontinue therapy before competition if he had even had a Healthcare coverage plan which didn't seek to fire him for missing a year of work.

Of course, Senator Kirk committed a similar infraction to the one which resulted in Jesse Jackson Jr. expulsion from Congress, in that Senator Kirk used his campaign to funnel money to his then girlfriend, Dodie McCracken.

The girlfriend, Dodie McCracken, who works in public relations, has acknowledged receiving more than $143,000 in fees and expenses for her campaign work. A former live-in girlfriend, she is no longer romantically involved with Kirk, according to a campaign aide.

At the heart of the matter is Vertolli's assertion that the Kirk campaign may have improperly hidden money to McCracken by paying her through another company working for the campaign. Because the money was not paid directly to McCracken, her name does not appear in Kirk's federal disclosures. 

But, Faux News doesn't ever have to cover anything, like Senator Kirk's health vis-a-vis his stance on National Healthcare or his financial improprieties, which will cause their mouth-breathing constituents to pause and reflect. IOKIYAR.

On the other hand, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has continued to be vilified and ridiculed for her Health problems. Because after all she's a Democrat, a Woman and a Clinton.

Merely having one of those qualities makes acceptable fodder for Right-Wing assassination fantasies.

Laura Ingraham laughingly declared Secretary of State Clinton's concussion was the "Immaculate Concussion"! See that's funny!!!

Even after the discovery of a life-threatening blood clot John Bolton, Charles Krauthammer, Jonah Goldberg, Glenn Reynolds and other Right-Wing scum merchants doubled down and increased their despicable month long smears about Hillary Clinton.

Toxic Conservative commentators know the truth. They can spout off their heinous theories and it feeds and enflames their audience instead of alienating them. Despicable conservative liars will, of course, claim 'Both Sides Do It!' and that's bullshit.

No one was claiming Dick Cheney's multiple heart attacks were too avoid testifying to the 9/11 Commission (Remember that whole 9/11 thing?) or the Iraq War WMD lies. Yes, Comedians joked that Dick Cheney's stole the hearts from the breasts of children to extend his despicable war criminal life but, major networks didn't bring on guest after guest (including high-ranking former Federal Government employees) to laugh and jibe about a potentially life-threatening medical condition.

If the Right didn't have False Equivalencies they'd have no Equivalence at all.

Faux News can never silence the Right-Wing extremists who espouse Clinton Conspiracy Theories because that is their audience.

The only Americans who continue to adhere to Right-Wing Ideology are bigots, sexists, religious fanatics and the Rich.

Conservatism is Terrorism.

Mitt Romney tells Jay Leno If you were Wealthy, you'd be Healthy [updated]

Update:
Via Crooks and Liars here is video of Mitt Romney recalling "one of the most humorous" things he could remember was when his Elitist father fired American auto workers.

Oh, Mitt! Like Father, Like Son!

With the recent revelation that Mitt Romney's garage will have an elevator for his cars, The Vulture swooped down to make an appearance on the Jay Leno Tonight Show (Leno famously loves and collects cars.)

But, it wouldn't be a Mitt Romney appearance with out the Out-of-Touch Quarter Billionaire taking a chance to reveal just how disconnected he is from 99.9% of Americans.

Vulture Mitt has the smooth misunderstanding of Health Insurance that comes from being born a child of privilege and riches never having to worry if he or his family members got sick, injured, had their job outsourced by Bain Capital, lost their coverage or had their foot run over by one of the many illegals mowing Mitt Romney's palatial estate.

“It seems to me like children and people with preexisting conditions should be covered,” Leno noted.

“People with preexisting conditions — as long as they’ve been insured before, they’re going to continue to have insurance,” Romney explained.

“Suppose they were never insured?” Leno asked.

“Well, if they’re 45 years old, and they show up, and they say, I want insurance, because I’ve got a heart disease, it’s like, `Hey guys, we can’t play the game like that. You’ve got to get insurance when you’re well, and if you get ill, then you’re going to be covered,’” Romney replied.

“I know guys that work in the auto industry and they’re just not covered because they work in brake dust,” Leno pressed. “And then they get to be 30, 35, and were never able to get insurance before. Now they have it. That seems like a good thing.”

It is a good thing. Which is why Mitt and the Republican Party can't stand it. Republicans do not want the government doing "good things" because then people we see that government can in fact be a positive force. But, not to Mitt. If you don't have heath insurance and want it now? Too bad we Rich people play "a game" with your life.

Additionally, Paul Ryan re-released his Path to Penury, which guarantees to take 4 Trillion from the poor, sick and old and give it to the 1%.

The Republican Party is wholly invested in returning the United States to the Gilded Age and the Obscene Wealth concentration in the hands of the 1%.

Because, to conservatives the rise of individualism and the emancipation of minorities, women, homosexuals and all those oppressed by the Right-Wingers represents the Destruction of America.

What Obamacare actually represents, flawed as it is, is potential liberation from control by the 1%, the ability to have reasonably affordable care without being bankrupted or being denied coverage because you had a pre-existing heart condition and don't have the illicit war profiteer wealth to buy a new one like Dick Cheney.

Related:
Alternate Brain: You'll get health insurance ...

Do you know why there wasn't a Medal of Honor awarded to a living Service Member under George W. Bush?

Because Dick Cheney would have lost his front of the line free medical care. Seriously. One of the "benefits" a Living MoH recipient gets is front of the line medical care and they are the only persons who could move ahead of Vice President Cheney in an emergency.

Of course, while the MoH recipient will (bravely) deal with the aftermath of multiple tours and will have to make do with his special $1200-a-month augmented by COLA pension, Dick Cheney is basking in the Hundreds of Millions of blood soaked pay off dollars he has been awarded by the Companies who hired him to start Wars.

And from late 2001 to early 2009 there was Dick Cheney, who had skirted duty and chickened out of the Vietnam War via 5 deferments, telling George Bush not to award a Medal of Honor to anyone, so that he could keep receiving emergency heart transplants, angioplasties and surgeries without the fear of a living MoH Hero delaying his medical treatment

So, how do we thank our current Living MoH Heroes? By forcing President Obama to end these Disastrous Wars of Choice and Empire. And by holding the Republican Party accountable for the Disastrous Wars they championed which have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and 6 TRILLION siphoned off and stolen by War Profiteers leading us to the Republican Recession.

But, while George Bush, Dick Cheney and the Republican Party hate our military Heroes I salute MoH Leroy Arthur Petry and Salvatore Giunta and all our honorable service members.

Do you Miss them, yet? Never Forget Republicans were in Charge

On the day America suffered the worst attack in our History, except for when Republican Heroes were killing Americans during the Civil War, what was the focus for the Republican led Congress and President George W. Bush?

Well, Phil Gramm, along with Republicans Jim Leach and Thomas Bliley had successfully repealed the Glass-Steagall Act removing a check on the rapacious Banking Industry and Republicans were figuring out how to shift even more of the Federal Tax burden to the Middle Class and Poor.

And while George Bush would sign any Legislation that would shelter his Base and Moneyed Masters from supporting the Nation, W was busy trying to figure out a way to invade Iraq. On January 30, 2001 George W. Bush directs Rumsfeld and JCS chairman Hugh Shelton to examine military options for Iraq.

America knew this in 2004, when Paul O'Neil spoke out in January 2004.

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11. "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this,’" says O’Neill.

But Republicans of that Time were using the attacks of 9/11 to call anyone who questioned Bush and Cheney Terrorist Supporters and Traitors.

The Bush administration was well along the path to war before the 9/11 attacks. September 11 was not the motivation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq – it was a distraction from it.

9/11 and the Iraq War are enough to make The Bush/Cheney Regime the Worst in American History. But when you add on Torture, the Republican Recession, the blind eye to millions of EPA violations, the never explained nearly $5-a-gallon gas during Bush's Presidency and the Bush Regime pushed through TARP, a Bankers dream, wherein another Trillion in American taxpayer debt was grotesquely funneled directly to aid the Rich as a last Bushian Fuck You to the people... Well, what you have in George Bush and Dick Cheney are, perhaps, the two people who have done the most damage to America with the exception of Conservative Heroes Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis and Emperor Hirohito, Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden.

Related:
Pollution-oution what's the Solution? [Disaffected and it Feels So Good]
Republicans Love when Miners Die [Disaffected and it Feels So Good]
Iraq and September 11 [Disaffected and it Feels So Good]

The Advocates of Torture

"Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information. It is ultimately self-defeating as a means of control. One wonders it is still practiced." ~ Jean Luc Picard.

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. ~ Dick Cheney.

“The gloves are coming off gentlemen regarding these detainees, [redacted] has made clear it wants these individuals broken,” MI ALWAYS OUT IN FRONT, (08/14/2003)

Americans have known for a century, since the Philippine Insurrection, that Torture is wrong. That was until 2001 and the Bush/Cheney Regime. A Harvard Student Research Paper found that when Americans learned of the Abu Gharib scandal suddenly Bush Torture Lawyers began to push the notion of "Harsh" or "Enhanced Interrogation" methods to their media contacts and those stories began to equivocate and pretend as though there was a hotly contested debate about what is and what isn't Torture.

The reason is simple, Dick Cheney said as much right after 9/11, American Policy was Torture. And who would be tortured? Anyone. Everyone. Innocence and Guilt were non-factors. Bush and Cheney wanted Torture.

Whole sections of the Executive Branch were devoted to making Torture Official US Policy, the Justice Department was co-opted into crafting "legal" arguments for the efficacy of Torture and the rescinding of the "quaint" Geneva Conventions, White House officials made repeated Sunday Talk Show appearances hinting at the dozens of plots stopped by Torture, Jack Bauer would save Fox America through Torture. Torture was the Universal Cure-all of the Bush White House.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Ari Fleischer, Liz Cheney, Monica Goodling, Jay Bybee are war criminals. And they are worst of sort of war criminals for they, safely ensconced in air-conditioned offices, far from the battlefield, coldly crafted Torture memos and policies. Clear intent not influenced by the heat of the moment.

Yet how could it be that a section of the American people not only defend the Bush Regime War Criminals but defend the use of Torture? Well, the Media stopped calling it Torture. And magically we have two sides of the Torture issue.

And worst of all everyone knows that Torture is not useful in gaining information and gaining information through coercion is not only futile but criminal.

The clearest example of an interrogation practice that will void a confession is the infliction of physical force or pain upon the person under interrogation, because it is an incontestable fact that harm of this nature may produce a confession of guilt from an innocent person. This is also true as regards indirect physical harm - for instance, an unduly prolonged continuous interrogation, especially by two or more interrogators working in relays or the deprivation of food, water, or access to toilet facilities for an unreasonable period of time. A threat of physical harm may have a similar effect --- the extraction of confession from innocent persons. ~ Fred E. Inbau

Illinois Law- (720 ILCS 5/12‑7) Compelling confession or information by force or threat.

(a) A person who, with intent to obtain a confession, statement or information regarding any offense, knowingly inflicts or threatens imminent bodily harm upon the person threatened or upon any other person commits the offense of compelling a confession or information by force or threat.

(b) Sentence. Compelling a confession or information is a: (1) Class 4 felony if the defendant threatens imminent bodily harm to obtain a confession, statement, or information but does not inflict bodily harm on the victim, (2) Class 3 felony if the defendant inflicts bodily harm on the victim to obtain a confession, statement, or information, and (3) Class 2 felony if the defendant inflicts great bodily harm to obtain a confession, statement, or information.

Related Disaffected Blog Posts:
Opening Salvo, First Blog Post:

Water Torture was used on the Filipinos ,this was eventually admitted to by future President William Howard Taft.

Torture.

George Bush oversaw the implementation of Torture in the name of the American people. Here is the strangest dissonance from the Pro-Human Pain and Suffering Right Wing: The harsh interrogation methods we used are so wimpy that slapping oneself on air is the equivalent. However, they are so awesome and useful that if need be we can use them and break someone in 35 seconds to save us from the Right Wing Extremist Bogus Ticking Time Bomb Scenario.

So it's both Torture and Not Torture.

Stalag 17, Revisited:

Remember the film Stalag 17? One of the techniques the Nazis use is Sleep Deprivation. Watch the scene. In it Von Scherbach also declares Lieutenant Dunbar is not a prisoner of war. Strange how much Ari "Sleep Deprivation, I have no Problem with" Fleischer resembles Von Scherbach and not Otto Preminger.

Delving Into the Water Cure:

Paul Kramer has a detailed expose for The New Yorker on it's use 100 years ago: Many Americans were puzzled by the news, in 1902, that United States soldiers were torturing Filipinos with water. The United States, throughout its emergence as a world power, had spoken the language of liberation, rescue, and freedom.

AfghanStan McChrystal

This potential finding is exacerbated by the unconfirmed but suspected reports that POTUS and the secretary of the Army might include comments about Corporal Tillman's heroism and his approved Silver Star medal in speeches currently being prepared, not knowing the specifics surrounding his death. - then Lt. Gen Stanley McChrystal's P4 memo to General John Abaziad, as discovered years after Bush used Pat Tillman's death to bolster support for the Phony War on Terror.

Pat Tillman was an atheist, anti-war, read dissident authors, and thought Bush started an illegal war in Iraq. He's a true soldier and patriot and I wonder where all the Tea Party Traitors and Oath Keepers were when Bush was using Tillman's death to further his warmongering?

General Stanley McChrystal was in charge of the Pat Tillman cover-up. He's no Hero. It's possible Stan undertook the cover-up at the behest of the Cheney White House in order to deflect growing anti-war sentiment and to blunt the Abu Ghraib Torture revelations, which had been feverishly approved by Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and which could have unseated President Bush in 2004.

AfghanStan comes off very badly in the Rolling Stone article: The Runaway General by Michael Hastings. President Obama relieved him of his command for his poor judgement and contempt. Now Stan will be remembered (if at all) in the same breath as Gen George McClellan.

Of course, the tenor amongst the deluded punk ass bitch Right Wing Extremists is one of 'Well, as a General he really shouldn't show such contempt for the C-in-C, but we all know McChrystal is merely expressing the hatred for a kenyan born anti-American muslim terrorist lover' and 'the problem isn't McChrystal's lack of discretion but because he allowed inside an anti-war member of the liberal media'.

However, Barack take a clue, it doesn't matter how forcefully you prosecute the Neo-Con Phony War in Terror, the Right doesn't want the war won but continued forever. They want sustained occupation. Because the peace keeping mission provides them with cover for their true war goals; A Two-Fold Giant Transfer of Wealth. It's what the Republican Party exists for, Theft and Murder. And the Neo-Cons cover their criminal actions with the cry of 'National Interests'. There has never been a more pernicious lie than 'National Interests'.

This "recent" revelation that Afghanistan houses trillions in rare minerals has been known for decades and was one of the rationals the Soviets used to stay during their bloody decade.

COIN in Afghanistan is worthless because AQ aren't in the countryside, The new Afghan Commander General David Petraeus has stated that inconvenient fact. And the Mayor of Kabul Hamid Karzai has no political pull outside of his own eyesight.

The question is will international terrorist organizations use the countryside to train for overseas missions? Maybe but, the more overarching question has always been does our continued presence kill and deter more potential terrorists or create more?

Every few months an Al Qaeda #3 is killed to no apparent value. This is not because the American and ISAF operators are worthless, far from it, it's because the AQ structure isn't undone by eliminating HVTs. AQ3 does not have a line and block OOB under him which is disrupted by his removal, he isn't an Alfred Jodl or J.E.B. Stuart. Killing him dosen't disrupt their organization. AQ3 in Waziristan is not planning an envelopment of Jalalabad or two pronged strike towards Kabul and Mazer-i-Sharif. He's not a ninja or 37th Dan Blackbelt training 50 AQ assassins every year in the arts of lethal hand-to-hand combat, he isn't in Zurich channelling a billion here and a billion there in furtherance of an international plot to destabilize currency or fund an attack.

He's a guy living amongst goat herders in the 15,000 foot tall mountains of Pakistan, AQ have isolated themselves.

Liz It Up

That Evil Asshole Liz Cheney The Torturers' Daughter is at it again. Even with no job experience other than riding Dick into a Government Job, Fascist Fox News continually puts Liz on the air to lie and incite Sedition.



Liz had to lay low for a couple months when the Al Qaeda 7 Attack Ad she and Chicken Hawk Bill Kristol crafted backfired and got them flak from Iran-Contra Traitor Ted Olson (widowed husband of the ardent anti-Clinton Barbara Olson who was killed on 9/11), BJ Prosecutor Kenneth Star and 9 Bush Administration Legal Experts. But, it doesn't matter. Liz Cheney is part of the Team crafting a Conservative Narrative.

Liz's role is to Attack to foment discontent by lying about everything every time she is invited on air. Republicans and conservatives realized years ago that by making outrageous accusations against Liberals, even when those accusations were shown to be 100% false, which they most often were, the accusation itself carried political power. And that is how the idea came to create an Alternate Conservative Reality.

In this alternate reality Conservatives and Republicans are Heroes and not the liars, criminals, thieves, self hating homophobes, chicken hawks and murderers they in fact actually are. The alternate reality is a short hand in which 'Ditto Heads' can ignore history and believe fantasy.

Of course, Republicans and conservatives are not content with merely living in their own Oxycontin addled fantasy realm, they must drag down the rest of America as well. So conservatives take the long approach of doctoring textbooks to prove Newt Gingrich and Phyliss Schlafly birthed America after slaying the dinosaurs who had eaten the all the Indians and were trying to stop Adam and Eve from bringing the Constitution to Jesus in Washington DC which was built by happy young Africans only too willing to Come to America!

Related:
I'm posting this from Driftglass:

only Fox News would have the huevos to task Liz Cheney with leading the charge with statements like this:

"I think there are some things that clearly rise to the level of needing independent investigation."
And this:

"There is not an impeccable record of integrity there on the part of the former president."
And this:

"Clearly, you need somebody to come in and take a look at exactly what happened."
And this:

"There is a lot here that just smells funny."
And this:

"I want to know what the president knew."
And this:

"This is very reminiscent of the campaign finance scandals back in the mid-'90s when they were selling the Lincoln bedroom."
And this:

"I think the American people have a right to know here."
And this:

"Were any laws broken? Was an offer made?"

Yes, that's Liz-Spawn-of-Dick Cheney -- the degenerate daughter of the depraved, unrepentant and conspicuously uninvestigated, unindicted traitor and war criminal of a Vice President -- who is calling for independent investigators.

Liz-Spawn-of-Dick Cheney -- whose entire professional life is nothing but the poison fruit of her Daddy's bloody, treasonous career -- who insists that this all "smells funny".

RINO Virus

That Dick Cheney is still alive is the BEST evidence that a Public Option needs to be available to the American People. Without access to Government supplied Health Care Dick Cheney would've been dead years ago.

Cheney is, of course, a fake Republican. The RINO Virus which plagues America today. He decries socialism but has spent 40 years of his life working for Government because he can't hold a real job. He's slandered Obama everyday since Cheney sulked out of office, yet asked for and received extended Secret Service protection from Obama. Dick is such an ardent socialist that one of his first actions as Vice President was to give Government job to his daughter Liz, so she could stop walking the street.

Another fake Republican, a particularly virulent strain of the RINO Virus, who is harming America is carried by Our Lady of Iquitarod Queen Mooseilini Sarah Palin. Palin, the multi-millionaire spent the majority of 2008 and 2009 attacking Government Health Care provisions has no problem with her grandson Tripp receiving Government sponsored Health Care.

Fortunately, The RINO Virus can have helpful premutations. Scott Brown won as a Republican but apparently has a real independent streak to him and won't simply vote the way the Redupelican Party demands. Brown voted to allow a vote on the 15 Billion Dollar "Jobs Bill", which passed the Senate 70-28.

Brown has now earned the Wrath of the Tea Baggers. But, what did the jobs bill contain? The major provision is a tax credit for small businesses which hire and retain new workers.

Conservative values are such that blatant lying is prized. And the only the only trait required for a Leadership Role is: Loyalty. If a member of the Right is loyal, they can reach high office despite gross incompetence and criminal negligence.

Or perhaps as Monica Goodling illustrates because of those traits:


This is why the Right loves Palin she's grossly incompetent, actively ignorant and violently stupid yet she is loyal. Palin will go out everyday and engage in the Slash-and-Burn politics of Conservatism decrying the Government yet she has like all Republicans used the Government to steal millions for herself while ensuring her owners can steal Trillions. Just like they did with her Big Daddy Dick Cheney.

The Marines Leave Iraq

"Is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it and it is vital to the security of our country," ~ George W. Bush

On 01/23/10, the US Marines transferred Anbar Province over to the US Army and are heading home after 7 years of Operations in the area.

And while I am still firmly against the Iraq War, and do not believe any so-called victory is worth the price we paid, I salute my brave Corps Brethren.

The Marines who served prior, during and after my time in Iraq accomplished an incredible feat through sheer guts, intelligence, determination, training and perseverance despite the best efforts of the Bush/Cheney Neo-Con chicken hawks and Democratic cowards who sent them over there to make money for the War Profiteers.

Sadly because Conservatives have no intention of going to war they view the Marines and Soldiers as little more than wooden tokens on a RISK like game board. And many Marines bled their heart's blood into the desert for no good reason. And those that made it back to the States physically have left a part of their souls in the Middle East.

For some Marines never really come home. They suffer, unable to readjust to regular life in the 1st CIV DIV. Many take their lives.

Why? Because Dick Cheney and the Republicans (and then the Democrats) couldn't be bothered to deal with bureaucratic mismanagement and spend time helping those they sent into harm's way. But, that's to be expected from Republicans. Republicans are Cowards who hate the Troops and view them as raw meat. To be ground up serving Republican interests and advancing the Republican Party.

The Republican Party especially likes when soldiers die because Conservative Chicken Hawk Cowards, like the grave robbers and fakes they are, put their evil ideology, into the mouths of the dead for whom they have no right to speak.

Championing War, with no intention of fighting, and Using the dead are core Conservative Principles.

And they even give talks highlighting their cowardice: "Join the UMass Republican Club for yet another lively and edifying political discussion on the costs, necessities, consequences, and benefits of war." Because all that The University of Massachusetts Amherst Republicans and "rising star in the conservative intellectual movement" Jonah Goldberg are saying is Give War a Chance... You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time.

Related:
Disaffected and it Feels So Good: Feels like Suicide

Dick Cheney Sucking Off American Taxpayers

"If the private sector can do a better job, the private sector should get the contract," ~ George W. Bush

Except for Dick Cheney whose entire career is based on working for the Federal Government. And why exactly is Dick Cheney who worked for 40 years in Government, but not in a laudable military job because of his 5 Deferments, a font of reputable knowledge? Every Teabagger knows Government employs people who can't hold a job in the competitive private sector. Dick Cheney is an unqualified, shiftless socialist bum who has lived his whole life getting paid to suck off Americans for money.

In fact, when he finally left Government in 2009, Socialist Dick Cheney asked President Obama to extend his Secret Service Protection an additional 6 months till 01/20/10. Despite the fact that the Private Sector always does a better job than the Government. And Dick Cheney abused the Socialist Health Care provided by the Government by being treated at Naval Hospitals by Doctors being paid by money stolen (taxed) from American Taxpayers!

Dick Cheney Ardent Socialist.

Related:
Disaffected and it Feels So Good: The Best and Worst Case for National Health Care

How to Beat Torture

Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

Torture's back in the news because Dick the Pimp and Liz the Prostitute are out pumping the media and angrily defending war crimes on TV again.

The Republican Ticking Time-Bomb Scenario is easily countered. Any terrorist actually tortured, in the scenario, need only steel themselves for a short time and then provide false information.

For example, let us say you have knowledge a bomb is set to go off in 1 hour in LA or NY, if the bomb planting terrorist can hold out for 30 to 45 minutes and then pretend to succumb and provide you with the location of the bomb, the group will go off running 24 style to the wrong location as the bomb explodes in the other location.

To back my argument in the Mel Gibson MOVIE Payback. The crucial torture scene (in the Gibson cut of the film) has Gibson's character "Porter" undergoing a ball-peen hammer to the toes pretending to break and giving false information (in a sincere way) in order to send the torturers to a wrong location.

The Republican Pro Human Pain and Suffering Right Wing Extremists seem to think the prospect of wanting the torture to end is what is motivating the terrorist and don't seem to understand a committed terrorist has no expectation of survival. But, the major mass casualty attacks used by Dick the Pimp to justify his war crimes have usually ended with all the terrorists dead because they knew going in it would be a suicide mission. (See as examples the Moscow Nord-Ost Siege, the Beslan School Hostage Crisis, Mumbai Terror Assault and Dick Cheney's massive failure 9/11) Torture designed to inflict pain is used because the Torturer thinks the Tortured is worried about ending the torture with the mindset of living to see the future.

And then there is John McCain. Senator McCain proves some people are strong and crafty enough to give a false confession using information which the torturer thinks may be true. Although, I could be wrong about false confessions and all those people tortured by the Inquisition actually were Witches, flew around on brooms and were in League with Lucifer.

Of course, some sadistic fucks torture for the sheer pleasure of inflicting pain and tormenting the infidel and enemy. This describes most of the Right Wing FreeRepublic Extremists who are pro-torture.

Related:
Andrew Sullivan: Chris Wallace, Torture Defender
Obsidian Wings: Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Torture Edition
Progress Not Congress: The Case Against Liz Cheney's "Case"
Whiskey Fire: The Sacred Heart of Waterboarding
Sadly, No: Torture a Movie

The Best and Worst Case for National Health Care

is Dick Cheney. Without the access to U.S. Socialized and Communistic Medical care in place for flabby assed puffy faced bureaucrats involved in Government, Cheney would either have been uninsurable due to his repeated heart attacks or dead.

Worse still is that even though Cheney has turned his "hard work" in Government into a millionaires fortune he has not had to expend one dime of the ill gotten loot towards his medical care. It's covered by the tax payers labor. So the millions he's managed to earn through funneling billions of tax payers dollars to his confidantes and their corporations by using his position and influence is still in his bank account, so he may buy suits and plane tickets, in order to jet coast-to-coast defending his war crimes.

I decided to place my irreverent comment on another blog, that blog owner, as is his right decided to censor and delete my comment and responded in an email with the following:

Cheney is allowed to go to any physician, any hospital of his choosing, that my friend is not socialized medicine it is a gold plan that Obama plans to destroy, I promise not to publish your remarks so people will not know how ignorant about the subject you really are. I'd take the insurance offered to government employees possibly over the plan I'm in. J.C.

Note the "my friend" addition which as pointed out by a comrade from my Corps days is white people speak for I Want To Kill You.

I don't know J.C.'s mind or if the site was a fake personal blog and merely a Republican front for attacking Obama but I wonder if when he writes he'd take the insurance offered to government employees over his private plan he understands he's supporting Big Government Socialised Health Care. Although in his defense perhaps he means he'd take Bush and Republican undercut, underfunded and criminally neglected VA health coverage...