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A Tormented Politician – Or Just A Bully?

The BBC is considering an apology to its website readers. This week it used the words “Dick Cheney” and “diplomacy” on the same page, while reporting the vice president’s visit to China.

After wooing the Chinese in a political style he has made all his own, Cheney moved on to Australia and his antipodean twin, John Howard. At least here he could relax in a more welcoming climate of friendship and cordiality:

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After a ‘coupla tinnies’ round the pool, Dick thanked Australia in general, and John Howard in particular, for “never wavering on the war on terror”.

He said: “The United States appreciates it, and the whole world respects you for it.”

The whole world? Just who exactly is he referring to?

Seems to me the “whole world” – less the US administration of course – doesn’t give a kangaroo’s willy for anything Australia does or doesn’t do in the war on terror. In fact, to tell the truth, the whole world is heartily sick to the back teeth of Bush and Cheney’s little “War on Terror” game, and the only ones to show any support at all are a few demented politicians.

Talking of demented politicians naturally swings the circle back to Vice President Cheney. What is the matter with this man? He seems unable to relax and enjoy life. Is the bitter, twisted – slightly tormented? – look a deliberate act to disguise the purring, affectionate, pussy cat within, or has Dick’s life truly become a tortuous trail of snarls, grunts, and sneers?

Is it, perhaps, the torment of siring a lesbian daughter when he, himself, projects a moral code befitting Pope Innocent III:

“We strictly prohibit you, lawyers and notaries, from assisting in any way, by council or support, all heretics and such as believe In them, adhere to them, render them any assistance or defend them in any way.”

That quote was from Innocent’s Papal Bull, Si adversus vos, of 1205, which forbade any legal help for heretics. Reminiscent, perhaps, of the decrees put out by this administration – in which Cheney holds great authority – regarding those housed in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center?

Or, maybe its the burden of guilt he carries for milking Americans of their hard-earned dollars, that is causing such facial distortions in the Vice President. Is there a clash between the harshly moralistic Cheney and the Cheney ego, forever condemned to duck and dive as it uses every trick it can conjure to wring another million dollars here, a billion or so there.

From CommonDreams.org 2003: “[However] of all the administration members with potential conflicts of interest, none seems more troubling than Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney is former CEO of Halliburton, an oil-services company that also provides construction and military support services – a triple-header of wartime spoils.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers awarded a no-bid contract to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton. The contract was granted under a January Bush administration waiver that, according to the Washington Post, allowed “government agencies to handpick companies for Iraqi reconstruction projects.”

The contract, which was not announced until more than two weeks after it was awarded, was open-ended, with no time limits and no dollar limits. It was also a “cost-plus” contract, meaning that the company is guaranteed to recover costs and then make a guaranteed profit on top of that. Its value is estimated at tens of millions of dollars……….. Cheney, who served as CEO from 1995 to 2000, continues to receive as much as $1 million a year in deferred compensation as Halliburton executives enjoy a seat at the table during Administration discussions over how to handle post-war oil production in Iraq.”

Sadly for Cheney, four years later the “post war oil production” is not yet ready to be “handled”, which may be another reason our Dick fails to achieve his ‘happiness and joy of life’ quota.

One has to wonder if all the hassle is really worth the stress.

After all, the battery in his pacemaker surely will not last forever.

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4 Replies to “A Tormented Politician – Or Just A Bully?”

  1. He’s one crazy kiddo. When does he visit the UK? I like his audacity in speaking for the “whole world”. That really does take some believing. Still, there may be places who haven’t heard of this meglomaniac, but not many.

  2. people say the problem with politicians is that it is the road to hell being paved with good intentions. howver, there is no one on earth whol could convince me to look at cheney and think that that man has good intentions

  3. PoP – I’ve never been a fan of the word ‘evil’ due to its other-worldly, satanic overtones, but if I had to use it, Cheney would be one person it would fit.

    Ian Duncan Smith – So far as I can recall he’s never been to the UK. He probably feels it would be safer to visit Bagram Air base – even after today’s attempt on his life.

    Michael the Tubthumper – welcome to Sparrow Chat. I paid your blog a visit and thoroughly enjoyed it. Scotland rules! Although the Welsh are better at rugby…… 😉

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