The United States Intelligence is a JOKE

I don't blame President Obama for being angry at this country's intelligence. Period. When you have the terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father walk into the United States Embassy and TELL personnel about his son and what he is up to, but this intelligence is not noted, moved on, even LOOKED at but this individual is on the many lists of "terrorists" and he almost blows up a U.S. aircraft, how would you feel.

I don't know if the CIA and all these other agencies are politicizing terrorists, terrorism, etc., but if they are anyone with this information and was not acted on should be FIRED.

What happened to all these agencies sharing information? Actionable information is gotten from HUMANS, not drones, not chatter, but humans with specifics. Abdulmatallab's father had actionable information, he knew that his son was coercing with potential terrorists and he did the right thing, he reported it.

What did we do? Not a damn thing.

This needs to STOP and the Republicans, "shame on you" for trying to politicize something like this. Much of what is in place and still going on was on YOUR WATCH and the same measures that President Obama is currently using were the same measures from President Bush. And of course, there was NO criticism then but now. Republicans your argument does not hold up, period. What about trying to help this President and our country instead of continuously pointing the "fucking finger"?

From Keith Olbermann's Countdown:





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Want to read those 22 million lost, but found Bush-Cheney emails?

Hold your breath until 2022. Thanks to the Obama White House for RECOVERING these missing emails. Let's be honest and clear here, of course the Bush White House wanted these emails removed. That administration will end up being one of the worst and corrupt regimes that ever sat at the White House.



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Ron Reagan kicked Ron Christie's ASS on Hardball (Video)

This is a barn burner, one to see....



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Lawrence O'Donnell destroys Liz Cheney on criticizing President Obama for paying tribute to fallen soilders (Video)

President Bush or Vice-President Cheney NEVER went to Dover AFB to honor the fallen soldiers. O'Donnell tore Liz Cheney UP and it was due, since most of her statement was a LIE. From Countdown with Keith Olbermann.



and Rachel Maddow weighs in.....




President Obama stands outside an Air Force C-17 transport plane as he takes part in the "dignified transfer ceremony" of U.S. Army Sgt. Dale R. Griffin at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, October 29, 2009. Griffin is one of 18 U.S. personnel who died Monday in Afghanistan.

h/t Daily Kos

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Dick Cheney criticizes Obama "dirthering" on Afghanistan (Video)

This coming from a man who never thought about how winning ANY MIDDLE EAST WAR? Cheney has ZERO credibility. And why the media gives this war nut a podium for his bullshit is beyond me. From Hardball.

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Joe Scarborough, why are you arguing with Lawrence O'Donnell? (Video)

O'Donnell is the one to be weary of, the man has FACTS and undisputable ones at that, but Scarborough continues to try to one up him. Scarborough today, "EPIC FAIL". Yes, I used fail because O'Donnell served it up to Scarborough, who tried to defend the aberration known as Dick Cheney.

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Dick Cheney on the hot spot

A federal judge orders the FBI interview of Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States, be released to the public. This is the first of many "releases" that will eventually come out.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the FBI must publicly reveal much of its notes from an interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative.

Cheney agreed to be interviewed by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in June 2004 during the investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame's identity after her husband publicly criticized the Bush administration. Both the Bush and Obama administrations said they wanted to keep the interview confidential because future presidents, vice presidents and their senior staff may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could became public.

But U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled there was no justification to withhold the entire 67 pages of FBI records documenting Fitzgerald's interview since the Plame leak investigation has concluded. He said that limited parts could be withheld to protect national security and private communications between the president and vice president.

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When its hot in the kitchen for Dick Cheney, he unleashes Lizzy

The announcement of the pending CIA torture investigations by AG Eric Holder, SHOULD WORRY DICK CHENEY. Why? Because as Former President George W. Bush was leaving office, all his dirty shit was unraveling. In fact, Bush could not wait for the "klieg lights" to be dim on him for good, his words.

As we thought in our gut that Karl Rove had a heavy hand in the firings of U.S. Attorneys, and we were RIGHT. We will soon find out, who gave what orders, to do what, to these prisoners.

Just as we found out about the lies of the Bush Administration to take this country to Iraq for a War that was of choice, not necessity, it is important that we know everything and clean it up. Why? Because this country, the United States of America is bigger and better than what we, its citizens saw and let transpire. By the time George W. Bush was to leave office, there was barely a country he could go to. The disdain of the Bush Administration and its policy of the Iraq War were so negative, he would have been booed to high heaven. As he was the last time in Europe and as we witnessed an Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at President Bush, which is to signify total disdain and disrespect.

George W. Bush may have ended up signing off on a lot of things he did not totally know about or just cared not to, but in the end, he will be on the hot seat, too. But, Dick Cheney has already been implicated on knowing and dealing the thing called "torture". Now, out of office and writing a book, anytime you bring up the word "investigation" he puts his ass on television in a flash to denounce the Obama Administration and call it "partisan or political", when in fact Barack Obama does not want to go down this road, this call is purely from the Justice Department. See, when you follow the LAW and don't politicize every department, let each department act independently of the White House, as Justice is supposed to, you end up with an investigation.



So, today Dick Cheney released his bogus daughter, Lynn Cheney to This Week with George Stephanopoulos, but there was a seasoned journalist on the panel by the name of Sam Donaldson and he was having none of her bullshit nonsense of tap dancing around questions and straight up not answering them. View the whole exchange, here. And the shorter version is below:



And of course, in the end Dick Cheney is PROUD that he had the guts to torture.

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Ed Schultz on Liz Cheney attempting to defend her daddy on morning joe (Video)

Here is is Liz Cheney on morning joe

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Alberto Gonzales is NO COMMENT on Dick Cheney's secret CIA counterterrorism program (Video)

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales deflected questions Tuesday regarding whether he knew anything about former Vice President Dick Cheney's alleged orders to the CIA to keep its counterterrorism program secret from Congress.

"It's very difficult to talk about classified activities in an unclassified setting," Gonzales told CBS' "The Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith.

"We tried to work as hard as we could with Congress in making sure they understood what was going on," in the executive branch Gonzales said.

On Monday, some members of Congress called for an investigation into the mysterious program, which government officials told AP allegedly sought to kill or capture suspected al Qaeda militants at close range, as opposed to using airstrikes.

Last Month, CIA Director Leon Panetta ended the program upon learning of its existence and its lack of results, and the fact that Congress had been unaware of it since its inception soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, according to one official with direct knowledge of the plan told AP.

Gonzales' hesitancy to talk may stem from a 2008 Justice Department report that charged he mishandled highly classified and sensitive documents relating to the Bush administration's counterterrorism plans. read more here....

There you have it, the dumbest Attorney General to ever grace the office!!

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morning joe continues to enable Liz Cheney and her talking points (Video)

The tough questions did not come from morning joke or joe, definitely not from Mika Brzezinski who tip-toed around Liz Cheney without the continuing interruption from loud mouth Joe Scarborough.

The fact is that over time, Liz Cheney has done a damn good job promoting her daddy, helping him secure a huge book deal, kept to her talking points and it was hard for any journalist to pin her down. But the obvious is this, her daddy, former Vice President Dick Cheney deliberately kept a secret counterterrorist program from congress, period. He told the CIA to not say anything and to keep it quiet. Now that is what happened, period. And that was illegal, period.

morning joe performed DISSERVICE to the show and the public by the soft ball questions to Liz Cheney. If Liz Cheney is out there speaking on BEHALF of her daddy, then ask her the questions directly, since she continues to sit up on television like she is an authority on it all. Don't keep letting her slip-slide away with her talking points and not challenge her. To sit and watch journalists, with exception of Eugene Robinson, ask her or point out to her that what her daddy did was illegal, wrong but no one challenge her was a joke.

Mika Brzezinski showed us today what a good journalist, she is not. Again, Rachel Maddow is the most intelligent woman journalist on television, who asks all the questions with no sugar coat. Will Liz Cheney go on that show? I doubt it, because she would not be able to get away with her talking points BULLSHIT.

Leon Panetta the current Director of the CIA, who is a conservative Democrat and straight shooter shut this program down, abruptly, informed congress about this program and said the program was kept secret specifically by former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Mr. Panetta scuttled the program, which would have relied on paramilitary teams, shortly after the C.I.A.’s counterterrorism center recently informed him of its existence. The next day, June 24, he told the two Congressional Intelligence Committees that the plan had been hidden from lawmakers, initially at the instruction of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

There is nothing there for the right to go after Panetta for or about. It is hard to go after someone for simply, telling the truth. Yes, we all hear crickets at this point.

To Mika, I too, like nice intelligent conversation but not what was on television this morning. Eventually, when all the dust is settled, Dick Cheney will have been found to have broken the law. Cheney, who was president to many without the title, took and abused powers far beyond any other president in that position. There is a reason that the law indicates that the CIA is supposed to informed congress of any programs in the open and otherwise, but to run a program for eight years and no one knew a peep about it is just the beginning of the can being opened.

Mika, your responsibility as a journalist is not to make nice with guests, but to be forthcoming with the real questions, nice and otherwise. That did not happen this morning. You had no command over your guest, you could not shut her down, you allowed your guest, Eugene Robinson to be badgered and you call it good, honest intelligent debate? This was another opportunity lost to you, but won for Cheney where she was given a platform with no opposition to, "...make outrageously partisan and inaccurate claims, often without being challenged by her hosts." Yep, that is just the climate that Liz Cheney was given, to clean up her daddy's illegal position on a show that did not have the guts to ask the hard questions without upsetting Lady Liz. Yep, the way Liz Cheney is enabled on morning joe, you would think she was royalty or walked on water.

Lastly, as long as media like morning joe and others, continue to let Lady Liz's talking point of the "Democrats can not be trusted with National Security" go unchecked, how will the truth ever be totally dissected and told to the public? Surely not by allowing enablers of the likes of morning joe to continue. That is a fact.

Just keepin' it real.

Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

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Calls mounting for investigation of secret CIA program (Video)

Led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, the cat is now out of the bag about how Cheney told the CIA not to let congress know about this particular secret CIA program.

I think no one should be in shock or in awe. We are talking about Dick Cheney one of the biggest liars walking around here, coupled with the CIA, a recipe for disaster.

Congressional demands for an investigation grew on Monday over new disclosures that a secret CIA program to capture or kill al-Qaida leaders was concealed from Congress for eight years, perhaps at the behest of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The program, which never got off the ground and remains shrouded in mystery, was designed to target leaders of the terrorism network at close range, rather than with air strikes that risked civilian casualties, government officials with knowledge of the operation said Monday.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The program was canceled last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta shortly after he himself first learned of it. ,read more here....

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Dick Cheney ordered CIA to hide counterterrorism program from congress

Remember when REPUBLICANS went after Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her comments that the CIA has not been forthcoming and honest with congress? Well, the Republicans have nothing to say now. Not when former Vice-President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to hide a counterterrorism program from congress. Sigh. Are you shocked? You should not be. Remember, the CIA are professional LIARS, that is what they do. Now what? Justice Department?

Former Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA eight years ago not to inform Congress about a nascent counterterrorism program that CIA Director Leon Panetta terminated in June, officials with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

Subsequent CIA directors did not inform Congress because the intelligence-gathering effort had not developed to the point that they believed merited a congressional briefing, said a former intelligence official and another government official familiar with Panetta's June 24 briefing to the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

Panetta did not agree.

Upon learning of the program June 23 from within the CIA, Panetta terminated it and the next day called an emergency meeting with the House and Senate Intelligence committees to inform them of the program and that it was canceled.

Cheney played a central role in overseeing the Bush administration's surveillance program that was the subject of an inspectors general report this past week. That report noted that Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, personally decided who in Bush's inner circle could even know about the secret program.

But revelations about Cheney's role in making decisions for the CIA on whether to notify Congress came as a surprise to some on the committees, said another government official. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program publicly. read more here....

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project"
Read Jesselyn Radack here

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Ed Schultz tells it like it is about Dick Cheney on morning joe (Video)

And I agree with him, in regards to Dick Cheney. One of the most ruthless politicians to ever hi-jack White House policy. Period.

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Chris Matthews, "RNC=Rush, Newt, Cheney" (Video)

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Cheney states no evidence linking Iraq to 9/11

And this from the former Vice-President of the United States that went from microphone to microphone and stated there was EVIDENCE that Iraq was involved.

This just makes your stomach turn. Why anyone would listen to him is beyond me!!

Former Vice President Dick Cheney says there was “never any evidence” that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq played any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

“On the question of whether or not Iraq was involved in 9/11, there was never any evidence to prove that,” Cheney said during an interview Monday night with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren.

“There was some reporting early on, for example, that Mohammed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official,” Cheney said. “But that was never borne out.”

In a 2003 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Cheney said that “the Czechs alleged that Mohamed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official five months before the attack.”

But Cheney added, “We’ve never been able to develop any more of that yet, either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it. We just don’t know.” read more here....

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Powell's approval ratings SWAMPS Limbaugh and Cheney

And the Republicans want to follow whom? After losing big the past two election cycles?

Folks, well, Republicans listen up. Cheney and Limbaugh don't really care or give a damn, this publicity is all about their OWN AGENDA.

For Cheney, trying to clean up his image, garner a book deal. Does anyone think after all we know NOW that Cheney is credible? Please.

For Limbaugh, it is all about the ratings for his fanatical radio show. Why would this man really care? This is a man sitting on a 400 million dollar contract? His job is to keep controversy up. Since he has not made much headway with Democrats, he is stirring his own Republican pot and calling out Republicans and stating who is a Republican and who is not.

If you are going to be that gullible to listen to these gasbags, carry on. Soon, you will only be a southern regional party, which is want is happening already.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, suggests that 70 percent have a favorable opinion of Powell, who was Secretary of State during President George W. Bush's first term, and who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War.

Only 30 percent of those polled have a favorable view of Limbaugh, the popular conservative radio talk show host, with 53 percent saying they hold an unfavorable opinion.

In poll numbers released Thursday, 37 percent say they have a favorable opinion of Dick Cheney, with 55 percent indicating they hold an unfavorable view of the former vice president.

Among Republicans, it's a different story. The poll suggests that 66 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Cheney, 64 percent give Powell a thumbs up, and 62 view Limbaugh in a favorable way.

Republicans may love Rush, but Republicans can't win with just Republican votes. It was antics by the Limbaughs of your party that ran everyone away, especially the independents, to voting Obama. If you can not see the handwriting on the wall, hey, the wilderness must be lovely for the next 20 years.

Source

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MEDIA: Stop enabling Liz Cheney. She is not an authority on torture.

I am doing a piggyback off of Al Rodgers diary which includes the confrontation between Liz Cheney and Lawrence O'Donnell.

Liz Cheney has been doing her media tour to help clean up her father's image, but from now on waterboarding is equivalent to DROWNING and if it is drowning someone, intentionally, it is TORTURE.

It is time for shows like morning joe or morning joke, to stop enabling the likes of Liz Cheney by allowing her to come on their shows with LIES, TALKING POINTS FROM DADDY and utter BULLSHIT. Enough. What happened to the truth?

I am damn angry and mad right now. After watching Liz Cheney in Al's diary, I am too over WTF, but at get these lying sacks of shits off the airwaves and I mean, yesterday!!

What really has catapulted this debate, in my opinion, is the revelations by Mancow on waterboarding is drowning. This comparison hit me, personally that Mancow almost drowned when he was a kid and said that is how waterboarding feels. Well, I almost drowned at 12 on a trip to Orlando, FL to Disneyworld. Playing rough and the other kids not knowing, I got into the deep part of the pool. They were playing while I was DROWNING. I had to be revived and I have been DEATHLY afraid of water until I decided to learn how to swim in my 30's. The main reason I learned how to swim is that I love to fish and we go out on the boat all the time. I am not the strongest swimmer, but I can save myself. So, I know EXACTLY how that waterboarding feels.

It is time for these so called, "talk show hosts, analysts" to do their fucking jobs and challenge Liz "I know everything about torture" Cheney and stop enabling her.

This country deserves to have the story told to us right and honestly. The media needs to get this right, not wrong like they did during the Bush Administration. The media FAILED us during that time, by not doing their jobs and investigating the obvious. Instead, they wrote what was given to them from the Bush White House as fact, they allowed themselves to be used by planted stories, they failed the American Public.

Don't do this again, media. Allowing Liz Cheney on these talk shows as an "authority" of torture is not only insulting it is ridiculous. She is spewing propped up talking points fed to her by her daddy. Does anyone in their right mind think Liz is an authority in this? When was the last time she was in torture camp? Or waterboarding school? She has never been near anything like this and the media needs to do their jobs and quit enabling her.

Every single expert who has been waterboarded or had experience in it has said it is torture. Why is Liz Cheney all over the television saying this technique is not?

Finally, everything written from now on in regards to waterboarding should be equated to drowning. See this issue has been muddled because it has not been explained properly, but thanks to the honesty of Mancow, we all can relate to what waterboarding is, drowning and if done intentional, again, torture. Just about everyone knows what too much water in your mouth and nose feels like, it feels like drowning. That is how this argument needs to be presented moving forward.

If it is intentional drowning, that means it is TORTURE.

Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

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Roger Simon on Hardball about Cheney, "....68, white and bitter, he is the Republican Party" (Video)

Wow.

Again, the Republican Party needs to get it together, as in "a broad brush to welcome folks in". That image of Cheney vs. Obama yesterday is a killer for the GOP.



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Former Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge disagrees with Dick Cheney (Video)

Call it what you want. Dick Cheney does not, in the end, help the Republican Party's argument. The GOP has always been the party of National Security, but under the Bush Administration and their disastrous handling of both wars it became apparent that many were just incompetent and we had a leader that listened to NO ONE. This killed the GOP in the end at the ballot boxes.

As people have listened to both speeches, read transcripts, it is clearly obvious that Dick Cheney wishes this administration to fail. Hopes that another terrorist attack will prevail. Even though all of his arguments have massive holes in them, or just down right lies. I am with Lawrence O'Donnell on this one, if you are using former CIA Director George Tenet as evidence and backup to your claims, the one who manufactured the Iraq evidence, your whole argument has major problems. A must read is from McClatchy Newspapers which dissects and destroys Cheney's argument, definitely worth a read.

From Tom Ridge:

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told CNN Thursday that former Vice President Dick Cheney's repeated charge the Obama administration has made the country less safe is wrong.

"Yeah, I disagree with Dick Cheney," the Pennsylvania Republican and former Bush administration official told CNN's John King, adding he "does not" think the country is more vulnerable to an attack under President Obama.

Ridge appears to agree with a majority of Americans, according to a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. In that survey, taken last month, 72 percent of registered voters said they did not think the country was less safe under President Obama.

Ridge's comments came the same day both Obama and Cheney gave dueling speeches on national security, during which the president sharply condemned Bush administration interrogation practices while Cheney vigorously defended them.

In the interview with CNN, set to air in full on State of The Union with John King Sunday, Ridge said he disagrees with "the approach both men are taking."

"It's just the whole notion of a Republican vice president giving a speech after the incumbent Democratic president," he said. "It's gotta go beyond the politics of either party."

And from Keith Olbermann's guest, former Colin Powell aide, Ret. Lt. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson:

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