Monty Python is Alive and Well!

The Demonization of Dick Cheney

When I first listened to Dick Cheney, he was a representative from Wyoming. He was calm, assertive, conservative, and able to convey a sense of clarity in his foreign policy position. I strongly believe that Dick Cheney understands the concept of being at war with islamist extremists. He knows that they don't put on uniforms and conduct all out assaults using armies and tanks and that they use our weaknesses against us.

I've been dissappointed in Dick Cheney several times. The first time was when he advocated decreasing our defense budget. It took me several years to understand his philosophy of leaner, more responsive armed forces. I disagreed with him on several decisions he made to cancel weapon system's I believed should have been developed. He also became the director of the Council on Foreign Relations, an organization that I believe is based on an evil concept, and one that should be disbanded. I think, however, that Dick Cheney understands, better than most, the world's economic structure and that he needed to run in these circles in order to obtain information. He has always been a information hound, and we need a few of those in our midst.

I think the reason that I like Dick Cheney the most is his strong insistence on state's rights. From issues like gay marriage to health care, Dick Cheney has believed that state's should make their own decisions; a wise philosophy.

The media has consistently demonized Dick Cheney for his relationship with Halliburton. Though he divested his holdings, they latched on to his involvement with the large, private, military contractor, from which he gained most of his personal wealth, like leeches to skin. There are far more interesting things under the surface here than Halliburton, folks. Why is there no outrage that he was the director of the Council on Foreign Relations? Because progressives approve of it, that's why. Why did they not publicize his policy of decreasing our military forces by half? Because they approve of it! The hypocracy of these positions is evident.

The media have to have someone to vilify, and Vice President Cheney is the perfect guy. He's white, he's old, he's rich, and his life started with scandal in the form of draft deferments for the Vietnam War and will end with scandal with the undoubtedly sensational vice presidential papers that will one day be published. It doesn't matter that when you get to Washington D.C., they all have sensational and scandalous secrets that will eventually out, he's a conservative and that's enough.

It will never matter that he understands how to maneuver through the world economic nightmare controlled by only a few of the very rich. It will never matter that while understanding the hideous truth, Dick Cheney managed to float the dangerous waters and hold true to his conservative roots. And it will never matter that he protected the American public from islamic fundamentalist nutcases using what I truly hope were methods of interrogation resembling torture. We put caterpillars in rooms with these monsters, water-board them, and might even bash a few upside the head: well, good for us. And for these efforts, which could not have been very much fun, we have been rewarded with information that has kept us safe.

Dick Cheney is one of those few rich, old, white guys whom I believe have kept us safe, kept our economy from collapsing, and kept true to his conservative roots while navigating the minefields of global finance; so, find someone else to vilify for awhile. We know both the good and the bad about Dick Cheney and we accept that we need someone like him to provide leadership and do some of the dirty work in order to keep the rest of us working, living, and hoping for the future.

Just Say "NO!"

You can tell by the constant repetition from the talking heads on the left that the talking points have been handed out: the Republicans are the party of "No." "No," to health care for women and children, "no," to saving the earth, "no," to anything that our vaunted leader was elected accomplish. I wish I had a cartoonist to show the party hacks bashing their heads against a wall labeled "leftist agenda," because Barack Obama did not run as a leftist. He ran as a centrist with one fatal slip during his conversation with Joe The Plumber. They knew how to get him in, but they are far less sure about how to get him out.

You're darn right it should be "No." In fact, it should be "Hell, No!" Never have the Republicans been so united; a fact that has been overlooked by most. "Hell, no," we don't want a health care system riddled with special interest perks and massive intrusion into our private sector, more than already exists by miles. "Hell, no," we don't want a system of energy taxation that will devastate our economy and funnel dollars to the richest in our economy (look into Cap and Trade, it will shock you), and "Hell, NO!" we do not want further intrusion into the private sector by government bureaucrats who are motivated by self-interest and party affiliation. And finally, a huge "HELL, NO!" to the politically correct treatment of enemy combatants and giving constitutional protection to stone-cold killers who have clearly stated that they would like to see nothing less than the destruction of the Great Satan, the United States of America. They want to kill you, my fellow Americans, and they will use our weakness for "law and order" against us to do it.

I am proud to be in the company of those who have decided to say, "Hell, no!" to the destruction of the greatest country on earth. And make no mistake, once the government gets control of 1/6th of our economy, we will be well on our way to looking exactly like the socialist economies of Europe, with no growth and limited opportunity for innovation. If you are still unconvinced, take a hard look at where the innovation is taking place in the world today. It is still in the good 'ol U.S.of A., (and then China manufactures it all: Fair Trade anyone?). So, join us in the party of "Hell, No!" and preserve your children and grandchildren's future because it is clearly in jeapardy and the call to action is upon you.

Compromise

Most liberals are fairly conservative in their thinking; but, they don’t want to agree with anything a conservative has to say for fear they will then be stigmatized. God forbid, my mother-in-law, who is more conservative than I am, admit that there might be conservatism in her thought processes. Fiscally, she is far more conservative than most Republican’s I know, but she spent 35 years as a member of the NEA and, to her, Republican is a bad word. Those nasty Republican’s, they want teachers to suffer. They want to pay teacher’s less and spend more on defense, it’s just the way they are. Obviously, I could get into the argument about why it is important to spend money on defense in order to have an economy that is stable and, thereby, money to pay the teachers, but it will never get that far. The level of polarization is beyond our ability to bridge those gaps anymore.
At least my Dad admits that he is a progressive. He comes right out with it, unapologetically, and says, I think government should take over the health care system, run the Arabs out of the country, and nuke Iran. Well, isn’t that a breath of fresh air? We’re all so busy accusing each other of our perceived faults that we can’t reach any common ground. And do we want to really? In Massachusetts last month, most Democrats said they voted for Scott Brown because they didn’t want one party in control. Democrats in Massachusetts voted for a Republican…what has the world come to? My favorite liberal friend laments that they will lose everything they’ve worked for if they lose the health care package currently before the senate due to Scott Brown’s election. But what is it the Democrats/liberals/progressives have really put in to this bill? All that work includes: an extension of HIPPA (really, at the center of it) in the form of Max Baucus’ contribution, pay-offs to the unions who don’t want their Cadillac health plans taxed, pay-offs to the service unions for the same, no public option, which most liberals will say was the point of their efforts to begin with, and some bribes to the good folks of Arkansas and Kansas that will exempt them from these efforts. Yep, that’s a lot to lose, alright. So, a crappy plan will get tabled, a real tragedy in the liberal world.
Why, however, did they not get it passed during the last several months? They had the votes, or they were supposed to have had them. We conservatives don’t have the ability to stop this, it’s all in their court, but they couldn’t get it done. My question is this: why is the first reaction of the politicians who couldn’t get this done to blame the Republicans for obstructing the bill? We didn’t have the votes, we didn’t have the ability to stop anything from passing, but the accusations started flying almost immediately. We are hip-deep in the hypocrisy of it all. But it’s not even the accusations that piss me off. It’s the elitist, we know better than you attitude of any politician who thinks that they can take my money and tell me what I need from them. It truly makes me sick. I’m so tired of the regulation, taxation, and the cradle-to-grave mentality, that I think I’ll just throw up on it all. I want to find the middle ground, I want to find a way to agree on basic principles with those who feel strongly one way or another, but it will never happen. It’s the end of communication as we know it. Debate is out the door. Conservatives are constantly being called “closed-minded,” defeatist, obstructionist, hacks and we’re tired. We’re tired of being the ones to compromise.
Yep, I know, we never compromise. Well crap on that. We spent the entire Bush administration compromising our core values, and we’re seeing the result in the tea party movement. The age of compromise is over, and if my prediction is correct and we are a “middle-right” country, as I suspect, we will no longer be interested in compromise. We’ve spent too much, done too little, and the progressives are going to have to run away again into the dark closet of history, because we, as small business people, are the only hope for the economy.
We are the only hope for the teachers, firemen, police and all the other public servants who get paid using tax dollars. It never seems to get through to the partisans: tax dollars pay teacher’s salaries and there is a limit to what people are willing to fork over as a percentage of their take-home pay. A very small percentage of the total taxable population in this country are truly rich; so, the liberals can blame them for everything from getting big bonuses (which they spend, generally, in our economy) to just being rich, but when it comes down to brass tacks, the numbers don’t lie. The rich will take all their money and go elsewhere or decide that it’s just not worth it if you take more than 50% of their money! Since that leaves us with the middle class (us poor saps who earn under $100k a year) to pay for all the services, the tax rates will skyrocket. Where do you think this is all going? To hell, that’s where. And we’re sick of it, we’re sick of it to the point of no longer wanting to find common ground. So, although this was supposed to be about finding common ground, I guess I’m no longer interested.