So, Mr. Cheney, in whatever undisclosed location you are in right now, just know that a bunch of Hillary Democrats here in Boystown who hated your guts for years now realize what remarkable service you gave this country when we needed your gruff Burgess Meredith meets Michael Keaton self. You were just the quiet badass genius strategist we needed, and we’re sure you pulled no punches and coddled no evil-doer on your watch. You also, we must remind the liberals of the LGBTQ community, were FAR MORE SUPPORTIVE of LGBTQ rights than any Vice President before you, Republican OR Democrat, and you have personally shown more willingness to advance our causes than your successor ever has — and you did this without a single word of thanks from ANYONE, including us. You are a decent man who won’t eat everyone else’s ice cream, because you’ve got more than enough of your own tucked away in whatever secret room you spent almost eight years keeping us all alive with whatever it was you were entrusted with.

Some day, we hope to have the honor of shaking your hand and thanking you in person, Mr. Cheney. Because you deserve not just our thanks, as people who FINALLY appreciate your efforts, but the thanks of the whole nation.

Go ahead and freak out in comments that we’ve gone and done it again, and are thanking the Bush Administration for keeping us safe all those years, but we just have a sinking feeling Hope, Change, and Joe Biden are setting us up for something awful before the summer’s out…and that very soon more than just those of us at Buzzquarters are going to realize what a great Vice President we had in Dick Cheney.

He may be a crotchety, gruff, surly, wiseass who shoots people in the face — but he was OUR crotchety, gruff, surly, friend’s-face-shooting wiseass…with great emphasis on the WISE part.

Classic Darth Cheney “don’t go there” staredown:

Remember when Lynn Cheney also took Wolf Blitzer out to the woodshed?

Fuller interview (bad resolution):

I eagerly await CNN’s next “Broken Government” special….but won’t be holding my breath.

The other issue is how the left always conveniently never discusses or addresses the real torture

Definitions seem to get shifted over time. For instance, our concept and standard of “poverty” in the U.S. is a lot different than what it might be in other parts of the world.

CJ:

the techniques used by the United States military and intelligence agencies are NOT torture. It’s no different than how they’ve redefined the term “sexual assault”. It used to mean an ASSAULT of someone in a sexual manner. It involved rape, penetration, inappropriate touching, non-consensual sex, and child molestation. When this wasn’t occurring at levels high enough to get proper government funding, the term was redefined to include voyeurism and exhibitionism. That wasn’t good enough, so it was further defined to include yelling.

The same thing has happened with torture. Real torture, you see, doesn’t exist at the hands of this country. You will never find a prisoner having their fingernails pulled out, being forced to kneel on bamboo reeds, having extremities cut off, being skinned alive, or placed in an iron maiden. Since this real torture doesn’t exist, the left has had to redefine it. So, they decided that torture included such actions as waterboarding. When there weren’t enough incidents of that happening, liberals decided that we needed to redefine torture to include sleep deprivation, loud music, and standing for long periods of time. Now, we can’t even place harmless caterpillars in their cages or flush their holy books down toilets!

Speaking for myself, I agree: Cheney is damaged goods, just as George W. Bush is. Nor does he even express one drop of interest in being president, let alone serving anymore in government. But the point being made is that he’d make a fine American president because he has strong leadership skills and a wealth of experience in public office.

We should discuss (and probably will disagree about) the differences between harsh interrogation techniqus and torture, and whether harsh interrogation techniques are ever truly necessary, but that’s not what needs to be argued at this particular time.

The real question, as I see it, is whether anybody broke any laws, and if so, was the law broken willingly and knowingly. Our interrogators need to know that they are safe from prosecution if they stick to the guidelines they are given by the DoJ, or they will not be effective. Likewise, those who issue such guidelines must understand that there are legal limits to the interrogation techniques they issue.

As undesirable as we may find harsh interrogation techniques, there is enough factual evidence that shows that such techniques are sometimes the best (and at times, the only) methods by which information essential to our nation’s security is obtained. To maintain credibilty as a peace loving and law abiding nation, we must seek to exercise these undesirable techniques as infrequently as possible.

Jeff V

PS. You guys kicked me off the site maybe a month ago. Pretty strange. You accused me of sock-puppetry. I explained what happened, but you didn’t care. I think my arguments were too mature or something. I guess I should’ve just ranted. My guess is you’ll just kick me off again. However, maybe you should try to have a dialogue this time. Not every dissenter should be labeled a troll. Also, I hear publishing IP’s can be dangerous with new hacking tech. Just a thought.

You guys accused me of sock puppetry and kicked me off the site a while back. I explained what happened, but you didn’t care. You are obviously afraid to have a meaningful discussion.

I think kicking people off sites for having different opinions smacks of communism. Just saying.

Curt will be interested to know that you’ve reappeared.

How many personalities did you bring with you this time?

You might want to be a bit more careful before you put my words in quotes.

Again, you’re not making any valid counterpoint here. You appear more interested in some personal little game.

Unless you change your tune I doubt you’ll be around long.

The topic here is CHENEY… Not you.

Why is a party your “house” anyway? Do you not disagree with a single thing the RNC promotes (besides that they don’t go far enough)? I can find plenty of things I disagree with on both party platforms.

Also, it sounds like every time someone disagrees, you feel they are ruining the post. Am I off base?

Sounds like an insult to me.

If you have a point to make, please do so without the snarky attitude.

We can get that kind of stuff for free at the McDonald’s drive thru window.

Again, what are YOU doing to make the world a better place today?