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Dick Cheney is a man on whom the mainstream press lavishes terms like gravitas all the time, speaks about his long experience in government and his credentials as a CEO of Halliburton, a company that provides oil field services and equipment and, of course, construction and maintenance services at military bases.This wide experience is supposed to establish that Cheney is some kind of a superman who simply by showing up becomes a heavy presence.
Cheney emerged on our political scene during the Ford administration
when he was tapped as the WH Chief of Staff.During that time, it was Donald Rumsfeld who was serving as Ford's Defense Secretary.There is some speculation that it was Donald who made the selection of his buddy as the WH Chief of Staff.This dynamic duo has been in action on and off since that era.
One of the best known incidents during the short term of President Ford was the Mayaguez incident named after the merchant ship by that name that was seized by the Khmer Rouge off the coast of Cambodia. The crew and the ship were taken by the Khmer Rouge to an island where they were held prisoner.The Khmer Rouge simply demanded an apology from the United States that it had violated Cambodia's territorial waters. Donald and Dick decided this was the time to show off their toughness and recommended to President Ford that we needed to send an expeditionary force to the island to forcibly free the prisoners. A large Marine contingent landed on the islad and swiftly came under fire from over 200 Khmer Rouge soldiers when the US command had estimated that there wer no more than 25 soldiers.Seeveral helicopters were lost and nearly 50 soldiers wer either captured or killed by the Khmer Rouge.Then as now, the dynamic duo made some chest thumping about not yielding to Communists but the fact remained that the US suffered unnecessary casualties because of the boneheadedness of this duo.
After the Ford administration,both these supermen found themselves in the political wilderness;it was time to cash in some chips for Donald and Dick ,with less clout, headed back to Wyoming where he ran for Congress and won a seat.His extreme right wing leanings became apparent during the six terms he served as Congressman.He voted against the MLK birthday resolution and was specifically against this resolution because Dick believed MLK was undeserving of this honor.
He did it again witha resolution condemning Apartheid and calling for the release of Nelson Mandela calling Mandela a terrorist.His support for Apartheid was supposedly based on the strong anti communism of the Afrikaner government but as he does now he is quite capable fo concealing his intolerant racial views with well painted masks.
When the first Bush administration emerged in 1988,Dick Cheney found himself as the Secretary of Defense because his old partner in crime was busy squelching the FDA's investigation on the neurological damages inflicted on rats by Aspartame which was approved after Rumsfeld impeded the investigations so much the statute of limitations had run out.Aspartame was approved by the FDA and Rumsfeld became the CEO of the Nutrasweet Co., a division of G.D. Searle. True to form, Rumsfeld did not wait for a storm to break on the health issues related to Aspartame and quickly sold the company to an unsuspecting Monsanto Corp. for $600 Million dollars.It was convenient that Rumsfeld was at that time also serving on the board of Monsanto. Rumsfeld became the first multimillionaire of the dynamic duo.
Meanwhile, Dick was also writing a passport to riches as the new Defense Secretary.He "oversaw" the first Gulf War having failed to serve in Vietnam due to "other priorities" such as trying to get his wife pregnant just in time to avoid the call up of the draft board.
His war experience consisted of going to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the company of Colin Powell then Chief of Staff and shaking hands with the soldiers for photo ops.No one has yet said he showed any grasp of military strategy or shown any empathy for the soldiers.
After Bush was defeated by Clinton, Cheney, like his mentor and old friend decided to cash in his chips on the revolving door between governement and business and landed as the CEO of Halliburton, at that time a struggling provider of oil field services.Cheney's contribution was supposed to be to help improve the bottom line of the company using his "extensive" experience and contacts in government.Cheney decided that the oil field services business could be improved by the acquisition of Dresser by Halliburton, a decision greased by both CEOs who stood to make a windfall from the proceeds. Without consulting his own board or subjecting Dresser's offer to due diligence, Cheney consummated the deal on behalf of Halliburton. That is when all hellbroke loose.Unbeknownst to this highly efficient and experienced administrator, the CEO of Dresser had sold him billions of asbestos related liabilities from a small subsidiary of Dresser called Harbison.Cheney then proceeded to divest Dresser by declaring bankruptcy screwing many of the subsidiary's employees of their pensions while giving himself a handsome bonus.
During the Clinton administration, Cheney and Rumsfeld were not idle.They were the originators of the PNAC which proposed a new Pearl Harbor to incite fear among Americans so that the right wing agenda of American Global Hegemony could be implemented.Clinton was hounded by these two madmen throughout his term using proxies to which Hillary Clinton correctly applied the VRWC term.Through their proxies they attempted the impeachment of the President and almost succeeded.That is when they realized the importance of having a Congress that does their bidding in addition to having aPresident who does what they tell him to do.
In 2000 the wishes of these two came true. The relentless ridiculing by a toady press of Al Gore and the rigging of the elections in Florida by Bush's brother Jeb paid off.When the election in Florida was thrown into dispute Fat Boy Tony on the Supreme Court delivered the knockout punch and handed the Presidency to GW Bush.Cheney, of course, appointed himself the VP and Rumsfeld was back in harness as the Defense Secretary.It was like old times again for the dynamic duo.
Almost every nefarious act since the Ford administration is traceable in some way or another to the machinations of this evil duo.It should surprise no one that on 9/11 these two simply abandoned their duties and were nowhere to be found when the world around them came crashing partly as a result of their negligence. Their blue eyed boy GWB of course was pretending to read his pet goat story when it is even doubtful he could read anything.
Cheney now has the label of elder statesman tacked on by our servile press. His ability, like his search for WMD's and his use of forged documents in the Niger Yellowcake case are mirages.He has used the notorious Andersen Co. to report nonexistent earnings to buttres the stock prices of Halliburton and wrote a glowing recommendation for Andersen saying they went beyeond the rules and regulations to provide excellents ervice, the kind of service that Enron, a like minded company took fulladvantage of and promptly went bankrupt leaving its employees without any assets in their 401K retirement plan.
Meanwhile Cheny appeared with John Edwards on the VP debates, appearing for all the world as though he is tired of answering any questions.He is a wonder of the new world, this cheney, he really is.Ask him, he will tellya!
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