Day: August 13, 2009

The news has come out today that former Vice President Dick Cheney is writing a “tell all” book in which he will strike out against his boss, former President George W. Bush.

The book is due out in 2011, and is sure to be a best seller, revealing the growing chasm that developed between Cheney and Bush during the second term.

Cheney has made it clear that he thinks Bush showed signs of weakness during his second term by playing to popular opinion on many issues.  That, plus  the refusal of the former President to give a full pardon to Scooter Libby, the Cheney loyalist,  caused intense disputes within the White House during the latter part of the second term.

Also,  Cheney was a big defender of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,  and was unhappy when he was finally replaced by Robert Gates during 2006.

To top it off,  Gates has been a very effective Defense Secretary not only under Bush, but under Barack Obama as well.  He has been one of the pleasant surprises in his performance,  although,  in the process,  alienating many congressional Republicans, who do not appreciate a Republican in that high a position agreeing to work for the Democratic administration.

Cheney remains a zealot,  who refuses to go quietly, not only in his ongoing plans to criticize Bush, but also in  his determination to oppose President Obama in a very active way.   He has the view of an extremist,  a hard liner on foreign affairs,  that is seen by most sane people as a dangerous direction.

Cheney did tremendous damage as Vice President,  and he is likely to face further investigation into decisions he promoted that undermined international law and even broke American laws.   We have not heard the  last from Cheney, and are not likely to see him “retire” from the scene anytime soon.

It is hard to believe that we can actually give Bush credit for,  at times,  refusing to go as far as Cheney wanted him to on many matters.   If anything, Cheney’s continued zealotry may have the effect of softening the image of George W. Bush.  That may be the greatest contribution that Cheney will have made to the Bush Presidency.  If that is not an irony, what is?

We can certainly be thankful that despite the terrible image of George W. Bush,  we can, at least, be appreciative of the fact that he survived his two terms in office, and allowed us to avoid the potential and real nightmare of a President Dick Cheney! 🙁

It is absolutely amazing how some so called “Christians”  do not believe in following the teachings and beliefs of Jesus Christ.

There is nothing in the story of Jesus to indicate that he believed in promoting prejudice, racism, discrimination or religious hatred.  There is nothing to indicate that he believed in the idea of everyone owning  a gun.  There is nothing to indicate that he looked down on poor people or thought that assistance to those less fortunate was “socialism”.

In fact,  it is clear that he would believe in the concept of health care being offered to everyone, despite their economic station in life.  He would not be opposed to the concept of people sharing responsibility for those less fortunate.  He would be a “we” person, not a “me” person.  He would not be a conservative, with their mean spirited, nasty, narrow minded view of society–that those who have continue to have, and forget about responsibility to the rest of society.

Jesus Christ would not be pleased with conservatism in America, and religious zealots who promote hate and division, and the Republican party which unfortunately has become the party sowing lies, hate, division of society in its purpose to undermine change and reform and regain power.

Those who attack the concept of health care for everyone are to be condemned as “unChristian”,   people who Jesus Christ would criticize rightfully!