(from The Paragraph) During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Republicans latched onto three theories that allowed them to hand out tax cuts and pile up debt. One theory is “Starve the Beast“, which says to cut taxes now, so to bring on a budget crisis that would force cuts in social spending later. As one Republican consultant put it: “[W]e have to ‘starve the beast.’ Cutting their allowance is the only way to put politicians on a spending leash. And that means tax cuts, tax cuts and more tax cuts.”¹ A second theory is “Voodoo Economics“, which says that tax cuts — especially for the rich and corporations — would heat the economy and actually boost tax revenue.² When Ronald Reagan touted this policy in the 1980 presidential race, George H. W. Bush, his opponent in the Republican primary, argued against it — and coined the term: “[I]t just isn’t gonna work … this type of what I call a voodoo economic policy.”³ A third theory is the “Two Santa Claus Theory“, which tells Republicans to play the tax-cut Santa so to rival the Democratic social-spending Santa. The author of the theory, Jude Wanniski, wrote: “The political tension in the marketplace of ideas must be between tax reduction and spending increases, and as long as Republicans have insisted upon balanced budgets, their influence as a party has shriveled …”⁴ These three theories came to a boil with the presidency of George W. Bush, which pushed through big tax cuts for millionaires and big spending hikes for the military.⁵ Seven months into his term, when a report showed that the surplus left by President Bill Clinton was quickly dwindling, Bush called it “incredibly positive news.”⁶ Later, Vice President Dick Cheney hit the same note, saying: “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”⁷ After eight years of Bush — helped along by millionaires pumping their tax cut money into the Wall Street bubble, and the Bush regime borrowing gobs of money to waste on war — the economy crashed.⁸ Now, a year-and-a-half later, the country is still reeling from the Bush Crash — with one-in-five persons without full-time work, and cities and townships cutting teachers,firefighters and police.⁹

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We heard them at the last Republican National Convention emerge as big oil shills. One by one like so many white rabbits John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Rudolph Guiliani were trotted out to deliver the major pitch of the moment:

“Drill, baby, drill!”

That simple three word declaration rocked the convention hall that evening in St. Paul more than any other. As the television camera panned the convention floor a huge constellation of signs merged with the loud shouts of approval from Republican speakers.

These were the true, red-blooded Americans who spurned all this sissified conservation nonsense. Conservation is the kind of nonsense that emerges from places that shirk real honest to goodness patriotism, places like San Francisco, Madison, Berkeley, tree-hugging Seattle.

After all, weren’t the Republicans nominating for vice-president rooting, tooting, honest to goodness hunter Sarah Palin? Wasn’t Senator Fred Thompson on point when he directed praise for her as someone who can kill a caribou and then dress her dead victim?

Yeah, and what do we see on the other side? We have some folks who are even, good forbid, vegetarians and eat no creatures at all. Now how un-American can you get?

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BP's Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill is becoming worse by the day, with over 200,000 gallons of crude oil a day leaking into the gulf. Environmental Attorney Mike Papantonio appears on MSNBC's The Ed Show to discuss the disaster and the legal ramifications of it.

Also see: Whistleblower: BP Risks More Massive Catastrophes in Gulf, April 30, 2010

Mike Papantonio is an American attorney and radio talk show host. A prominent trial lawyer, he co-hosts Ring of Fire Radio, a nationally-syndicated weekly radio program, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

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Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once declared that individuals captured by the US military in the aftermath of 9/11 and shipped off to the Guantanamo Bay prison facility represented the "worst of the worst."

During a radio interview in June 2005, Rumsfeld said the detainees at Guantanamo, "all of whom were captured on a battlefield," are "terrorists, trainers, bomb makers, recruiters, financiers, [Osama Bin Laden's] body guards, would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th hijacker, 9/11 hijacker."

Click here to listen to Truthout's Jason Leopold discuss this story on The Peter B. Collins show (mp3).

But Rumsfeld knowingly lied, according to a former top Bush administration official.

And so did then Vice President Dick Cheney when he said, also in 2002 and in dozens of public statements thereafter, that Guantanamo prisoners "are the worst of a very bad lot" and "dangerous" and "devoted to killing millions of Americans, innocent Americans, if they can, and they are perfectly prepared to die in the effort."

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The venerable Dick Cheney has said so many memorable things in his long career that have been long digested and discussed, but my most unforgettable quote was regarding the Vietnam War, that Southeast Asian conflict that he unflinchingly supported.

When asked why as a young man he did not serve in what he constantly described as a noble conflict and used every college deferment he could muster to stay out of it until that approach dried up, after which he impregnated his wife to bring the issue of potential service to a close, his answer was short and to the point:

“I had other priorities.”

Cheney’s history on Vietnam is a textbook paradigm for the master plan of the chicken hawk:

1) Take a strong pro-war posture accented by tough rhetoric;

2) Delegate the action to others to carry out.

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Dick Cheney’s recent comments are reflective of the adage, “The best defense is a good offense.” In addition, visibility is important, many political insiders say, because he continues working on that book he hopes will be finished and released soon.

As for Dick Cheney’s view of the world, it is dark, it is foreboding, and it operates in lockstep with the neoconservative Project for the New American Century and the New World Order.

Cheney along with PNAC insiders such as Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and William Kristol lobbied mightily then President Bill Clinton to launch a war against Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Once that George W. Bush was installed in the Oval Office by a United States Supreme Court one vote majority, Cheney as spokesperson for the neocons approached Assignment Iraq War with speedy relish.

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Dear President Obama;

I wanted to take the occasion of Presidents Day to write to you. Today is the day we celebrate the birthdays of two of our all time great presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

It is fitting that we celebrate the first of our presidents and the president who held the Union together and ended the precious practice of human slavery. These men stand as examples of what America can be and should be.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

It is with regret that I can not add your name to the list of great presidents. There is no doubt your election and presidency are historic, but where Washington and Lincoln are both famous for standing for the rule of law and the Constitution, your administration seems to sadly lacking in that regard.

Mr. President, there is an issue that you have consciously ignored, the issue of the Bush Administration’s torture program. As someone involved in politics and activism I completely grasp the level of acrimony you would experience from the Republicans and the conservatives of this nation if you fully investigate the ordering and carrying out of torture.

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A month before Valerie Plame Wilson's covert status as a CIA operative was revealed, Vice President Dick Cheney told his then-chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and his press secretary, Cathie Martin, that Plame Wilson worked at the CIA.

But according to a 28-page summary of Cheney’s May 8, 2004 interview with the special prosecutor probing the leak, Cheney did not recall having that conversation.

"Cheney has no recollection of Cathie Martin entering his office at some point while Scooter Libby was present and advising both of them that [Plame Wilson] was employed by the CIA," states the interview summary, released late Friday by the FBI after a lengthy court battle between the Bush and Obama administrations and the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

The "Plame-gate" affair dates back to 2003, when Valerie Plame Wilson’s husband, former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly disclosed that he had undertaken a fact-finding trip to Niger which had disproved President Bush’s claim that Iraq was seeking to buy yellowcake uranium from the African nation.

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A federal court judge ordered the Justice Department Thursday to release portions of an interview transcript between former Vice President Dick Cheney and the special prosecutor assigned to investigate the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and the role Bush administration officials played in her outing six years ago.

US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected arguments by Obama Justice Department appointees that releasing the transcript would discourage future vice presidents from cooperating with criminal investigations because their words could become "fodder for The Daily Show."

At a federal court hearing in July, Jeffrey Smith, an attorney in the Justice Department's Civil Division, argued that the transcript of Cheney's 2004 interview with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about the CIA leak should remain secret for as long as ten more years to protect Cheney from any political embarrassment that would result from the transcript being released.

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On 9/15/09, a few good men, actual Marines, told chickenhawks Ex VP Cheney and his Brat Daughter, who have never served in the military, to STFU.

Former Marine commandant Charles Krulak and former Marine general Joseph Hoar, who succeeded Schwarzkopf at Central Command, dress(es) down former VP Cheney on the issue of torture.

"... we never imagined that we would feel duty-bound to publicly denounce a vice president of the United States, a man who has served our country for many years. In light of the irresponsible statements recently made by former Vice President Dick Cheney, however, we feel we must repudiate his dangerous ideas -- and his scare tactics."

~snip~

"What leaders say matters. So when it comes to light, as it did recently, that U.S. interrogators staged mock executions and held a whirling electric drill close to the body of a naked, hooded detainee, and the former vice president winks and nods, it matters."

ricks.foreignpolicy.com

Bold added by the diarist

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