That’s Right Nate

The more I hear from Liz Cheney, the more I am sure that she is ready to take her father’s place as our country’s preeminent conservative.   Today, she called out Obama for repeated criticism of Afghanistan leader Hamid Karzai.  Her comments were from the heart and cut right to yet another failing as President:

Afghan President Karzai, whose support we need if we are going to succeed in Afghanistan, is being treated to an especially dangerous and juvenile display from this White House. They dress him down publicly almost daily and refuse to even say that he is an ally.

I understand that Obama may have been tempted to call Karzai out several times this past year like when he rigged his reelection, or when he recently threatened to join the Taliban, or even recently as he has strengthened ties with Iran and Ahmadinejad.  However, can Obama understand how hard it is to govern when you are being attacked daily as an enemy of the United States and when every move you make is derided as being against the best interests of our country?

To spotlight just how horrible Obama’s comments about Karzai have been, I have created a little quiz.  Simply identify which of these comments were directed from Obama or his staff at Hamid Karzai and which of these comments were directed from Liz Cheney or her father at President Obama.

1. “[He]has dishonored fallen soldiers by engaging in a strategy of appeasing its enemies.”
2. “[He]has been declared the winner … so obviously he is the legitimate leader of the country.”
3. “We ought to calm the rhetoric and engage as strategic partners intent on bringing about peace and security.”
4. “He is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”
5. “[He] must stop dithering while American troops are in danger.”
6. “Every time he delays, defers, debates, changes his position, it begins to raise questions: Is [He] really behind what they’ve been asked to do?”

How did you do?  The answers are posted below the picture of the Cheneys.

Answers: #2 was said by Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.  #3 came from Obama himself.  The others were all courtesy of the Cheneys.

Sometimes, I simply do not get Human Events.   Last year, they named Sarah Palin as their Conservative of the Year and I got it.  She introduced a whole new generation of voters to the GOP and had a way of putting complex policy into simple language that might not have made it understandable, but at least made it homey sounding.  She also helped lead a historic Presidential campaign with John McCain.   I started the most influential blog on the right, but conservative circles are filled with influential blogs.

This year however, should have been my year.   Friends told me I was a shoe in.  Instead, the award went to Dick Cheney.   Now, I am a big fan of Dick Cheney.  Don’t get me wrong here.  However, this year let’s look at our accomplishments.

Dick Cheney
Criticized the President of the United States on a near weekly basis.

Now don’t get me wrong, that’s great.  We need to keep the heat on the Obama administration.  In fact, Human Events says, “The irrefutable answer is that what Cheney is saying, primarily on foreign policy, defense and anti-terrorism, makes sense to more and more American citizens growing increasingly worried by the Obama Administration’s insouciance when U.S. national interests are threatened, both at home and abroad.”

That’s great.   Now, let’s look at what I accomplished this year:

Nate Peele

• Criticized the President of the United States on a near daily basis
• Broke the story of liberal bias on PBS kids show Boobah.
• Took a courageous stand demanding that President Obama not kill Sarah Palin’s family
• Created a grassroots campaign to shop white owned businesses.
• Started the Nate Peele Scholarship Foundation
• Established Saint Jing-Tao-Wow Day on March 31 with Lou Dobbs.
• Exposed Obama’s plan to replace English was Esperanto.
• Created a GOP rap video Republican Delight at the urging of Michael Steele
• Created the salute to the GOP congress that unlike Eric Cantor’s Aerosmith didn’t ban
• Broke the story of Obama being sworn in on the Koran
• Led successful boycott of Department of Homeland Security.

Now, I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes.  I’m not posting this to attack Dick Cheney or to say that I should be Conservative of the Year, but I think when you compare our accomplishments during just 2009, I come out significantly ahead. I believe the reason that I lost is that John Bolton is intimidated by my mustache.

Let’s face it, the war on terror has been Hell.   We’ve had to get pretty rough in our interrogations and as a result we’ve broken international laws and we’ve done some of the very same things that we have tried others for after wars in the past.   When the Japanese water boarded our brave soldiers in World War II we were outraged.  It’s now difficult to claim the moral high ground when we condemn torture inflicted by other countries.  For those of you who have never done it before, I can tell you the moral high ground is extremely overrated.  Yeah,  we tortured some terrorists and yes some of the people at Gitmo weren’t even terrorists just anti-US or available for an Afghan warlord who wanted to collect a bounty.

Still, one must remember what the world was like in the days, weeks, and well years after the attacks on the World Trade Center that we had know way to know was a terrorist target.   Dick Cheney told us back in April that there were 2 memos that the Obama administration was covering up that would show that the Bush torture doctrine may have cost us our international reputation and created a new generation of terrorists, but it saved lives.

It is very clear from the reports that Dick Cheney was right.   While much of the useful information was gained from conventional methods, from torture we learned some very important pieces of information:

1. al-qaeda is made up of Muslims who wish to strike at the United States.
2. What traits al-qaeda was looking for in Western operatives.
3. That KSM had been in jail in the United States for not paying his bills before 9/11, which was part of the reason he so hated the US.
4. That many detainees dislike water boarding.

To me, a little moral high ground and national reputation is a very small price to pay for quality information like the above that could potentially disrupt an attack on American interests, possibly on American soil.    I know, we were able to defeat the Soviets and the Nazis without resorting to this kind of tactic, but al-qaeda are fanatics.  Times have changed.   Unfortunately, the CIA remains technologically backwards.  They continue to use dark highlighters that appear solid black when run through their cheap copy machines.  This makes it very difficult to tell what they’re talking about sometimes.  In the end though, it remains clear we would not have won the war on terror without people like Dick Cheney who were willing to take risks.

I have posted before that if we’re serious about turning the Republican Party around we need to get more elite. Our brand has to be like the Navy Seals or limited edition Precious Moments figurines. By cutting the number of Republicans way down, we can create a demand for us that will only serve us well in future elections. Obviously, Republicans in name only (RINOs) like Colin Powell, Olympia Snow, and the McCains need to hit the road, but who are the other threats to our party from within.

7. Rick Perry – When he ran for governor, he promised to secure the Texas / mexico border. As soon as he was elected, he totally reneged on the promise.
He also got a new business tax approved that was supposed to relieve residential property tax payers of their crushing taxes. Not only are business paying taxes they didn’t have to pay prior to 2008, homeowners are paying more property tax.

6. Pete Sessions – As head of the RNCC was complicit in allowingrampant RINOism to spread.

5. Lindsay Graham – His last opponent in the South Carolina Republican primary had a campaign slogan that “Lindsay Graham is too liberal for South Carolina.” I think he went even further over the top when he had a disgustingly kiss kis press conference showing his support for Obama.

4. Mitch McConnell – Was in favor of a stimulus package and big government spending

3. Nancy Reagan – She’s pro-stem cell research, she was a big McCain supporter in the primary over legitimate conservatives, and she has become an embarrassment to her husband’s legacy.

2. Newt Gingrich – He’s been making the round on liberal networks to attack Rush and Dick Cheney for their strident defense of America.

1. Dick Cheney - Though it pains me to admit it, Cheney is a big government liberal at heart. That can’t be changed by simply waterboarding a few terrorists.

Simply, by getting rid of these 7 pseudo Republicans, our party will become stronger. Let’s not waste time showing them them the door.

People find many similiarities between Jack Nicholson's portrayal of an officer and Dick Cheney

With his recent media blitz, Dick Cheney’s favorability ratings have soared over 30% and are approaching where the Republican administration’s were at the end of 2008.   Reasons for 1/3 of America now embracing Cheney range from his charming daughter to people who just wished that he was still running the country.  Cheney now finds himself nearly 20 percentage points ahead of Fidel Castro and trailing Obama by less than 40%.   This is good news for Cheney who had previously been unable to break half of Obama’s approval rating. In fact he now tops Lou Dobbs among Mexican immigrants by a 3 to 2 margin at 3% to 2%.

Even MSNBC liberals are seeing this.   Joe Scarborough recently said the Dick Cheney’s speech this week was just like the speech that Jack Nicholson gave as Colonel Jessup in a Few Good Men.  In that movie, Tom Cruise is grilling him on the stand about some alleged wrongdoing under his command.   He gives a now famous speech, basically telling Cruise “you can’t handle the truth”  and is acquitted by an awestruck jury.  Likewise, the jury of political opinion, I believe, will acquit Cheney.

Now some people will say, “so what?”  Joe Scarborough is no liberal.   He was a Republican Congressman.   However,  simply by hosting his show on MSNBC shows his liberal bias.  If he was conservative he’d never appear on a biased station like that.   Unlike Fox which provides Fair and Balanced coverage by taking pains to give  the Neo Con, Libertarian, and Traditional Conservative views on the issues of the day, MSNBC makes no claim to such objectivity.

Where is left for Cheney to go?  Well I have a list of milestones so we can chart his progress:

1. Percent of Americans who don’t believe in evolution (51%)
2. Young Americans between 11-17 who were convinced by Clinton’s scandal with Lewinsky that it was OK to lie. (40%)
3. Percent of Saudis who view the United States favorably (40%)
4. People who believe we totally need to rebuild our health care system (38%)
5. Catholics who attend mass weekly who were in favor of giving Obama an honorary degree (37%)

Dick Cheney has done many dastardly things. But presiding over policies so saturnine that they ended up putting the liberal speaker from San Francisco on the hot seat about torture may be one of his proudest achievements.

Nancy Pelosi’s bad week of blithering responses about why she did nothing after being briefed on torture has given Republicans one of their happiest — and harpy-est — weeks in a long time. They relished casting Pelosi as contemptible for not fighting harder to stop their contemptible depredations against the Constitution. That’s Cheneyesque chutzpah.

The stylish grandmother acted like a stammering child caught red-handed, refusing to admit any fault and pointing the finger at a convenient scapegoat. She charged the C.I.A. with misleading Congress, which is sort of like saying the butler did it, or accusing a generic thuggish-looking guy in a knit cap with gang tattoos to distract from your sin.

Although the briefing was classified, she could have slugged it out privately with Bush officials. But she was busy trying to be the first woman to lead a major party. And very few watchdogs — in the Democratic Party or the press — were pushing back against the Bush horde in 2002 and 2003, when magazines were gushing about W. and Cheney as conquering heroes.

Leon Panetta, the new C.I.A. chief, who is Pelosi’s friend and former Democratic House colleague from California, slapped her on Friday, saying that the agency briefers were truthful. And Jon Stewart ribbed that the glossily groomed speaker was just another “Miss California U.S.A. who’s also been revealing a little too much of herself.”

It’s discomfiting to think that the woman who’s making Joe Biden seem suave is second in line to the presidency.

Of course, a lot of the hoo-ha around Pelosi makes it sound as if she knew stuff that no one else had any inkling of, when in fact the entire world had a pretty good idea of what was happening. The Bushies plied their dark arts in broad daylight.

Besides, the question of what Pelosi knew or didn’t, or when she did or didn’t know, is irrelevant to how W. and Cheney broke the law and authorized torture.

Philip Zelikow, who was State Department counselor for Condi Rice and executive director of the 9/11 Commission, testified last week before Congress that torture was “a collective failure and it was a mistake,” perhaps “a disaster.”

After 9/11, he recalled, “the tough, gritty world of ‘the field’ worked its way into the consciousness of the nation’s leaders. … The cultural divide between the world of secretive, bearded operators in the field coming from their 3 a.m. meetings at safe houses, and the world of Washington policy makers in their wood-paneled suites” led the policy makers to become too deferential to C.I.A. operatives, and miss the fact that even they disagreed about torture.

Ali Soufan, the ex-F.B.I. agent who flatly calls torture “ineffective,” helped get valuable information from Abu Zubaydah, an important Al Qaeda prisoner, simply by outwitting him. Torture, he told Congress, is designed to force the subject to submit “through humiliation and cruelty” and “see the interrogator as the master who controls his pain.”

It’s a good description of the bullying approach Cheney and Rummy applied to the globe, and the Arab world. But as Soufan noted, when you try to force compliance rather than elicit cooperation, it’s prone to backfire.

The more telling news last week was the suggestion about Cheney’s reverse-engineering the Iraq war. Robert Windrem, a former NBC News investigative producer, reported on The Daily Beast that in April 2003, after the invasion of Baghdad, the U.S. arrested a top officer in Saddam’s security force. Even though this man was an old-fashioned P.O.W., someone in Vice’s orbit reportedly suggested that the interrogations were too gentle and that waterboarding might elicit information about the fantasized connection between Osama and Saddam.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff at State, wrote that the “harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002 … was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and Al Qaeda.”

More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.

I used to agree with President Obama, that it was better to keep moving and focus on our myriad problems than wallow in the darkness of the past. But now I want a full accounting. I want to know every awful act committed in the name of self-defense and patriotism. Even if it only makes one ambitious congresswoman pay more attention in some future briefing about some future secret technique that is “uniquely” designed to protect us, it will be worth it.

It is really easy for liberals with the safety of distance and hindsight to criticize the Bush administration for the torture of prisoners that it encouraged.   However, put yourself in their place.  Imagine that there is a ticking time bomb that you know is going to go off and kill Americans and the only way to stop it is to waterboard a terrorist 183 times over the course of the next month.   Given that situation, who wouldn’t torture?

In Dick and Liz Cheney have been proving themselves to be the most charismatic parent/daughter team this side of Joan and Melissa Rivers.  Despite her sexual orientation, I think Liz has done a great job in helping her father fill the time tested roll of former Vice-Presidents by attacking the current administration. People need to listen to the Republican side of this.   It was the information we got from torture that let us know that the Iraqis had WMDs.  We may never have been able to go to war with Iraq without the information we gained through torture.

As Cheney has pointed out, if the terrorists know we don’t torture anymore, that will really help their recruitment.  If fanatical Islamists believe they will be waterboarded if they are caught, they may just decide to live out a peaceful life.  Knowing that they could face torture will certainly make them think twice about taking up arms against us.  Let’s face it folks as Lindsey Graham pointed out, if torture didn’t work these techniques wouldn’t have survived all these years.

With this said, if Nancy Pelosi knew anything about these practices, she should resign her position in Congress immediately.   Torture not only put our troops in the field at risk, but also undermind our reputation for morality.  Pelosi should be ashamed of herself.

The McCain campaign garnered the coveted Cheney endorsement.

With the election coming up on Tuesday, the McCain campaign has gotten into high gear.  This has been an excellent day for team McCain.  Not only did Sarah Palin show her ability to cooly and calmly show her ability to handle a foreign leader when a couple of Canadian disk jockeys tricked her into thinking she was talking to the French Prime Minister, but John McCain also wrapped up the key endorsement of Vice-President Dick Cheney.  No wonder the race is tightening.

Cheney was effusive in his praise saying “the right leader for this moment in history is Senator John McCain”.  The amazing thing is with an already huge 24% lead in Wyoming, McCain may beat Obama by 30% in the “Equality State”.   Cheney’s support also helps to butress McCain against any fallout from Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama.

Palin may have shown a little inexperience in taking the prank phone call, but I really don’t think she had any way to know that French Prime Minister Sarkozy is not fluent in English or that Stephen Harper was the Prime Minister of Canada.  In the end what matters is she was calm and gracious when she thought she was on the phone with a foreign leader.

Also of note is the Zogby poll which showed a  48% to 47% lead by McCain in polling on Friday.  Things have gotten so bad for the Obama campaign that according to McCain adviser Rick Davis, “Obama is campaigning in red states because he’s doing so poorly in the battlegrounds”.