Cheney: Obama endangers the nation

from The Washington Times
By Sean Lengell
Sunday, May 10, 2009

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday continued his verbal attack against President Obama, saying that the country is more vulnerable to a potential terrorist attack since the Obama administration took power.

Mr. Cheney said that administration's dismantling of many of the policies and protections instituted by President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — including the planned closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and halting controversial prisoner interrogation techniques — have made the country more vulnerable to future attacks.

"That's my belief," Mr. Cheney said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I think to the extent that those [Bush-era] policies were responsible for saving lives, that the administration is now trying to cancel those policies … means in the future we're not going to have the same safeguards we've had for the last eight years."

The former vice president defended controversial interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, saying that it had been an effective tool in extracting useful information from suspected terrorists such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of helping carry out the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks Washington and New York.

"He did not cooperate fully in terms of interrogations until after waterboarding," Mr. Cheney said. "Once we went through that process, he produced vast quantities of invaluable information about al Qaida."

Mr. Obama in January banned the practice on prisoners by U.S. interrogators.

Mr. Cheney said he believes it's his duty to speak out against the Obama administration "because I think the issues that are at stake here are so important."

Mr. Cheney also took a shot at former Bush administration Secretary of State Colin Powell, saying that the conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh is a more loyal Republican than the former Army commander.

"If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I'd go with Rush Limbaugh," Mr. Cheney said.
Mr. Powell recently said that Republicans need to more move to the center politically and that Mr. Limbaugh's polarizing far-right rhetoric hurts the party's image.

Mr. Limbaugh retaliated by accusing Mr. Powell of being "just another liberal" and that he should become a Democrat.

"I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party," Mr. Cheney said. "I didn't know he was still a Republican."
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Major Garrett: Obama Snub of FNC Was Payback!

Major Garrett: I was told Obama might not call on me if Fox didn’t carry his presser

from Hot Air.com
May 1, 2009
by Allahpundit

And indeed, he wasn’t called on. Did that ever happen with Bush? I know he skipped Helen Thomas sometimes because he didn’t like her and/or the tone of her questions, but did he ever punish a reporter because that reporter’s agency refused to give him free exposure? It turned out to be a savvy business decision by Fox, but then, in our new command economy, it’s hard to blame The One for insisting that he get his way.

My question’s in earnest, incidentally. This may be S.O.P. among president/media relations, although even if it is, the thought that Barack Obama might be grouchy because he feels he’s not getting enough airtime these days is simply mind-boggling. Click the image to watch.



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Bill O'Reilly: 1; Keith Olbermann: 0; It really sucks to be Olbermann!

from Right Wing News
by Sharon Soon
May 2, 2009

Eat your heart out, liberal media. Your hand-picked creation, Barack Obama, is America's leader, Democrats just about have a filibuster-proof majority in Congress - and mainstreaming media is tanking like never before. According to Newsmax.com:

MSNBC and CNN's primetime news programs have suffered an incredible nosedive in ratings since Barack Obama was elected president, Newsmax has learned.

Ratings for "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC at 8 p.m. have plunged a dizzying 42 percent since October, shortly before the election. CNN's 8 p.m. show, now being hosted by Roland Martin, has seen a 49 percent plunge over that time period, while "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News has dipped only 15 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Bill O'Reilly's 8 p.m. show remains the top-rated cable news program, averaging 2,650,000 million households per night in April, more than the combined totals for Olbermann's program (938,000) and CNN's 8 p.m. offering (613,000) -- with more than a million households to spare.

In the key demographic of viewers 25 to 54 years old, Olbermann has lost 53 percent of his average nightly audience, a precipitous plunge. Rachel Maddow, who follows him at 9 p.m. on MSNBC, has lost an astounding 65 percent of her 25-to-54 audience since October, and her 819,000 households in April compare poorly to Sean Hannity's 1,953,000 households on Fox.

O'Reilly has also trounced Olbermann among viewers aged 35 to 64 in April, with 1,724,000 viewers, down 19 percent since October. Olbermann suffered a 49 percent drop in that demographic and had 1,151,000 viewers.

The solid showing of "The O'Reilly Factor" and the plunging numbers for Keith Olbermann further belie Olbermann and MSNBC's occasional claim that he is winning the ratings war in his time slot.

That's right: O'Reilly trounced Olbermann. Few thoughts give me greater pleasure than wondering how this must keep good ol' Keith up night after night. Personally, I actually enjoy his show once in a while - for its comedic value. But the reality that has been revealing itself more and more since Obama took stage is this: now that liberals can no longer use George Bush as the subject of all their dramatic rants and the butt of all their crude jokes, they really don't have much to say of any value. Obama-adoration has worn fast; what is the media to do now that they can't thrill over the tingling up Chris Matthews' leg?

This is good news for conservatives, and even just the average American. With more people tuning into the news sans a leftist agenda, the liberals are going to lose a significant part of the stronghold they've held in our country for too long now. And if facts, truths, and more moderate-to-conservative points of view are allowed a chance, I truly believe that people will start turning away from the Obamamania that's been forced down our throats.

Now more than ever, conservatives need to take back the media and change the message it's been sending to America. I always say that we have the truth on our side, so we've got nothing to be afraid of; it's just a matter of making our message public so that others will understand. Thanks to conservative media, now there's finally a chance.

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Politics Is A Religious Substitute For A Lot Of Liberals....

image: "The Truth" by Michael D'Antuono

If You Needed Proof That Politics Is A Religion Substitute For A Lot Of Liberals....

....I think this blasphemous, grotesque picture which is scheduled to be shown in NYC's Union Square on Obama's 100th day in office should do the trick.

Setting aside the offensive blasphemy aspect of this, anyone who builds a politician up to this level is setting himself up for a fall -- especially when you're talking about a lying, naive, unpatriotic, cowardly, incompetent fool like Obama -- who is, in his ignorance and lack of real world experience, using this economic crisis to systematically undermine the foundations of this country's success.

Hat tip to Justin Hart & Melissa Clouthier for the pic.
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Just Shut Up!

Obama believes "Middle America" is not something to be compromised with...

from Real Clear Politics

By David Warren

March 21, 2009

Too Clever by Half

Obama believes that those of us he categorizes as Middle America, are stupid!

All his life, from childhood through university through "community organizing" and Chicago wardheel politics, through Sunday mornings listening to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to the left side of Democrat caucuses in Springfield and Washington, he has been surrounded almost exclusively by extremely liberal people, and moreover, by people who are quick and clever but intellectually narrow.

He is a free soul, but he is also the product of environments in which even moderately conservative ideas are never considered; but where people on the further reaches of the left are automatically welcomed as "avant-garde." His whole idea of where the middle might be, is well to the left of where the average American might think it is. To a man like Obama, as he has let slip on too many occasions when away from his teleprompter, "Middle America" is not something to be compromised with, but rather, something that must be manipulated, because it is stupid. And the proof that it can be manipulated, is that he is the president today.

It is at this point that the phenomenon known as "too clever by half" sets in. Technically, it is indistinguishable from arrogance and hubris, but it is unnecessary to stress the point. Sixty days into his first term (and I begin to doubt there'll be a second), he would seem already to have dug a hole from which no rhetorical skill can lift him.

The video to Iran is the latest catastrophe. Mr. Obama simply does not understand how his "olive branch" will be received, not only by the mullahs in Iran itself, but wherever else on the surface of the planet the United States has enemies. It "reads" -- to people who do not share anything like America's aspirations -- as an unambiguous confession of weakness. He has moved the American position towards Iran from offensive to defensive, for no defensible reason.
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