Dick.

Okay, I've tried controlling my anger, but I can't take it anymore: Dick Cheney... shut the hell up. I really don't like throwing around things like this, but he may very well be the worst person who has ever served in any kind of public office. I don't even know if I can call him a person, he is walking evil. And the media must stop treating his every word as if it has any meaning or relevance to our national dialogue. It's bad enough that President Obama continues to move to the right (and he was already in the center to begin with), but now the media gives Cheney a platform to push the nation even further to the land of insanity.

Now I could just end this blog there and call it a day, but I'm sure some wingnut will barge in and say something to the effect of "why do you liberals hate dissent? Dick Cheney is just voicing his opinion, why do you want to take away his free speech?!" or something equally stupid, so allow me to elaborate.

Dick Cheney is in no position to offer his opinion on anything. Sure, he can mutter whatever he wants from his undisclosed location, but for the media to give this man attention is like asking Richard Nixon about Jimmy Carter's ethics. The Cheney Administration (since it's becoming more and more clear that it was not the Bush Administration) systematically wrecked this country on just about every level. They killed our economy, they ruined our reputation with our allies, they sent 5000 brave men and women to die for nothing in Iraq, and yes, they made us less safe. Furthermore, when it comes to issues of national security, everything that Dick Cheney ever said over the course of his "vice" presidency was demonstrated to be 100% wrong:

"There's a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda"
"Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction"
"The war will be over in six weeks... six months, tops"
"The war will pay for itself"
"We'll be greeted as liberators"
"Bush kept us safe"
"Waterboarding isn't torture"
"Waterboarding saved lives"
"Ending waterboarding makes America less safe"

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

Plus the dozens more I can't remember off the top of my head. On the issue of torture, all of the information that we gained from those who were waterboarded came before they were tortured. The only reason these men were subjected to the "enhanced interrogation" methods was to create a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Yes, the Vice President of the United States authorized torture to falsify evidence in order to mislead the American people to go along with the Iraq War. Imagine a police officer planting evidence on a suspect, then multiply it by the 5000 lives that were lost in Iraq... that blood is on Cheney's hands.

Between the torture and the outing of a CIA agent for political gain, Dick Cheney doesn't belong on television, he belongs in a prison cell. That's the only reason I can imagine why we've seen him more in the last two months than we have in the last eight years, he's trying to keep himself out of jail. If he becomes a vocal opponent of the current president, any investigation into his war crimes will appear to be politically-motivated and Washington will turn into a bigger circus than it already is. Way to go, Dick... politicizing the Justice Department even when you're out of office, that takes skill.

It's obvious that Dick has no other real motivations behind this other than to save his own skin. If it were strictly out of concern for his country, he would've ran for president; of course he would've been demolished since he has the lowest approval ratings of just about any individual politician in the history of the nation, but if he's THAT concerned, he should've went for it. If Bush-era policies truly made America more safe, it would've been Cheney's duty to the country to attempt to continue them. But no, he's just fine going on all the talk shows, smearing legitimate war heroes like Colin Powell (how many deferments did you get, Dick?) and continuing the fear mongering that plagued this nation since the day after 9/11. The American people have rejected the politics of fear and the politics of the worst administration in the history of this nation, it's time the media do the same.