What a big deal is and isn’t made out of…

I could just write a whole blog about the media. It would be fun. It would absolutely be easy. Only problem? You’d be able to write it before I did.

What is the media making a huge deal of right now? That Dick Cheney told Patrick Leahy, who repeatedly made comments about Cheney’s connections to Halliburton to fuck off.

What is the media completely ignoring?

That non-partisan not-for-profit Moveon.org (who still maintains their tax-exempt status even though they’re non-partisan) has Al Gore speak who says the following:

The administration works closely with a network of rapid responders, a group of digital brownshirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors and publishers and advertisers, and are quick to accuse them of undermining support for our troops.

So Al Gore compares the President to the commander of a Nazi Army (or Fascist Army, take your pick) and no one really gives a shit. Of course not. Moveon.org also loved an ad created for a contest that called the President Hitler, so I guess it shouldn’t really surprise anyone.

Vice President attacks Senator after being provoked by being called a criminal: Huge news. Can’t get away from it.

Al Gore calls the president’s defenders Brownshirts (ie Nazis/Fascists): I had to go to Moveon.org and get the actual quote from a transcript of the speech he gave.

Fair & balanced, indeed.

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  • http://tarek.typepad.com tarek

    i don;t get the whole uproar about the “fuck off” statement.

    Must be a slow news day…;)

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    I think you’re right.

  • anon

    Moveon.org also loved an ad created for a contest that called the President Hitler, so I guess it shouldnít really surprise anyone.

    That is just false. Movenon.org disavowed the add one of over a thousand submitted by people all over the country, but then you knew that didn’t you?

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    Gee. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, you know, Cheney is part of an administration that promised to “bring civility” back to Washington, DC.

    It’s not that he said it by itself — although it certainly isn’t something one would expect coming from #2 — but that this administration prides itself on being “uniters, not dividers,” as well as that above-mentioned promise to restore honor and dignity and whatever to the White House.

    Remember: Al Gore is a nobody loser. Dick Cheney holds the second highest office in the land. If Al Gore had said “fuck off” to anybody while he was VP, and there wasn’t much reporting about it, I can imagine the collective outrage about The Liberal Media, crickets chirping, all that.

  • balbulican

    Don’t I remember a fairly high level of indignation earlier in the season…gee, on this very blog…when some democratic candidate or another used the F word? Wasn’t there a fair amount of prim tut-tutting about that?

    I don’t really care…our favourite ex Prime Minister once told an opposition member to fuck off in the House of
    Commons, and no-one got too excited about it.

    RKB is right, Vinny. The Vice President is more newsworthy than an ex vice president.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    And was someone calling that Vice President a crook, or saying he was corrupt, as people freely do in the Senate?

    I guess that’s okay. Get up, Senators.

    Call the Vice President a crook.

    Then call the media and act offended when he says Fuck You.

    Then let the media just print the fuck you part, and not the repetitive hammering of the VP as a crook.

    Sure.

    RKB: Gore is a loser. Gore is a moron. Gore also gets a headline everytime he opens his worthless shithole under his nose, so don’t hand me some bullshit about his newsworthiness. The man makes headlines everytime he speaks, because everytime he speaks he has something sore to say about losing the election.

    Nope. As usual, the libs can justify calling the VP a crook, but not the VP saying the guy doing it can fuck off.

    I don’t even know why I bother anymore.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Moveon.org also loved an ad created for a contest that called the President Hitler, so I guess it shouldnít really surprise anyone.

    Really?

    They disavowed it?

    Bullshit. They pulled it under the pressure of having their tax-exempt status being revoked.

    They pulled it because they received thousands of complaints, and in their statement basically said, “yeah it happened, here, but they do it to!”

    Please. Let’s not make moveon.org out to be some altruistic goodhearted political organization. It isn’t.

  • anon

    Let’s see your documentation that they pulled it under pressure. Cheney is a proven liar Quicktime Movie

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    According to congressional aides, Leahy said hello to Cheney following the taking of the Senate group photo on the floor of the chamber.

    Cheney, who is president of the Senate, then ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator’s criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company that Cheney once ran.

    Leahy and other Democrats have called for congressional hearings into whether the vice president helped the firm win lucrative contracts in Iraq after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

    Source: Reuters

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com RKB

    If I understand the logic here, if you call the VP (or the President) a crook, you should be ashamed of yourself, and the VP is well within his rights to say “fuck off” to said individual.

    Again I would wonder how people might respond if, during the many years in which the Clinton administration was being called crooks because of the nothingness that turned out to be Whitewater, Al Gore (or Bill Clinton) had ever said “fuck off” as a way of dealing with the pressure.

    Seems pretty thin-skinned of Cheney to me. Clearly he has long-standing ties with Haliburton. Clearly Haliburton has profited enormously by winning no-bid contracts in Iraq. What’s wrong with a little congressional oversight into the deals?

    What’s that saying? If you haven’t done anything wrong, there’s nothing to be afraid of?

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    No, RKB. You’re right.

    It’s perfectly okay to call the Vice President of the United States a crook.

    Hey, that’s free speech.

    Now profanity?

    Oh no. We only protect that in movies, schools, print, broadcast media, and presidential campaign websites. But if a Vice President tells a Senator who has accused him directly of profiteering from a war through a company he is no longer a part of gets a flippant “Fuck Off” comment, that’s an outrage.

    You’re right, RKB. Cheney should be censured and we should bestow medals on the Bush/Cheney are Crooks crowd; champions of free speech that they are.

    It’s all about proportion. It seems that those upset with Cheney have lost all sense of it.

    You know, just an aside, you call it “Congressional Oversight.”

    That sounds like the Dixie Chicks saying that they were ashamed that the Preisdent was from Texas, then when everyone was saying what they said was fucked up, they started saying “We’re never going to stop questioning things we disagree with.” You define calling the VP a crook as oversight the same way they define insulting the Vice President as Congressional oversight.

    Accusing the Vice President of being a crook / war profiteer is not oversight.

  • samuel

    This administratoin has an infallibility complex. Mr. Cheney portrays it when he tells a Senator to fuck off. Republicans have had a problem with it for the last 4 years. Ever notice how when someone criticizes the president conservatives are quick to respond with character smear campaigns? The most widely used attack against those who criticise this administration entales telling the public that they should disregard the accusations because the source has a secret agenda. Gen. Taguba, Richard Clark, David Kay, Joseph Wilson, and the list rolls on. Conservatives hardly ever consider the accounts of corruption and/or incompetence. Instead they simply attack the messenger and as a last resort, justify the action. I do remember a time when the Republican attack machine was an incessant noise in the background of Clinton’s presidency but now, at the first sign of resciprocity, liberal voices, like the Dixie Chicks are named irresponsible, reckless and unpatriotic. It’s time liberals start advocating hypocrisy to that magnitude, maby they will win an election.

  • samuel

    Vinny, Cheney is still a part of Halliburton. He owns tens of millions in the company’s stock.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com RKB

    I hope you know me well enough to know that I’m not suggesting medals of honor, or anything of the sort. And I’m not even bothered by the profanity — lord knows I’m not one to talk when it comes to dropping the f-bomb — it’s more the hypocricy behind it. You can’t court the religious right on the one hand, bash Kerry for being too negative on the other, and then, after using a phrase that few people actually use in the course of a business day without some kind of repurcussion, suggest that it’s not that big of a deal, happens all the time, blah blah blah.

    Don’t take the high moral ground, and then hope to maintain it after that kind of profanity.

    And to your other points: surely you’re not suggesting that the Executive Branch is above the law? Or that a President or Vice President is incapable of ever breaking the law?

    Leahy and other Democrats have called for congressional hearings into whether the vice president helped the firm win lucrative contracts in Iraq after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

    Isn’t this what the whole system of checks and balances is about? As far as I know, nobody has called Cheney “a crook.” There is some pushback, some question on the sweetness of the deals that Halliburton received.

    It may be partisan sniping, but do you honestly believe anybody with an (R) after their name would suggest any impropriety by the White House?

    Do you think these types of probes should be done away with altogether? That nobody should ever suggest wrongdoing by a sitting P or VP? Halliburton stock has almost tripled in the past two years and Cheney owns over 400,000 stock options. Whether or not you think the two might be related, don’t you think the fact that a company in which the VP holds that much of a financial interest received BILLIONS of dollars in NO-BID contracts is something that maybe deserves even teeny-tiny investigation?

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com RKB

    Ahh, crap. I just had a huge long response that didn’t go through. I wonder if it’s because I posted too many links.

    Anyhoo — the shorter version is that I’m more bothered by the hypocrisy of Cheney that the F-Bomb (courting religious right, “restoring honor and dignity”) and everything else.

    Also: do you think that the Executive Branch should be above the law or that politicians never commit crimes? Not saying that Cheney did or didn’t do anything wrong, but how would anybody ever find out without a series of checks and balances that allows investigations into this type of stuff?

    Finally, three links that may have tanked it, but Cheney holds more than 400,000 stock options in Halliburton, whose stock has almost tripled in the past two years, and who were awarded billions of dollars in no-bid contracts.

    Can’t we look into this?

    In the future, are we to expect the Executive Branch to be off-limits? Fuck off is the appropriate response to the raised eyebrows brought on by such close connections, no-bid contracts, and skyrocketing stock prices (to say nothing of the drastic reduction in capital gains taxes recently)?

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Let me make it simpler, RKB:

    Questioning:

    Can we investigate why Cheney still holds 400,000 stock options on Halliburton, and can we investigate that.

    Being an Asshole:

    Cheney’s a crook. He sent troops to war to make money. He’s a war profiteer.

    Asking a question does not warrant an F Bomb.

    Being an asshole does.

    Hope I’ve made my position much clearer.

  • samuel

    I’m happy Vinny has clarified this. I now understand that he is the ultimate authority concerning descency. Now please Vinny, razzle us with another beligerent posting about the descency of a blow job in the oval office.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Congratulations Penvy.

    You’re banned.

    Again.

    You really have a hard on for this site, don’t you?

  • http://http:/www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    Thanks, Vinny. I didn’t see anywhere in your post, or the links, or through a somewhat quick Google search that Leahy had ever called Cheney a quote unquote crook. Or that he was a war profiteer.

    I think it’s pretty emblematic of how divisive politics are in D.C. these days. Leahy was certainly pushing the Cheney/Halliburton connection hard, and Cheney clearly figured that he’s the VP, his party is in power, so who gives a flying fuck what he says to some podunk Senator from Vermont?

    Lots of rancor. Lots of animosity. I’d prefer to see some more good will between the aisles, but it’s not very likely this year.

  • http://www.insingificantthoughts.com Vinny

    It’s not going to happen as long as we give awards to people who make Bush bashing movies, have major party outings to a premiere of a Bush bashing movie, and allow Senators to stand in the Senate and call the president and vice president war profiteers and crooks.

    But hey, that would just be a start.

  • http://turningwheels.blogspot.com nathalie

    funny, I don’t recall any screeching calls for investigations during the Kosovo campaign, when Halliburton and it’s subs won lucrative no-bid contracts (and were found to over charge for army services). nor do I recall screeching calls when Halliburton won lucrative no-bid contracts after Gulf War I. what’s lost on folks like mr. leahy is that cheney got his job at halliburton after his experience as defense secretary, not the other way around. halliburton has been a huge government contractor for decades. if they want to conduct an investigation, then audit their invoices, which the army is doing. is there really a need to investigate why they win bids? how many companies are equipped and staffed to do what they do? the only reason this constantly comes up is because it’s another witch hunt. it’s high time that D.C. gives up witch hunts and just starts working again.

    as far as the f-bomb goes, and saying it flies in the face of bringing honor and dignity to the white house– do blow jobs in the oval office and telling somebody to f-off rank the same? words vs. actions…. I’d rather he didn’t say it, but everybody gets pushed the brink sometimes.

  • http://www.insingificantthoughts.com Vinny

    We should investigate the Clinton administration for the $1.5 billion in no bids that Halliburton got in Kosovo.

    I think that would be an eye opener.

  • http://tarek.typepad.com/ tarek

    i don;t get the whole uproar about the “fuck off” statement.

    Must be a slow news day…;)

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    I think you’re right.

  • anon

    Moveon.org also loved an ad created for a contest that called the President Hitler, so I guess it shouldnít really surprise anyone.

    That is just false. Movenon.org disavowed the add one of over a thousand submitted by people all over the country, but then you knew that didn’t you?

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    Gee. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, you know, Cheney is part of an administration that promised to “bring civility” back to Washington, DC.

    It’s not that he said it by itself — although it certainly isn’t something one would expect coming from #2 — but that this administration prides itself on being “uniters, not dividers,” as well as that above-mentioned promise to restore honor and dignity and whatever to the White House.

    Remember: Al Gore is a nobody loser. Dick Cheney holds the second highest office in the land. If Al Gore had said “fuck off” to anybody while he was VP, and there wasn’t much reporting about it, I can imagine the collective outrage about The Liberal Media, crickets chirping, all that.

  • balbulican

    Don’t I remember a fairly high level of indignation earlier in the season…gee, on this very blog…when some democratic candidate or another used the F word? Wasn’t there a fair amount of prim tut-tutting about that?

    I don’t really care…our favourite ex Prime Minister once told an opposition member to fuck off in the House of
    Commons, and no-one got too excited about it.

    RKB is right, Vinny. The Vice President is more newsworthy than an ex vice president.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    And was someone calling that Vice President a crook, or saying he was corrupt, as people freely do in the Senate?

    I guess that’s okay. Get up, Senators.

    Call the Vice President a crook.

    Then call the media and act offended when he says Fuck You.

    Then let the media just print the fuck you part, and not the repetitive hammering of the VP as a crook.

    Sure.

    RKB: Gore is a loser. Gore is a moron. Gore also gets a headline everytime he opens his worthless shithole under his nose, so don’t hand me some bullshit about his newsworthiness. The man makes headlines everytime he speaks, because everytime he speaks he has something sore to say about losing the election.

    Nope. As usual, the libs can justify calling the VP a crook, but not the VP saying the guy doing it can fuck off.

    I don’t even know why I bother anymore.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Moveon.org also loved an ad created for a contest that called the President Hitler, so I guess it shouldnít really surprise anyone.

    Really?

    They disavowed it?

    Bullshit. They pulled it under the pressure of having their tax-exempt status being revoked.

    They pulled it because they received thousands of complaints, and in their statement basically said, “yeah it happened, here, but they do it to!”

    Please. Let’s not make moveon.org out to be some altruistic goodhearted political organization. It isn’t.

  • anon

    Let’s see your documentation that they pulled it under pressure. Cheney is a proven liar Quicktime Movie

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    According to congressional aides, Leahy said hello to Cheney following the taking of the Senate group photo on the floor of the chamber.

    Cheney, who is president of the Senate, then ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator’s criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company that Cheney once ran.

    Leahy and other Democrats have called for congressional hearings into whether the vice president helped the firm win lucrative contracts in Iraq after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

    Source: Reuters

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    If I understand the logic here, if you call the VP (or the President) a crook, you should be ashamed of yourself, and the VP is well within his rights to say “fuck off” to said individual.

    Again I would wonder how people might respond if, during the many years in which the Clinton administration was being called crooks because of the nothingness that turned out to be Whitewater, Al Gore (or Bill Clinton) had ever said “fuck off” as a way of dealing with the pressure.

    Seems pretty thin-skinned of Cheney to me. Clearly he has long-standing ties with Haliburton. Clearly Haliburton has profited enormously by winning no-bid contracts in Iraq. What’s wrong with a little congressional oversight into the deals?

    What’s that saying? If you haven’t done anything wrong, there’s nothing to be afraid of?

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    No, RKB. You’re right.

    It’s perfectly okay to call the Vice President of the United States a crook.

    Hey, that’s free speech.

    Now profanity?

    Oh no. We only protect that in movies, schools, print, broadcast media, and presidential campaign websites. But if a Vice President tells a Senator who has accused him directly of profiteering from a war through a company he is no longer a part of gets a flippant “Fuck Off” comment, that’s an outrage.

    You’re right, RKB. Cheney should be censured and we should bestow medals on the Bush/Cheney are Crooks crowd; champions of free speech that they are.

    It’s all about proportion. It seems that those upset with Cheney have lost all sense of it.

    You know, just an aside, you call it “Congressional Oversight.”

    That sounds like the Dixie Chicks saying that they were ashamed that the Preisdent was from Texas, then when everyone was saying what they said was fucked up, they started saying “We’re never going to stop questioning things we disagree with.” You define calling the VP a crook as oversight the same way they define insulting the Vice President as Congressional oversight.

    Accusing the Vice President of being a crook / war profiteer is not oversight.

  • samuel

    This administratoin has an infallibility complex. Mr. Cheney portrays it when he tells a Senator to fuck off. Republicans have had a problem with it for the last 4 years. Ever notice how when someone criticizes the president conservatives are quick to respond with character smear campaigns? The most widely used attack against those who criticise this administration entales telling the public that they should disregard the accusations because the source has a secret agenda. Gen. Taguba, Richard Clark, David Kay, Joseph Wilson, and the list rolls on. Conservatives hardly ever consider the accounts of corruption and/or incompetence. Instead they simply attack the messenger and as a last resort, justify the action. I do remember a time when the Republican attack machine was an incessant noise in the background of Clinton’s presidency but now, at the first sign of resciprocity, liberal voices, like the Dixie Chicks are named irresponsible, reckless and unpatriotic. It’s time liberals start advocating hypocrisy to that magnitude, maby they will win an election.

  • samuel

    Vinny, Cheney is still a part of Halliburton. He owns tens of millions in the company’s stock.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    I hope you know me well enough to know that I’m not suggesting medals of honor, or anything of the sort. And I’m not even bothered by the profanity — lord knows I’m not one to talk when it comes to dropping the f-bomb — it’s more the hypocricy behind it. You can’t court the religious right on the one hand, bash Kerry for being too negative on the other, and then, after using a phrase that few people actually use in the course of a business day without some kind of repurcussion, suggest that it’s not that big of a deal, happens all the time, blah blah blah.

    Don’t take the high moral ground, and then hope to maintain it after that kind of profanity.

    And to your other points: surely you’re not suggesting that the Executive Branch is above the law? Or that a President or Vice President is incapable of ever breaking the law?

    Leahy and other Democrats have called for congressional hearings into whether the vice president helped the firm win lucrative contracts in Iraq after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

    Isn’t this what the whole system of checks and balances is about? As far as I know, nobody has called Cheney “a crook.” There is some pushback, some question on the sweetness of the deals that Halliburton received.

    It may be partisan sniping, but do you honestly believe anybody with an (R) after their name would suggest any impropriety by the White House?

    Do you think these types of probes should be done away with altogether? That nobody should ever suggest wrongdoing by a sitting P or VP? Halliburton stock has almost tripled in the past two years and Cheney owns over 400,000 stock options. Whether or not you think the two might be related, don’t you think the fact that a company in which the VP holds that much of a financial interest received BILLIONS of dollars in NO-BID contracts is something that maybe deserves even teeny-tiny investigation?

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    Ahh, crap. I just had a huge long response that didn’t go through. I wonder if it’s because I posted too many links.

    Anyhoo — the shorter version is that I’m more bothered by the hypocrisy of Cheney that the F-Bomb (courting religious right, “restoring honor and dignity”) and everything else.

    Also: do you think that the Executive Branch should be above the law or that politicians never commit crimes? Not saying that Cheney did or didn’t do anything wrong, but how would anybody ever find out without a series of checks and balances that allows investigations into this type of stuff?

    Finally, three links that may have tanked it, but Cheney holds more than 400,000 stock options in Halliburton, whose stock has almost tripled in the past two years, and who were awarded billions of dollars in no-bid contracts.

    Can’t we look into this?

    In the future, are we to expect the Executive Branch to be off-limits? Fuck off is the appropriate response to the raised eyebrows brought on by such close connections, no-bid contracts, and skyrocketing stock prices (to say nothing of the drastic reduction in capital gains taxes recently)?

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Let me make it simpler, RKB:

    Questioning:

    Can we investigate why Cheney still holds 400,000 stock options on Halliburton, and can we investigate that.

    Being an Asshole:

    Cheney’s a crook. He sent troops to war to make money. He’s a war profiteer.

    Asking a question does not warrant an F Bomb.

    Being an asshole does.

    Hope I’ve made my position much clearer.

  • samuel

    I’m happy Vinny has clarified this. I now understand that he is the ultimate authority concerning descency. Now please Vinny, razzle us with another beligerent posting about the descency of a blow job in the oval office.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Congratulations Penvy.

    You’re banned.

    Again.

    You really have a hard on for this site, don’t you?

  • RKB

    Thanks, Vinny. I didn’t see anywhere in your post, or the links, or through a somewhat quick Google search that Leahy had ever called Cheney a quote unquote crook. Or that he was a war profiteer.

    I think it’s pretty emblematic of how divisive politics are in D.C. these days. Leahy was certainly pushing the Cheney/Halliburton connection hard, and Cheney clearly figured that he’s the VP, his party is in power, so who gives a flying fuck what he says to some podunk Senator from Vermont?

    Lots of rancor. Lots of animosity. I’d prefer to see some more good will between the aisles, but it’s not very likely this year.

  • http://www.insingificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    It’s not going to happen as long as we give awards to people who make Bush bashing movies, have major party outings to a premiere of a Bush bashing movie, and allow Senators to stand in the Senate and call the president and vice president war profiteers and crooks.

    But hey, that would just be a start.

  • http://turningwheels.blogspot.com/ nathalie

    funny, I don’t recall any screeching calls for investigations during the Kosovo campaign, when Halliburton and it’s subs won lucrative no-bid contracts (and were found to over charge for army services). nor do I recall screeching calls when Halliburton won lucrative no-bid contracts after Gulf War I. what’s lost on folks like mr. leahy is that cheney got his job at halliburton after his experience as defense secretary, not the other way around. halliburton has been a huge government contractor for decades. if they want to conduct an investigation, then audit their invoices, which the army is doing. is there really a need to investigate why they win bids? how many companies are equipped and staffed to do what they do? the only reason this constantly comes up is because it’s another witch hunt. it’s high time that D.C. gives up witch hunts and just starts working again.

    as far as the f-bomb goes, and saying it flies in the face of bringing honor and dignity to the white house– do blow jobs in the oval office and telling somebody to f-off rank the same? words vs. actions…. I’d rather he didn’t say it, but everybody gets pushed the brink sometimes.

  • http://www.insingificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    We should investigate the Clinton administration for the $1.5 billion in no bids that Halliburton got in Kosovo.

    I think that would be an eye opener.