Dick Cheney squicks Elf!

[elfs]

Man, if this doesn't creep you out, what does? This is not a joke, it's really the card the Cheneys sent out to all their correspondents and friends this year: The Vice President's Christmas Card.

Comments

[rapier.livejournal.com]

Icky icky sticky empire icky! NO NO NO BAD VEEP NO BONUS. EMPIRE IS NO!

Gra, that's terrifying!

[hastings1066.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if it is a valid quotation to being with. IIRC, Franklin was Deist, and that doesn't sound like something a Deist would say...

Of course, just in the last 15 years I have seen history be masaged, so it probably isn't even taught anymore. I think I need to start a collection of school US and world history books dating from the begining of the 20th century to the present. It would make an interesting comparison...

[kyriani.livejournal.com]

I would pay money to attend a class (college?) where they compared and constrasted the history books of today and yesteryear on the same subjects. I'm really interested to see what the differences are and what liberties have been taken... Of course I also realize that those same history books could have "popular" and not entirely factual information themselves, but still would be an educational process.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why everybody gets so squicky. Ben was privately pagan, publicly Universalist, and the empire to which he was referring was a modest little 13-state thingy that didn't even have a standing army and only whooped ass on the world's best navy by dint of a buttload of outside help from an aging Prussian and an upstart French marquis privateer who essentially sowed the seeds of his own country's destruction....

It's only 200 years later that Mr. Franklin's words are taken out of context and something bigger made of them than they already are.

If you want to argue about the separation of church and state, I can see that there might be some sort of point there... but "empire"? *snort* Ben had no idea. Unless he'd got a Palantir stuffed away somewhere and was using it to cross time instead of space....

In the larger scheme of things, we have bigger fish to fry than a mere Christmas card. *sigh* Pick your battles, people. I want Bush gone too... but let's make our arguments to the public cogent and meaningful. Getting busted at a TSA checkpoint for carrying a bettafish hits a lot closer to home than some card none of us mere mortals will ever see.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

To get one of these cards all you have to do is send a letter to the Office of The Vice President and he'll happily return one to you. I think in this case the outrage is over Cheney's willingness to float the E-word. It's the proof people have been looking for-- that Cheney embraces the notion of the American Empire as put forth in the New American Century document.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

You got a pointer to that? (N.A.C. doc)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Well, you can start with The Project For a New American Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org/), which is Dick Cheney's personal little 'ol think tank, along with Rumsfield and Pearle-- they're the three main co-founders. But what you really want to read is Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf). (Warning: PDF, and long).

Remember when Bush said all those things about America not wanting to be interventionist, and all that before 9/11? Well, when 9/11 came along, Cheney, Rummy, and Pearle all sat Bush down, told him about this plan, and viola-- an American empire was born.

[rapier.livejournal.com]

Well, it's more like Dick Cheney using someone else's words to talk about empire is kinda squicky to me. Not a matter of a fight that needs picking; more of another tick mark in the "Ew, gross administration!" column. But yes, you're right, getting hassled by the TSA for carrying around a betta fish is equally ridiculous.

[whipartist.livejournal.com]

Paid for by tax dollars?

......

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

what other way would a rich republican use to pay for trivial things that make everyone else but them look bad.its simpl in its answer.MAKE THE PEOPLE PAY FOR ME!MOOOHAHAHA. (thats my imitation of a common republican by the way)

[ttall.livejournal.com]

That is just plain creepy. I do not like its inference.

just gettin started

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

well if you think thats scary i bet 10 bucks that if bush somehow maintains his presidency over the coming election we might as well have "patriotic" police chasing us around asking us if we "love" our government. this whole thing is a little to off base to mean a whole ton to me at the moment but i bet it will settle into my brain later on and ill start raving like i usually do.

[greyfeld.livejournal.com]

Whether these were Franklin's words are not are irrelevant to the present context. What is relevant is the blasphemously skewed pseudologic of the statement in the present context. The reference to God's concern for the sparrow comes from words of comfort and encouragement in the face of chronic starvation-level conditions, given to a poor people who were, at that moment, in such a condition due to the oppressive heel of a mighty Empire (the Roman). It's prettty obvious that Cheney's concern is for the rise of just such another worldwide empire, and that he anticipates it with an eagerness that is not matched by any feeling for people poor enought that to be compared with a sparrow is something positive.