For many liberals here [no doubt] reactions to Donald Trump were first born and bred in reactions to Dick Cheney. You might even say that in reacting to Cheney they were just cutting their teeth in preparation for Trump.
Both men are basically the embodiment of America Inc. They are the swamp in Washington. A “deep state” that reflects the nature of crony capitalism in our post modern world. That Trump promised to drain it is just one more instance of irony awash in an American political economy that has never been equalled in fooling most of the people most of the time.
Still, few today will doubt that Trump is in fact the utterly narcissistic blowhard calling the shots in the Oval Office. No one speculates that perhaps it is MIke Pence who is pulling the strings [and calling the shots] behind the curtain. Back then though some were arguing that for all practical purposes Dick Cheney was the President of the United States. At least insofar as basic economic and foreign policy issues were concerned
Then the part that revolves around the gap between what unfolds up on the screen and what was actually exchanged between these [mostly] men in “real life”. There are conversations between the characters that can only be verified if one of them confirmed them. And even then only if they aren’t just lying through their teeth.
It’s all about the gap between government as it is encompassed in many civics text and the way in which power is actually manifested out in the real world. Any number of liberals among us will still insist that this is all about political ideals and moral integrity. About who is really for and against “the people”. And, sure, given the complexity of human interactions, that is not something that can ever be entirely effaced. Especially in regard to any number of “social” issues. But those parts that Marx and Engels [among others] were more interested in are, still, in the view of some, beyond the purview of the media industrial complex represented by the likes of [among others] MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
IMDb
[b]Christian Bale said that due to the improvisational directing style of Adam McKay, he had to do more research for this film than any other film he’s done. In order to ad-lib in character, Bale not only needed to have Dick Cheney’s mannerisms and vernacular down, but he also had to know which policies, their instances, and abbreviations the Vice President would be aware of at any given moment in his life.
Christian Bale gained 45 pounds, shaved his head, bleached his eyebrows and exercised to thicken his neck for his role as Cheney. Bale said he achieved his hefty physique for the film by eating a lot of pies.
This is the first movie in which the focus is on a real life US Vice President who did not become President.
The more Adam McKay plunged into Dick Cheney’s political career, the more he realized that he had a lasting and considerable influence on contemporary American politics. His mission, in his eyes, was to write a scenario that goes beyond political beliefs and addresses universal themes.
Like many Americans, Adam McKay knew little of the elusive - and seemingly impenetrable - Dick Cheney who was almost co-chairing George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. And that, in turn, upset the course of the American history, if not forever, at least for decades to come.[/b]
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt6266538/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_(2018_film
trailer: youtu.be/g09a9laLh0k
Vice [2018]
Written and directed by Adam McKay
[b]Title card: The following is a true story. Or as true as it can be given that Dick Cheney is one of the most secretive leaders in history. But we did our fucking best.
…
Narrator [on the meeting in the White House on 9/11]: By all accounts of what people saw in that room on that terrible day, there was confusion, fear, uncertainty, but Dick Cheney saw something else that no one else did… he saw an opportunity. As the world becomes more and more confusing, we tend to focus on the things that are right there in front of us. While ignoring the massive forces that actually change and shape our lives. And with people working longer and longer hours, for less and less wages, when we do have free time, the last thing we want is complicated analysis of our government, lobbying, international trade agreements and tax bills. So it’s no surprise that when a monotone bureaucratic Vice President came to power. We hardly noticed. As he achieved a position of authority that very few leaders in the history of our nation ever have. Forever changing the course of history for millions and millions of lives. And he did it like a ghost. With most people having no idea who he is or where he came from.
…
Narrator: How does a man go on to become who he is? Well it starts in 1963. When Dick’s best girl Lynne was getting straight A’s at Colorado College. Lynne had helped Dick get a scholarship at Yale, where he did way more drinking than class attending. Pretty soon Dick got the boot. So he went back home to Wyoming to work as a lineman for the state. Back then they would have been called a guy like him a ne’er-dowell. In today’s parlance they would just call him a dirt bag.
…
Lynne [to Dick]: You’re sorry? One time is “I’m sorry.” Two times makes me think I’ve picked the wrong man! They kicked your ass out of Yale for drinking and fighting! Now are you just a lush who’s going to hang power lines for the state? Are we going to live in a trailer and have ten children!? Is that the plan?!
…
Dick: I love you, Lynne.
Lynne: Then prove it! I can’t go to a big Ivy League school! I can’t run a company or be Mayor! That’s just the way the world is for a girl! I need you! And right now you’re a big fat piss soaked zee-ro! Can you change? Or am I wasting my goddamn time?
Dick: I won’t ever disappoint you again.
…
Title card: “Beware the quiet man. For while others speak, he watches. And while others act, he plans. And when they finally rest…he strikes.” Anonymous.
…
Narrator: Donald Rumsfeld, or Rummy as they called him, was the former captain of the Princeton wrestling team and an elite navy jet pilot. Most Congressmen used their power like an axe, Rumsfeld used his like a master of the Butterfly knives. And like any master if you got in his way, he would cut you.
…
Narrastor: Roger Ailes, founder of FOX News. He first pitched the idea as conservative news when he worked for Nixon as a media advisor.
…
Dick: Roger wants Nixon to start a Republican TV news network.
Rumsfeld: Forget it. Roger knows TV. But he doesn’t know politics.
…
Narrator: For a man like Donald Rumsfeld he only wanted three things from his lackey: he had to keep his mouth shut, do what he was told and always be loyal. [/b]
His lackey here being Dick Cheney.
[b]Rumsfeld: So is it a yes or a no?
Dick: It’s a yes.
Rumsfeld: You don’t even know what the question is do you?
Dick: I, uh, I assume it was…
Rumsfeld: No, no, no. Good. That’s exactly the kind of “yes” I was looking for.
…
Narrator: Cheney had always been a so-so student and a mediocre athlete. But now finally he had found his life’s calling, he would be a dedicated and humble servant to power.
…
Rumsfeld [to Cheney]: Because of the conversation Nixon and Kissinger are having right behind this door, five feet away from us in a few days, 10 thousand miles away a rain of 750 pound bombs dropped from B-52s flying at twenty thousand feet will hit villages and towns across Cambodia…thousands will die and the world will change either for the worse or the better. That’s the kind of power that exists in this squat little ugly building. But screw Kissinger, he’s overrated. Come on!
…
Dick: So, what do we believe?
Rumsfeld [laughing harder and harder]: “What do we believe?” Good one Cheney! Good one!
…
Rumsfeld [after Nixon resigns]: So what’s the plan?
Dick: The plan? Well the plan is to take over the damn place…
Rumsfeld: Who lit a fire under your ass?
Dick: I haven’t flipped cards in a long time Don.
…
Narrator [On Cheney pitching an idea to President Ford]: One of Dick Cheney’s super powers, was the ability to make the most wild and extreme ideas sound measured and professional.
…
Voice on the radio: They’re calling it the Halloween Massacre. Donald Rumsfeld has replaced Secretary of Defense James Slessinger. And Dick Cheney has been chosen as the…
Lynne: …the youngest Chief of Staff in history! It’s like a dream.
Dick: It’s real. And Don is the youngest Secretary of Defense ever.
…
Narrator: And as the new Chief of Staff and with the Presidency weakened by Watergate, Dick Cheney wanted to find out exactly how much power did the President have. Antonin Scalia, a young lawyer with the justice department who would later go on to serve on the Supreme Court, rocked Dick’s world.
…
Scalia: Have you heard of the theory of the unitary executive?
Dick: No, tell me about it.
Scalia: It’s an interpretation a few, like myself happen to believe, of Article two of the Constitution that vests the President with absolute executive authority. And I mean absolute.
…
Narrator: The Unitary Executive Theory. Certain legal scholars believe that if the President does anything it must be legal because it’s the President. To hell with checks and balances, especially during times of war. This was the power of kings, pharaohs, dictators. Dick Cheney was a foot soldier in the power games of Washington DC, but with the Unitary Executive Theory, he could become Galactus, devourer of planets. But then it was Election Day and there was one big problem…[/b]
Jimmy Carter is now the President elect.
[b] Dick [to Lynne]: I don’t want anyone to panic. But I do believe I have to go to the hospital. Now.
…
Narrator: A hard wind of change had been blowing through America, civil rights, Roe versus Wade, environmentalism. But there was a part of the country that was angry at this change and wanted it to stop. And then big money families like the Kochs and the Coors that were sick of paying income taxes, rolled into Washington DC and started writing fat checks to fund right wing think tanks that would change the way many Americans looked at the world.[/b]
CATO, The Heritage Foundation, The American Enterprise Institute etc.
[b]Narrator: Finally in 1980, this unlikely revolution of the super rich and white conservatives found its face It was the fucking 1980’s, and it was a hell of a time to be Dick Cheney.
…
Bush Sr.: Dick. I just wanted to say thank you for getting the House not to override the President’s veto of the fairness doctrine.
Dick: Not a problem. Happy to get rid of any big government regulations.
Narrator: The fairness doctrine was a law from the forties that required any broadcast TV or radio news to present both sides of an issue equally. Its repeal would lead to the rise of opinion news…
…
News anchor: …And eventually to the realization of Roger Ailes’ dream: Fox News. Which would go on to dominate all other news and swing America even more to the right.
…
Lynne: Can you feel it Dick? Half the room wants to be us and the other half fears us. I know George is up next but after that, who knows? She rubs her hand against his back.
Dick: I respect the hell out of Reagan…But no one’s really shown the world the true power of the American Presidency… [/b]
Next up: The gay daughter. Then the fake closing credits.
[b]Lynne: Who was on the phone?
Dick: It was someone from George Bush’s son’s campaign.
Lynne: Jeb?
Dick: No. George W… Jeb’s Florida.
Lynne: So what did they want?
Dick: They want to talk to me about being his running mate. They didn’t say it outright but I’ve made that call myself and that’s what they want.
Lynne: Vice President is a nothing job.
Dick: I’m just going to hear them out. I owe his Father that…
Lynne: VP just waits for the President to die. You’ve said it yourself.
…
George W: So listen, I’ve got a lack of experience problem in the polls and you’re one of the most experienced guys around. You wanna jump on board and be my Vice?
Dick: I’m honored.
George W: Don’t be honored. Fucking say yes Mr. Brass tacks.
Dick: I have to say no at this time.
…
Lynne: What are you thinking? I can tell you’re thinking.
Narrator: What was Dick Cheney thinking?
Dick: I’m thinking I’ve never seen anything like this.
Narrator: How many steps ahead was he looking? How did he feel about the opportunity that was in front of him? There are certain moments, that are so delicate. Like a teacup and saucer stacked on a teacup and a saucer stacked on a teacup and a saucer. And on and on. This moment could fall in any direction and change everything. Sadly there is no real way to know exactly what was going on with the Cheneys at this history changing moment. We can’t just snap into a Shakespearian Soliloquy that dramatizes every feeling and emotion. That’s just not the way the world works.
…
David: Dick we’re asking for all financials, all medical, all interviews, press, writings, legal records, family medical and family financials. Any more “comprehensive” and we’d need a rubber glove. Sorry Liz.
Liz: That wasn’t offensive. Should I be offended?
Lynne: I’m offended Dave wasn’t worried I’d be offended.
Liz: Oh, a rubber glove. Like a proctology exam. That’s…that’s disgusting.
…
Narrator: David Addington, Dicks main legal advisor and a huge believer in the Unitary Executive Theory. He was known for telling people to their face that they were stupid.
David [on phone]: So the Vice Presidency is part of the executive branch and because the VP casts tie breaking votes in the Senate, also part of the legislative branch, right?
Dick: Okay?
David: That means the VP is also not part of the executive or the legislative.
Dick: So one could argue neither branch has oversight of the VP?
David: Not only can “one” argue that, I’m arguing it right now.
…
George W: No. I meant are you going to be my VP? I want you.
Dick: I’m CEO of a large company. I’ve been Secretary of Defense, Chief of Staff… The Vice Presidency is a mostly symbolic job…
George W: Right, right. I can see how that wouldn’t be enticing to you.
Dick: However… the Vice Presidency is also defined by the President. If we were to have a different understanding…Maybe I could handle the more mundane parts of the job. Managing the bureaucracy, overseeing the military, energy, foreign policy…
George W: Go on, I’m listening.
…
Dick: And one last thing. My daughter Mary…
George W: Right…Rove told me she likes girls.
Dicvk: I know you’ll have to run against gay marriage for the south and the mid-west. But it’s my daughter and that line in drawn in concrete.
George W: So long as you don’t mind us pushing that messaging. Sure, we’re okay with you sitting that one out. I think it’s important for all the Marys in the world, you know? No problemo.
Dick: Then I believe this can work.
…
Narrator [after Cheney agrees to become Bush’s VP]: Dick never filled out his own 83 question questionnaire. Full medical records were never handed over. No tax or corporate filings, nothing.
…
Libby: Gore rescinded his concession. They’re claiming Florida is too close to call.
Dick: He can’t fucking rescind his concession.
Libby: He just did. There’s going to be a recount. What should we do?
Dick: We play it like we’ve already won. Which means we need to staff the White House. Libby: Who’s leading the transition team?
Dick: I’ll do it.
Libby: Um, that’s not really something a Vice President does, is it?
Dick: It is now.
…
Dick: Halliburton gave us a 26 million dollar exit package. Twice as much as we were hoping for.
Lynne: They’re no dummies.
…
Narrator: December 12th 2000. Antonin Scalia, remember him? And the Supreme Court stopped the state of Florida from completing their recount. George W Bush and Dick Cheney were going to the Whitehouse by a margin of 537 votes.
…
Dick: Scooter, why don’t you let everyone know the lay of the land?
Libby: Of course. As you all know, I’m Scooter Libby, Dick’s Chief of Staff…But I’m also a special adviser to the President. Mary Matalin will serve as an adviser to the VP and to Bush. David Addington, Dick’s main legal counsel, will play center field on all matters relating to executive power. The President has Alberto Gonzales, Karl Rove and Karen Hughes as his team. Quite frankly Gonzales has no clue, Rove is a hack and Hughes should be in double A ball. So we will have fairly unobstructed access to the Oval Office. We will be automatically BCC’d on all emails the President receives or sends. As well as have access to his schedule the second it is set or changed.
Dick: We’ll also be receiving the daily intelligence briefing before the President so we can get inside the decision curve.
Rumsfeld: Jesus. Bush approved all of this?
Dick: We have…an understanding.
…
Libby: Okay, so over at the Pentagon we’ve got Don as Secretary of Defense. Paul Wolfowitz, who worked with Team B in the Ford days, as Undersecretary of Defense.
Dick: Let’s check what kind of plans they have to invade Iraq, okay Paul?
Paul: It’s already in the works.
Libby: We’ve got Ashcroft at the DOJ. State seems to be the only tricky department. That’s Colin Powell and his guy Lawrence Wilkerson.
Paul: We’ve got Bolton over there. He’s a loose cannon but loyal.
Libby: And this list of “our” people doesn’t include about 800 others lobbyists and industry insiders we placed in the regulatory jobs.
…
Narrator: Dick Cheney had used an old connection with former wrestling coach and speaker of the house Dennis Hastert to get an office at the House of Representatives. The house is where revenue bills originate and he wanted to be near the money faucet. And not one but two offices in the Senate. One at the Pentagon. And later when Cheney’s team was combing through the intelligence on Iraq, a conference room at the CIA.
…
Narrator: Cheney was everywhere. But the most powerful place in all of D.C. was a nondesript conferencec room at a relatively new think tank that had become the place to be in Washington DC. Americans for Tax Reform. Grover Norquist ran the anti-tax group with huge funding from the Koch brothers network, big oil and tobacco. His Wednesday meeting as it was called had become the center of the Republican world.
…
Norquist: Let’s talk about the estate tax. This has been hard to eliminate because the tax only applies to estates larger than 2 million dollars. But marketing guru Frank Luntz is here to help…
Luntz: Hello all. Getting regular people to support cutting taxes for the very wealthy has always been very difficult. But I think we’ve had a break through…
…
Luntz [at foucus group]: The Estate Tax kicks in for anyone inheriting over $2 Million dollars. How many of you have a problem with that?
[One man raises his hand].
Luntz: Now, how many of you would have a problem with something called a “death tax?”
[all twelve hands are raised]
…
Narrator: So with one of the biggest media and political machines every created behind him, Cheney was able to squash action Global Warming, cut taxes for the super rich and gut regulations for massive corporations.
…
Narrator: The details of Cheney’s meetings with the energy CEO’s were never disclosed. But a freedom of information request did provide some documents, including a map of Iraq’s oil fields with all of the oil companies that would be interested in acquiring them if “somehow” they were ever to become available. And then, it happened. [/b]
9/11.
[b]Narrator [commenting on the meeting in the underground bunker at the White House on 9/11]: Now we don’t know what exactly what the people in that room were thinking, but it’s safe to assume that at least one person wondered why, in the midst of the most fateful day in American history, was Dick Cheney talking to his lawyer?
…
Tenet: We’ve picked up chatter from wellknown Al Qaeda operatives celebrating today’s attack.
Rumsfeld: We shouldn’t rule out Iraq.
Rice: What’s Al Qaeda’s Leader’s name?
Tenet: His name is Osama Bin Laden
Clarke: But this is clearly Al Qaeda. I’ve been tracking their movements for years. They’re fingerprints are all over this.
Rumsfeld: Iraq has all the good targets.
Clarke: Iraq has nothing to do with this.
Rumsfeld: Richard you don’t know that for sure.
Clarke: I do know that.
…
Narrator: So while Powell, the CIA and their international coalition toppled the Taliban and took Afghanistan in a matter of days…Cheney had found something much more powerful than missiles or jet planes.
…
Bybee [on phone linkup]: So David tells me you’re looking for executive authority. John Yoo is definitely your man.
Dick: The war we’re now fighting will require resources and abilities that the, uh, current interpretation of the law impedes.
David: DAVID ADDINGTON The Vice President believes that it is the duty as Commander in Chief to protect that Nation. And that no other obligation whether it be Congress or existing treaties supersedes that duty… How do you feel about that statement?
Yoo: I couldn’t agree more.
…
Narrator: John Yoo’s first legal opinion allowed the US government to monitor every citizen’s phone calls, texts and emails without a warrant. It was a giant legal leap based on sketchy law at best. But their masterpiece, their Moby Dick if you will, was the torture memo.
…
Tenet; But what about the Geneva Convention?
Dick: We believe the Geneva Convention is open to… interpretation.
Tenet: What exactly does that mean?
Addington: Stress positions, water boarding, confined spaces, dogs.
Rumsfeld: We’re calling it enhanced interrogation.
George W: We’re sure none of this fits under the definition of torture?
Addington: The U.S. doesn’t torture.
Cheney: Therefore, if the U.S. does it, by definition, it can’t be torture.
…
Narrator: But torture and privacy laws weren’t the only laws Cheney rewrote with John Yoo. They had a full menu of opinions challenging Constitutional and International law.[/b]
Classic “definitional logic”.
[b]Cue the metaphor:
A fancy waiter lists the specials to Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Addington at a lavish table:
Waiter: Tonight we are offering the enemy combatant: whereby someone is not a criminal or a prisoner of war. Which gives them no protection under the law. We are also have Extreme Rendition where suspects are abducted without record, on foreign soil and taken to foreign prisons in countries that torture. We have Guantanamo Bay which is very, very complicated but allows you to operate outside the purview of due process on land that isn’t technically US soil, but is under our control.
Rumsfeld: That sounds delicious!
Waiter: And there is a very fresh and delicious War Powers Act interpretation, which gives the executive branch broad power to attack any country or person that might possibly be a threat. Finally for desert we have the fact that under the unitary executive theory if the President does anything it makes it legal. In other words you can do whatever the fuck you want. So which would you like gentlemen?
Dick: We’ll have them all.
Waiter: Excellent choice.
…
Wolfowitz: The American people know we’re at war but they don’t understand against who. Rumsfel: They want a country. It’s simpler. Cleaner.
Addington: That would certainly help us legally.
Dick: Looks like it’s time to take Iraq.
…
Dick: DICK It’s called the Office of Special Plans. Tenet is not yet serious enough about the threat Saddam poses in the GWOT, or global war on terror. But I can promise you this intelligence group will be.
George W: That’s an excellent idea. I’ve been wanting to take that motherfucker Saddam down for a long time.[/b]
Time to cook the books.
[b]Feith: I’ve got something! Here’s a report that Mohamed Atta one of the hijackers may have met with an Iraqi spy in Prague. It’s from Czech intelligence and they question its credibility…
Wolfowitz: I’ve been to Prague. They question everything. Who wants to be an “unnamed source?”
Feith:Make sure to get in the phrase “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” It focus grouped through the roof!
[later on TV]
Rice: The problem with Saddam is that there will always be uncertainty about when he will acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.
…
Dick [whispering to George W after Powell argues against invading Iraq]: Are you going to take Saddam down or not. You’re the President. War is yours. Not the U.N. Or some coalition. Do not share powers that are yours alone.
George W: George, make sure Powell sees the intelligence. Colin I want you to make that speech. I’m the President and I want this to happen!
…
Narrator: That classified document described a terrorist named Abu Musab Al- Zarqawi who had started as a drug dealer and pimp before becoming fully radicalized in a Jordanian prison. Zarqawi went to meet Bin Laden in Afghanistan. But Zarqawi had vowed to kill all Shia Muslims and Bin Laden’s mother was Shia, so the meeting didn’t go well…After the US invaded Afghanistan Zarqawi set up shop in Iraq. It was the only connection Cheney had between Al Qaeda and Iraq, and Cheney made sure Zarqawi’s name was all over Powell’s speech.
…
Narrator: By the time we invaded Iraq 70% of Americans thought that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. Later Colin Powell would call the speech the most shameful moment of his life.
…
George W: My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign. To all of the men and women of the United States armed forces now in the Middle East, the peace of a troubled world and the hopes of an oppressed people now depend on you. [/b]
Next up: Mission accomplished.
[b]George W: Ladies and Gentlemen…Major Combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
…
General: We have concerns over Halliburton KBR’s billing practices. As you know, the no-bid contracts they received were quite sizable and now…
Rumsfeld: Well, we’re not concerned. Are we?
Dick: Not at all.
Wolfowitz: The Secretary of Defense and the Vice President just said they’re not concerned. Now can we please talk about Iran?
…
Dick: This Joe Wilson asshole is questioning our intelligence in the New York Times? What’s his wife’s name?
Libby: Valerie Plame. I confirmed it. She’s undercover CIA.
Dick: Leak it…
…
Narrator: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi had taken his fame from Powell’s UN speech and taken it into his own new thing. The Islamic state of Iraq and Levant, or ISIS. And because that intelligence somehow found itself on the bottom of a stack of papers, Zarqawi had a whole year to do whatever the hell he wanted. And what he wanted was carnage. Shia versus Sunni, the West versus Islam and death versus life. And on top of that US forces couldn’t find any WMD’s or nuclear programs in Iraq. Turns out that Saddam and his son’s mostly liked cocaine and American movies from the 80’s.
…
Leahy: Hey Dick. I hope there’s no hard feelings about us investigating the no-bid Iraq contracts for Halliburton. Just doing my job.
Dick: Go fuck yourself.
…
Rumsfeld [on phone]: Listen, if we can just get an air bombardment in Iraq, it’ll make a statement and give us political cover.
Dick: It’s over Don.
Rumsfeld: What’s that?
Dick: It’s over. The President wants you to step down. He appreciates your service.
Rumsfeld: Does Bush’s kid want me out or do you?
Dick: I can’t win every fight Don.
Rumsfeld: You are a little piece of shit. Wow, how did you become such a cold son of a bitch. Dick: I’m sorry Don. I really am.
Rumsfeld: You know how I know you’re not? Because I wouldn’t be.
[a long pause]
Rumsfeld: Do you think they’ll prosecute us? [/b]
Next up: the narrator.
[b]Narrator [to the camera]: They say my heart could give him another ten years. Cheney doesn’t like to refer to it as someone else’s heart, he likes to refer to it as his new heart. And even though I’m dead, it still makes me feel pretty shitty.
…
Martha Raddatz: Two-thirds of Americans say the Iraq war is not worth fighting. And their looking at the value gained at the cost of American lives. And Iraqi lives.
Dick: So?
Martha: So…don’t you care what the American People think?
Dick: No…uh…I think you can’t be, uh, blown off course.
[he then turns to addrsss the camera]
Dick: I can feel your recriminations and your judgement. And I am fine with it. If you want to be loved, go be a movie star. The world is as you find it. And you gotta deal with that reality. And there are monsters in this world. We saw 3,000 innocent people burned to death, by those monsters. And yet, you object, when I refuse to kiss those monsters on the cheek and say, “pretty please.” You answer me this, What terrorist attack would you let go forward so you wouldn’t seem like a mean and nasty fella? I will not apologize for keeping your families safe. And I will not apologize for doing what needed to be done, so your loved ones can sleep peacefully at night. It has been my honor to be your servant. You chose me and I did what you asked.[/b]
Then the inevitable title cards:
[b]In the years following the invasion of Iraq, Halliburton stock rose 500%.
The Bush-Cheney White House claimed to have lost 22 million emails, including millions that were written in the run up to the Iraq war.
It was found that there were “Blackout” periods, when there were no emails available from the office of Vice President Cheney.
The memos Yoo wrote on torture and warrantless surveillance give the President almost unlimited power under the unitary executive theory. These memos are in the Justice Department’s computers to this day. Any President can still cite them if he or she wishes.[/b]