ThinkProgress has the dirt.

Basically: Newt got his ugly mug on the tee vee in Al Gore's commercials, toeing the tree-hugger line, sitting on the sofa next to Nancy Pelosi.

I guess he changed his mind. Maybe there's just not enough money in this carbon-capping business. Because Al Gore is only a HUNDRED-millionaire, a downright piker compared with the billions in profits Exxon's made for the last eight years.

This is hilarious.

Here's what I would have said to that whore masquerading as a public servant:

"You're asking me if I stand to make money from changing public policy regarding global warming?

"That's interesting, because it infers that I am greedy. That I have other than the purest of intentions. And more importantly, it infers that there's money to be made from this issue.

"Tell me; if your inference is really something you believe, that I'm a greedy whore interested in making money from this issue and the wholesale changes I think need to be made to save our species, then somebody's lying when they fearfully claim that these changes are going to bankrupt the nation.

"Next question."

No other explanation. Now...will South Carolina governor Mark Sanford reject any un-constitutional, budget-busting Federal monies? Will he accept a Presidentially-ordered state of emergency, and suck at the teat of the U.S. largesse--at the expense of our grandchildren's debts?

First Mount Redoubt, and now South Carolina. God is still speaking, neocon nutjobs...and such timing, too, is nothing less than unmistakable.

God is speaking, all right--and he's saying: "STFU!"

Can I get an "Amen!" on that one?

Sheer brilliance, that phrase--and the idea behind it, of course. Yeah, yeah, I know, it sounds like brown-nosing; Josh owns the joint here, but credit belongs where credit is due.

And it even references one of my favorite books...

I don't agree with Josh's theory. Dick Cheney has always been a creep, and one of many goddamned fucking liars we've had to put up with for the last eight years-plus.

I mean...long before 9-11, he laid out the plans to invade Iraq, detailing the locations of Iraq's oil fields in the infamous Energy Task Force memos. A founding member of PNAC. The CEO of Halliburton, who, during his tenure, not only sold Saddam $26 million worth of illegal oil drilling equipment, but oversaw their Enron-style hiding of $100 million worth of debt from the books, their auditors and their stockholders. He bought Grace, CO, which was then under siege by dozens of lawsuits for asbestos poisoning of entire Montana cities, and then as VP, conveniently muscled through legislation limiting said asbestos lawsuit claims. All aside the obvious no-bid contracts to his former company while his stock was held in a so-called 'blind trust'.

Finally, this is the man who directed George W. Bush's Vice President search team, and found the one man who could satisfy his discerning viewpoints perfectly--

--himself.

Dick Cheney, like most human beings, is a lot easier to take in person, face-to-face. Dealing with him day-to-day, I'll bet most people like him, even today. But as a wise man said long ago: Actions speak louder than words, especially when those actions are crimes. He deserves nothing less than a long prison term.

It is against the law to detain and especially torture the family member of a criminal/terror suspect. It is abhorrent to any civilized sensibility.

And, of course, it's exactly what George W. Bush did.

I never saw this story before. As I've said before and I will say again sooner or later: It's not just the crimes we KNOW about...

"I mean...we just wanted the bad guys to know we meant business, see?"

"Dude, if you don't make 'em sweat even just a little, they won't take you seriously. We had to throw down, dude, and let 'em know they fucked with the wrong bull this time."

"They'd've dissed us, man, they wouldn't've given us the time of day, see? Like, these al Qaeda dudes? Man, they're hardcore, like, Nina Hartley in a DP, man. You don't mess with these grizzly Hajis, dude; you fuck 'em up."

"For real."

This is the only scenario possible in my view.

1) Keep torture illegal.

2) If anyone tortures a suspect, they are to be arrested and put on trial.

3) If, during this trial, it turns out that there really was a ticking time bomb scenario, and it can be proven in court, let a jury decide what the punishment should be. If whoever tortured a suspect is found to be an actual Kiefer Sutherland "24"-style hero who saved Los Angeles, then convict him and sentence him to time served--or vote to acquit.

And we can't find a single spook willing to risk jail to save Los Angeles, then it's very simple, folks: There are no heroes left.

As we used to say, back in the day:

Tell me something I don't know, mothahfuckah!

To wit.

It's nice to be able to curse on your own blog. And that's just what Uncle Newtie deserves, but nicely, of course. But calling goddamned fucking liars what they are is what I do.

...brought down a single toady out of an entire cabal who outed a CIA operative, and destroyed her job of protecting us all from WMD. The one before that...

...got warrants to rummage through Hillary Clinton's underwear drawers.

President Obama...if ever there was a time we NEEDED a Special Prosecutor, that time has come. For almost too many crimes to keep track of...

HT to Atrios, for nudging my brain by reminding us all of the simple phrase and concept of "Independent Prosecutor" this morning. That, and yet another great use of one of my favorite phrases: "I'm so old..."

After all these years...all the horror stories from the last president's administration...the crimes, the theft, the murder, lies, and, yes, genocide of Shock and Awe...

When I read what they'd done to a real bad man--a committed al Qaeda terrorist--but still, when I read what they'd done to him, the shock just came right back again.

I've been saying it for six straight years: It's not the crimes we know about, but the crimes Bush & CO committed that we don't know about that are going to shock us all.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, with his Ron Jeremy looks and all, was waterboarded 183 times--in one month. Oh. My. God. That's 6 times a day...

And they have the chutzpah, the cojones, the noive to claim that George W. Bush has never ordered torture...if being waterboarded 183 times in one month isn't torture, what the hell is?

This is proof positive that torturing him and others had nothing to do with gathering information or ticking time bombs, but getting revenge. George W. Bush exploded frogs with fire crackers as a boy. He's one cruel bastard, and Cheney provided the means of his satisfaction as President.

Hang 'em high.

Wow.

It takes special kind of soldier to go on cable news and lie about 1) what he's done in a combat theater, 2) what his soldiers have done and 3) all the while is guilty of murdering four men, mafioso-style--and God knows what else.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of this military worship stuff that began during Bush the Smarter's only term. In the runup to the first Gulf War, the U.S.'s first real war since Vietnam, the generals and Cheneys and Rumsfelds (yes, they were right there in the thick of things) were a wee tad nervous about taking a skittish nation into war. No body bags had come home for a decade and a half.

Solution? A good marketing campaign, of course!

"Support the troops!" Brilliant. Short. Yellow ribbons. And once the ball started rolling, there was no argument that could be made against it that couldn't be stifled with a hearty "Why do you hate America?" or "Don't you know there's a war on?"

Like a charm, it voiked.

Ever since, "Support the Troops!" has been America's mantra. War crimes galore ever since. Funny how that worked out. No, not funny at all...but they just keep investigating themselves and finding no evidence of wrongdoing. Also, not funny at all.