by Bill Costley
Book LXXIII: CHENEY Under @ Cloud
[newspoem]
CHENEY stands under a massing cloud
descending from the banner of TIME’s
cover of March 19, 2007 in a black suit
hands joined demurely, mouth, as ever,
a compressed flatline. To his R, our L,
a bolded caption calls out his status:
The Verdict on CHENEY: "Libby was
convicted, but it’s the Vice President
who is under a cloud. How CHENEY’s
take-no-prisoners style has made him
one of Bush’s biggest liabilities." Cry,
cloud, drench him in earned obloquy.
Book LXXIV: CHENEY’s Absent
CHENEY's absent as McCain kicks-off
at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, finessing
his POW yrs: "34 yrs ago I came home from
an extended period abroad. I'm running to
protect this country against its enemies abroad,"
lambasting somebodies for "platitudes, not ideas,
insults, not ideas. Americans want ideas. I'll
challenge the American people to reject any
sound-bites that have failed us in the past."
(Wuzzat writ-by CHENEY's best bite-master?)
Book LXXV: CHENEY Ventriloquizing Giuliani
“Mayor Giuliani has a Big Problem – he sounds
like Dick CHENEY!” Howard Dean tells MSNBC;
Keith Olbermann: "A survivor of 9/11 threatens
voters with a new 9/11 if they don't vote
for him " & says ‘America will be safer w/a
Republican president & I mean me.’ "This is
terrorism dressed-up as counter-terrorism.
Do a...Robespierre, but don’t be surprised
Americans are sick & tired of you." Is in-
visible CHENEY ventriloquizing Giuliani?
Book LXXVI: CHENEY "Deeply saddened"
[newspoem]
WASHINGTON (CNN)
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff
to VPOTUS Dick CHENEY, was sentenced Tuesday
to 30 months in prison for lying to investigators
looking into the leak of a CIA operative's identity.
He also was fined $250,000.
Libby was convicted March 6 of 4 counts in a 5-count
indictment alleging perjury, obstruction of justice
& making false statements to FBI investigators.
He plans to appeal the verdict.
CHENEY released a "deeply saddened" statement
& he hopes that his appeal
will "return
a final result consistent with what we know
of this fine man
who has served tirelessly & with great distinction
in the State & Defense departments
& in the White House.
I
have always considered him to be a man
of the highest intellect,
judgment & personal integrity --
a man fully committed
to protecting the vital security interests of the United States &
its citizens."
Book LXXVII: VPOTUS CHENEY Exempts His Office
[newspoem]
[U.S. House of Reps. Comm. on Oversight & Reform]
The Oversight Committee has learned
that over the objections of the National Archives,
VPOTUS CHENEY exempted his office
from the POTUS’ order that establishes
government-wide procedures for safeguarding
classified national security information.
VPOTUS CHENEY asserts that his office is not
an "entity within the executive branch."
As described in a letter
from Chairman Waxman to the VPOTUS,
the National Archives protested the VPOTUS position
in letters written in Jun. & Aug. 2006.
When these letters were ignored,
the National Archives wrote in Jan. 2007
to AG Alberto Gonzales
to seek a resolution of the impasse.
The VPOTUS' staff responded
by seeking to abolish the agency
within the Archives (that is) responsible for
implementing the POTUS' executive order.
In his letter to VPOTUS CHENEY, Waxman waxes:
"I question both the legality
& wisdom of your actions. ...
[I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office
with your history of security breaches an exemption
from the safeguards that apply to all other
executive branch officials."
Book LXXVIII: LIBER@TING LIBBY
A warning4 the4th
What does it take to liberate a Libby?
The right man, putting the right word
into the right man’s ear, at the right time,
on Executive Rights for the right guys,
Dick CHENEY, sui generis, excepted,
pleading he’s not really an executive.
What is he, really? Why, just by asking
you’re violating his inexecutive priviliges.
If I were you, I’d watch what I was doing.
But I’m not you, I’m just warning you.
Book LXXIX: CHENEY P@cem@ker B@ttery Repl@ced
[newspoem
edited from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6920722.stm]
[George Washington University Hospital (Washington D.C)]
US VPOTUS Dick CHENEY has had minor surgery
to replace the battery that powers a heart
pacemaker (defibrilator) monitoring &
maintaining his heartbeat.
During his June physical check-up it
was functioning properly &
he showed no signs of new coronary
blockages,
but last month, his doctors discovered
its battery was finally running low.
CHENEY, 66,
has had 4 heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery operations to clear blocked arteries,
& operations to clear blood clots in his knees; in March he started taking
blood-thinning medicine
to treat another deadly blood clot in his lower left leg.
Book LXXX: CHENEY, Mr. Freeze
An invisible frost-line descends over CHENEY’s
Beltway-life on Frontline’s “Cheney’s Law” as
first he serves, then runs Republican presidents
by any & all stratagems; he ages, hardens into
the Mr. Freeze of the fridge of Republican power.
Book LXXXI: CHENEY submits himself
Once again, CHENEY submits himself
to the nano-surgeons of Walter Reed,
thinking: “I’m a mound of meat, a Man.”
He’s more than that, but when down,
Dubya’s up, doing his direst bidding;
or is he? CHENEY fears he isn't now:
“How the f*ck did Dubya slip my grasp?”
Dubya laffs behind the hospital curtain,
thinking of all he’s done on his own:
ride his bike, cut brush, drink beer.
Book LXXXII: CHENEY Lights Up An Obama-cigar
CHENEY lights up an Obama-cigar:
“S’been a g.d. while since I cracked
‘coon Obama’s my cousin 8th-removed.
‘S’it time to pitch that nigger a ball? No,
Wait! That’ll only bail Hillary out, now.
I’ll say she’s my cousin 7th-removed!
That’ll frost her Clintonista cookies!
Float it in time for the SC primary;
incest’s a no-no inside the Beltway,
but plays the balls in the boondocks!”
Book LXXXIII: CHENEY & McCain Vowed
Mar 17, 2008 7:44 AM (1 day ago)
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, AP
[Newspoem] (ed. by BC)
CHENEY & McCain vowed
in mtgs with Iraq's prime minister
Mon. that the U.S. would maintain
long-term military presence in Iraq
until al-Qaida is defeated there.
Explosions went off near the heavily fortified Green
Zone
shortly after CHENEY arrived. Helicopter gunships
circled
central Baghdad, but no details...immediately
available.
Presumptive [R] candidate for president, McCain,
linked his political future to military success in
Iraq,
& met with Iraqi P.M. Nouri al-Maliki who began
separate talks with VPOTUS CHENEY who discussed
ongoing negotiations over a long-term security
agreement
to would replace the U.N. mandate for foreign troops
set to expire by end of year.
Al-Maliki: "...relations between the 2
countries...future & agreement..
security...development of the economy & reconstruction
& terrorism."
McCain" "important to maintain U.S. commitment in
Iraq, clear al-Qaida from its last urban stronghold:
Mosul, 225 miles NW of Baghdad. We recognize al-Qaida
is on the run, but not defeated; continues to pose a
great threat to security & very existence of Iraq as a
democracy...still a lot more of work 2B done."
McCain arrived in Iraq on Sunday to discuss with the
Shiite leader need for progress on political reforms,
incl. laws on holding provincial elections & equitable
distribution of Iraq's oil riches.
CHENEY arrived at Baghdad International Airport for his
3rd trip to Iraq where 160K American troops are
deployed & the U.S. death toll is nearing 4,000.
Violence dropped throughout the capital with influx
30,000+ additional U.S. soldiers & a Sunni revolt
against al-Qaida & a cease-fire by radical Shiite
cleric al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.U.S. military says
attacks
have fallen by about 60% since last February.
McCain, senior [R] on the Sen. Armed Services
Committee,
accompanied Sens. Joe Lieberman, [I], & Lindsey Graham
[R] 2 top supporters of his presidential ambitions.
Weeklong trip will take McCain to Israel, Britain &
France.
Police found bodies of 3 members of a U.S.-allied
group fighting al-Qaida in Udaim, 70 miles n. of
Baghdad. Members of the mostly Sunni groups
increasingly targeted by suspected al-Qaida members to
derail recent security gains.
Bomb in a parked car in Baghdad's central Karradah
neighborhood killed 3 civilian bystanders & wounded 9;
separate roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad killed 1 &
wounded 3 others.
[Associated Press writers Bushra Juhi & Sinan
Salaheddin contributed to this report.]
Book LXXXIV: CHENEY Tour--Iran War Rumors
by Tom Coghlan, Kabul, Friday, March 21, 2008 (The
Telegraph/UK)
[newspoem] (ed. by Bill Costley)
Dick CHENEY, VPOTUS-US,
triggered speculation that he
has been using a tour of the Middle East
to prepare Iran’s neighbours
for a possible war with Tehran.
CHENEY’s 9-day tour included stops
in Turkey, the Gulf &Afghanistan,
insisting that Iran must not be
allowed to develop nuclear weapons:
“The important thing to keep in mind
is the objective that we share
with many of our friends in the region:
that a nuclear-armed Iran
would be very destabilising for the entire area,”
Mr CHENEY told ABC News before arriving
in Kabul, Afghan capital, after visiting Oman.
Challenged on the recent
National Intelligence Estimate by US intelligence
officials,
which concluded that Iran’s nuclear weapons programme
stopped in late 2003
because of international pressure, Mr CHENEY said:
“What it says is that they have definitely had in the
past
a programme to develop a nuclear warhead
–[but] that it would appear that they stopped
that weaponisation process in 2003. [Nontheless,]
We don’t know whether or not they’ve restarted [it.
but]
What we do know is that they had then, & have now,
a process by which they’re trying to enrich uranium,
which is the key obstacle they’ve got to overcome
in order to have a nuclear weapon. [We now know]
They’ve been working at it for years.” [da capo]
A senior aide to Mr CHENEY was forced to deny
that the 9-day trip to Turkey & the Middle East
was part of a strategy by the VPOTUS-US
to build support for military action against Iran.
Asked by journalists travelling on Mr CHENEY’s plane
about the VPOTUS-US’s repeated comments
about Iran during his tour, CHENEY’s aide said:
“That’s not what these discussions are about.”
The official [then] acknowledged Mr CHENEY’s talks
with the Oman government focused on “the concerns
we have about the full range of their [Iran’s]
activities”.
These included the country’s links
to the radical Hamas authorities in Gaza
& Washington’s belief that Iran has become
the dominant power in Lebanon
through its sponsorship of Hizbollah.
General Dan McNeill, US commander
of Nato forces in Afghanistan,
told The Daily Telegraph in Sept.:
Advanced weapons
smuggled across the Iran border
to the Taliban
could only have come with the complicity
of the Iranian government
or elements within its security services.
Click here for Book LXXXV.
Bill Costley serves on the Steering Committee of the San Francisco chapter of the National Writers Union.