Proof that there is no God...

[Darryl G. Thomas]

... or that he/she has a warped sense of humor:

The New Neighbors Sure Like Black SUVs

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, January 30, 2008; A13

Never too early to begin transition planning. So there were Vice President Cheney and spouse Lynne out in McLean on Sunday afternoon, strolling about the house they're building in that tony suburb.

A Loop Fan spotted the veep -- attracted by three black SUVs, a limo and a marked Secret Service car all parked discreetly along the road outside the property -- taking the tour of what he described as a "large home under construction."

The "in-town home" -- as opposed to the Chesapeake Bay house -- is on a small lot (just under an acre) that the Cheneys bought for $1.35 million on Jan. 12, 2000, months before his selection as George W. Bush's vice presidential candidate, according to property records.

Cheney tore down the previous house, we were told, but left the lot vacant -- much to the consternation of the exceptionally well-heeled neighbors -- when he moved into public housing at the Naval Observatory off Massachusetts Avenue NW.

The area is close enough to the CIA that Cheney could easily wander over from time to time to make sure they're getting the real intelligence on Iran, North Korea and various nuclear wannabes. (We agreed to a request from Cheney's office not to provide an exact location for the new manse.)

Unclear when the 12,765-square-foot bungalow will be finished, but it's not a Halliburton project, so it should be done by Inauguration Day '09. The estimated cost of construction is only $1.5 million.

The four-bedroom, nine-bath (including a couple of powders) house includes his and hers bathrooms off the master bedroom on the first floor and his and hers libraries, each with a fireplace, according to a review of the plans by our colleague Michael Laris.

Two more bedrooms are on the second floor, along with a sitting room, an exercise room and three baths. There's a playroom in the basement for the grandkids. A spot above the attached two-car garage has a bedroom, bathroom and bar. The house has the usual elevator that runs from the basement to the second floor.

There don't appear to be fine hunting opportunities in the vicinity, but neighbors should take appropriate precautions.


Why did this article draw my attention? It's like this: there's the constant talk about legacy and lasting effects (good or bad depending upon your perspective) of the Bush Administration on this country. I can give you a laundry list of the things this administration's screwed up.

But in the end, Bush, Cheney, etal will go out as rich fat cats and the world will be peachy keen as far as they're concerned.

There will be no justice.

The bad guys will win in the end.

[hornplayer]

The bad guys will win in the end.

I disagree... they'll only win "for the time being." The "dues" always have to be paid at some point.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

h.p.,

That's if you believe in an afterlife. I don't.

The article proves another point of mine. People always run "against Washington". But they never go home!

You'd think the Cheney's would be dying to get back to "God's Country", the "real America". I'd even front them the cash for moving expenses.

But noooooo. I thought Jackson Hole was this great place to live, but apparently the Cheney's are here to stay.

[clinthopson]

He plans to order Google Earth to black out the place in the Hole.

[rollhead]

I am not so sure. They'll be people coming out of the woodwork calling for his hide once he leaves office. It will be especially ugly if a Democrat is elected.

I doubt Cheney will ever travel abroad again for fear he will be held for a war crimes tribunal. Maybe he will visit right wing dictatorships, though.

Don Rumsfeld was spirited out of France recently when he thought he might be arrested.
http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press...ng-trip-france

Cheney 'May Be Guilty of War Crime'
Vice-president accused of backing torture
Claims on BBC by former insider add to Bush's woes

by Julian Borger

WASHINGTON - Vice-president Dick Cheney's burden on the Bush administration grew heavier yesterday after a former senior US state department official said he could be guilty of a war crime over the abuse of prisoners.

Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005, singled out Mr Cheney in a wide-ranging political assault on the BBC's Today programme.

Mr Wilkerson said that in an internal administration debate over whether to abide by the Geneva conventions in the treatment of detainees, Mr Cheney led the argument "that essentially wanted to do away with all restrictions".

Asked whether the vice-president was guilty of a war crime, Mr Wilkerson replied: "Well, that's an interesting question - it was certainly a domestic crime to advocate terror and I would suspect that it is ... an international crime as well." In the context of other remarks it appeared he was using the word "terror" to apply to the systematic abuse of prisoners.

The Washington Post last month called Mr Cheney the "vice-president for torture" for his demand that the CIA be exempted from a ban on "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of detainees.

Mr Wilkerson, a former army colonel, also said he had seen increasing evidence that the White House had manipulated pre-war intelligence on Iraq to make its case for the invasion. He said: "You begin to wonder was this intelligence spun? Was it politicised? Was it cherry-picked? Did, in fact, the American people get fooled? I am beginning to have my concerns."

Mr Cheney has been under fire for his role in assembling evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Mr Wilkerson told the Associated Press that the vice-president must have sincerely believed Iraq could be a spawning ground for terrorism because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard".

Such charges have kept the Bush administration on the defensive for several months. Mr Bush yesterday repeated his earlier assertion that the US "does not torture and that's important for people around the world to realise". He is also due to make the first of a series of speeches today, outlining his plan to defeat the insurgency and pave the way for US withdrawal. The White House will also publish a declassified version of its war plan.

But it has now emerged that two justice department memos listing permissible interrogation methods have been kept secret by the White House, even from the Senate intelligence committee. The New Yorker recently quoted a source who had seen a memo as calling it "breathtaking".

"The document dismissed virtually all national and international laws regulating the treatment of prisoners, including war crimes and assault statutes, and it was radical in its view that in wartime the president can fight enemies by whatever means he sees fit," the magazine reported.

One technique allegedly used by the CIA in questioning suspects is "waterboarding" (strapping a detainee to a board and submerging it until the prisoner believes he or she is drowning). The White House is accused of defining "torture" so narrowly as to exclude such methods. But James Ross, a legal expert at Human Rights Watch said such a narrow definition was at odds with international norms.

"Waterboarding is clearly a form of torture. It has been used since the Inquisition. It was a well-known torture technique in Latin America," Mr Ross said.

Human Rights Watch this year called for a special counsel to investigate any US officials - no matter their rank or position - who took part in, "ordered, or had command responsibility for war crimes or torture, or other prohibited ill-treatment against detainees in US custody".

The report focused on the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, for his alleged command responsibility for abuses at Abu Ghraib, but Mr Wilkerson argued Mr Cheney was ultimately responsible.

The US is a signatory to the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture, which bans inflicting "severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental". Such practices are also a crime under US federal law.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

###

[Scott Dolan]

12,xxx sq. ft.

That's just fucking stupid.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Scott,

That's how we roll here in DC! We're large and in charge and recession proof!

And don't forget, that's his in-town joint. You should see the Eastern Shore digs.

But the sub-prime business is kicking our ass. I'm surprised the Cheney's were able to get a loan. Maybe he's paying for the crib in cash?

[groover]

I wouldn't say this is proof of no God, Darryl. Maybe God just has a non-interventionist policy.

Besides, despite his material wealth, do you think Dick is really a happy person?

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Is Dick Cheney happy? Hell yeah. Why shouldn't he be? Ever see an unhappy sociopath?

[groover]

I'm not sure, but I don't think he's really happy. The more you have, the more you have to worry about losing. Cheney's smug and self-satisfied, but I'll bet he spends a lot of his time consumed with his paranoid greed.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

groover,

You're a dreamer. I think that Cheney has no regrets. He's been very successful financially and politically. He's been the most powerful man in the world for 7 years.

[groover]

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
Perhaps some day you'll join us, and the world will live as one.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

12,xxx sq. ft.

That's just fucking stupid.

Scott, 12,000 sq. ft. is nothing. I used to work for a company called Ayco.

Here is what the boss, John Breyo, is living in:


May 25--SARATOGA SPRINGS -- John Breyo wants the city's recent $24 million tax assessment on his elaborate mansion to be lowered to $6.1 million, according to paperwork filed with the city Accounts Department.

The chairman of Ayco Co. filed a grievance with the city's Accounts Department last week to contest its assessment on his 61,403-square-foot home at 51 Winding Brook Drive.

The assessment, which would cost Breyo $436,000 in annual taxes, exceeds the full value of the 29-acre property and is higher than that of other comparative properties on the assessment roll, so it should be lowered to a fraction of the cost, Breyo says.
The first floor of the residence alone is 21,000 square feet, including living room, dining room and some bedrooms.

The second floor is a smaller at 12,715 square feet. The lower level includes an 8,301-square-foot finished basement, not including mechanical rooms for several furnaces and storage.

The mansion includes 8 1/2 bathrooms and three kitchens, according to the accounts office. City officials blocked out interior details of the home on the plans to protect the owner's privacy.

The living area is assessed at $500 per square foot, Franck said. He said that even though the house is larger than 60,000 square feet, it includes just 42,014 square feet of living space.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Darryl G. Thomas

groover,

You're a dreamer. I think that Cheney has no regrets. He's been very successful financially and politically. He's been the most powerful man in the world for 7 years.

There are few times that I have been so pleased that there are no pockets in a shroud.
Dick Cheney will go out of this world, as will we all, with nothing, just as he came into it.
He will die and be no more, as will we all.
This is one time that I hope that if there's a God, he/she is a vengeful God.
I think that there are more than a few who would take some pleasure that there will be something quite horrible that awaits this truly odious excuse for a human being.

[Dr Dave]

Cheney is going to die soon. He knows it, and acts accordingly.

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

Why are so many of you people concerned about what others do with their own money?

If an uber-rich liberal wants to build a 28,000 square foot house like the Breck Girl so what? He sued hard for that money!


Sheesh!!!!!

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Who's the "Breck Girl"?

Let me start. You help to create one of the greatest foreign policy disasters in the history of the United States and your punishment is what? Multi-million dollar homes in McLean, VA and on the Chesapeake Bay?

Talk about your golden parachute.

[rollhead]

The "Breck Girl," is what the right likes to call John Edwards.

And Willy is right, Edwards has a "compound" with a total of 28,000 sq-ft of space.

Definitely more than a little overkill.

But I am with you, Darryl. I think Cheney should get a small cell with a window with bars to look out of.

And that is more than he would give his opponents, who he likes to torture and subject them to sensory deprivation.

I would at least give him a small window and an hour a day in the exercise yard.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Really? "Breck Girl". Oh, the haircut business. People spend a lot of time on pols' haircuts.

[Scott Dolan]

Yeah, it was either Rush or Coulter who named him that.

Charming.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Mo Dowd's good with that shit too. She calls Obama "Obami".

Is every pundit trying to get his or her own sitcom?

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by Darryl G. Thomas

You'd think the Cheney's would be dying to get back to "God's Country", the "real America". I'd even front them the cash for moving expenses.

What?! There's a God's Country and it isn't McLean? OK, McLean isn't Great Falls, but come on.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by rollhead

But I am with you, Darryl. I think Cheney should get a small cell with a window with bars to look out of.

And that is more than he would give his opponents, who he likes to torture and subject them to sensory deprivation.

I would at least give him a small window and an hour a day in the exercise yard.

Give him a big window, what the hell.
But, a supervised activity, such as hours and hours a day on a treadmill, without stopping, wouldn't be torture, would it??
After all, we all walk during the day in the ordinary course of activities.
Some cardio-vascular activity wouldn't hurt him.
In fact, it might help him get back in shape, given his heart condition and all.

[shrugs]

read

[Scott Dolan]

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

Cheney is going to die soon.

Can you give us a date and time?

[Brian Olewnick]

Atheist Sees Image of Big Bang in Piece of Toast

For Immediate Release: Miracle Toast?

(ACPA-london) Excitement is growing in the Northern England town of Huddlesfield following the news that a local man saw an image of the Big-Bang in a piece of toast. Atheist Donald Chapman, 36, told local newspaper, "The Huddlesfield Express" that he was sitting down to eat breakfast when an unusual toast pattern caught his eye.
"I was just about to spread the butter when I noticed a fairly typical small hole in the bread surrounded by a burnt black ring. however the direction and splatter patterns of the crumbs as well as the changing shades emanating outwards from this black hole were very clearly similar to the chaotic-dynamic non-linear patterns that one would expect following the Big-Bang". "It's the beginning of the world" he added excitedly.
Ever since news of the discovery made national headlines, local hoteliers have been overwhelmed by an influx of atheists from all over the country who have flocked to Huddlesfield to catch a glimpse of the scientific relic. "I have always been an Atheist and to see my life choices validated on a piece of toast is truly astounding" said one guest at the Huddlesfield Arms hotel.
To the surprise of many, the UK National Atheist Association has asked its members not to pay attention to the story despite its potential to inspire less faith. "Given what the religious believe already, this is an easy sell" said one disgruntled activist who said he was going to Huddlesfield anyway noting that "Seeing is not believing".