Karen Kwiatkowski (Huffington Post): Cheney's Speech at Vilnius

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Huffington Post
Dated Friday May 5

Cheney's Speech at Vilnius -- You Gotta Love It!
By Karen Kwiatkowski

Dick Cheney can talk the talk. He gets it, he really does. It's just too bad he has to hide out in Lithuania when he speaks the truth. Americans today really need to hear what he has to say, and it is doubtful he'll repeat these words here at home.

Here's some of what he had to say, as he addressed the Eastern European and Baltic attendees:

"This progress would not have been possible without leadership -- from patriots with names like Sakharov, Mindszenty, Walesa, Havel -- who, in decades of striving, challenged dictators, spoke the truth without apology, and refused to compromise their liberty. "

Somehow, I am thinking that Cheney can't imagine mentioning American names like Ray McGovern, Richard Clark, Tony Zinni, Cindy Sheehan, West Point Graduates Against the Iraq War, etc, in a speech like this one.

Read more.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. When they were working for us, they were Reagan's freedom

fighters.... how quickly things change for these people who have a tenous hold on power.

[Kagemusha]

2. It's not the Vilnius one that has my head spinning.

It's the one in Kazahkstan he did right after, where he goes openly praising that government as if it's better.

[bloom]

3. This is amazing - everybody should see this

more Cheney quotes:


"Democracy starts with citizens casting their votes, but that is only the beginning. Elections must be fair, and regular, and truly competitive. Men and women must be free to speak their minds -- and here a simple test is proposed by the former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky: "Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm? If he can, then that person is living in a free society. If not, it's a fear society."

"Protecting civil society and upholding individual freedom requires the rule of law -- and that is at the very heart of government's reason for being. Government meets this obligation by ensuring an independent judiciary, a professional legal establishment, and honest, competent law enforcement."

And you won't believe he said this:

"Leaders must also persevere in fighting the two greatest enemies of economic progress -- bureaucratic roadblocks and official corruption. If the private sector is to thrive and to generate jobs, then entrepreneurs must be free to start companies, to hire workers, and do business without unreasonable interference or favoritism. And the only way for an economy to consistently attract commerce and investment is to root out corruption at every level, and to require openness, transparency, and accountability in the systems of business and government."

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Cheney gives a good civics lesson

. . . and then subverts every good point he makes.

[kaygore]

5. Thanks for pointing this out