Angler
Last week two reporters asked me,
in advance of the Peace Rally,
Why Cheney?
I was surprised. Isn’t it obvious?
Every Jackson Hole resident (and American citizen, really) should read The Washington Post story Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. The four-part series, titled after the vice president’s Secret Service code name, is sure to receive consideration for a Pulitzer.
What this series shows us is that Cheney not only has had a hand in every deplorable aspect of our government for the last seven years, he has personally orchestrated them.
If you must read only one part of the series, take a glance at Part 4, dedicated to environmental policy.
Most galling is the revelation that during the drought-plagued summer of 2001, “Angler” Dick Cheney had water diverted from the Klamath River along the California-Oregon border, causing 77,000 salmon to wash up dead.
The man who professes to be such an avid fly fisherman is responsible for the largest fish kill ever seen in the West.
I could understand if those crops were essential to our nation’s food supply. But no, turns out the votes of the reliably Republican farmers in Oregon (which Bush-Cheney lost by a hair in 2000) mattered more to the vice president than protecting threatened fish.
Here’s where the story really burns a hole in your stomach: We, the American taxpayers, subsequently have paid those farmers $15 million not to grow the crops. And with the stocks of chinook salmon decimated from the fish kill, last year the federal government declared a disaster and approved $60 million in emergency aid to help the commercial fishermen recover.
That’s right: Dick Cheney killed 77,000 salmon on the Klamath River and cost U.S. taxpayers $75 million as a result. Why isn’t this man arrested and his Halliburton millions seized to pay back the debt?
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As a journalist, I pay close attention to the news. Sometimes too close attention.
This spring, I added a feed to this site (at right, below) for Dan Froomkin’s White House Watch column on WashingtonPost.com. Dan does a fine job of rounding up the day’s coverage, from the mainstream media and the blogosphere, of anything pertaining to the Cheney-Bush administration.
I read Dan’s column daily. He gives an overview of news stories, analysis, editorials and even cartoons and late-night humor. He started the column in 2003 as an impartial gatherer of clippings, but as the war has wore on and the administration’s transgressions have grown more egregious (at least what we know of them), Dan has taken on more of a critical voice in presenting the news.
Who can blame him? See Keith Olbermann’s “Special Comment” on MSNBC last month, in which he calls on Bush to resign.
We all know the old bumper sticker, If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention.
This administration, with its volatile mix of arrogance and ignorance, has conducted the war and run our government in a manner that’s just infuriating.
And that’s why I’m targeting Dick Cheney specifically with this Peace Rally.
Resign or Be Impeached!
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