Daddy's Little Girl Launching PNAC-Lite

Oh boy, just what we need.

A new NeoNitwit outfit

From The Politico this morning;

Liz Cheney's group 'Keep America Safe' takes on 'radical' White House

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s eldest daughter Liz will launch a new group aimed at rallying opposition to the “radical” foreign policy of the Obama administration which it says has succeeded only in undermining the nation’s security.

The new group, Keep America Safe, will make the case against President Barack Obama’s moves to wrench America away from Bush era foreign policy on issues from detaining alleged terrorists at Guantanamo Bay to building a missile shield in Eastern Europe.

[snip]

The new group will add institutional heft to a scathing critique of Obama articulated first and loudest by Liz Cheney’s father, and fills a void left by a Republican Party made skittish by the Iraq War, and apparently more eager to engage the president on domestic issues like health care.

[snip]

Keep America Safe will focus on issues like troop levels, missile defense, detainees, and interrogation, according to Liz Cheney, who is heading the group along with Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and Debra Burlingame, the hawkish sister of an American Airlines pilot killed in the September 11 attacks.

Little Billy Kristol?

I suppose, with the record of eight-failed-years, he can't keep running the same failed PNAC cow chips (tell us again, Billy, how'd that "Greet us as Liberators" thing work out?)

So, they repackage it, and get the former Shadow President's daughter to carry the banner.

Steve Benen also sees disaster written all over this;

The truth is, Cheney/Kristol had their day. They got to do exactly what they wanted to do -- torture, preemptive war, abandoning the rule of law, abandoning democratic norms, alienating allies, ignoring the concept of international cooperation -- and they failed anyway.

[snip]

Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol have become clownish figures, so blinded by their ideology that they can't even see the dangerous ineptitude of their agenda. I don't doubt that wealthy right-wing financiers will be delighted to throw some checks at "Keep America Safe." Likewise, I can only assume that news outlets will continue to pretend that Cheney has some shred of credibility on these issues, and will have her on national television every day for the next year.

But that doesn't make this endeavor any less ridiculous.

They already have The Politico, Matt Sludge, and other Flying Monkey perches lined up to promote their drivel (which means our mainstream corporate media will instantly pick up, and run with their ball), and, no doubt, Faux News will be in the bag.

Hmmm ...

But maybe it's all just a front.

On her website, we have this, right at the top of the home page, under "Featured Resources";

Seven former CIA chiefs asked President Obama to halt the CIA investigation that damages our national security and the personal security of CIA agents. Click here to read their plea now!

I suppose they couldn't call it "Keep Daddy Out of Jail", now could they?

PNAC Going All Xe On Us

Well, Well, Well ...

What to do when you get get canned by the NYT....



I guess, they figure a new coat of paint, and hanging a different shingle, is going to wipe out their miserably record of failure.

Kristol Launches Project For A New American Century 2.0: ‘The Foreign Policy Initiative’

Kristol’s new “political organization” for neoconservatives is now a reality:

A newly-formed and still obscure neo-conservative foreign policy organisation is giving some observers flashbacks to the 1990s, when its predecessor staked out the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy that came to fruition under the George W. Bush administration.

The blandly-named Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) - the brainchild of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, neo-conservative foreign policy guru Robert Kagan, and former Bush administration official Dan Senor - has thus far kept a low profile; its only activity to this point has been to sponsor a conference pushing for a U.S. “surge” in Afghanistan.

Or, as Matt Duss asks, in "Project For The Rehabilitation Of Neoconservatism"

What do you do if your previous organization — and the ideology behind it — has become inextricably bound in the public’s imagination to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in American history? Obviously, shut it down, and start a new organization with a new name.

At least, they kept it in English.


Bonus Little Billy Kristol's New Tree House Riffs

Spencer Ackerman: Man Of Many Names But The Motives Stay The Same

Andrew Sullivan: The Empire Slogs On

Steve Benen: Bill Kristol's Next Act

Michael Crowley: THE NEOCONS DON'T KNOW WHEN TO QUIT...

Garlic Poll Results - Most People Think The PNAC Is ...

Where's Ernest Borgnine when you need him?

First Rule of Neocon Club - You Do Not Talk About Neocon Club

First Rule of Neocon Club ... You Do Not Talk About Neocon Club!

The second rule of Neocon Club?

You don't talk about Neocon Club ...

And, that apparently is Richard Perle's story, and he's sticking to it.



Dana Milbank, in the WAPO today, has a fascinating, and hilarious, piece, on one of the Grand Poohbars on the Neocon Society, one of the architects and vociferious advocates of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, dutifully carried out by the Bush Grindhouse.

Here's one, of many, stories, putting Perle at Ground Zero Neoconland, where he infers that Iraq was behind Sept 11th;

Manning already understood that people close to President Bush wanted to go after Iraq, and Tenet of course knew it too. Conspicuous among them, in his mind that night, was the neoconservative agitator and polemicist Richard Perle, an outspoken advocate of removing Saddam Hussein by military force. On the very first page of Tenet's memoir, he tells us that he had run into Perle that very morning -- Sept. 12 -- as Perle was leaving the West Wing of the White House. They knew each other in a passing way, as figures of note on the Washington scene. As Tenet reached the door, Perle turned to him and said, "Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility."

Ahh, but on to the hijinks.

Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence

No, not that "Prince of Darkness", the one that runs over homeless people in his Corvette.

The Prince of Darkness -- so dubbed during his days opposing arms control in the Reagan Pentagon -- was not about to let details get in the way of his argument that "50 million conspiracy theorists have it wrong," as the subtitle of his article for National Interest put it. "I see a number of people here who believe and have expressed themselves abundantly that there is a neoconservative foreign policy and it was the policy that dominated the Bush administration, and they ascribe to it responsibility for the deplorable state of the world," Perle told the foreign policy luminaries at yesterday's lunch. "None of that is true, of course."

As you can see, Perle is adhering, not to the letter, the rules of Neocon Club.

In real life, Perle was the ideological architect of the Iraq war and of the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack. But at yesterday's forum of foreign policy intellectuals, he created a fantastic world in which:

1. Perle is not a neoconservative.

2. Neoconservatives do not exist.

3. Even if neoconservatives did exist, they certainly couldn't be blamed for the disasters of the past eight years.

"There is no such thing as a neoconservative foreign policy," Perle informed the gathering, hosted by National Interest magazine. "It is a left critique of what is believed by the commentator to be a right-wing policy."

Even when he was pressed;

Richard Burt, who clashed with Perle in the Reagan administration, took issue with "this argument that neoconservatism maybe actually doesn't exist." He reminded Perle of the longtime rift between foreign policy realists and neoconservative interventionists. "You've got to kind of acknowledge there is a neoconservative school of thought," Burt challenged.

"I don't accept the approach, not at all," the Prince of Darkness replied.

As Milbank aptly notes, "there was a sense of falling down the rabbit hole", but this wasn't merely a stumble, this was a head-first, deep-as-the-core-of-the-earth, plunge down that rabbit hole.

The Bush Grindhouse, in a equally-bald-face, twisted employment of the lexicon, gave us the "Clear Skies Act".

Perle, taking his cue, is trying to sell his "Clear Conscious" act.

Which is as about as credible as the mushroom clouds and WMD's Perle and his Neocon Nitwits tried to palm off on us.

And, when you look at where we are now, after eight-years of this kind of horseshit, Perle and Co. followed the script perfectly.

After establishing the Neocon Club, they immediately put into action Project Mayhem.


Bonus Neocon Club Riffs

Washington Sketch: Richard Perle in Wonderland (Video)

Christy Hardin Smith - Richard Perle: Rebranding Himself, The Neocons And Other Con Jobs

Steve Benen: RICHARD PERLE PLAYS MAKE-BELIEVE...

Spencer Ackerman: Just Ignore Everything Richard Perle Says for the Rest of His Life

Alan Colmes: Neocon Says There’s No Such Thing As A Neocon

Think Progress: THE ARCHITECTS OF WAR: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Garlic Poll Results ...Most People Think The PNAC Is ...

Where's Ernest Borgnine when you need him?

Neocon Dolphins? ... Say It Ain't So, Flipper!

Retro Garlic: It Is Your Dad's PNAC!

You would have thought, that since their last production crashed and burned, they would be laying low, licking their wounds.

But no, first there was the flare fired up last week

Kristol Floats Revived ‘Project For A New American Century’ To Support Neocons In The Wilderness

In an interview with Hugh Hewitt yesterday, Kristol said that he would like to set up a similar organization to operate during an Obama presidency:

HH: And I think he will be very concerned with the two issues I’m going to raise with you – national security and immigration. Now I believe the Committee On the Present Danger filled a need in the 70s which we need to reorganize an equivalent now. But what do you think, Bill Kristol?

BK: Oh, I agree, and we did a little of that in the 90s with the Project For the New American Century. And I actually think there are people talking about this. And there’s a lot of good foreign policy and defense thinking on our side, the Fred Kagans and Bob Kagans and Reuel Gerechts of the world, Victor Davis Hanson, et cetera. But a little bit of a political organization for them wouldn’t be bad. And I think we should support Obama, incidentally, if he does the right thing.

Isn't that big of Little Billy Kristol.

"I think we should support Obama, incidentally, if he does the right thing"

The "right thing", being, naturally, listening to, and following the plans, of the PNAC.

Here's their elevator pitch;

The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.

The Project for the New American Century intends, through issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars, to explain what American world leadership entails. It will also strive to rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world.

William Kristol, Chairman

Well, that, pretty much, guarantees, they'll be busting Obama's balls, much in the way they busted Bill Clinton's, hounding him during his presidency to pound his cock on the table, then unleash the bombers and the forces to go invade some sovereign nation, who happens to not be "just like us", and, of course, success will be measured by the number of dead bodies.

This is done in the name of "democracy", not, as some may believe, to give a bunch of pantywaisted old white farts a boner (the younger ones get "starbursts").

From Wikipedia;

Some have regarded the PNAC's January 16, 1998 letter to President Clinton, which urged him to embrace a plan for "the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power,"[6] and the large number of members of PNAC appointed to the Bush administration as evidence that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a foregone conclusion

So, then comes the news today, from Think Progress;

Matt Duss reports, “It looks like Bill Kristol may be making good on his threat to revive the Project for the New American Century. Since May, visitors to PNAC’s website were informed that ‘this account has been suspended,’ but now the website is back up, though it does not seem to have been updated with any new material.” Duss speculates that PNAC’s reincarnation may serve to boost the future prospects of Sarah Palin.

Oh Jesus, they're going to do it to pump up Mommy Moose?

Hmmm ... Does that mean Kristol and Kagan start pumping out foreign policy white papers with The Wasilla Whiz Kids' name of them?

Will they base a new course of action from the vantage point this Hockey Mom has of Russia?

It will be good for business to reignite that old Cold War ... Lots of Military-Industrial Complex contracts to be had ... A carnival of cable news shows (including their own network, Faux News) to go on and blather away about this growing threat, and how the Obama Administration is squandering away American Power!

Not to mention the truckload of new books they spin off the presses, feeding the Dittoheads and Flying Monkeys with flights of fancy.

Help Me Mr. Wizard!

Oh yeah, the Retro part;

Most People Think The PNAC Is ...

A 10-Year-Old Rap Artist (also known as Lil’ P-Nac)
A TIVO Error Code
Weekend Paintball Warriors
The Governing Body for the Game of Pinochle

Bonus NeoNitWit Riffs

There's Sucker's Born Every Minute ...

"The morning after always looks grim if you happen to be wearing last night's dress"

Neocon Dolphins? ... Say It Ain't So, Flipper!

It Takes A Neocon To Raise A Legacy ... They're Drinking The Kool-Aid Again ...

Where's Ernest Borgnine when you need him?

Well, At Least We Should Get Some New Lies ... When He Launches Against Iran

Na, Na, Na, Na
Na, Na, Na, Na
Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye!

So long, nefarious meetings in Prague

See ya later billowing Mushroom Clouds

The cross has been plunged into the heart

The fat lady is singing her aria

Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida

"An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

President Bush and his aides used Saddam's alleged relationship with al Qaida, along with Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, as arguments for invading Iraq after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld claimed in September 2002 that the United States had "bulletproof" evidence of cooperation between the radical Islamist terror group and Saddam's secular dictatorship.

The new Pentagon study isn't the first to refute earlier administration contentions about Saddam and al Qaida.

A September 2006 report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Saddam was "distrustful of al Qaida and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al Qaida to provide material or operational support."

Boy, would I like to be a fly-on-the-wall, in either Cheney's office when the news hit, or at the next PNAC meeting.

But then again, this crew of thugs never let facts and the truth get in their way.

No doubt, it probably won't be an unwise bet, that the Rightwing Freak Show, and the Neocon Nitwits will continue to employ this bullshit, and equally undoubtedly, will cite articles that have already debunked the lies.

When there's a mission to accomplish, no sense wasting time with cumbersome details.

So, there's likely, at least, one faction of the Bush Grindhouse that welcomes this news - The Lincoln Group.

After the shining work ginning up the misinformation for the occupation of Iraq, they may very well be tapped to gin up some new lies and propaganda for the launch against Iran.

Likely, since Iran is building a nuclear program, they'll try to hang on to the Mushroom Cloud thing.

There'll probably be new, breaking reports of ties, just discovered, from the documents of dead or captured terrorists, that shows ties between Al Qaeda and Ahmadinejad, though they'll have to use a different European city, other than Prague, if they want to create some non-existent meetings.

And, of course, they'll brush aside this report, citing the repetitious party line of how the decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the correct course of action.

And, if a lap-it-up, MSM reporter actually presses The Commander Guy on it, you can also bet safely, The Commander Guy will reply, citing the "available intelligence" to justify his actions.

You know, the "available intelligence" they made-up and fabricated.

And there will be no shame or irony showing when he does it.


Update - Breaking News!

As I was getting ready to post this, an email arrived containing the following news;

Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?

ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.

The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.

Hmmm ...

Bonus Riffs

Emptywheel: SSCI Leaks

The Carpetbagger Report: Putting to rest the non-existent Saddam-al Qaeda link (again)

John Cole: A Comparison

Paul Kiel: Today's Must Read


Bonus Bonus Lincoln Group Riffs

White House "Embarrassed"; Bush Victory Strategy Speech Written By PR Agency; Gave President Wrong Folder; Iraqi Newspaper Prints Slams Against Murtha, Kerry, Pelosi

Rumsfeld Blames Contractor, If Media Plant Stories True, But Defends Outsourcing Program; Says "Still Gathering Facts"; If It Turns Out Positive, Will Be Adopted Into New 'National Victory Strategy' Plan

Secretary Says No Reflection That We Don't Know What's Going On; More Bush Troubles As Rice Backtracks, Corrects Comments, Blames Lincoln Group; Meant To Say Was Surprised Levees Breached, Not By Hamas Election Victory; Backs Pace That There's No Civil War

Of Legacy Maintenance - And Corrections! ... David Corn's "REBUTTAL - Why Bush Is A Loser"

"The Bush-Cheney years have been marked by ineptitude, miscalculation, and scandal. A successful presidency? Bush will be lucky if he gets a public elementary school in his adopted hometown of Crawford, Tex., named after him. He has placed this country in a hole. Yet Kristol, with shovel in hand, points to that hole and says, Trust me -- we're about to strike oil!"

Thank You David Corn!

If the Washington Post can run a big, fat, wet kiss by PNAC founder, Little Billy Kristol, then it is only right for The Nation's David Corn have equal time to bitch slap him down.

Today's WaPo has Corn's REBUTTAL: Why Bush Is A Loser to counter balance Kristol's ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: Why Bush Will Be A Winner.

And bitch slap is being nice about it.

"Iraq: Kristol says "we now seem to be on course to a successful outcome." The war has been a mess from the start, and these days even leading Republican senators no longer buy the argument that Bush's so-called "surge" is succeeding or can succeed as promised. Kristol contends that with the recent escalation "we are increasingly able to protect more of the Iraqi population." Many in Iraq would find little comfort in his assurances. Despite the "surge," Iraqi civilian deaths are still running at 2,500 to 3,000 a month. And since the "surge" began, according to the Pentagon's own numbers, the number of attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces and Iraqi civilians has marginally increased."

"Afghanistan: Steady as she goes, says Kristol. Well, not if you're one of those dozens of civilians who seem to be killed every few days in an errant attack from NATO and western forces. (Even Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is fed up.)"

"Foreign policy: Kristol does not mention that, thanks to Bush's misadventure in Iraq and other missteps, the United States' image abroad is in the sub-basement. He does note that we now have decent relations with Brazil."

"It's remarkable what Kristol leaves out of his bizarro-world view of Bush the Great: Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of the Justice Department, global warming, and much else. An American city was practically destroyed on Bush's watch, but that merits no consideration in Kristol's case for Bush. The Justice Department -- run by Bush cronies accused of corruption, incompetence, or both -- is in tatters."

The Garlic weighed in on this Sunday, with our Takes A Neocon To Raise A Legacy ... They're Drinking The Kool-Aid Again ..., which also covered the bonus of Stephen Hayes' fellatio of Dick Cheney.

The Bush Grindhouse, and the gang of dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds, are going to keep coming out of their bunkers, attempting to rewrite history, slapping new paint on the irreparable legacies, that only washes off, much like a scam artists' cheap driveway "retarring" job, with the first drops of rain that fall in it.

Don't hesitate, whenever and wherever you see it, when they start yapping as such, to bitch slap them down.

Bonus Links

David Corn's Website

Analysis: Intelligence Puts Rationale For War on Shakier Ground

Glenn Greenwald: The tragic collapse of America's standing in the world

Little Billy Kristol

Become a Cheney's Cheney ... Help The VP Build His Team, For The Most Gleaming of Brass Rings - Iran

We have a situation developing, with the Cheney side of our government all running around with puffed up tents in the crotch of their trousers, over the prospects of "hot conflict" with Iran, that there is talk of "insubordination against President Bush" and his wimpy diplomacy-first side of the government.

We'll set aside, for the moment, using the words "President Bush" and "diplomacy" in the same sentence.

Jackson Williams, on the Huffington Post, asked yesterday "Just who is Cheney's team these days, what with Scooter Libby headed to jail and Rummy off playing bridge? Well, the ranks have surely thinned as this blunder has gone on, but there is probably some recruitment of new blood taking place, too."

Where is the new blood coming from?

The Garlic, not wanting to be shown up as not supporting our troops, wants to lend a hand for this effort and has composed a Want Ad for the Office of Vice President, being that Monica Goodling resigned, and can't be sitting there any longer, wearing her BL armband (Bush Loyalist) when screening potential candidates.

Get yourself in the game, it's likely this position will be filled very quickly.

Position: Loyal, Hard-Nosed Neoconservative Yes-Man

Have you ever wanted to overthrow a foreign regime, start a war or tell a United States Senator to "go fuck yourself"?

Do you often find yourself sticking, obstinately, to a minority viewpoint, refusing to give in because you know, deep in your gut, you are correct - even when some panty-waist liberal is waving irrefutable evidence in your face?

If so, the Office of the Vice President has an exciting and rewarding career opportunity for you.

In the dynamic world of the nation's first "Shadow President", you will be in the vortex of domestic and world events, meeting with the nation's energy chiefs, or taking an overseas trips to berate foreign governments.

You may, at times find yourself holed-up in a genuine Secret Bunker, and you'll have the thrill of living through the Armageddon drills and running the country "the day after" with surreptitious weekend retreats.

And, you just may be on-board for the most gleaming of brass rings - Iran.

Qualifications

• Ability to write, bully, steal, fabricate, and/or otherwise generate intelligence supporting the Vice President's policies and vision
• Talent, in face of withering criticism, to be able to stay on message and repeat false claims
• No Conscious and no regrets in outing and exposing covert CIA agents
• Lying and the knack for placing blame on others are required skills for the position

*Internships and/or employment with the American Enterprise Institute or the PNAC is highly desirable

** All candidates, to be considered for the position, will be required to sign a waiver, indicating the acceptance of going to prison in order to protect the Vice President should such an occurance manifest in carrying out your duties in the Office of the Vice President.

Contact, with cover letter and resume, Chief of Staff (and the original Cheney's Cheney) David Addington at vice_president@whitehouse.gov


Bonus Links

The Trouble With Cheney: He's Dumb

Cheney Sets Up Shadow Government In Area 51

Libby Trial Update - The Scooter and Cheney Show Theme Song