In These Times's The ITT List was recently named one of the top 5 campaign blogs for its coverage of the Democratic National Convention. Check out our current blogging of the Republican National Convention.

Being Dick Cheney

By David Sirota

There are moments in the life of every politician when the public gets an unfiltered glimpse of the person behind the platitudes. For the first President Bush, it was cameras catching his wonderment at a supermarket scanner. For Mike Dukakis, it was his bobble head impression in the tank. And for Bill Clinton, it was his pained effort to define… return to article

  • subscribe to print magazine

  • Zoom OutZoom In Reader Comments (3)

    Page 1 of 1 pages

    When I expressed my incredulity to some of my Republican friends that they voted in 2000 for such an obviously uninformed nitwit as Bush, the most frequent answer I got back was that while they agreed that Bush wasn’t the brightest bulb, they were all sure that as things unfolded, Bush would be surrounded by grown-up, competent and experienced people like Cheney to guide him.  Well, as time has shown, so much for that theory. This whole administration is running in some alternate universe where up is down.

    United States Posted by sparrow on May 30, 2004 at 9:08 PM

    The danger behind the sneer has been publicized on the Internet from day one.  The PNAC connection, the energy meeting secrets, the war mongering lies of this man have been raising warning flags for a long time on alternative news sites.  Where was the complicit corporate media all this time?  Where is it now?  Duh....

    http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/cheney_s_secrets.html

    United States Posted by skipper7 on Jun 4, 2004 at 10:44 AM

    While I am stoutly anti Bush/Cheney. I must voice some displeasure at Mr. Sirota’s own inaccuracy of comments.  Specifically those dealing with Wal-Mart.  First, I do work at a store for this company, and am one of the lowly peons, not someone higher up.  While any corporation has its downsides, it does not pay poverty level wages.  In fact it pays us more than state minimum wages and gives raises every year without fail.  Not to mention profit sharing, assisted tax and fee-free stock purchase, very inexpensive and comprehensive health insurance among just of the few benefits given to the worker.  How many slave-driving fast food chain corporations can claim that?  As well, if there were any lock-ins (I remember being told about these and being shocked), they were by the store management themselves and not ordered by anyone higher up in the company.  I’m quite sure those people were dealt with swiftly as well, as in my store and district, strict compliance with state and federal labor law is enforced, concerning break and meal periods as well as a multitude of other issues.

    So while I disagree with the corporate decisions to support the Bush-Cheney campaign, that is their decision to make and mine to not support it.  And as I said, while every corporation has its downsides, Walmart does treat workers fairly and deals with management malfeasance in the positive by protecting the workers and always making sure there is someone to talk to without retaliation.  Mr. Sirota merely seems to be parroting some of the union anti-Walmart propaganda I have been reading of late, without many facts or resources to back them up.  An individual’s wrongdoing within a store is not an upper-level corporations wrongdoing unless it is encouraged to continue by order.

    United States Posted by clortho on Jun 5, 2004 at 4:59 PM
    Page 1 of 1 pages

  • register a new account »Posting Security

    To participate in our forums, please register for a free account.
     

    Retreive lost password »

Article Appeared in this Issue

Full contents
Past issues

Popular Discussions