Cinema_Lover

For 8 years in the 2000s we all joked that Dick Cheney was the real President of the United States and that George W. Bush was a mere puppet president. I still remember Bush coming out and reading speeches from cards to the press in his early months as President, which gave us a glimpse of how unprepared he was to be President. I even remember hearing the "President Cheney" joke in early 2001, months before the September 11th attacks. Many of us assumed that Dubya was likely just a mouth piece, but I don't think anyone in the general public realized just how deep Cheney's authority in the White House was. This documentary shows the world very clearly that Dick Cheney was indeed the real man "in charge" of basically everything that happened during the Bush Presidency. Or shall we say, the Cheney Presidency. George W. Bush only seemed to have a technical authority over Cheney, but Cheney was the one in charge. Cheney was running the show during 9/11 and Cheney was the one who pushed for the Iraq War. Bush Jr. was just a figurehead, a bumbling tragic fool who was way in over his head.

Never in United States history has there been a Vice President who wielded so much power and influence. Never in American history has there been a Vice President who pushed around his President the way Cheney did to Bush. It's humiliating to see how much control Vice President Cheney had over President George W. Bush, who probably was a good guy who unfortunately was manipulated by much more nefarious forces like Cheney and his neo-cons. President Bush 43 often hated how former President Jimmy Carter would openly criticize his policies. I have often thought there many similarities b/w Bush 43 and Carter, despite one being a Republican and one a Democrat. Both men seem smaller then the Office of the Presidency, the difference is that Bush 43 had cockiness to him that masked his ineptitude and ignorance, while Carter had a sharp mind but lacked an ability to make firm decisions.

I'll admit it was interesting seeing Cheney's early life and back-story, it gave the man a more human face. Like many politicians Cheney excelled at most things he attempted in life. He was a successful jock in high school, class president and his girlfriend was one of the more popular girls around. He was accepted into Yale where suddenly he turned into a beer guzzling slacker and eventually dropped out. Now Cheney's transformation from early 20s Yale dropout slacker to mid 30s White House Chief of Staff is nothing short of extraordinary and unprecedented. It is certainly something to be admired and should serve as an inspiration to everyone of all walks of life and ages. As a person he is an unquestioned success, but as a man of political office he is the face of power unchecked. Those that are in the pro-Cheney camp will likely love this video b/c the interviewer generally lobs softballs at Cheney and Cheney answers with his usual robotic monotone voice with no follow up or counter point offered. Imagine if a Democratic ticket had a figure head President while the Vice President was the real person in charge, calling all the shots and ordering the President around. The outcry from the right would be never ending, and Republicans would be hysterical with claims that a tyrannical liberal federal government is running the country into the ground.

History will likely go easy on George W. Bush, he can be written off as too dumb to know any better, but Dick Cheney will always be viewed as the murderous crook he is. Let us always remember that back in 2000 America elected an emperor who brought his own brand of terror to the world while pulling the strings on Dubya all the way. Cheney is hawkish and unapologetic for the Iraq invasion or the enhanced interrogation techniques used under what was basically his administration, which will likely please those who view his actions as a loyal patriot instead of a certified nutball.

"CHiPs", what you can say. The California Highway Patrol got the best PR they could ever hope for in this classic buddy cop show from the 1970s. Built on comedy and riveting freeway chases, Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada starred as officers Jon Baker and Frank "Ponch" Poncherrello. The series immediately found an audience, especially with children because of it's fantastic car chases and entertaining action stunts. It was guaranteed that a car would flip over or someone got thrown off a bike or flopped face first into cement in every episode. It didn't matter if they were so obviously staged, no one else was doing such things back in those days so it was fun to see it on CHiPs. There just had to be chase on the freeways in each episode, and they surprisingly hold up today. I guess a high speed chase at over 90 mph in 1977 is the same as one that happens in 2007. That's another thing, watching this series it's amazing how little life in North America has changed in the past 30 years. Only the fashions, music and obviously some media oriented (internet, fast computers, flat screen plasma and LCD TVs, palm pilots, etc, etc) electronic technology has changed. Otherwise look at how life in 1977 is still so much the same as 2007. It's weird watching Ponch and Jon today and reflecting that I'm now around the *same age* (freaky!) as those guys were back then (late 20s-early 30s). I see them in an entirely different light today then when I viewed this show as a child, as I can relate to more of their life and understand their still relatively young adult problems.

CHiPs had a tendency to be cheesy, especially with the way Erik Estrada hammed it up as Ponch. But who cared, Estrada and Wilcox had terrific on screen chemistry (even if they didn't get along in real life), that you just were glued to TV to watch these guys chase bad guys. The corny nature of the show has famously turned off people who were older and "too cool" during CHiPs run, but they missed out on a great TV show if only had they been children. Who cares what they think now anyway, they're old farts in 2007. Although CHiPs was clearly a '70s TV show, it actually ran over into the early 80s and in my opinion probably found it's massive cult audience in the 1980s. CHiPs was rerun ENDLESSLY in the '80s. It was on every freakin' day, Monday-Friday. Home sick from school? Watch CHiPs. Holidays? Make sure to watch CHiPs. And of course the summer months, watch CHiPs, usually airing at 8am or 4pm, sometimes both timeslots. Rainy days were and still are great for CHiPs viewing. Basically what I'm saying is that this is a show that didn't have a lot of depth to it, which is why children were so hooked onto it. It makes fantastic viewing for anyone that wants to pass the time with nothing but pure TV entertainment, with enough adult sensibilities going on to make it still very watchable. I slightly missed the original run of CHiPs, either I wasn't around or was too young, but I grew up as a child in the 80s and every single damn summer I watched CHiPs. I wasn't alone, every kid who was 12 and under in the 80s watched this show during the summer months. What an awesome way to pass an hour when you had no school. The cops never drew their guns and the violence was almost non-existent, this is a series that could never be made today. You got the day off from work and it's raining outside, time to watch an episode of CHiPs.

ABC's "Path to 9/11" really isn't all that bad as a movie. It's actually quite entertaining, and at times nostalgically takes you back to the early-mid 1990s. But the movie is clearly biased and implies that the Clinton Adminstration bumbled their way through the handling of terrorism, which ultimately led to the attacks of 9/11. Former President Bill Clinton and his aides are portrayed here as either buffoonish and/or soft.

Surely Republicans will think this is a great movie, as it portrays Clinton in a bad light. So of course conservatives will hail this movie as a masterpiece of factual truth-telling. The movie hints that former President Bill Clinton was so marred in his public scandals that he neglected going after Osama bin Laden and other Islamic extremists. The movie makes no secret of it's views that the administration blundered attempts at nabbing Osama bin Laden. Bill Clinton, the supposed root of all evil in America is of course the man we should be pointing our fingers at.

For years Republicans would blame Clinton for everything. And they are obviously still doing it.

1.If the economy is doing bad, it can't possibly be because of sitting President George W. Bush, no it's because Clinton's evil policies in the 90s are finally catching up to us. And conversely, the good economic times under Bill Clinton had nothing to do with him, no they were because of all the fantastic economic theories that former Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. implemented in the 80s and early 90s that took their sweet time to catch up to President Clinton.

2.The moment September 11th happened, there were cries that Clinton was responsible. Clinton is to blame for everything.

3.Clinton flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

4.Clinton fought with the passengers of United flight 93.

5.Clinton is best friends with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden

6.Clinton blew up the space shuttle.

If the terrorists attacks happened under Clintons watch, Republicans would make you think that Clinton would assuredly have acted like some burnt out old hippie chanting "make love, not war" while marching in a gay and lesbian parade. Lord knows what the conservative reaction would have been if Clinton actually was president when the attacks had happened. It would have been even MORE Clinton's fault. Would Republicans have rallied around President Clinton? That's a tough sight to picture. So here is a movie to vilify the radical neo-conservative thought process. People will obviously compare this movie to Michael Moore's "Farenheit 911", but Moore is a man with a reputation for being a grade A nut-burger. Moore is known for distorting the truth and people walk into his films knowing that he is entertainment. ABC is supposed to a be a reputable network.

So how can a supposedly TRUSTED and REPUTABLE network like ABC promote a movie like this? It's even being pushed as an educational tool, which is outrageous. Here we are 5 years AFTER September 11th and the Bush Adminstration still hasn't found Osama bin Laden! Of course it's all Clinton's fault. Look if conservatives didn't want that Showtime movie about Ronald Reagan aired, then why do they want this film pushed onto the public and especially our schools? Yeah, you conservatives can keep hitting the "not useful" feature for my article so as to bury it in the back pages, but you know what I say is true and you know you are not being fair to the former President.