Hello Everyone:

While I think that Keith Olbermann is a partisan who lacks credibility, I am a huge fan of VoteVets.org and I definitely believe that their leaders like Jon Soltz and Brandon Friedman are very credible people!

Here is the Countdown video from Thursday, May 7 where Brandon Friedman, vice chair of VoteVets.org, gave an interview about how Dick Cheney is looking out for himself, his friends, and NOT for the troops:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/30631405#30631405  (06:23)

GOP threatens to investigate Clinton administration
May 7: Author Brandon Friedman of VoteVets.org talks about the Republican Party's threat to go after renditions that occurred during the Clinton administration.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/30631405#30631405  (06:23)

Here is the Countdown transcript of this dialogue:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30640902/

'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Thursday, May 7, 2009
Read the transcript to the Thursday show

Guests: Shannyn Moore, Brandon Friedman, Chris Hayes, Richard Justice, Richard Wolffe

KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST:  "Joining us now is Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Brandon Friedman, now author of “The War I Always Wanted,” and vice chair of VoteVets.org.

Great thanks for your time tonight, Brandon.

BRANDON FRIEDMAN, AUTHOR, “THE WAR I ALWAYS WANTED”:  Thanks for having me on, Keith.

OLBERMANN:  How do you think—how have you been able to assess how service members and vets feel about Mr. Cheney‘s current crusade to protect the little guy?

FRIEDMAN:  Well, when Dick Cheney came out the other day and he said that he was looking out for the little guy, he conveniently left out the military and the troops.  He covered for CIA officers.  He talked about covering for the lawyers.  But he left out the troops.

So, what has essentially happened is you have the troops now who have been left holding the bag for torture enthusiasts like Mr. Cheney himself.  At this point, the only people who have been prosecuted, the only people who have been fully vilified are troops.  And frankly, to me, that‘s not fair.  And I think that‘s how most people in the military view it too.

OLBERMANN:  Strategically, what do you see is the former vice president‘s ultimately goal in protecting whoever it is he considers to be the little guy, if it‘s not the people who were taking the orders at the ground level?

FRIEDMAN:  Well, he‘s not concerned for the quote-unquote, “little guy,” if that‘s how he wants to refer to the military.  I think—it‘s very clear to me that Mr. Cheney‘s looking out for himself.  He‘s looking to cover for people like defense secretary—former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and anybody else whose paths will lead directly to him.  Because, at the end of the day, Dick Cheney knows that the buck stops with him, and he knows that these are policies that were engineered by the Bush administration.  And he knows that he bears responsibility for that, as do the people who surround him.

OLBERMANN:  If Senator Alexander proves right, that the Obama administration has to choose between investigating nobody or investigating everybody, including Clinton officials on the subject of renditions, what should happen then?

FRIEDMAN:  Well, look, Keith—we‘re a nation of laws.  So, everything has to remain on the table.  But in my view, I‘m not so much concerned with going after people in the military, people who were working at the CIA level, that‘s—those are people who were doing their duty, who were, I presume, carrying out policies that they thought were lawful.  What I‘m more concerned with is in going after the people who came up with these ideas.

I mean, what I don‘t understand is who, in the Bush administration decided all of a sudden that it was OK to waterboard people?  That it was OK to sacrifice our values as Americans?  Because that‘s not how we treat prisoners of war.  It‘s not what we did in “Desert Storm.”  It‘s not what we should have done in this war.

What I want to know is, when would that be OK, who decided that was OK, and who wanted to give the order to tell the CIA or to tell the military to carry out these things?  Those are the people that I want to go after and that I would like to see dealt with, because they bear the responsibility, and we need to hold them accountable.

Because—here‘s the thing: at bottom, the terrorists are not using -

they‘re not using rendition, what Senator Alexander was talking about, with Attorney General Holder.  They‘re not using rendition for propaganda.  What they‘re using for propaganda is Guantanamo Bay and waterboarding.               

So, I want to find out the people who are responsible for that, because that has put our troops in danger.  And that‘s my priority and that‘s the perspective—that‘s my perspective from where I‘m coming from.  I want to see people held accountable for that.

OLBERMANN:  Brandon Friedman of VoteVets.org, contributor to “The Huffington Post”—as always, sir, great thanks.

FRIEDMAN:  Thanks for having me on..."

With how much that Cheney has been in the news lately, I really wish that credible people like Jon Soltz and Brandon Friedman were getting more media air time to respond to and expose Cheney's rhetoric!

Here is the link to Brandon Friedman's post of this story on the VoteVets.org blog:

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2741

Dick Cheney and the "Little Guy"
by: Brandon Friedman
Fri May 08, 2009 at 15:20:06 PM EDT

Here is the link on the VoteVets.org blog where you can read Brandon Friedman's excellent posts:

http://www.vetvoice.com/userDiary.do;jsessionid=1ED78C374DFE6A0C71BCE09109657A34?personId=4

Brandon Friedman

Here is the link on the Huffington Post where you can read more of Brandon Friedman's excellent posts:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brandon-friedman

Brandon Friedman

Please feel free to forward this information on so that more people will know about the great work and the credibility of good people like Brandon Friedman and the excellent work that VoteVets.org is doing! 

Mitch Dworkin

http://www.securingamerica.com/

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/16039
RESOURCES: Speeches, Articles, and Career Highlights to help define Gen. Clark!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on July 7, 2008 - 2:51pm.

http://www.securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7191
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program: An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight back against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda!