CIA Director: Cheney almost wishing for terror attack
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
CIA Director Leon Panetta says it's almost as if former vice president Dick Cheney is wishing for another terror attack on the U.S. in order to make his point. Panetta tells The New Yorker that Cheney "smells some blood in the water" on the issue of national security.
Cafferty: Cheney has been a very vocal critic of Obama.
He suggests Cheney's actions are like "gallows politics" and also calls it "dangerous politics."
Dick Cheney - whom we barely saw or heard from for eight years - has been a very vocal critic of President Obama these past few months... especially when it comes to national security. He has said that the new president is making the U.S. less safe by rolling back Bush era policies.
Cheney has criticized President Obama for ordering the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison and for stopping the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. In a speech last month, Cheney called some of Obama's decisions "unwise in the extreme."
And guess what? Cheney's carping may be working. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll taken last month shows Cheney's favorable rating at 37-percent - that was up from 29-percent when he and President Bush left office in January. Go figure.
In response to Panetta's comments, Cheney says: "I hope my old friend Leon was misquoted. The important thing is whether the Obama administration will continue the policies that have kept us safe for the last eight years."
Here’s my question to you: CIA Director Leon Panetta says it's "almost as if" Dick Cheney is wishing for another terrorist attack on the U.S. Do you agree?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Will health care reform pass Congress this year?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The battle over health care reform looks to be an uphill one for President Obama. The president was in Chicago today, asking skeptical doctors to get behind his plan to overhaul the system - calling it a "ticking time bomb" for the budget that could force the U.S. to go the way of GM.
Mr. Obama swung out at critics - calling them naysayers and fear mongerers... and warned interest groups not to paint his efforts as socialized medicine.
For the first time, Mr. Obama said publicly this overhaul could cost $1 trillion over 10 years; he says that's "real money," but that it's less than what the U.S. is projected to spend on the Iraq War.
The president wants a new public program that would compete with private insurers; it would help cover the 46 million uninsured Americans. He doesn't want to do away with privately owned plans.
But Republicans are accusing the president of pushing a government takeover of health care.
And even members of the president's own party don't think health care reform can make it through Congress. Kent Conrad - Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee - says there aren't enough votes for the public option. Conrad says they're also going to have to attract some Republicans along with holding onto all of the Democrats.
Even though there are big questions about how to pay for all this, Conrad says the country can't afford not to change the system.
Here’s my question to you: Do you think health care reform will pass Congress this year?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Were Iran's elections honest?
Iranian supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi take part in a rally in Tehran. (PHOTO CREDIT: BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
A lot of people aren't buying the outcome of Iran's elections, which had President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning with more than 62 percent of the vote.
Vice President Joe Biden says there's some "real doubt" about the results.
Experts point to many reasons why the elections could have been rigged: There is no independent monitoring, many voters are illiterate and officials help them fill in their paper ballots. There are also no booths, so all of the voting is done in public.
According to the official results - Ahmadinejad won in all regions of the country and among all classes and ages - which is highly unlikely. For example, Ahmadinejad won in cities where he is unpopular; and the opposition leader, Mir Hossein Moussavi, lost among his own ethnic group. Also, there were 40 million votes cast and just two hours after the polls closed, Ahmadinejad's victory was announced. In Iran there are no machines. All the votes have to be hand counted.
Moussavi's supporters have taken to the streets to protest the results - often clashing with police. Iranian media have mostly ignored the protests and international journalists were prevented from covering them. Some reporters have been arrested and others beaten by police.
All this was apparently enough for Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei to allow an investigation into allegations of ballot fraud. A group of top clerics and judges is expected to issue its findings within 10 days.
Here's my question to you: Do you believe Iran's elections were honest?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
Recent Comments