Dick Cheney On Gay Marriage

[FSTargetDrone]

AP via Yahoo!:

Cheney on gay marriage: 'Freedom for everyone'

By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer Pamela Hess, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 2, 8:05 am ET

WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he supports gays being able to marry but believes states, not the federal government, should make the decision.

"I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone," Cheney said in a speech at the National Press Club. "I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."

Cheney, who has a gay daughter, said marriage has always been a state issue.

"And I think that's the way it ought to be handled today, that is, on a state-by-state basis. Different states will make different decisions. But I don't have any problem with that. I think people ought to get a shot at that," he said.

Cheney spent most of his speech, and during the questions and answers that followed, defending the Bush administration's wartime policies.

He said that the jail at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba was necessary because its prisoners are too dangerous to be held elsewhere.

"If you don't have a place where you can hold these people, the only other option is to kill them, and we don't operate that way," he said.

The 240 prisoners left at Guantanamo, he said, are "the worst of the worst" — including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Muhammed_ who would gladly become suicide bombers to kill more Americans.

Cheney said if the jail had not existed, captured terrorists would have had to have been brought to the United States where they would have legal rights denied to them at Guantanamo. He did not address why the prisoners could not have been held at U.S. military jails in war zones like Afghanistan and Iraq, where some newly captured prisoners are going now.

Cheney reiterated his challenge to President Barack Obama to release several pages of secret memos that Cheney says will prove that harsh interrogations were effective. His initial request to release the memos was turned down last month because the documents are the subject of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and may be released by a court.

Cheney noted that Obama in April superseded another FOIA lawsuit to release the memos describing the CIA's harsh interrogation program, which he called "giving away the store."

Cheney also defended the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, despite faulty intelligence about its nuclear weapons program and links to the 9/11 attacks. He asserted that Saddam Hussein could have helped terrorists acquire nuclear weapons. The U.S. government could find no evidence of an active Iraq nuclear weapons program after the invasion.

More than 4,300 U.S. service members have died in Iraq, with more than 30,000 wounded. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the 6-year-old war that has cost the United States about $675 billion so far, according to the National Priorities Project.

Cheney is writing a memoir about his years in government, which he said will highlight the successes of the policies set in place after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

One might almost call him progressive. But then again, state-by-state...

[Darth Wong]

If someone says "I think slavery should be abolished, but the states should be allowed to make their own decision", he's actually saying that he does not think slavery should be abolished. It's like saying "I think you should not be allowed to drink and drive, but I won't impose that on you." If someone says that, he is actually saying "I will allow you to drink and drive".

Are there any anti-abortion activists who say "I think abortion should be outlawed, but let the states decide for themselves?" Not one, because they all know what it mean to "let the states decide"; it means you have no intention of outlawing it.

This is a transparent dodge to avoid the accusation of bigotry without overly offending the Christofascists. Mind you, for a Republican that is progressive.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

With an openly Lesbian daughter, I'm not surprised. I suspect the 'State-by-state' thing is just to prevent the Bible-Thumping audiences that currently pay him enormous sums to give his penguin-speak lectures from turning on him like a pack of Hyenas. Besides, if he did proclaim himself as staunchly pro-Equal Marriage on a federal level, he'd be visible as being further to the Left on this issue than Barack Obama, which is something he doesn't want both for publicity and legacy reasons. Right now, the only thing Cheney seems to be interested in doing for the viewing public is defending his record and his legacy as best he is able, however loathsome that goal is compared to using his visibility to campaign for civil rights.

But this is just another illustration of the divide between the Neo-Cons and the RR crowd. Cheney is a fascist, but he's a wholely secular fascist rather than a delusional one.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I don't know, I think knowing what we know of Cheney, he's quite happy that his daughter could, say move to New York City by sometime next year and get married, but at the same time he wants to make sure that the Republican party can keep opposing gay marriage in the Heartland so that the mouth-breathers will keep turning out to protect Baby Jesus from the homos. This kind of hypocrisy is exactly the same sort of thing Lord Oskuro mentioned in the abortion thread, about the rich in Spain, back in the day when abortion was illegal there, sending their daughters to France for an abortion to preserve the family honour when they were married out of wedlock, and opposing it in their home country. Rich conservatives can take advantage of the liberal centers on the coast for their own family members who are queer, while continuing to oppress poor queers throughout the heartland. What's not to love when you're Dick Cheney?

[CmdrWilkens]

If someone says "I think slavery should be abolished, but the states should be allowed to make their own decision", he's actually saying that he does not think slavery should be abolished.

Well he is but you read about the abolition era and the concept of state-by state compensated emancipation was considered all the rage by the Lincoln wing of the Republican party (the moderates as it were). Certianly today we wouldn't take "state by state" to mean such but when slavery was an actual issue the concept of gradual state level decision making on slavery was widely viewed as moderately progressive. It was an era before the commerce clause grew to allow the Feds to do anything they wanted when the authority of the State Governments was still seen as the principal force in terms of ending slavery.

So yeah in today's parlance "state by state" certainly suggests the desire to keep the status quo and yet even now I think its more moderate than you realize because its a statement made after at least 5 states have begun or have already been allowing homosexual couples to marry. I think its horribly hypocritical for the arch prophet of the "Unitary Executie" to be preaching state's rights but I don't see it as bigoted.