Press Shut Out on Cheney's Mideast Trip

[Rose Siding]

Not that Cheney-less news cycles aren't enjoyable, because they really really are, but I did notice that not much was made of his last trip. It was the conclusion of his earlier, more widely publicized one, that he cut short to cast the tie breaking Senate vote against the old, young, poor and infirm.

The characteristically thorough Knight Ridder reported on the lack of transparency surrounding the trip:

Over the course of about 62 hours on the road, the vice president appeared in public for all of about 30 minutes. His only public comments were brief pleasantries with foreign leaders at photo-ops or airport arrival ceremonies.

Other government officials, including previous vice presidents, often viewed foreign trips as a chance to promote administration policies or themselves. Not Cheney. He declined to talk on the record to the handful of reporters on Air Force 2 or to provide any details of his conversations. When a senior official finally briefed reporters on the flight home about what had happened in Cheney's meetings, he did so on condition he not be identified, then said nothing revealing anyway.

So traveling halfway round the world with America's vice president on an important diplomatic mission yielded this alone to public view: Cheney shaking hands and bantering with his hosts.

One reporter tried to squeeze in a question at the end of a long day. The response? "Cheney cut the question off. 'This is a photo op,' he said, as aides hustled reporters out of the room."

In Kuwait, Vee "Five Deferment" Pee basked in adulation:

"The liberation of Kuwait was directly linked to you, Mr. Vice President," Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, the Kuwaiti prime minister, told Cheney. "You were secretary of defense."
"Well, we did it together as allies," Cheney replied.

*shiver*

During the trip before this one, there were a number of stories about the conditions on the trip - Bumiller in the Times even wrote about Cheney using a reporter's outlet on the plane to charge his Ipod, remember? And in Afghanistan, his traveling party was searched before they could enter Karzai's palace.

Could this New Level of Access be payback for coverage that the WH didn't like?


This was at a private photo op - Mubarak wouldn't be seen with the Dickster in public.

Notice his shoe? One of the first things friends have told me about travel in the ME is to never expose the bottom of your shoe - It is considered disrespectful. Has anyone else heard that?

Maybe it has to do with the foot problem we've heard about. He only holds it this way in some of the series of shots found on Yahoo. The shoes look beat up in all the shots.

[Stephanie]

1. The shoes are almost as bad as the snow jacket.

That's shocking. He just doesn't give a fuck. Could not care less.

[msatty99]

2. Cheney says "f" you to press..public

and, yeah, the shoe...well, it is actually disrespectful to
anyone to show them the bottom of your shoe. But, especially in
the arab world.

but what is up with those brown ugly shoes anyway, can't our
Halliburton Man afford good shoes? Damn.

[f-bush]

3. Why are we suprised

the asshole just crawled out from under his rock and certainly doesn't want to be bother with the glaring light of questions.

[Dunvegan]

4. Showing the bottom of your foot in Arabic countries is known to be rude

Showing the Sole of Your Foot or Shoe

If you sit with your legs crossed, letting the ankle of one leg rest on the knee of the other, you expose the sole of your foot (or shoe)to others.

People in Thailand,Burma,the Middle East,and the Islamic States of the former Soviet Union consider such an action extremely offensive.The bottom of the foot is a dirty and lowly part of the body,so they believe it should not be shown in polite company.

Also placing the foot on an image is a high-insult...because Saddam was non-Islamic for the most part, he wasn't worried about the Islamic ban on images of humans.

Here's a picture of a worker polishing the mosaic of a grimacing George Bush at the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad. A mosaic in one of the city's best hotels, it was one of Saddam's favorite insults to Bush.

[EFerrari]

8. I don't know why, but this is making me

laugh out loud.

Look at that jaw!

:rofl:

[Cleita]

5. The shoe looks like a bad animation to me.

Just mentioning it.

[Virginian]

6. He was in Egypt the day the OBL tape showed up there.

I caught it on the scroll on the bottom of MSNBC or CNN that he was in the Egyptian capitol... and that same day, just an hour or so later I heard about the new OBL tape. Coincicence?

What is he doing with all his Haliburton money if he can't even get a proper pair of black shoes to wear with his suits. I'm sure Rockport makes some that would fit nicely and look a lot better than what he is wearing.

[msatty99]

7. Is the VP stroking it?

My gawd..look at that left hand...he looks like he's
really working it over...JEESH