THE MAKING OF A MOVIE (NOT FOR SENSITIVE PERSONS)

WARNING WARNING WARNING Do NOT click here if (a) you are offended by the Dick Cheney Word, or (b) anyone within the range of your speakers will be offended by it, OK? We're serious. We almost didn't blog this, but judi said it would be OK.

(Thanks to Claire Martin)

Comments

[Kari]

Well now, that's some gratuitous use of the f-word if I ever heard it...heh.

[russell]

just shut the f* up and buy a f* winnie, OK?

[judith martin]

the civility of this blog, and it's related articles, has severely deteriorated.

[Dave Barry]

Also its usage of the apostrophe.

[Greg]

Dag nammit! I'm an old man! At least warn people not to have a full bladder when we click on some of this stuff! (okay, so I'm not that old. STILL!)

[whey]

Having recently starred in a reality TV show, I don't believe anything I see on television anymore. That was darned good acting.

[judi]

"well turn the f*ing thing off, you dumb *ss. man, i'd like to kick your f*ing head in."

judi, aka winnebago woman, which wbagnfsomething

[Rick]

I think I've worked with that guy.

[kay]

Aaack!
My ears are burning!
Are the Osbournes hiring?

[LMC]

Boy, I've seen some pointless stuff on the web, but that's right up there for pointlessness. Sheesh.

[Blogchik]

Speaking of the Dick Cheney Word- the Washington Post printed it in it's entirety. Amazing.

This led Gene Weingarten to proclaim that the Post had the NY Times beat as 'the newspaper of record.'

[Brad]

Blogchick, it must have used a lot of ink to print the Dick Cheney word in its (note, no apostrophe) entirety!

But who exactly is that guy? He looks like Gerald McWhatsisname from Simon and Simon.

[JT]

Brad, yes, he totally did! Sounded a bit like Dabney Coleman, too.

"I don't wanna hear any bullshit from anyone, including me."

[GinRummy]

Man, that was f'ing hysterical. But it must have been a long, hot, frustrating day on that set. I wouldn't have wanted to be working around that one.

[Wally Ballou]

I gotta admit, I wasn't offended. That guy sounds like me when I am debugging code.

[D'Artagnan]

Dave, I must say, your search for a Presidential running mate has to be over. I believe you have found your f*ing man!

[Christobol]

How do I get that guy for my next special event? Is he part of a speaker's bureau?

Who could have imagined the world of cheesy winnebego salesman was so stressful!

I tell you right now, when the chips are down and I'm stuck in a trench with all the world's terrorists running towards me in their lingerie with their non-alcoholic beers and their low-fat pretzels - this is the man I want there with me.

[Jeff Meyerson]

I can't see what the f*ck he's reading either. Judi, you're my hero; your standards are good enough for me.

[Bongo]

Man, I haven't heard language like that since Parris Island. That guy could make a Marine blush!

[Lmd33]

Well, I thought that was pretty funny.

He must be a joy to have around the house. I pity his wife.

[Ross]

Directed by Quentin Terintino?

[Gregg]

Gee, that was great. Not. I wasn't offended -- but it wasn't funny, either. It's like those comedians that think that the more f-bombs they throw into their material, the funnier it will automatically be, when actually the material still sucks, f-bombs or not.

[Sean]

My stomach hurts from laughing so much!That was hilarious.If anyone has worked around incompetant
morons you'll feel his pain..What a riot.

[Brad]

Anyone remember the good old days when we just called that word "the fück word" instead of "the Dick Cheney word"? Our culture just continues to go downhill.

[Smoodle]

For the record:

It's, it is, contraction, apostrophe.
Its, possessive, no apostrophe.

If it's important to Dave, it's important to me.

Now back to your regularly scheduled Dick Chenyeness...

[Alice]

I found it hilarious - not the cussing necessarily, but his frustration, not to meniton incompetence (the guy acted like he'd never even SEEN a Winnebago before! How's he supposed to sell them?)

And whose idea was it to film in a parking lot on a hot sunny day??

[Ima Nasshat]

Why all the cute little asterisks in these weenie blog comments? I mean, if the word is "fuck" then type FUCK. Who gives a shit?

[Cletus from Cape Coral]

Check it out! A fucking casino ad! Right in the fucking middle of Dave fucking Barry's fucking blog. Hey, this is fun!

[Linda Mendleson]

Here is some news you won't get from the lying liberal stinking news media. The big secret is...Cheney is one of the greatest heros to come out of the Vietnam War!

Samuel H. Jacobsons "Dick Cheney: Americas Secret Warrior!" documents the role Vice President Dick Cheney played in American covert actions in Vietnam, beginning in 1961 when John F. Kennedy decided that if Hanoi could wage a guerilla war against the South, the U.S. could do the same in the North. Dissatisfied with the CIA's initial results, Kennedy passed responsibility for covert operations to the Pentagon. As part of that effort Dick Cheney and many other brilliant Americans were recruited.

General Westmoreland, Commander of American forces in Vietnam, vastly underestimated the imaginative ways in which underground activities could destabilize an enemy. American covert action focused on disrupting two vital "centers of gravity": the North's own internal stability and the Ho Chi Minh Trail that ran through Laos and Cambodia. Cheney was involved in the former.

Such activities ran counter to the Geneva Accords. This explains Dick Cheneys lack of concern today for the UN and World Court. Nervous diplomats placed them under severe constraints. Permission always had to be obtained from the top, which after 1964 meant an excessively cautious President Johnson, concerned that China would be goaded into intervening openly in Vietnam as it had in Korea.

Had U.S. political and military leaders backed these secret operations with less trepidation, Vietnam might well have been a success story. A revealing look at what unconventional warfare and clandestine operations can really achieve -- IF they are integrated into a cohesive warfighting strategy ...and why they will fail or backfire if prosecuted with only half-hearted support within the highest councils of our government. Samuel H. Jacobson unveils a whole new dimension to Dick Cheneys prowess at espionage, sabotage, and special operations in this page-turning history.

The creative thinking that Cheney contributed to America's secret exploits reads like a racy novel, from the adroit brainwashing and release of captured fishermen to the fabrication of a phantom secret society based on a 15th-century anti-Chinese hero, plus innumerable nasty booby traps.

Author Samuel H. Jacobson has had unusual access to prominent protagonists and to thousands of classified documents made available only to him while he researched this book. Dick Cheney: Americas Secret Warrior! clearly lays out what was achieved and what might have been achieved by covert action in Vietnam, ending with a thoughtful analysis of lessons learned for future politicians and operatives in a post-cold war world.

Review

The Washington Post Book World: An exceptional warrior...a soldier's soldier. Jacobson has written a fine and affecting biography.