Dick Cheney Didn't Regret His Vote Against Freeing The Terrorist Nelson Mandela

[Nbadan]

In 1986, Nelson Mandela -- the former president of South Africa who died Thursday at the age of 95 -- was serving the 23rd year of what would ultimately be a 27-year prison sentence. The Western world was finally acknowledging the true horrors of Apartheid, a system of racial segregation that denied basic rights to blacks -- including citizenship and the right to vote -- and brutally oppressed a generation of South Africans fighting for equality.

In the U.S. Congress, lawmakers were ready to show their opposition to the South African regime with the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, a bill that imposed tough sanctions and travel restrictions on the nation and its leaders, and called for the repeal of apartheid laws and release of political prisoners like Mandela, then leader of the African National Congress (ANC).

The measure passed with bipartisan support, despite strong and largely Republican opposition. President Ronald Reagan was among those most opposed to the bill, and when he finally vetoed the measure over its support of the ANC, which he maintained was a "terrorist organization," it took another vote by Congress to override it. Among the Republicans who repeatedly voted against the measure was future Vice President Dick Cheney, then a Republican congressman from Wyoming.

Cheney's staunch resistance to the Anti-Apartheid Act arose as an issue during his future campaigns on the presidential ticket, but the Wyoming Republican has never said he regretted voting the way he did. In fact, in 2000, he maintained that he'd made the right decision. ...........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/dick-cheney-nelson-mandela-terrorist_n_4394071.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

Ironic huh?

[Nbadan]

As found on Ted Cruz facebook page....


Senator Ted Cruz · 504,360 like this
7 hours ago ·

Nelson Mandela will live in history as an inspiration for defenders of liberty around the globe. He stood firm for decades on the principle that until all South Africans enjoyed equal liberties he would not leave prison himself, declaring in his autobiography, 'Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.' Because of his epic fight against injustice, an entire nation is now free.

We mourn his loss and offer our condolences to his family and the people of South Africa.

Comments from Cruz supporting tea-baggers..


Wanda W. Rossman Sen Cruz, you need to study your history. He was a glorified terrorist!


Nelson Mandela was a socialist terrorizer of white Africans, hated Capitalism and didn't think commoners had a right to private property, and thought government should control and distribute wealth...


Brice Key He was a convicted terrorist and a leader in the Communist Party. . .good grief Ted!!!!!


Rodney Langley He was a mass murdering communist. How is that a "defender of liberty"?


Dean Isaacson Ted - I disagree - Nelson Mandella destroyed a prosperous nation. Certainly, you may honor him for ridding the nation of apartheid, though you cannot honor the killings and intimidations he used to accomplish this. But he destroyed the economy and he impoverished those he "set free."


David Dean You just lost my vote Ted. He was a communist.


Korey Cocking I'm confused. Why are we commemorating and mourning a hateful murderer?!

Disgusting...

https://www.facebook.com/SenatorTedCruz/posts/468367399942232

[lefty]

God Bless Mandela

:worthy:

He did the right thing by killinjg those assholes

[Winehole23]

Disgusting...

https://www.facebook.com/SenatorTedCruz/posts/468367399942232That Ted Cruz feigns political correctness, or that his supporters don't?

[boutons_deux]

That Ted Cruz feigns political correctness, or that his supporters don't?

both

dickhead is immoral, unethical The Ultimate Establishment player who never admits any mistakes, Mandela was The Ultimate Anti-Establishment.

[The Reckoning]

http://thebackbencher.co.uk/3-things-you-didnt-want-to-know-about-nelson-mandela/

[boutons_deux]

http://thebackbencher.co.uk/3-things-you-didnt-want-to-know-about-nelson-mandela/

typical that Mandela and friends killing the English/Dutch apartheid system the English/Dutch created and exploited in colonial Zuid Afrika would piss off the English racists.

Pretty much the same way the Europeans who invaded north America and built a country with slavery and genocide don't like hear about it.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Dick has always been a dick

[scott]

lol Ted Cruz supporters

[pgardn]

As found on Ted Cruz facebook page....



Comments from Cruz supporting tea-baggers..














Disgusting...

https://www.facebook.com/SenatorTedCruz/posts/468367399942232

Actually it's disgustingly beautiful.
His followers are telling you exactly who they are.

[AntiChrist]

The thread title is very misleading -- there was no vote that could free Mandela. But, I know you just quoted huffpo.


This is more interesting

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/05/nelson-mandelas-transformation-from-terrorist-to-icon/

[AntiChrist]

And if you really wanted to "honor" the death of Mandela by shitting on the GOP, you could have at least posted something about Reagan's veto of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.

[boutons_deux]

And if you really wanted to "honor" the death of Mandela by shitting on the GOP, you could have at least posted something about Reagan's veto of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.

so much Repug racism, hard to keep track of it all.

[Winehole23]

both

dickhead is immoral, unethical The Ultimate Establishment player who never admits any mistakes, Mandela was The Ultimate Anti-Establishment.idiosyncratic capitalization, crude dualism. we've all seen it, boutons.

btw, who's dickhead?

[boutons_deux]

Newt Gingrich: Mandela’s death is ‘just another excuse for the left to smear Reagan’

Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Monday blasted MSNBC hosts and other liberals because he said that they had “used” the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela to “smear” President Ronald Reagan.

Over the weekend, conservatives had lashed out at Gingrich (http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2013/12/gingrich-addresses-backlash-on-mandela-comments-179102.html) after he praised the late South African president.

On Monday, the former House Speaker told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that he had “analyzed” why conservatives were angry about his praise of Mandela and determined that some of those people had “confused” Mandela with other members of his party — the African National Congress (ANC) — who committed violence while he was in jail for 27 years.

But Gingrich also came to the conclusion that some people had become angry at liberals who recalled Reagan’s record on apartheid after Mandela’s death.

“Some elements of the left, particularly on one news channel, went overboard in trying to use this as an excuse to attack Ronald Reagan,” Gingrich opined. “And I think people who are Reagan loyalists, who know that Reagan had condemned apartheid, Reagan had called for Mandela to be released, Reagan actually appointed the first black ambassador to South Africa whose job was to pressure the Afrikaans government.”

“This is just another excuse for the left to try to smear Reagan,” he added. “So, there’s a lot of anger on the right this opportunity being used inappropriately.”

Following his election in 1980, Reagan had changed U.S. policy (http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/06/3802416/in-ronald-reagan-era-mandela-was.html) to support the South African government, saying that America could not “abandon a country that has stood by us in every war we’ve fought, a country that is strategically essential to the free world.”

The former president later placed Mandela on the U.S. international terrorist list and vetoed economic sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid government.

“I deeply regret that Congress has seen fit to override my veto of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986,” Reagan said in a statement (http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/100286d.htm) after his veto was overridden in 1986. “Punitive sanctions, I believe, are not the best course of action; they hurt the very people they are intended to help. My hope is that these punitive sanctions do not lead to more violence and more repression.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/09/newt-gingrich-mandelas-death-is-just-another-excuse-for-the-left-to-smear-reagan/

[Winehole23]

http://www.coloringbook.com/ted-cruz-coloring-book.aspx

[Winehole23]

From the United States Congress, House Speaker John Boehner appointed a 23-member delegation, led by Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock and dominated by members of the Congressional Black Caucus, all Democrats. Their plane departed early Monday morning.


But what about the U.S. Senate? Senators could have joined the representatives on the congressional plane. But exactly one -- one -- senator will be at the Mandela memorial: Texas Republican Ted Cruz. No member of the majority Democratic or minority Republican leadership will attend. And not the Senate's only black Democrat, Cory Booker, or the Senate's only black Republican, Tim Scott.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/why-is-ted-cruz-the-only-u.s.-senator-attending-mandela-memorial/article/2540453

[boutons_deux]

http://nationalmemo.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/cheneys-mandela.jpg

[scott]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/why-is-ted-cruz-the-only-u.s.-senator-attending-mandela-memorial/article/2540453

Ted Cruz working on alienating that base!

[scott]

Here is just a sampling from Ted Cruz's Facebook Page. And this is just the first ones I grabbed. Didn't selectively pick any of them. https://www.facebook.com/SenatorTedCruz



Patty Freeman Ok Cruz! I love everything about you BUT THIS!!! This man was a murderer and hated whites. WHY do you praise him!?!
Like · Reply · 490 · 6 hours ago
46 Replies · 4 minutes ago

Jeff Gray I don't pay tribute to communists.
Like · Reply · 568 · 6 hours ago
35 Replies · 2 hours ago

Lesley Hensell Demond You've got to be kidding, Ted. He was a Communist and a terrorist. Necklacing, anyone?
Like · Reply · 110 · 6 hours ago

Roy Lovell .. a murdering communist PERIOD !!!
Like · Reply · 91 · 6 hours ago

Laura Klein Really? You too..
Like · Reply · 80 · 6 hours ago

Joe Pointe I'm with ya Laura. I'm not sure I understand attending this.
Like · 12 · 6 hours ago
Debra Babcock Mantey When our president spends $5million taxpayer dollars for this memorial trip to SAfrica while ordering US flags half staff for Mandela on the same day as Pearl Harbor, I truly question our priorities.
Like · Reply · 68 · 6 hours ago via mobile

Jeannean Green Yeah, Mandela should have picked a different day to die.
Like · 1 · 5 hours ago

Sally Houseknecht I'm sure it's costing WAY more than $5 million, he'll spend that on security alone.
Like · 4 · 5 hours ago

Stephanie Green Carlton Ted-your Canadian side is showing. You may want to have a chat with whoever takes care of your Facebook and let them know you're promoting a terrorist.

Scott B Vancel I won't mourn the death of a communist that killed thousands of people.
Like · Reply · 60 · 6 hours ago

Doreen Giles McCaul Millions Scott ..
Like · 4 · 3 hours ago

Chad Funderburgh Does it include a memorial to all those he tortured and killed. You know those who disagreed. Losing respect..
Like · Reply · 57 · 6 hours ago

Kathy Matthews Gruben What are you doing ?????!!!!!!
Has every conservative politician in America, forgotten that this man was our mortal enemy? An open and blatant Marxist and terrorist? What is going on with people in DC?
Like · Reply · 54 · 6 hours ago via mobile

Dana Harmel Cowards bowing to political correctness
Like · 11 · 6 hours ago

Jules Vader Social convention dictates that you don't speak ill of the dead....I am hoping that he is just being polite.
Like · 4 · 5 hours ago
View more replies

Stacy Himes Schochler TED!!! What are you doing? This man was a communist! you just lost a few points with me! Do your homework!
Like · Reply · 46 · 6 hours ago

Kathy Tewell Williams Goes to show just how dangerous our media is...and that anyone can be wrongly persuaded by it. Sad.
Like · 10 · 5 hours ago

Christine Sperling Big disapointment … Ted Cruz !

[Trill Clinton]

typical that Mandela and friends killing the English/Dutch apartheid system the English/Dutch created and exploited in colonial Zuid Afrika would piss off the English racists.

Pretty much the same way the Europeans who invaded north America and built a country with slavery and genocide don't like hear about it.

http://www.guiltybit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/shottas2.gif

[AntiChrist]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/world/africa/mandela-obama-bush-clinton.html?_r=0

[Dirk Oneanddoneski]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/world/africa/mandela-obama-bush-clinton.html?_r=0

even a ride on air force one has to suck when it's full of n!ggers

[angrydude]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2OMO96pfSw

[Trill Clinton]

just to piggyback off of boutons regarding newt gingrich calling out to the racists attacking madiba


------

Yesterday I issued a heartfelt and personal statement about the passing of President Nelson Mandela. I said that his family and his country would be in my prayers and Callista’s prayers.

I was surprised by the hostility and vehemence of some of the people who reacted to me saying a kind word about a unique historic figure.

So let me say to those conservatives who don’t want to honor Nelson Mandela, what would you have done?

Mandela was faced with a vicious apartheid regime that eliminated all rights for blacks and gave them no hope for the future. This was a regime which used secret police, prisons and military force to crush all efforts at seeking freedom by blacks.

What would you have done faced with that crushing government?

What would you do here in America if you had that kind of oppression?

Some of the people who are most opposed to oppression from Washington attack Mandela when he was opposed to oppression in his own country.

After years of preaching non-violence, using the political system, making his case as a defendant in court, Mandela resorted to violence against a government that was ruthless and violent in its suppression of free speech.

As Americans we celebrate the farmers at Lexington and Concord who used force to oppose British tyranny. We praise George Washington for spending eight years in the field fighting the British Army’s dictatorial assault on our freedom.

Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote and the Continental Congress adopted that “all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Doesn’t this apply to Nelson Mandela and his people?

Some conservatives say, ah, but he was a communist.

Actually Mandela was raised in a Methodist school, was a devout Christian, turned to communism in desperation only after South Africa was taken over by an extraordinarily racist government determined to eliminate all rights for blacks.

I would ask of his critics: where were some of these conservatives as allies against tyranny? Where were the masses of conservatives opposing Apartheid? In a desperate struggle against an overpowering government, you accept the allies you have just as Washington was grateful for a French monarchy helping him defeat the British.

Finally, if you had been imprisoned for 27 years, 18 of them in a cell eight foot by seven foot, how do you think you would have emerged? Would you have been angry? Would you have been bitter?

Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years in prison as an astonishingly wise, patient, and compassionate person.

He called for reconciliation among the races. He invited his prison guard to sit in the front row at his inauguration as President. In effect he said to the entire country, “If I can forgive the man who imprisoned me, surely you can forgive your neighbors.”

Far from behaving like a communist, President Mandela reassured businesses that they could invest in South Africa and grow in South Africa. He had learned that jobs come from job creators.

I was very privileged to be able to meet with President Mandela and present the Congressional Medal of Freedom. As much as any person in our lifetime he had earned our respect and our recognition.

Before you criticize him, ask yourself, what would you have done in his circumstances?

- Newt Gingrich

https://www.gingrichproductions.com/2013/12/what-would-you-have-done-nelson-mandela-and-american-conservatives/

[Dirk Oneanddoneski]

just to piggyback off of boutons regarding newt gingrich calling out to the racists attacking madiba


------

Yesterday I issued a heartfelt and personal statement about the passing of President Nelson Mandela. I said that his family and his country would be in my prayers and Callista’s prayers.

I was surprised by the hostility and vehemence of some of the people who reacted to me saying a kind word about a unique historic figure.

So let me say to those conservatives who don’t want to honor Nelson Mandela, what would you have done?

Mandela was faced with a vicious apartheid regime that eliminated all rights for blacks and gave them no hope for the future. This was a regime which used secret police, prisons and military force to crush all efforts at seeking freedom by blacks.

What would you have done faced with that crushing government?

What would you do here in America if you had that kind of oppression?

Some of the people who are most opposed to oppression from Washington attack Mandela when he was opposed to oppression in his own country.

After years of preaching non-violence, using the political system, making his case as a defendant in court, Mandela resorted to violence against a government that was ruthless and violent in its suppression of free speech.

As Americans we celebrate the farmers at Lexington and Concord who used force to oppose British tyranny. We praise George Washington for spending eight years in the field fighting the British Army’s dictatorial assault on our freedom.

Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote and the Continental Congress adopted that “all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Doesn’t this apply to Nelson Mandela and his people?

Some conservatives say, ah, but he was a communist.

Actually Mandela was raised in a Methodist school, was a devout Christian, turned to communism in desperation only after South Africa was taken over by an extraordinarily racist government determined to eliminate all rights for blacks.

I would ask of his critics: where were some of these conservatives as allies against tyranny? Where were the masses of conservatives opposing Apartheid? In a desperate struggle against an overpowering government, you accept the allies you have just as Washington was grateful for a French monarchy helping him defeat the British.

Finally, if you had been imprisoned for 27 years, 18 of them in a cell eight foot by seven foot, how do you think you would have emerged? Would you have been angry? Would you have been bitter?

Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years in prison as an astonishingly wise, patient, and compassionate person.

He called for reconciliation among the races. He invited his prison guard to sit in the front row at his inauguration as President. In effect he said to the entire country, “If I can forgive the man who imprisoned me, surely you can forgive your neighbors.”

Far from behaving like a communist, President Mandela reassured businesses that they could invest in South Africa and grow in South Africa. He had learned that jobs come from job creators.

I was very privileged to be able to meet with President Mandela and present the Congressional Medal of Freedom. As much as any person in our lifetime he had earned our respect and our recognition.

Before you criticize him, ask yourself, what would you have done in his circumstances?

- Newt Gingrich

https://www.gingrichproductions.com/2013/12/what-would-you-have-done-nelson-mandela-and-american-conservatives/


Wow I've never seen someone so clueless about South Africa

[Winehole23]

Ted Cruz working on alienating that base!Maybe he really does admire Mandela.

[Winehole23]

yearns to be held in like esteem, perhaps.

[Winehole23]

envious maybe

[TDMVPDPOY]

lol giving a country its freedom, but wont do the same for the people within ur country...

[Winehole23]

who, Ted Cruz?

[boutons_deux]

Maybe he really does admire Mandela.

Cruz' pathological egomania makes him believe he is USA's very own Mandela.

[angrydude]

http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/nelson-mandela-voter-id-getty-images-e1386713746246.jpg

Goddamn racist.

[AntiChrist]

http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/nelson-mandela-voter-id-getty-images-e1386713746246.jpg

Goddamn racist.


Why do they require ID?

[angrydude]

Why do they require ID?

They clearly still hate black people. Everyone knows voter id laws are racist.

[angrydude]

Here's a nice article on the second son of God, I mean Nelson Mandela, from workers.org

http://www.workers.org/articles/2013/12/06/statement-south-african-communist-party-nelson-mandela/


Last night, the millions of the people of South Africa, majority of whom the working class and poor, and the billions of the rest of the people the world over, lost a true revolutionary, President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Tata Madiba.

The South African Communist Party joins the people of South Africa and the world in expressing its most sincere condolences to Ms. Graca Machel and the entire Mandela family on the loss of what President Zuma correctly described as South Africa’s greatest son, Comrade Mandela.

We also wish to use this opportunity to express our solidarity with the African National Congress, an organisation that produced him and that he also served with distinction, as well as all his colleagues and comrades in our broader liberation movement. As Tata Madiba said, “It is not the kings and generals that make history but the masses of the people, the workers, the peasants. …”

The passing away of Comrade Mandela marks an end to the life of one of the greatest revolutionaries of the 20th century, who fought for freedom and against all forms of oppression in both their countries and globally. As part of the masses that make history, Comrade Mandela’s contribution in the struggle for freedom was located and steeled in the collective membership and leadership of our revolutionary national liberation movement as led by the ANC — for he was not an island. In Comrade Mandela we had a brave and courageous soldier, patriot and internationalist who, to borrow from Che Guevara, was a true revolutionary guided by great feelings of love for his people, an outstanding feature of all genuine people’s revolutionaries.

At his arrest in August 1962, Nelson Mandela was not only a member of the then underground South African Communist Party, but was also a member of our Party’s Central Committee. To us as South African communists, Comrade Mandela shall forever symbolise the monumental contribution of the SACP in our liberation struggle. The contribution of communists in the struggle to achieve the South African freedom has very few parallels in the history of our country. After his release from prison in 1990, Comrade Madiba became a great and close friend of the communists till his last days.

The one major lesson we need to learn from Mandela and his generation of leaders was their commitment to principled unity within each of our Alliance formations as well as the unity of our Alliance as a whole and that of the entire mass democratic movement. Their generation struggled to build and cement the unity of our Alliance, and we therefore owe it to the memory of Comrade Madiba to preserve the unity of our Alliance. Let those who do not understand the extent to which blood was spilt in pursuance of Alliance unity be reminded not to throw mud at the legacy and memory of the likes of Madiba by being reckless and gambling with the unity of our Alliance.

The SACP supported Madiba’s championing of national reconciliation. But national reconciliation for him never meant avoiding tackling the class and other social inequalities in our society, as some would like to make us believe today. For Madiba, national reconciliation was a platform to pursue the objective of building a more egalitarian South African society free of the scourge of racism, patriarchy and gross inequalities. And true national reconciliation shall never be achieved in a society still characterized by the yawning gap of inequalities and capitalist exploitation.

In honour of this gallant fighter, the SACP will intensify the struggle against all forms of inequality, including intensifying the struggle for socialism, as the only political and economic solution to the problems facing humanity.

For the SACP, the passing away of Madiba must give all those South Africans who had not fully embraced a democratic South Africa, and who still in one way or the other hanker to the era of white domination, a second chance to come to terms with a democratic South Africa founded on the principle of majority rule.

We call upon all South Africans to emulate his example of selflessness, sacrifice, commitment and service to his people.

[ChumpDumper]

Here's a nice article on the second son of God, I mean Nelson Mandela, from workers.org

http://www.workers.org/articles/2013/12/06/statement-south-african-communist-party-nelson-mandela/
Do you have a point?

[Winehole23]

wary to reply to direct queries. I've noticed that.