North Korea would be over in a matter of weeks not months

The man who told us Iraq would only last a matter of weeks, that it had something to do with 9/11 and the invasion was "sound policy", attended one of his infamous GOP leadership meetings where he told his fellow Bushies that we are in deep doo-doo in regards to North Korea.

Why this guy is allowed to speak about American foreign policy ever again is a travesty for human life.

Hey, remember that time we went to war with the army we had---not the army we might want or wish to have at a later time

Kennedy School of Government at Harvard places the all-in costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the $4 trillion to $6 trillion range when all is said and done with "the largest portion of that bill is yet to be paid."  Yep, the smartest thing George Bush ever did was invade Iraq.

So how does a very fiscally responsible, very conservative administration embark on such policy?  Easy answer.  They told the public that the war would cost $50 billion and "go relatively quickly. Weeks rather than months."-- Dick Cheney, March 16, 2003.

That it would largely pay for itself  "from oil revenues, recovered assets, international trade, direct foreign investment…”  -- Donald Rumsfeld, March 27, 2003.

That Iraq was a country that could "really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 27, 2003.

It would be a "cakewalk."  That's what we were told.  That's what we were led to believe.  Nothing they told us turned out to be true.  Every bit of it was a lie told by madmen with a psychopathic hunger for war.  Yet the one thing we can never ever do in America is call the people who instituted this policy fiscally irresponsible and big government spenders.  Oh no, that label is solely reserved for Democrats or people who oppose the Very Serious, Very Fiscally Prudent, Very Conservative GOP.  That's just how it is.

Go F' Yourself Cheney

One of the most unpopular men in American history, who can't get enough Glorious War on his Fox News teevee set, and who co-presided over one of the most despicable and lawless administrations since Richard Nixon, says President Obama should apologize to the Bushies.

"I think it was a very good strike. I think it was justified," Cheney told CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union." But "I'm waiting for the administration to go back and correct something they said two years ago when they criticized us for 'overreacting' to the events of 9/11."

The Obama administration has "clearly ... moved in the direction of taking robust action when they feel it is justified," Cheney said.

Not that there's any chance in the world the current president will apologize to George Bush or anyone who worked for him, it's clear Cheney still has no grasp of reality.

Like Steve Benen notes, President Obama never said in his Cairo Speech the Bushies overreacted to 9/11.  No where in the speech can you even find that word.  While we are focusing on facts, if invading a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 isn't "overreacting" then what is?

Let's also be clear, too, on the second part of Cheney's complaint that Obama has "clearly...moved in the direction of taking robust action when they feel it is justified."  OF COURSE THEY HAVE.  But let's be clear, President Obama took "robust action" on al Qaeda, the people responsible for 9/11, and not a man and a country that had nothing to do with it.

Obama has been robust at Bush's failures.  He's tracked down and killed bin Laden.  He put the focus back onto the people responsible for attacking us.  And he's been quite successful at all of it.  Way more successful than I ever thought he would be.

By all means, if the president is going to be robust then be robust competently.  Forgetting about bin Laden and his organization and turning your attention to Iraq is not robust action.  It's criminal stupidity.

The Bush administration is criticized precisely because they took robust action on the wrong people.  Had Bush not invaded Iraq and sent America into a downward spiral, then criticism for his other activities would have been on the same level of as what the current president is receiving.  But invading Iraq did more than just make Cheney and George W. even richer.  It opened them up to criticism on everything, robust or not.

Everything We Did Was Exactly Right

The legacy of the Bush Administration is one of abject failure. No two-term president in American history has ever presided over so much incompetent deficiency.  But to the madmen that made it all possible, and the Tea Bagging Republicans who hope to return us to the Days of Bush, everything about that era was perfect.

As a matter of record, George Bush presided over the single largest monetary loss in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. He is the only president-- other than Herbert Hoover-- with a Dow lower than when he entered office.  GDP growth during his 8 years is the worst for any president since the invention of numbers.  By the time his 2009 budget ended, he had added more to the national debt than any president in history (over $5 trillion).  On the day he left office, he turned over to his successor the largest budget deficit in world history, $1.29 trillion.  Six million people were added to the poverty ranks and over 8 million Americans lost their insurance during his reign.  Wages took their sharpest loss since the Great Depression and the unemployment rate almost doubled from 4.2% when he took office to 7.6% when he finally ended his 8 year demolition of America.

A complete and utter failure to say the least.  Yet all of that doesn't even begin to touch upon his Endless War Program or the fact that every single piece of legislation passed by his GOP-controlled Congress and signed by him was completely unfunded.  His Medicare expansion adds nearly a trillion dollars to the deficit.  And his wars are well above the trillion dollar mark and counting.  His legacy is of nothing but a tax and spend Big Government failure.  It is the epitome of everything Republicans pretend to be against.  Of course, as we all know, despite what they claim to stand for, it's the only track record they have.

As one would imagine from such a decrepit and morally bankrupt presidency, they have no regrets.  In fact, everything they did was "exactly the right decisions."

*Update:

Reader M.L. writes in to explain why Cheney and the other Bushies aren't sorry or claim any sort of responsibility for anything.

Why on earth would you think Cheney or anyone from Shrub era would be apologetic or even the slightest bit concerned about some of the decisions they made?  You, more than anyone, should know why Cheney doesn't care.  Or why Bush has yet to even be held accountable by the GOP which appears on the verge of nominating Bush On Steroids with Rick Perry.  It's because none of it ever happened!!!  It's down the memory hole!

True enough.  I should have known better.  That George Bush doubled the unemployment rate.  That George Bush, a small government fiscal conservative, added over $5 trillion to the national debt and grew government larger than any president in 80 years.  That Bush and the GOP did not pay for one single spending bill in 8 years.  That the fiscally responsible Republican-led George Bush was the first president since the Great Depression to have the Dow actually lose money during their watch never happened.  None it ever happened.

The fact that Cheney has no regrets is perfectly normal to a Republican.  What has he to regret?  The deficit never happened until Obama took over.  The national debt was completely manageable until Barack Hussein Obama started adding to it.  According to Fox News unemployment was at 5.6% when Bush left office. Iraq and Afghanistan are merely Obama's problems.  And the fact that George Bush added not one single new job in 8 years is but a side note of history when you consider he kept us safe.

We are never allowed to bring up anything that actually might have occurred.  Therefore, it's entirely possible Cheney and Bush made the right decision about everything.  Actually, there is no other conclusion.

Democracy Brought

Along with everything that is great and good in the world, it's all because George Bush and his decision to invade Iraq.  This is an important lesson not just for life.  But also if you want to be taken seriously in American politics.

"Sound policy" in America is an almost 10 year war that was raged merely for spite led by a bunch of madmen with hard-ons for other people doing the fighting.  It is a war that has cost almost a trillion dollars, thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of foreign lives; not to mention, not one thing the Bushies ever told us about it has turned out to be true.  But this is "sound policy" as dictated to us by our small government fiscal conservatives.

It's also, according to Cheney and the other madmen who ordered it and the thousands who continue to cheer it on, purely responsible for democratic uprisings in other Arab countries.  Despite Iraq not being a democracy or even remotely close to anything desirable enough to emulate by any country in the world (just this week over 100 people were blown up in streets), the Bushies continue to insist all the credit for all the good is directly because of the Glorious War and their Super Patriotism.

Meanwhile, no one questions it...

Cheney Calls Iraq War "Sound Policy"

War cheerleader and Chickenhawk with five deferments from serving in the military during time of war, Dick Cheney, has been making the rounds on our nation's airwaves with complete immunity the last couple of days to tout his new book and brag about Iraq.

This morning he went on NBC's Today show where he tried once again to rewrite history and claimed the invasion of Iraq was sound policy.

“I just don’t believe that. I think the critics at home want to argue that. In fact, I think it was sound policy that dealt with a very serious problem and eliminated Saddam Hussein from the kind of problem he presented before.”

Ahhhhh yes, sound policy.  After nearly a decade, thousands of American lives later, a trillion dollars without raising a single penny to pay for it, it's all sound policy to the War Cheerleaders. He's a sick man.  The disaster him and the Bushies did to this country will take decades to correct.

Quickies

• Karl Rove practically gets pulled from a Fox News interview for dissing Fox News employee and probable presidential candidate Sarah Palin. During his tirade about Palin having thin skin, Fox abruptly switches to Breaking News Alert that Steve Jobs was stepping down as Apple CEO. Too bad the Jobs story broke hours prior and had already been reported by Fox News.

• Tea Baggers newest Freedom Fighting venture?  Banning books!  More specifically, books that don't adhere to Biblical principles.  How's that for Freedom!

• Excellent read in the Times from David Cambell and Robert Putnam highlighting data from 2006 showing Tea Baggers were present then just under another name: Republicans.  Their study also casts doubts on Tea Bagger movement being something of a grassroots phenomena by demonstrating people who identify themselves as Tea Baggers have always been highly active Republicans and did not magically appear on the scene in 2009.  They've always been political participants, just with a new name.

• As regular readers will recall, I've been saying the very same things Cambell and Putnam are now quantitatively measuring.  Tea Baggers are not independents.  They are not a movement of people just now entering the political fray.  They are Republicans.  They have always been present but were quiet during the 8 years of George Bush, not because they loved his policies, but simply because he was a Republican-- and seemingly that is all they care about.  You can search The Fold Blog's archives all day long and see since day one I have been on a mission to get the media to quit treating Tea Baggers as an outside group when they are in every way, shape and form Republicans.

• Former VP Big Dick Cheney urged President Bush to bomb Syria in 2007.   He also kept a resignation letter handy just in case. 

Cheney is Ineptitude at its Finest

I see Dick Cheney cannot resist to abandon all forms of moral decency and once again attack the President of the United States. At a time like this, it's important to understand that Dick Cheney is the epitome of a pussy. There is nothing in his past, present or definitely his future that resembles any act of courage, toughness or service to this country.

During prime fighting age, when his country needed him most, Dick Cheney ran and hid receiving 5 deferments from combat service in Vietnam. In fact, his last deferment granted because of a dependent child, came 9 months 2 days after the announcement that men with children would not be called up.

This is a man that has never seen an ounce of combat in his entire life who clearly went out of his way to avoid serving his country that is now determined to ridicule people about war and doing what's necessary to defeat an enemy. It's absolutely something he knows nothing about. Unless Dick Cheney can watch war on his Fox News teevee set, he runs and hides. Only when he's allowed to pretend that his life is full of courageous moments of enemy fighting, war waging patriotism can he even possibly be considered an authority on war and sacrifice.

Politically speaking, this is a man that began his career under disgraced president Richard Nixon, and the incompetent Donald Rumsfeld, two of the most embarrassing and hated men in America. Only in Republican circles can someone who owes his entire career to a crook and a war criminal be considered a tough guy patriot. Furthermore, while serving in Congress, Cheney constantly argued for the supreme authority of the president to do how he pleases when it comes to matters of national security. He even argued Congress had no authority over the president when it came to national interests. As Vice President, Cheney argued numerous times disagreeing with the supreme power of the President only aided our enemies and that having a national debate about the president doing the right thing is "the biggest problem," and "biggest threat" we face as a nation. Totally crazy, lunatic stuff!! Criticism or questioning the President of the United States meant acting un-American, putting the nation in harms way and was a serious threat to all of us. Of course that's only when Republicans are in the White House.

Nonetheless, here is a guy that is as cowardly as any human being has ever been, that has made his entire career out of questioning the patriotism of people who did not agree with him. Everything he says is a contradiction to how he has actually lived his life. He raised his entire family off the government-- actually, he started a family because of the government-- ran and hid when his country called him to service and has spent the better part of 40 years demanding that people not do what he does, only what he says. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the leading voice of opposition against the current president is a crackpot politician that thrives when people avoid reality.

The Dementia Continues...pretty much unabated

In a matter of two days with just a couple of posts on a lowly blog, we've visibly seen just how sickening the GOP really is. They intend to move full speed ahead on washing out any history whatsoever of their track record of actually governing this country.

First is the "purity test" some in the RNC want candidates to swear to before they are backed by the national party for election. It's a test that not one single Republican candidate or president of the last 30+ years could ever pass. But never mind any of that. Historical facts are for the weak. In the Republican Fantasy World you just have to be able to swear your allegiance to small government, fiscal responsibility, moral values conservatism even if you don't really mean it. To them, it's all about saying the right things.

Next we have Bush's former spokeswoman ignorantly declaring on Fox News that terrorist attacks didn't happen on Bush's term. That's just not true. Not true in the least bit.

We easily see, just from those two items alone, that Republicans want to be able to pretend that they are conservative and keep us safe. The reality is the worst fiscal management of this country took place under Republican rule and the worst terrorist attack in history took place under Republican rule. Not only are they fiscally irresponsible, they are weak on national security. But they lie continuously about their conservative credentials and their governance. It's what they do. And the media largely allows them to do it; hence no correction from Fox about Perino's lie.

Today, with a third post, we have yet more historically applied dementia from the GOP. In an interview with the web-based Politico, former VP Dick Cheney exempted the Bush administration from any responsibility for the current condition of Afghanistan.

Cheney was asked if he thinks the Bush administration bears any responsibility for the disintegration of Afghanistan because of the attention and resources that were diverted to Iraq. "I basically don't," he replied without elaborating.

Now, only a very sick person could think the Bush administration bears no responsibility for Afghanistan and the current president's reaction to it. Only someone in a comma the last 8 years could ever believe such a thing. The Bush administration turned over to a new president a country at war on two fronts; a country on the brink of financial collapse; a country as poorly mismanaged as any in human history and they believe not one ounce of responsibility falls on them for it. Just to be sure, just soes we all understand, never has an elected president ever inherited two ongoing wars tripled by an economic collapse in the history of America. That's just how bad things really are and were.

Just like with Perino's falsification of history, and the RNC's "unity test," Cheney too wants people to believe that it was only after Bush left office did things turn bad in Afghanistan. Never mind the fact the Bush administration dithered for 8 years in that country and turned our attention and resources toward a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. None of that ever happened in their world. It was only a few months ago did any thing of substance really happen to create the crisis we have today. Of course Cheney and the Bushies know none of that is true. They just want enough people to believe their lies in hopes to muddy the water up just enough to make people believe everything is someone elses fault firmly relinquishing them from any responsibility for the worst presidency in modern American history. It takes a very sick people to be able to pull this off and Republicans have no qualms about seeing it through.

*Update:

Andrew Sullivan makes a good point here. The Politico interview with Cheney is a perfect example of the media acting as Bush-enablers. No follow up question, no journalistic notion to question a word Cheney says. Mike Allen at the Politico merely acts as the mouthpiece for Dick Cheney and his lies. Bush-enablers yes they are.

Fundamentally Sick

The man with 5 deferments from combat in Vietnam who had his political coming out party with Richard Nixon, Big Dick Cheney, gets to say on drug addicted right wing radio President Obama bowing on his recent Asia trip is "fundamentally harmful," a "sign of weakness," and "very upsetting." This is a guy who was co-charge of the last 8 years of fundamental American collapse around the world. Two on-going, endless wars that nearly destroyed the country only to be brought back from the brink by the current president and the coward Dick Cheney, just like all Republicans, gets to enjoy no responsibility for how bad they failed. It's really sickening.

Still waiting on word from Cheney if kissing and holding hands with the world's largest sponsor of terrorism is wrong.

They Had Their Chance and They Failed

The perplexities of what's going on in Afghanistan and how to move forward almost always escapes popular discourse. I think there's room for plenty of opinions on the subject and I'm by no means an expert in the field of waging war. What I do know is that if you are going to try as best as possible to do the right thing to achieve the best possible outcome, the last thing you would want to do is listen to the people who are responsible for the mess in the first place.

If someone built you a house and it began caving in all around you would you go back to that person and ask them the best way to fix it? No, you would find someone else to make things right. And then you would sue the hind end off the moron that screwed you over.

Now I know "responsible" is a major word for Republicans and easily evaded, but it doesn't require genius IQ to realize the people with the least amount of credibility on the subject of Afghanistan are the Bushies. Why Dick Cheney would think his opinion would even matter is a great question to ask the remaining 20% of voters who still identify themselves as Republican.

For 8 years the Bush administration "dithered" in Afghanistan while they deployed 150,000 troops to go fight somewhere else. When in 2008, after 7 years of war, Gen. David D. McKiernan requested more troops so he could better wage that war, the Bush administration denied it. Looking now toward George Bush or Dick Cheney for answers on how to resolve the situation would be like asking Hoover what's the best way to deal with a Depression. It's not necessarily their ego that confounds the situation, it's that they were entirely wrong about all of it.

Get Real

Watching the right wing drool over Super Tough guy and very masculine Dick Cheney tell us all how he kept America safe, it's worth noting that EVERY PRESIDENT HAS KEPT US SAFE!

Even Madison who faced actual invasion, eventually kept the country safe. The only president that suffered foreign mass casualty attacks on American soil was George W. Bush. There's no reason to let them get away with this.

*Update:

Last November American voters had a referendum on foreign policy. The choices were clear. Did they want to continue the Bush/Cheney era of foreign policy or a new approach led by Barack Obama. The voters overwhelmingly selected Obama. Maybe that doesn't mean anything to the MSM right now, but surely Cheney's track record of being wrong has to account for something.

President Obama's press secretary sure thinks so.

Times That Don't Try Men's Souls

It's beyond any sort of human comprehension that someone with 5 deferments from military service, who got his political start by working for Richard Nixon, and has been so wrong on so many issues over the last 8 years, is considered by the MSM as a tough guy, Super Patriot whose every word should be the guiding light of our country.

Just Like Yesterday

Liz Cheney, daughter (not the gay one) of Super Tough Guy Dick Cheney, says those who oppose her father's administration-- ultimately those who oppose Republican Rule-- are "angry" and "un-American."



Actually, what would be un-American is to insist that a presidential administration can't be held to the Constitution, which is exactly what the Bushies have said since 2001. The world is so relieved these people aren't in power anymore.

Different Standards Still Apply

With Friday's revelation that former veep Dick Cheney gave very direct orders to the CIA to conceal from Congress a massive government surveillance program, it again highlights the total hypocrisy from Republicans concerning federal power when they are in office. Below I wrote about presidential appointment of "czars" and Republicans crying like little babies when Obama does it. Today we have Republicans shrugging shoulders at this newest revelation of very extreme power grabs by the Bush administration.

Here's Senator Kyl (R-AZ) saying that if it's a top secret program then it's okay to hide it from Congress. I couldn't imagine if it was Barack Obama hiding top secret spying programs from Congress what Sen. Kyl would be saying. Obama publicly and openly appoints people to run certain policy directives and Repubs claim he's trying to avoid Congressional oversight and using it as a power grab. But the Bushies can intentionally hide from Congress a massive spying program and Repubs shrug their shoulders.

It's the same no matter the subject. When Democrats commit acts of immorality it proves they are unfit and should be removed from office. When Republicans do the exact same thing they merely pray to God and give Bible quotes as to why they don't have to resign. When Bush appoints more "czars" then any president in history, it's perfectly normal. When Obama does it, it's proof he's a socialist dictator. When Republicans are in power there isn't anything they can do that should be criticized.

It's all so redundantly stupid but the real point in all of this is that Congress has oversight of the CIA. Even if it's a "top secret" program, Congress has OVERSIGHT. It doesn't matter what Sen. Kyl may think, the president or vice president cannot order it concealed from Congress. That's the whole point.

Liz Cheney Still Can't Tell the Truth

Against the grain of the Republican Fantasy World, Big Dick Cheney announced last week that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. That's a startling admission for a War Cheerleader like Cheney. Those of us in the reality-based community have known for quite some time there was never a connection, it was; however, the first time the Republican Fantasy World had ever been targeted with such talk. But his daughter Liz (not the gay one) had to take it a step further Thursday and reassure the Republican Fantasy World despite her father's admission, he never in the first place said there was a connection. Aaaahhh..that's how Fantasy World inhabitants reckon the two versions of our Blessed War in Iraq, I see.


Too bad that's a lie.

Here's Cheney in 2003 making all kinds of assertions to Tim Russert about a connection between Iraq and 9/11.

I can remember you asking me this question just a few days after the original attack. At the time I said no, we didn't have any evidence of that. Subsequent to that, we've learned a couple of things. We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s, that it involved training, for example, on BW and CW, that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained on the systems that are involved. The Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the al-Qaeda organization.

Here's Cheney once again making the claim that there were connections between Iraq and 9/11. And here's a ton of statements by both Bush and Cheney linking the attacks of 9/11 with Iraq.

Why do we have to keep going over this? Iraq was a war of choice launched by a bunch of madmen who did nothing but spread lies and fear to an entire nation. They wanted this war and now they want no responsibility for it. They are a sick lot right to their core.

Hand Holding and Reality

Liz Cheney says Obama's policies equate to holding hands with terrorists.

“I think that if we lived in a world where terrorism, and the slaughter of innocents, and Iran’s hegemonic hopes for the Middle East could be met, could be defeated, could be dealt with by sort of hand-holding going forward, then we’d be in a much simpler environment.

Really? Liz, maybe you should have paid attention to your father's administration and its policy toward holding hands with terrorists.

There is no country with more ties to terrorism than Saudi Arabia-- home to 15 of the 19 hijackers. They say stupidity is genetically inherited. The Cheney's are the missing genetic link.

Cheney Admits Iraq Had Nothing To Do With 9/11

Big Dick Cheney, the man with five deferments from combat during Vietnam, admitted today that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 but that invading Iraq in 2003 was still the right thing to do because Iraq had ties to other terrorism.

"I do not believe and have never seen any evidence to confirm that [Hussein] was involved in 9/11. We had that reporting for a while, [but] eventually it turned out not to be true," Cheney conceded.

A co-conspirator in the invasion, Cheney had not the courage to go and fight when his country drafted him five different times, but had no qualms about ordering an invasion of a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 for other people to go fight. Cheney should have been this forthcoming in 2003 because the intelligence was surely there then too.

Other ties to terrorism is hardly reason for invasion. There is no country on the face of this planet with greater ties to terrorism than Saudi Arabia. It's home to 15 of the 19 hijackers and home to bin Laden, the person actually responsible for the 9/11 attacks. So why didn't we invade Saudia Arabia Mr. Cheney? Seriously, according to your revisionist history, ties to terrorism warrants invasion. There are no greater ties than the Saudis.

Cheney Still Tries to Link Iraq with al Qaeda

In his speech Big Dick Cheney still can't get past the fact Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Cheney also tries to make the case that torture was rare, only happened to three men and provided valuable intelligence. That's just not the case at all.

How possibly can the Party of "moral values" really claim torture should be part of the American justice system?

This is an easy one to decipher. Dick Cheney was an integral part of the last 8 years of miserable failure. He was one of the main driving forces for invading Iraq and diverting attention away from the country actually responsible for 9/11. He is almost single handily responsible for two ongoing endless wars and the worst financial crisis in 80 years. Only George Bush bears more responsibility than Cheney. Not one thing Cheney has told us about Iraq, Afghanistan or America has been true in the last 8 years. Hilariously the guy co-responsible for all that has wrought our country to its knees still insists Iraq had something to do with 9/11, that torture is great as a state-sanctioned policy and that anyone who disagrees is only helping the terrorists.

He's an embarrassment to our country.

Speaking Duel

I'm all for the speaking duel supposedly prepped for today by the MSM. Dick Cheney is a has been. Together with George Bush he helped create some of the worst 8 combined years in American history. His thesis today will be that we should continue the American internment camp at Gitmo, that state-sanctioned torture is a wonderful thing and Forever War against evildoers is our only course of action. All this from a draft-dodger who did his very best to avoid military service for his country.

*Update:

Full text of Obama's speech here.

Highlight reference:

As our efforts to close Guantanamo move forward, I know that the politics in Congress will be difficult. These issues are fodder for 30-second commercials and direct mail pieces that are designed to frighten. I get it. But if we continue to make decisions from within a climate of fear, we will make more mistakes. And if we refuse to deal with these issues today, then I guarantee you that they will be an albatross around our efforts to combat terrorism in the future.

I have confidence that the American people are more interested in doing what is right to protect this country than in political posturing. I am not the only person in this city who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution - so did each and every member of Congress. Together we have a responsibility to enlist our values in the effort to secure our people, and to leave behind the legacy that makes it easier for future Presidents to keep this country safe.