Obituary: Former VP Dick Cheney

 This morning I woke up to the news that former vice president Dick Cheney, 84, had died.  He had a history of heart problems throughout his adult life, so it is surprising he lived as long as he did.  He had been a US representative from Wyoming and then was chief of staff under President Gerald  Ford.  He moved up the career ladder by taking a job with George Bush I as Secretary of Defense.  The biggest feather in his cap, however, was he became vice president under George Bush II.  Since the president had some shortcomings and wasn't all that serious, Cheney was actually the president in charge of everything.  Cheney was known for his "war on terror" ideas, and many people hated him for it.  I didn't agree with his politics, but I didn't hate him.  I save contempt for the real assholes of the world like Steven Miller, Russell Vought, Peter Thiel, and, I don't want to forget, that smarmy piece of shit Mike Johnson.

His wife, Lynne, to whom he was married for 61 years, was also prominent in the GOP and what was then called "conservative" circles.  They had two daughters, one, Liz, served in Congress herself and was a lightning rod for the insane Agent Orange in the White House since she couldn't tolerate his violations of the law and of the Constitution.  Eventually the Cheney family got sick of the MAGA nitwits in general and Trump in particular.  In return, Trump, ever the vengeful type, targeted Liz in particular.

I saw the Cheneys twice in person, both in 2004, when they campaigned for the Bush-Cheney ticket being re-elected.  The Cheneys appeared at Sparks High School on the night before the election.  I think it was almost the last stop for them in the campaign.  I took that picture of him.  I don't remember what he said that made him have the look on his face that he did, but it was one of several pictures I took.  Some time before that, he and Lynne made an appearance at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, and I got to shake hands with both of them.  Neither Cheney was tall, and I doubt Lynne was even five feet in shoes.  She is very tiny.  

Cause of death revealed

Snip about his heart problems:

Cheney survived five heart attacks during his lifetime, suffering the first one during his first congressional campaign at 37. As a congressional member, he suffered two additional heart attacks. The fourth occurred following the presidential election in 2000 as a battle ensued over who was the winning candidate.Cheney had a cardiac defibrillator implanted as vice president. 

In February 2010, he had a fifth heart attack after leaving office. Five months later, he was outfitted with a device that helped pump blood and compensate for increasing heart congestion. He underwent a heart transplant  in March 2012 and a quadruple bypass surgery in 1988.

News, Etc.

Former president Dick Cheney received a new heart to replace the one that was missing. I know that's a bad joke, but I am not the first one who has made it.

Cheney has had a history of heart trouble. He was on the transplant list for 20 months. I am actually surprised anybody would allow him to even receive a transplant given his age. He is 71 years old.
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Some atheists decided to take their grievances to D.C. this weekend.

"We are here to deliver a message to America," David Silverman, president of American Atheists, one of the rally's sponsors, told the crowd. "We are here and we will never be silent again."

Indeed, thousands came out for what organizers dubbed The Reason Rally and billed as the largest-ever gathering of nonbelievers in one place. They stood in a steady and sometimes heavy rain as speakers, singers, writers, comedians and activists charged them with channeling their common rejection of God into a force for political change.

Given most people's prejudice against nonbelievers, they probably won't get very far.
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Good idea:

Two U.S. senators are asking Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether employers asking for Facebook passwords during job interviews are violating federal law, their offices announced Sunday.

Troubled by reports of the practice, Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said they are calling on the Department of Justice and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to launch investigations. The senators are sending letters to the heads of the agencies.

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The WSWS

predictably takes a very dim view of the Obama/Cheney show of last week:

The essential continuity between these two administrations is based not on some common perception of an existential terrorist threat, but rather on the class interests that both these governments have defended and the profound contradictions of American capitalism in crisis. Neither the unprecedented social polarization and inequality that prevail within the US, nor the explosive growth of militarist violence that characterizes its role on the world stage, is compatible with democracy.

The indifference of the media to the dangers posed in the Obama-Cheney exchange only underscores the political reality that there exists no genuine constituency for the defense of democratic rights within America’s ruling establishment. The predominant sections of the ruling elite see democratic forms of rule and fundamental civil liberties as impediments to resolving the present crisis by means of war abroad and the decimation of the social conditions of the working class within the US itself.

Just Why is Anybody

paying any attention at all to Dick Cheney, let alone his remarks attacking Obama yesterday regarding torture and Guantanamo Bay?

Cheney has been at the center of an increasingly vitriolic campaign to mobilize opposition in Congress and, more ominously, among his political allies and sympathizers in the military and Central Intelligence Agency, against the Obama administration. The growing effectiveness of this campaign was reflected in the overwhelming congressional vote, on Wednesday, against Obama’s plan to close the Guantánamo prison. Bolstered by testimony from FBI director Robert Mueller III warning of the threat the prisoners would pose if transferred to prison facilities in the United States, the Senate, including most Democrats, voted against the proposed Guantánamo shutdown.

Attempting to defend the policies pursued by his administration, Obama cast his own decisions as a somewhat desperate and rearguard effort to restore constitutional government in the United States after eight years of rampant illegality by the previous administration.

I'd like to know what threat these people would have if they are in supermax prisons, where there is NO way whatsoever they can get out.

The Cheney Response Video

is now up:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I Haven't Seen Any Video Up

of Cheney's response to Obama's speech (below), where he said he is closing Guantanamo Bay, a human rights disaster if there ever was one, but the link is Cheney's response.

No Matter How Timid Obama's Policies Are,

the fact Dick Cheney is criticizing them is ominous indeed.

Why is Cheney doing this?

Cheney’s attacks on the Obama administration clearly demonstrate the contempt for the American people and their democratic rights which characterizes the American financial oligarchy. At one point in his appearance on CBS Sunday, he told interviewer Bob Schieffer, “What we’ve seen happen with respect to the Obama administration as they came to power is they have moved to take down a lot of those policies we put in place that kept the nation safe for nearly eight years from a follow-on terrorist attack like 9/11. Dealing with prisoner interrogation, for example, or the terrorist surveillance program. They campaigned against these policies across the country, and then they came in now, and they have tried, very hard, to undertake actions that I just fundamentally disagree with.” [Emphasis added.]

Cheney grossly exaggerates the actual change in policies by Obama. But it is noteworthy that he expresses particular bitterness over the fact that, to even a limited extent in the course of the 2008 presidential campaign, the American people sought to express their opposition to the anti-democratic policies of the Bush-Cheney administration.

He's mad the Republicans fucked it up so badly they couldn't even steal the last election. Besides, McCain wouldn't have let them.

Gene Lyons

Barack Obama is battling problems from all sides, and now he has to contend with a war waged upon him by former president Dick Cheney.

Miscellaneous/Weird

It looks as if there is no hope for me whatsoever.
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Dick Cheney is very upset Obama has decided to use government money to help people instead of spending it on cronies, the military, and disastrous neocon foreign policy adventures.
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Nevada is number 1 in something it has no reason to be proud.
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The Fritzl trial began, and the sicko admitted to raping his daughter but denied he killed one of his children by her.

While I Was Shopping

and waiting to pick up Sam from the vet, the President of the United States came to town today to attend a wildlife conference and tell the crowd how best to preserve the animals.

Our dictator wasn't around for the event, preferring to stay in Washington and helping to persuade Congress to bail out the Wall Street looters.

The Reno Gazette-Journal provided video of the president's speech, which I have posted here:

Political News

Bush will not be coming to Reno tomorrow because he wants to try and con as many people in our incongruous Congress as possible to support his Wall Street bailout scheme. Dick Cheney will take his place and will appear in town tomorrow.

Apparently Cheney gave Bush some instructions on how to proceed with the bailout scheme.

The Reno conference is about hunting and wildlife preservation. Cheney is an expert hunter, as Harry M. Whittington well knows.

Miscellaneous

It might be too late in the day for Cheney to "preserve" all of his records as vice president.
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Is Charles plotting to get Camilla crowned queen?

Republican Convention

Because of Hurricane Gustav, Bush and Cheney will not attend the Republican National Convention at St. Paul.

Punditocracy Nonsense

To compare Joe Biden with Dick Cheney is not only a false comparison, it is downright grotesque.

First of all, Biden wasn't the one conducting the search for Obama's running mate. Second, it is not likely that in the unlikely chance Obama got elected, Biden would be calling the shots and actually running the White House.

That's more wishful thinking than anything else. Goodwin would HOPE Biden would be running things and actually being the adult. I don't think Obama's ego would allow it.

I'll leave it up to the reader to determine which "Obama" I am referring to.

Miscellaneous.

So just what is it that's being reflected in Dick Cheney's sunglasses?

More:


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If By Some Chance

a Democrat gets elected president next year, be prepared for a similar onslaught of crap from the GOP that Bill Clinton went through.

Don't think these sons of bitches are going to give up power that easily.

As the World Turns.

This is sad.

It's unreal that many items could have been stolen. I hope whoever did the pilfering gets caught.

It is so goddamned wrong:

A National Archives spokeswoman said the agency had accepted the audit's criticisms and was working to fix the problems. Some library volunteers say they were called in this summer to start a massive inventory project that could take years to complete.

The theft of historical objects from library collections has become a serious problem across the country in recent years. Against that background, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) pushed for the audit of presidential libraries. He feared that artifacts associated with former presidents might attract thieves seeking to supply a burgeoning market for memorabilia.

"This report is a wake-up," Grassley said. "These papers, records and other items have historical value and should be safeguarded for the education and benefit of future generations of Americans."

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John Dillinger isn't the bad guy people have made him out to be:

"John did some bad things. He lived a tragic life," says Scalf. "But he was no killer."

That claim has drawn ridicule from most historians, and those targeted by Scalf say he is the one exploiting Dillinger -- for his own profit and personal glory.

"This isn't about preserving history," says author Dary Matera, whose publisher tangled with Scalf over "John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal." "It's about control and money."

Scalf admits that some of his own relatives -- who either declined to be interviewed or could not be reached for comment -- are baffled by his attempts to polish the legacy of the family's black sheep. And some people in Dillinger's adopted hometown of Mooresville, a bedroom community of nearly 9,300, are simply embarrassed by it all.

Scalf, who says he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, claims he has yet to profit from his legal fights. He says he dreams of using licensing fees to start a foundation for troubled youth and to build a museum in Mooresville.

Oh, Jesus, what next?
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A deadbeat dad has lost his court fight.
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You ain't a-kiddin' Amber is a great hunting dog.
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Only pheasants, not peasants, were shot by Cheney this time around.
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The Battle of the Hunks rather fizzled out:
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Campaign Notes.

Barack Obama can take comfort in this article:

But the Bush-Obama-Cheney nexus means rather less than it may seem. Conventional genealogies conceal how rapidly genes get diluted down the generations. You inherit directly only half of your father’s genes, a quarter of each grandfather’s, an eighth of any great-grandfather’s. And with ancestors much further back, you may share no more genes than you do with a random stranger met in Times Square.

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Edwards continues to pile up union support, support which is critical in the early states.

The handwriting is clearly on the wall with regard to Iowa. Yes, the race is a dead heat, but Edwards hasn't spent anything in the way of television ads, while his "frontrunner" opponents have wasted millions.

Why in the world would Hillary Clinton, with her name recognition, spend millions on ads? It tells me the ground operation there isn't all that strong, while Edwards has spent the past three or so years building his up.

Biden should do well there. He is good at "retail politics."
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Ron Paul won the straw poll of people who were at the Conservative Leadership Conference last weekend in Sparks.

The results are interesting, but they show just how far out of the mainstream attendees are.

It would be like having a straw poll of posters at Democratic Underground where Dennis Kucinich almost always finishes close to the top.
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The Republicans had a debate tonight on Fox News, but I was unable to watch it because of satellite problems.

I almost always problems with receiving the signal from Fox, and I often have problems with Court TV as well. That's the big problem with having a satellite dish as opposed to cable.

But I'm not going back to cable for a long time, if ever. It costs too goddamned much.
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Keith Olbermann

tonight called for Bush and Cheney to resign, which is totally pointless since it isn't going to happen.

The radical right still calls the shots, after all. Congress won't put pressure on Bush and Cheney to quit, and, as far as I'm concerned, if people didn't give a shit about calling for the entire administration to get out of town over the Hurricane Katrina debacle, or, for that matter, when the USSC decided to illegally give the presidency to Bush, why should they give a shit over Plamegate?

It's not going to happen, so Keith was merely posturing for ratings or whatnot.

And of course Bush engaged in obstruction of justice, but who is going to stop him?

The American people fucked up royally when they put in place the Republican "revolution" back in 1994, and we are still paying the price. The Republicans of today aren't like the Republicans back in the Nixon days; most of them are little more than lockstep fascists, and they won't do anything at all to make Bush pay.

So Who

is the more dangerous vice president, Aaron Burr or Dick Cheney?

The author isn't talking about marksmanship skills, either.