Prevaricators

By Ed Raymond
Staff Writer

Prevaricators, Know-Nothings, And The Crazy Uncle In The White House Basement

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney finally got his 576-page book “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir” into the free market, firing shots at everyone he ever worked with, saying, “It’s going to cause heads to explode.” As usual, Cheney writes that HE did everything just right. Never made a single political mistake. I know that, so I’m probably not going to read his book until I find it in a thrift store for 50 cents.

But Cheney reminds me of the Libyans and most Middle Eastern tribes who fire their weapons indiscriminately into sky after winning some battle. They call it celebratory fire. I think it has a reflection on IQ. Hospital rooms and morgues have had many occupants wounded or killed from lead falling from the sky, along with the remains of fireworks celebrating victory. Basic science says what goes up must come down. Lead falling 3,000 feet creates a large hole in the skull or shoulder epaulet. When Dick Cheney tells one of his fantasies it often comes back and helps to lower Cheney’s public approval to 13 percent.

Cheney has always been an intriguing character for me. I have been trying to figure out for years whether he is a sociopath or a crazy uncle with a malignant personality one keeps in the basement. He fits the profile of a sociopath:

  Extremely convincing and can even pass lie detector tests
  Is callous, and unable to empathize with the pain of their victims
  Has contempt for others’ feelings of distress and readily takes advantage of them
  Believe they are all-powerful, all-knowing, no concern for their impact on others
  The end justifies the means and they let nothing stay in their way
  Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities

Cheney also fits the profile of a malignant personality:

  Are habitual liars, and often seem incapable of either knowing or telling the truth
  Egotistical to the point of narcissism and feel they are better than everyone else
  Vindictive when thwarted or exposed and incapable of accepting responsibility
  They have little empathy for others and often fall into the category of psychopath
  They always seek scapegoats and, whatever the problem it’s always someone else’s fault
  In extreme conditions can be very destructive

When Cheney Was In The House He Never voted For Any Head Start Program

What kind of a person would not vote for poor children ages three to five to participate in early childhood programs that would prepare them for school? I think it’s someone who falls into the two profiles I have described. But what disturbs me more about Cheney is the fact that he loved “canned hunting.”  He arranged for several of these “great white hunter” escapades while he was in office. There seems to be no evidence that Cheney tortured animals such as dogs and cats when he was a young boy, but we have plenty of evidence he tortured adult humans without compunction when he was in office. This is a sure sign of the psychopath.

The Guy Who Got Five Deferments To Avoid Combat In Vietnam Loves To Shoot Factory-Farm Pheasants

I will describe just two episodes of canned hunting in which Cheney arranged and in which he participated. In 2003 Cheney and his friends went to Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township, Pa where he personally shot and killed 70 pheasants and an undisclosed number of ducks in an afternoon of shooting. His party killed 417 pheasants that afternoon. It must be real exciting shooting.  The birds are raised in cages and can hardly walk, let alone run or fly away from a hunter. The birds always wear goggles in the cages so they don’t peck each other to death because of the crowded conditions. When the pheasants are released they know nothing about the wild and often have to be kicked into the sky by handlers to make them fly.

In 2007 Cheney took Air Force Two and a caravan of 15 black SUVs and an ambulance (just in case–remember Harry Whittington, Cheney’s friend?) To the Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club near Poughkeepsie, New York for a day of “hunting.”  The club has 4,000 acres and it costs $150,000 a year to join. But Cheney made millions at Halliburton so he could afford it. (Actually taxpayers paid much of the expenses.) Although Cheney brought along Secret Service snipers, it cost the locals $32,000 to guard Cheney’s hotel, provide security for his motorcade to and from, and divert schoolbuses carrying kids from the route to the club. (That’s a good one!)  This time all of the employees were sworn to secrecy about the shoot. I suppose the dead pheasants and ducks are covered by the “Top Secret” laws of our nation. I think we can safely assume the killing was as excessive at Clove as it was in Pennsylvania.

Real hunters say killing factory-farmed “chickens” is “like having sex with a blow-doll.” (The sources did not go into detail on that factor.)  Criminologists and psychologists say that the “programmed massacre of scores of tame, pen-raised birds” suggests a deep psychological disorder of some kind. The criminologists add that “premeditated, sadistic treatment of animals is a strong predictor of criminal and homicidal violence. Cheney advocated waterboarding because “a little water never hurt anybody,” and it became part of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” Cheney loves to talk about. It was stopped by sane people in 2009. Waterboarding had been defined as torture for over 100 years. As Martha Rosenberg in AlterNet wrote: “Sociopaths Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Speck (killer of nurses) were both big on animal cruelty. And they weren’t running foreign policy.”

The Repetition Of Lies Is Absolutely Psychopathic

Evidently facts will never deter Cheney from telling lies until he dies. Listening to his many interviews lately because he is hawking a book, he seems to live in his Fantasyland where everything he advocated worked and was “absolutely right.” Let’s look at a few.

1. Iraqis would welcome American forces as liberators.  They sure did all right–with rocket grenades, IEDs, and car bombs. His exact quote: “My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.”

2. The CIA’s use of “ enhanced interrogation techniques” ( waterboarding) was safe, legal,  and effective.”  It is illegal according to all the “torture” treaties we have signed as a nation, is prohibited by the Geneva Convention rules, and is totally against American values. Cheney says, “The fact is that it worked. We learned valuable, valuable information from that process and we kept the country safe for over seven years.”  If you think torture “works,” please read “My Tortured Decision” by Ali Soufan, who was a member of a traditional interrogation team that interrogated Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. He was finally allowed to go public about two weeks ago. Cheney continues to lie about interrogation– probably to avoid being named a “war criminal.”

3.  We didn’t go all the way to Baghdad in the Gulf War while he was Secretary of Defense   because it would have resulted in a “quagmire.”  He didn’t support this view in 2003 when we really got involved with a quagmire. He “knew” Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction hidden in the desert and “knew” that Al Queda was active in Iraq and was blessed by Saddam. Remember the “meeting” in Prague he always uses as proof?)

4.  “Deficits don’t matter.”  So he and Lurch added about $7 trillion to the debt before and after they left office.  When did he drop conservatism as a philosophy and become a Know-Nothing Republican? There is a big difference between authentic conservatives and Republicans these days. Conservatives care for people and country.

5. Cheney says he forced Colin Powell to resign as Secretary of State in 2004.  Powell says he had planned to serve four years. You can believe Cheney if you want. I”m a Powell guy.

6. Cheney says he made Condoleezza Rice cry when she was National Security Advisor.  She says “No!”  Believe him if you want.

7.  “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”  Logic, reason, and commonsense are not his strong points. In fact (as he loves saying), this statement is idiotic.

8.  On June 20, 2005 on Iraq: “I think they’re in their last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.”  Let’s see. Six years later we are “negotiating” with the Iraqis on how many troops we will leave in Iraq.

9. On the Senate floor to Senator Patrick Leahy when Cheney was being grilled by senators on the profiteering of Halliburton: “Go f—k yourself!”  Is that a sociopathic or psychopathic moment?  Be fair. You decide. Cheney told Dennis Miller on Fox News it was one of his better moments.

10.  On Sept,10, 2005, Cheney said: “I think we are in fact on our way of getting on top of the whole Katrina exercise.”  It was about time. It happened two weeks before.

Some Humor That Helped Put Cheney at 13 Percent Public Approval

David Letterman: “Vice-President Dick Cheney is in Baghdad. While he was in Iraq, he said that it is a successful endeavor. At least I think that’s what he said. It was hard to hear over the explosions.”

Jay Leno: “Dick Cheney had an awkward moment tonight at the White House Halloween party. He went dressed as Darth Vader and at the party, he ran into the real Darth Vader who was dressed as Dick Cheney.”

Jon Stewart: “Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, once two of the most powerful men in this country, now are suffering from Balzheimer’s Disease.  Why didn’t I see this before? Balzheimer’s is a terrible illness that attacks the memory and gives its victims the balls to attack others for things they themselves made a career of. There is no cure.”

Bill Maher: “Dick Cheney was on the news this week, and he said that it would be a mistake for the Republicans to moderate their policies. He said they should remain true to their core principles: gay bashing, war profiteering, and torture.”

Conan O’Brian: “This week, Dick Cheney was interviewed by ABC News, and he said he will miss being vice president. Then he said, “And I’‘ll really miss being president. That was the best part.”

Jay Leno: “President Obama has signed an executive order officially banning torture in the U.S.  There goes Dick Cheney’s retirement, huh? What is he supposed to do now?”

The Most Select Memory In Recent History

It’s quite evident that Cheney did not like Secretary of State Colin Powell or National Security Advisor Condi Rice. Is it race? I doubt it. I think it was over power. In his book Cheney claims Powell never voiced objections to Lurch about going to war with Iraq. Lurch writes that he knew about Powell’s objections. What is Cheney’s game here? It has to be power. After all, he was the co-president for Lurch’s first term. A little known fact.  Cheney himself had formed an “exploratory committee” in an effort to run for president in 1996. Was Cheney intellectually capable of being an effective leader?  The fact that he flunked out of Yale twice does not add to his resume. Getting a sore shoulder killing 70 tame pheasants in an afternoon certainly cannot be counted as a good character trait. It’s possible he may be dumber than Lurch. At least Lurch demonstrated he could learn but it was too late to change the course of his administration.

Robert Kaiser of The Washington Post sums up the book and Cheney well: “To fill its pages, the former vice-president revels in endless self-congratulation about his eight years in co-presiding (ouch!) over one of the most hapless administrations of modern times.”

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