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The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Most Powerful Vice President in American History (Dick Cheney)

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Dick Cheney is one of the most vile figures in American history. The man took an oath to uphold the Constitution, and then undermined it at every turn, advocating passage of the PATRIOT ACT, torture, renditioning, secret offshore prisons, and other draconian police state policies. Little Dick Cheney's much-touted idea of a "unitary executive" despises Constitutional principles of checks and balances. I would love to have an interviewer press him to explain the practical difference between this idealized "unitary executive" and a dictator.

Aside from his love of police state thuggery, Cheney is best known for his love of war... provided he isn't personally required to participate. In 2003, he was one of the heavyweights pushing America into war with Iraq (on the ridiculous pretext the Saddam Hussein was a clear and present danger to the U.S. -even though Iraq wasn't even capable of putting a single airplane up in their own airspace!) You'd think a warmonger like that would have a long history of blood lust, but as a young adult, Cheney was not nearly so jingoistic. When called to serve his country in Vietnam to prevent the apocryphal "domino effect" (of worldwide spreading Communism), did Little Dick answer the call to arms with proud patriotism? No. He took an incredible FIVE deferrments to avoid service. This means that five other men had to go into harm's way -maybe even lose their lives- so Dick could party his ass off stateside. I assume that's what he was doing, since he flunked out of Yale University and got arrested for drunk driving during those years.

Like so many sociopaths, Cheney eventually gravitated to politics- and found he had a natural aptitude for it. He served as the youngest White House Chief of Staff in the Ford/Rockefeller administration, and his star just kept rising from there. After that, he did a brief stint in the House of Representatives (R- WY). That isn't to say he actually did much representing of his constituents. He doesn't seem to clear about elected officials serving the public, or abiding by the will of the people. In secret, he became a Director of the treasonous Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and later joked "I have been a member for a long time, and was actually Director for some period of time. I never mentioned that when I was campaigning for reelection back home in Wyoming -- (laughter) --" He reiterated his contempt for the will of the people a few years later in this interview: link.

Next career stop was Secretary of Defense under George Bush Sr.

Afterwards, Little Dick went on welfare- not welfare like we associate with the poor, but welfare for out-of-work professional politicians: he joined a "Think Tank". The authoritarian Project for a New American Century (PNAC)
is a subject unto itself, and Dick is there in the middle of it all. Probably the most notable thing about PNAC was its 1997 paper: "Rebuilding Ameria's Defenses (RAD)". Among other things, RAD concluded that what America really needed was a Pearl Harbor-like attack on our sovereign soil.

By an amazing, incredible, completely unforseeable, cosmic, magical, crazy coinidence, Little Dick got his wish just four years later, in the form of 9/11. So do I think Little Dick, David Rockefeller, and their buddies in the CFR had something to do with 9/11? Yeah, I do. Read this book, in conjunction with
The New Pearl Harbor Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11,
Crossing the Rubicon,
None Dare Call It Conspiracy,
Tragedy and Hope,
and Debunking 9 11 Debunking An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory
...and see if you don't feel the same way.

While I learned some new and interesting facts about the vice-president the overall tone of the book was highly offputting. It is clear that this was a hatchet job by an extreme partisan. This is NOT a real biography. I will continue to await a serious biography of this important political figure.

An interesting read for sure, can't stand the man but atleast the book is worth a read.

I didn't read the book, but Tom Bombadil "Jedi", neither did you. If you wish to comment on a book you read, write a review about the BOOK. If you have a political comment, go to the proper website to write about it there.