Thug Life.

     Dick Cheney seems to be everywhere these days. The former vice president, who was often said to be in an "undisclosed location" during his tenure as apparent puppetmaster to his simpleton boss, is now overexposed and busy bashing Barack Obama, claiming that the president is endangering our lives while simultaneously defending his own indefensible torture fetish.

     Paul Abrams has a great piece on HuffPo today that focuses on the cynical life trajectory of this historically horrid, far-right charlatan. Abrams reminds us of the Dick who sought and secured 5 deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, yet who became a bloodthristy, neocon warmonger, always eager to send other people's children into dubious conflicts far and wide. Then there's the Dick who ran Halliburton and who signed off on its overseas subsidiary KBR's business dealings with Iran and Iraq, which were illegal under US law. Hey! Offshore it! 

     Dicks always know how to game the system.

     Abrams shows us the Dick who outed CIA operative Valerie Plame for political reasons. And then we see the Dick who as a red-meat, rock-ribbed, reactionary Republican congressman voted against banning plastic guns. The all-powerful NRA--they say, "jump," the GOP asks, "how high?"--mustered only 3 votes in the entire House of Representatives, and this Dick's was one of them. Imagine the chaos in airports pre-and-post-9/11 had this less-than-sharp-shooter's wish come true. Security? We don't need no stinkin' security! Security systems? Hell, no! Manual pat-downs! Open all those suitcases! We have the right to carry plastic guns!   

     What a Dick. 

     Dick Cheney seems to be everywhere these days. And listening to him prattle on in his incoherent, conspiratorial rumble while considering his career arc is torture of the most cruel and unusual kind. 

     (Click here to see Maureen Dowd's take on the same subject.)