1 Boring Old Man

Cheney gets praise and protest at Wyoming event
By MEAD GRUVER [AP]

^{LARAMIE, Wyo. — Praise and protest greeted former Vice President Dick Cheney as he visited his alma mater Thursday for the dedication of a new international center bearing his name. About 100 protesters heckled Cheney throughout the dedication ceremony for the University of Wyoming’s Cheney International Center. Cheney and his wife Lynne donated $3.2 million for the new center for foreign students and for scholarships for Wyoming students to study abroad. Protesters made up about a fifth of the crowd of about 500 and hoisted critical signs: "Shame on UW" and "We don’t want your blood money."}

^{"They violated international law. They had no respect for other countries," Jennie Boshell, a senior at the university, said of the Bush administration. "To put Cheney’s name on an international center is ridiculous and it makes the university look stupid." Another protester, Dan Depeyer, said he is studying democratization in the former Soviet republics and may well have received some of the Cheneys’ money to study abroad. "If I were ever to study in a Muslim society — say, Saudi Arabia — I wouldn’t tell anybody over there I was funded by money that came from Dick Cheney," Depeyer said.}

^{Dick and Lynne Cheney both spoke at the event. Dick Cheney said his time as a student at the University of Wyoming laid the foundation for an "extraordinary career." "We hope that this center will provide the kind of support for Wyoming students to travel overseas, to travel internationally, to learn a lot of the lessons that we’ve learned over the years," he said. The former vice president endured shouts from the protesters gathered around the back of the crowd but got a standing ovation from those in front.}

^{Another well-known Wyoming political figure, former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, rose to Cheney’s defense in introducing his longtime friend. "This is a proud state, this is a proud family, and we’re proud of them," Simpson said. The last three presidential administrations, he said, all endured a lot of petty criticism. "It is easy to second-guess. It is easy to protest — takes no brains," Simpson said. The Cheneys’ gift came with no strings attached and the university doesn’t subject its donors to a public referendum, university President Tom Buchanan said afterward. "Everyone has a different take on the Cheney vice presidency. I think he is by far the university’s most accomplished alum, both in this state and in national politics," Buchanan said. "Whether you agree with him or not, he certainly is a sincere gentleman and we’re very glad he came back to visit his campus."}

In many ways, I’d like to leave Cheney alone, to let him make graduation speeches [and donations]. It’s what elder Statesmen do. As a matter of fact, it’s what Vice Presidents do too. I want not to be infected with the same kind of "an eye for an eye" mentality he’s lived by throughout his life. It seems good etiquette to give former Presidents, Vice Presidents, etc. some peace after the kind of scrutiny they receive while in office. But his blatant political attacks on his successor are such bad form – like Joe Wilson’s outburst at Obama’s speech – it sure makes it tempting to dog Cheney even in his retirement.

Presto! VP’s Home Re-appears on Google Earth
Huffington Post
by Marlene H. Phillips
January 28, 2009

^{Sure have been a lot of changes this month. Some of the changes were swift and expected, and sent a strong signal to the world that things in D.C. had changed: the closing of Gitmo, the pay freeze for all White House senior staff, the insistence that transparency be the new order of the day for the government of the United States.}

^{And then there were changes like this one, small and trivial compared to the events I just listed but marvelously, gloriously symbolic of the difference between the previous administration and the new administration. You can see it for yourself:}

1. ^{Go to Google Earth.}
2. ^{Enter the address ‘One Observatory Circle’}
3. ^{Behold the home of the Vice President of the United States.}

^{If you tried doing that during the last four years (since Google Earth went live), you would have seen a blurred and obscured image where the house should be. Because when the residence was the home of Dick Cheney it was a Google Earth non-entity; like some strange and unnatural life form, Dick Cheney hated the light of day, and his obsession with operating in darkness even extended into the relatively benign world of Google Earth. The White House? No problem on Google Earth. The Pentagon? Clear as day. The VP’s house? Forget about it…}

I think this blog, this post, are ways for me to do just that. I didn’t read that article about Cheney’s dedication in Laramie Wyoming as a routine morning news catch-up. I obviously googled "cheney" and found it. I remember thinking [maybe hoing] that I would curtail my incessant blogging when Obama was inaugurated. I don’t think I actually need to publicly weigh in on Obama’s healthcare program or a lot of other things that are going on now. What I’m drawn to are the unsettled things from the Bush Administration – the remnants of that period [like the Republican bloc opposition, or Fox News, or almost anything Cheney]. It’s as if keeping that focus allows me to think more sensibly about the present. If I "forget," the current news becomes discolored and gloomy, or gloomier than it really is.

What was so traumatic for me about the last eight years? I didn’t feel this way even in the darkest of the Civil Rights days when Orvil Faubus, George Wallace, and Ross Barnett where at the top of their game. I didn’t feel it when LBJ was so stuck in dealing with the Viet Nam War, or when crazy Dick Nixon was doing his Watergate dance. I didn’t even feel it when Ronald Reagan was laying the groundwork for the ultimate destruction of our economy. And surprisingly, I don’t feel it about the ever goofy George W. Bush.