Rest in peace: Dick Cheney, vice president to George W. Bush, neocon extraordinaire, and rather poor marksman, died this morning at 84 due to complications of pneumonia, as well as cardiac and vascular disease.
Cheney "consistently defended the extraordinary tools of surveillance, detention and inquisition employed in response" to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, writes the Associated Press. He took the role of veep and transformed it into something much more muscular and assertive, shaping the Bush administration's approach to the war in Iraq. He was no fan of transparency in government and he was a huge proponent of expanding executive power.
