Correct OG and yeast starter

I am doing my second batch and its Palmer's Cincinnati Pale Ale. I have been cruising the boards for the past hour and have not found my answer to a few questions:

1. The LHBS guy said with my yeast I do not need a starter, just pitch the dry yeast right into the chilled wort (Safale US-05 yeast). Should I do this or do a starter?

2. What is the correct and most accurate way to take an OG reading with doing an extract brew?

3. Aeration? Yes, no? How (I assume just stir the crap out of it while its in the primary fermentation, after the yeast pitch)?

Here are the ingredients I will be using:

Cincinnati Pale Ale
Ingredients:
3-4 lbs. of Pale malt extract syrup, unhopped.
3 lbs. of Amber dry malt extract.
12 AAUs of Bittering Hop (any variety)
5 AAUs of Finishing Hop (Cascade or other)
2 packets of dried ale yeast

1. Every time I've used dry yeast, I just poured the yeast into the wort. Fermentation has taken off within a few hours.
2. Cool the wort to pitching temp then take a sample for your gravity. That way, you won't have to adjust for temperature. Read it straight-up and you are set.
3. No. I wouldn't worry about aerating for a normal strength batch.

No "starter" for dry yeast. You can rehydrate the dry yeast with warm water, as Palmer discusses in his book or as you can read on here. You can skip it if OG is below 1.058 or so for 5 gallons (estimate).
Edit: Palmer did not say to USE two pax of dry yeast, he said to BUY two in case you f'd up something. Do not pitch 2!!

I would aerate. There is a debate re whether it is strictly necessary for dry yeast. Manufacturers probably have diff instructions. I just say what I would do.

1. The LHBS guy said with my yeast I do not need a starter, just pitch the dry yeast right into the chilled wort (Safale US-05 yeast). Should I do this or do a starter?

Dry yeast does not need a starter, and works best if a starter is not used. The yeast contains its own nutrients that are stripped with a starter. In a high gravity beer, you may need to pitch 2 or more packs.

2. What is the correct and most accurate way to take an OG reading with doing an extract brew?

I wouldn't bother with an extract batch. Just calculate it (or use a program).

3. Aeration? Yes, no? How (I assume just stir the crap out of it while its in the primary fermentation, after the yeast pitch)?

YES!! folks may argue that it is not necessary, but do you want to risk a stalled ferment to find out. It is good practice for when you change to liquid yeasts, and I would suspect that with high gravity beers, where more yeast is needed, it may be very important, even with dry yeast.

I don't use dry yeast, so I don't have experience with it, but if I were to use it, I would aerate the heck out of the wort ...... I don't want to take chances after all that effort has been put into the brew.

I use liquid yeast for beer and dry yeast for wine. Dry yeast should always be rehydrated, the yeast cell walls are in a very "crumpled" configuration and need to properly rehydrate so they don't take on a permanent "dimpled" form which makes them inefficient or non-functional.

It's good practice to take an OG reading but just know that unless you are doing full boils, stratification tends to make partial boil extract wort appear to have a low OG. You can use the recipe/calculated value, but you will need to take gravity readings later to determine when fermentation has ended.

The oxygenation issue is debated because the yeast are subjected to high O2 before the freeze drying, so they kind of have an oxygen store (via stored glycogen) going into fermentation. Liquid yeast do not have this advantage.

Hydrate your yeast for 30 minutes in 70F-90F water.

Definitely aerate. If you are using a carboy, rock, shake, and swirl vigorously for 5 minutes. If you are using a bucket, you can pour back and forth (bucket to bucket) or I prefer you use a stick blender with the whisk attachment for 5 minutes.

The most important thing is to make sure everything that touches your beer after the boil (the bucket, the whisk, the spoon, the funnel, etc.) has been completely sanitized.