Something else to bring you down...

"I can't imagine anything worse, your loved one is killed in Iraq and you've got to deal with Fred Phelps."

Dick Cheney: A haunted combat vet

Who in their right mind would equate Dick Cheney shooting a 78-year old acquaintance in the face and chest, mistaking him for a quail, with Viet Nam veterans haunted by the devastating experience of battlefield combat? Joe "Primary Colors" Klein that's who.

But then, there he was, with that haunted look in his Fox News interview, saying, "[T]he image of him falling is something I'll never be able to get out of my mind. I fired, and there's Harry falling ..." Hunting had given him "great pleasure" in the past, but he wasn't so sure now. In fact, he sounded a lot like the combat veterans I've spoken with over the years, for whom the living nightmare of firing a weapon under questionable circumstances is a constant theme.

Does anyone seriously entertain the notion that Blind Dick Cheney has an empathetic bone in his squishy body? What passes for hunting prowess to some is really much closer to animal slaughter and all the sociopathology behind it. Think about it. What kind of person takes pleasure from destroying 70 small pen-raised animals in a few hours time? That's just sick.

Watch the Birdies

I admit it’s been hard to get out of my mind the image of Cheney slaughtering 70 pheasants for a single day’s amusement, but then again there are so many other things to keep an eye on, including whether or not Congress is going to let the Bush Administration slither out of its violation of the law against eavesdropping without a warrant. On February 17 Scott McClellan was quoted as saying, “What we have talked about with some Congressional leaders is codifying into law what his authority already is"—in other words, they want Congress to write into law the very authority they claim already exists under the law. This is a load of shit. Even if our weak-kneed legislators ultimately believe that Bush should be given the power to wiretap without a warrant, they should first force Bush to acknowledge that he acted outside of the law. After that they can try to persuade their colleagues to change the law. Taking this course, though, would (should) open the door to impeachment. The Dems have called for a full inquiry before the Senate Intelligence Panel but have put their proposal on hold until March 7 to give the administration time to negotiate. What’s to negotiate? It’s Congress’s job to determine whether the President violated the law. Call your Congressman and demand hearings now.

Cheney Fell to Pieces

Cue Patsy Cline. The Daily Telegraph offers a little peek at Vice President Pantywaist, who according to another guest at the Armstrong Ranch last weekend was "a pitiful sight." Cheney is the worst kind of coward.

"This is a man who has been instrumental in sending thousands of troops to Iraq, but who fell to bits when faced with the reality of shooting someone and seeing them bleeding on the ground."

Five deferments to avoid fighting in Viet Nam, but no deferring the invasion of Iraq, and probably no hesitation or even any thought about sending thousands of young men and women to kill and be killed. The last section of this Newsweek article strongly implies that Dick alone gave the order on September 11, 2001, to shoot down United Flight 93. The entire article is kind of odd in that it also implies history will be kinder to Cheney than the current media view of him. I doubt it. And the fact that Bush didn't offer any kind of consolation to Dick, not even a phone call, doesn't surprise me in the least. I think he enjoyed the whole situation more than David Letterman or Jon Stewart.