Crooks and Liars reminded me that today is the second anniversary of the day Dick Cheney became the second V.P. in history to shoot a dude while in office.
As with any good shooting, I remember precisely where I was when I learned about it. I was at a friend’s house, about to leave for a little hike in Griffith Park, when a friend called me to talk about girlfriend stuff. Before he hung up, he said, “By the way, before you go on your hike, I just want you to know, Dick Cheney shot a guy!”
All through the hike, I actually found myself really excited and happy. I didn’t know the details yet, so in my mind, Cheney shot and killed a guy, maybe in his office, or at the house of a fellow politician, or on a speedboat in Miami or something. Some shady backroom deal had gone down badly, and the veep had reacted in a quick and brutal way that accidentally got leaked or was witnessed by a non-brainwashed crony. And now America would see the dark overlord for who he really was.
Well, of course I got back from my hike and found out it had only been a hunting accident. And though justice was not really meted out, and though no one was taken to task for keeping this a secret or inquiring why some of the facts about the story seemed fishy (including all the witnesses differening in their time estimates than the Sheriff’s report), at least the veep’s popularity took an 18% hit. This is definitely one of the many great and terrible stories about the Bush administration I’ll look forward to telling future generations of kids and grandkids.
Update: John Amato just pulled out a great clip of Jon Stewart from two years ago. What larks! Er, grouse. Er, quail.
It wasn’t really hunting though. It was more like a mass murder. They clip the birds wings and keep them cages, then let them fly out in a mass flock. The millionaires then shoot bullets all willy nilly. It’s the aerial equivalent of ducks in a barrell.
It’s sick and sad that they are allowed to call that hunting and no one gets upset. It’s just mass killing for the sake of doing it, without any risk or inconvenience to the people doing the killing. Which of course, makes perfect sense. It perfectly reflects the way Cheney has conducted his entire life.