Bread and hunting accidents

Somewhere in Texas this weekend, a group of hunters walks through a field...

Harry Whittington: Dick, aint it great to get out of Washington and blast away for a few hours?

VPOTUS: Sure is, Harry. But I'm sure not looking forward to going back to Washington. It's going to be a hell of a week.

Whittington: Worse than usual?

VPOTUS: Afraid so, Harry. Look...

Whittington: A quail?

VPOTUS: No. "Look" as in I have something I've been meaning to talk to you about.

Whittington: Shoot.

VPOTUS: Heh. Heh. Well, that's just it, Harry. You see, there's going to be shit storm in Washington this week. A congressional panel is going to issue a report -- written by Republicans, for gawd's sake -- that says George and those bozos in the DHD completely fucked up the response to Katrina.

Whittington: Damn, that's too bad. What can I do?

VPOTUS: Glad you asked...

Shot rings out, startled birds fly out of the prairie grass...

Sorry, I am no playwright, but the Whittington shooting provides yet another useful distraction for the Cheney administration, as more bad news is pushed aside for the scandal du jour (of course, how could they know that a few pellets might kill the poor old bastard). Jon Stewart could barely suppress is glee -- a White House scandal that isn't just dry, commonplace, lying to America scandal we've grown so inured to. But instead involves guns, small birds, and a VP who Shot. An old man. In the face.

Some -- like me -- might see a conspiracy in all of this, but Onnesha Roychoudhuri sees this as a good thing -- something to humanize the utter disaster that is this administration.

Our senses are being overloaded, our levels of outrage have peaked. But then in comes Cheney's trigger-happy hunting foray. Suddenly, a nation's attention is united. So, are we being distracted from the real news? The continuing defense of illegal warrantless wiretaps, FEMA's scandalous response to Katrina, force-feeding at Guantanamo, former CIA officials pointing to improper use of intelligence, or being fired for opposing torture, Cheney's involvement in the Libby leak, the budget.

It's hard to wrap your mind around this kind of inhumanity and egregious leadership. There's just no rationalizing it and it's hard to see any immediate end to it. No laughs there. But Cheney shooting a lawyer? Hilarity ensues. There's an almost slumber party slap-happiness to the jokes. You find yourself giggling even before Jon Stewart gets to the punchline. You were waiting to laugh. And I think this reaction has everything to do with the American public having some sense of the level of scandal that surrounds this administration. Give us something human to hate and to mock.

Daou's point is well made: Once journalists, activists, and politicians (who give a damn) discover a scandal, it is their responsibilty [sic] to follow through, to push it to its "ultimate conclusion." Along with vigilance to the facts, it's also important to focus on the (in)humans behind these scandals. That's what makes them real, that's what makes allegations stick.

The Czech novelist Milan Kundera says that, "He learned he could recognize a person who was not a Stalinist by his laughter -- the ability to laugh was a sign that someone could be trusted, for it signified irreverence, a refusal to take history and its policemen seriously. Ever since then, he says, he has been 'terrified by a world that is losing its sense of humor.'"

There's no shame in reveling in Cheney's front-page blunder. Just as long as you turn to page A12 to find out what's really going on.

Maybe so. You rarely do see Dick Cheney laugh.