Shoot First, Dodge Questions Later

I am not the first person to note the bloody symmetry in the events leading up to the Iraq invasion, and last weekend's shooting incident involving Dick Cheney.

If there's one thing the Vice President does well, it's The Big Lie.

According to Wikipedia:

The phrase Big Lie refers to a propaganda technique which originated with Adolf Hitler's 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf. In that book Hitler wrote that people came to believe that Germany lost World War I in the field due to a propaganda technique used by Jews who were influential in the German press. This technique, he believed, consisted of telling a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe anyone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously". The first documented use of the phrase "big lie" is in the corresponding passage: "in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility".

Cheney's insistent, carefully phrased assertions regarding Iraqi weapons, the connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the culpability of Iraq in the 9/11 attacks, and the "last throes" of the Iraqi insurgency (to name just a few) were echoed as gospel from the right wing megaphone to the mainstream media.

In his post-shooting interview with Fox TV, Cheney did the same thing, pretending that his office was waiting for the facts on the victim's condition before announcing the incident, arguing that the property owner was the right person to handle the matter with the local newspaper, and justifying his utter arrogance and disrespect for the obligation of a public servant to inform the public.

Today, the AP headline reads, "President Satisfied With Cheney's Account."

The gang that can't shoot straight has chosen again to shoot first and dodge questions later.