I agree that the White House really screwed up on the Cheney shooting ordeal by not saying something sooner, thereby letting the story break through other outlets and likely demonstrating yet another attempted cover up.  Why would they try to cover it up?  Who knows why they do anything.  There’s demonstrable proof that the entire régime is unable to tell the truth about anything now that they’ve spent so much time telling lies, but that’s a guess and is as likely and unlikely as any other hypothesis.

I can’t begin to claim whether it’s true that they tried to hide the shooting or were working hard to develop spin.  Considering their record to date, it’s more likely it was nothing more than a sad and telling oversight.  Politically, they were idiots for not mentioning it sooner.  With the Katrina mayhem rapidly unfolding around them, I will admit that it looks terrible that Bush’s administration sat on the news and allowed it to envelope the headlines a day later at the behest of third parties.

I know they’re dumb and completely out of touch, but this was a perfect opportunity to get ahead of the wave and not allow it to smack you while you’re already down.  I think it insults other idiots to use that term, but…

Despite this aspect of the story, I’m significantly more concerned that the Vice President participates in canned hunts.  Yes, no matter what you call it, the premise of “hunting” pen-raised birds is despicable and reprehensible.  It’s so offensive that it’s difficult to address.

Let me say this: PZ covers the logic of the abhorrent behavior but, in my opinion, fails to communicate how disgusting the practice is and how telling it is that Cheney participates in this form of animal cruelty.  If you’re not man enough to hunt a wild creature for sport, you don’t deserve to hunt and you’re a disappointing, laughable, inadequate, poor excuse for a human.  No man with huevos would feel masculine at the thought of getting his hard-on by the predatory killing of animals raised around humans and in a controlled, restrained environment that did not allow them to learn the natural survival skills of their species.  Again, it’s akin to a canned hunt, perhaps nothing more than another version of this deplorable practice.

Obviously, Cheney is nothing more than a coward.  Likewise, as PZ so eloquently put it, “They say that torturing and killing helpless animals is one of the signs of a sadistic sociopath. Somehow, it’s fitting that our vice-president is the kind of guy who takes glee in unfeeling butchery.”

Update [7:36 PM CST]: It gets better.  Cheney wasn’t properly licensed to hunt game birds in Texas.  I like the way this administration just disregards any law it finds inconvenient.