Late Memo to Cheney's Racist Pals

Look out America. Dick Cheney went hunting again. Last week, the Clove Valley Gun and Rod Club in upstate Union Vale, NY released some of their pet pheasants so the Veep could get some easy kills last week. That way Cheney could feel like a real hunter without shooting other members of the hunting party.

. . . some Dutchess County residents blasted the vice president for taking part in what they called a canned hunt. Farm-bred pheasants were released on the preserve 24 hours before Cheney arrived, making them easy targets for the hunting party. "The way they hunt, I'm not fond of," said Linda Smith, 52, who runs a local preschool. "It's not what I would call a real sportsmanlike activity."

In Cheney's case, bird hunting is more an exercise in building self-esteem than hunting skills.

Not that there's anything wrong with building self-esteem. Needless to say, I'd prefer actual merit. But I'll take self-esteem over the macho preening of Dick Cheney and other right-wingers any day.

It seems, however, that the members of the Clove Valley Gun and Rod Club haven't gotten the latest memo on racist paraphernalia. It appears that some enterprising soul took down the Club's Confederate flag and put it in a shed before the Vice-President's visit. That would have been an embarrassment to the Vice-President even if it wasn't an embarrassment to the club itself.

Still, it's somewhat of a surprise that the club hasn't gotten the memo that Confederate flags have been replaced by nooses as the trendy symbol of white racism.

Perhaps they gave Cheney a noose as a going away present.