Well, well well.  The Veep is the "the shooter" according to Chris Mathews.  Others on the left say he's "the trigger man".  Even former Senate Majority leader Trent Lott said he called Cheney the "shooter in chief" during a Congressional meeting on Valentine's day.   Sadly, many of the folks watching events unfold will hear a recurring message:  The hunting accident was a metaphor for Cheney's oversight of WMD misinformation and the "oil coverup". You know, Cheney the rabid neo-con, hot on the heels of anyone who so much as mentions Middle East interests and their obligate deviations from America's interests.  Like a bird dog chasing the quarry and forgetting there are cars on the road, Cheney loses the forest for the trees, the friend for the bird.  Then "lies" are told and a Cindy Sheehan star is born.  In their vicious indictment of the admittedly egregiously errant hunter, some folks have forgotten delays and amnesia shared by other pols from the past.

Every year about now the musings and punditry can induce dizziness if not with their shear volume, then with absolute emptiness in so many cases.  So I thought I would zoom out with a wide angle view of what's past , and focus sharply on what America needs to accomplish in 2006 to navigate the Straits of Uncertainty challenging our very existence.