We all know that our government is doing jack shit to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. But apparently, that's not enough for Dick Cheney. He had to go and smuggle his way onto a New Yorker cover that was supposed to pay homage to the first post-Katrina Mardi Gras, too.

The cartoonist who sketched the original cover (which was then replaced by this Cheney/Brokeback Mountain rendition) tells the story to CartoonBrew.

The editors were very pleased with the results. The proof looked great. Some friends cried when I showed it to them. The image did what I'd hoped. It made people from here sad and proud at the same time.

I was hoping it would, I don't know, somehow help. Help call attention to our plight. Help people understand us. Then Dick Cheney shot his friend instead of a bird. A more topical cover was cobbled together. A clever twist on Cheney's folly.

Tsk, tsk, New Yorker. We thought you sided too far on the intellectual/leftest side of things to let that idiot draw the attention away from what truly matters: crazy drunken parties, Girls Gone Wild, and the forgotten people of New Orleans.

Alternate New Yorker Cover Much Better Than Real One [Gothamist]