Where did Dick come from?

I never knew why Dick was a nick-name for Richard, but the other day while walking along, I saw a reason to stop thinking and just accept the name- shortening as reasonable.

After having my lovely talk-radio podcast interrupted by two fire trucks and an ambulance rushing north on Florida Ave. NW at S St. NW, I continued walking up hill toward Connecticut, but as I got far enough up the hill, I saw the trucks waiting at the intersection of Florida and Connecticut, sirens still blaring, still louder than the four idiots talking my headphones. "What would stop two fire truck and an ambulance,?" I thought, but just then I could almost hear it: "National security, you stupid atheist-progressive," being screamed screamed at me, in nonverbal tones, by that guy in VP Dick Cheney's entourage who gets the cool job of hanging out the window of the black SUV holding one hell of a gun and sporting fingerless gloves (maybe it's Andrew Dice Clay). Motorcycle cops had actually blocked the intersection while Cheney's entourage (about 10 bikes, 3 trucks and 2 limos, for those who have not seen it gallivanting around town) traveled north on Connecticut. The life-saving vehicles could only wait for the second0 most powerful official in the world hurried back to (possibly) release his loose bowels in his Naval Observatory commode.
Now granted, I am no huge fan of the Bush group, and maybe i could be wrong about what I saw. Maybe the ambulance simply got to the intersection too late, or maybe the lead driver even waved the motorcade on through. Or maybe Osama bin Laden was suspected to have joined FDW1 (the ward 1 fire department, for those of you who have foolishly forgotten the lessons of 9/11) and was planning to make Cheney's motorcade wait 30 seconds at the cross-street when Jose Padilla would set off his dirty bomb, killing both the infidels they hate and the gays of Dupont Circle that the American fundamentalists hate .

Now I realize some may think it's really "cool" that Cheney has such power and such a badass entourage, with the window gunmen and all, but as a taxpayer, I say keep the armored vehicles in Baghdad, Beirut and other places that suck, rather than downtown DC. Does Homeland Security really mean treating the streets of our capital city like a war zone?

I know that no one probably died or no property was burnt to the ground in the 2 minutes the motorcade made the emergency vehicles wait, but what a gesture it have been to see the motorcade move out of the rescuers' way. That would be true respect for the idea of Homeland Security.