It'll be interesting to see how the press question Scott McClellan today with regard to the Vice President's potentially deadly deed.

I figure the chicken hawk got bored with causing the deaths of untold Iraqi civilians from so far away, so he thought he take matters into his own hands with a US civilian.

And, what's up with this?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/115...g_Accident.html

From the article...

The accident was not reported publicly by the vice president's office for nearly 24 hours, and then only after the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported it Sunday.

My comment...

The Administration is so used to being in "cover-up" mode that they do it when they don't need to. Or, maybe they do need to, why else would they after all?

Good point. Perhaps the guy's hurt more than they're letting on.

I'll feel terrible if the guy dies. But until then, let the snickering commence.

I was right. The cover up is becoming an issue. And, here I was merely suggesting cover up in jest.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/115...e_Shooting.html

From the article...

President Bush knew Saturday evening that Vice President Dick Cheney had accidentally shot a hunting companion, but the information wasn't made public until the next day - by a private citizen - the White House said Monday...

The White House did not inform the national media of the accident, but the vice president's office confirmed the story after journalists called to ask about the report on the Caller-Times Web site nearly 24 hours after the shooting.

"I think you can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job," [Presidential Spokesperson Scott] McClellan said when asked if he was satisfied how the situation was handled.

My comment...

Scott, Scotty-baby, one word for you buddy, "disclosure". I know it sounds like a foriegn word, but it is actually and English word -- look it up.

One of my favorite blogs, Angry Black Bitch, weighs in on the Cheney story:

http://angryblackbitch.blogspot.com/

It is one of those irony-drenched moments, the right loves loves loves to use urban crime as a reason Americans need to arm themselves heavily, but DAMN they do hate a mirror, don't they?

shit, i've got that song stuck in my head now...thanks zippy...

From AlterNet, some headlines

It's all fun and games with the Vice President until someone gets shot

and

He might have had better aim if he'd served in VietNam

I know, Keri. for his punishment, let's send Zippy hunting with Cheney!

Sorry, Barbara. Sorry, Keri. If it makes you feel any better, I've been struggling all day with the same affliction. Curse you, Aerosmith. Curse you!

How funny - I've got Def Leppard in my head!!!

This is lacking but I don't have time to make it funny...

"I Ran" by Covey of Quails
Harry Whittington, lead vocals

I walked along the lofty grass.
I never thought I’d meet a jerk like you;
Meet a jerk like you.
With shiny skull and beady eyes;
The freakin’ asshole peppered me right through;
Peppered me right through.

And I ran, I ran so far away.
I just ran, I ran all night and day.
I couldn’t get away.

Secrete Service goons appear above my head;
A bunch of eyes come glaring down on me,
Glaring down on me.
The goons are moving nearer still.
Cheney’s ugly mug comes into view;
His ugly mug comes into view.

And I ran, I ran so far away.
I just ran, I ran all night and day.
I couldn’t get away.

Reached out a fist to punch his face;
He’s slowly disappearing from my view;
Disappearing from my view.
Reached out a fist to try again;
I’m floating in an ambulance with goons;
An ambulance with goons.

And I ran, I ran so far away.
I just ran, I ran all night and day.
I couldn’t get away.

I'm probably way overthinking this, but Quail fly don't they. So, shouldn't have Cheney's gun been pointing towards the sky?

god i love jon stewart

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Thanks, Keri. That was better than coffee.

thanks to you zippy, i've found my inner aerosmith.

About 75% of yesterday's White House Press Briefing was dedicated to Cheney's stupidity. Here's an excerpt:

Q Well, it's not really a hindsight issue here. I mean, the Vice President made a decision about how the public should be notified that basically is at odds with the standard practice of how the President's own press operation and this White House notifies the public; isn't that right?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, again, this was handled by the Vice President's Office. The Vice President thought that Mrs. Armstrong should be the first one to give that information out, since she was an eyewitness.

Q But let's just be clear here. The Vice President of the United States accidentally shoots a man and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper, and not the White House press corps at large, or notify the public in a national way?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think we all know that once it is made public, then it's going to be news and all of you all are going to be seeking that information. And the Vice President's Office was ready to provide additional information to reporters. There was no traveling White House press corps with the Vice President, as there is with the President in a situation like this --

Q Right, that's a distinction without a difference, really. I mean, we have Blackberries

Here it is in its entirety:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20060213-4.html

There was no traveling White House press corps with the Vice President, as there is with the President in a situation like this --

Can you imagine how many reporters Dick could have "peppered" as well...

I think reporters would have faired just as well as Whittington, as long as it wasn't in their "eyes or anything like that".

Here's my favorite question from the Briefing:

Q Wait, wait, hold on. Human beings are not normally this inefficient. I mean, was the Vice President immediately clear that he had accidentally shot his friend, or not? Or did that information become available later? You make it seem like there's all this information that had to develop.

Awesome.

holy shit.... he's had a heart attack

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/bush_administration

Does this mean we have to stop with the jokes?

Any chance the shotgun pellets were shaped like those little candy hearts?

Yeah, Left, we do. But it was beautiful while it lasted. I hope Whittington recovers, and I hope he sues Cheney blue.

Ah Ha!

Isn't it weird when the consiracy radar goes off, and it turns out it really is a conspiracy? Downright freaky I'd say!!

Reminds me of a funny story... A milk-fed Austin attorney and a pen-raised Corpus Christi Quail walk into a bar...

So the NY Times is reporting that there's not much communication going on between Cheney's staff and the president's White House staff. Case in point, McClelland entered the press corps briefing yesterday wearing an orange tie and making jokes about the shooting not having been told that Whittington had had a heart attack.

What it boils down to, according to the article, is that Cheney considers the shooting a part of his private life rather than part of his job as VP. I hate to tell him this, but when you are elected to the second most powerful position in the US government and you accidentally shoot someone -- even on a private hunt on private property -- it becomes the public's business.

For the entire article check out: http://tinyurl.com/8uhwo

There's also speculation that the pellet(s) couldn't have traveled to his heart in the days following the shooting, rather it got lodged there directly from Cheney's gun. Regardless, this little incident could drift towards a criminal investigation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/politics...vSlNEHBCKnD69xg

Posted in error.

Oopsidaisy ...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=60212

It keeps on coming:

Can't you see, Chenney was confused not being able to tell the difference between a domestically raised game bird and his fellow hunter. Seriously, I believe Alachol was involved and he is too embarrased/ashamed to admit it.

I don't want to start a new thread, but I think a quick poll might be in order. Add a reply to post your vote.

The reason it took Cheney 15 hours to report this incident was:

1. He was drunk and needed time for the alcahol to get out of his system just in case there was a criminal investigation (note that Katharine Armstrong the ranch owner told MSNBC that there was beer at the picnic before the incident, though this has since been taken off their MSNBC site).

2. He was on a double date (remember there were four people in the hunting party, Armstrong who stayed in the car while the other three got out to shoot quail, her good friend Whittington, the shooting victim, Cheney AND the ambassador to Switzerland, Pamela Willeford).

3. He thought Whittington was gonna die and spent the 15 hours plotting the cover up.

4. Others?

Sadly, those callous jokes came after McClellan knew of the heart attack!!

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/02/mc...-had-heart.html

Just as I suspected. He was drunk or at least under the influence



Published on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 by The Nation
Cheney, "A Beer or Two," and A Gun
by John Nichols

Vice President Dick Cheney, who was forced to leave Yale University because his penchant for late-night beer drinking exceeded his devotion to his studies, and who is one of the small number of Americans who can count two drunk driving busts on his driving record, may have been doing more than hunting quail on the day that he shot a Texas lawyer in the face.

Katherine Armstrong, the wealthy Republican lobbyist who is a member member of the politically-connected family that owns the ranch where Cheney blasted his hunting partner, acknowledged to a reporter for MSNBC that alcohol may have been served at a picnic which was served Saturday afternoon on the dude ranch where Cheney shot Harry Whittington.

According to an MSNBC report that appeared briefly Tuesday on the network's website, Armstrong peddled the line that she did not believe that alcohol played a part in the shooting accident. But, she admitted, "There may be a beer or two in there, but remember not everyone in the party was shooting."

The MSNBC story, which appeared only briefly before the website was scrubbed for reasons not yet explained, has been kept alive by the able web investigators at www.rawstory.com and other progressive blogs. And so it should be, as the prospect that alcohol may have been involved in the Texas incident takes the story in a whole new direction.

By any reasonable measure, Armstrong's attempt to downplay the presence of "a beer or two" raises more questions than it answers about an incident involving a vice president who, like George W. Bush, was a heavy drinker in his youth, but who, unlike Bush, never swore off the bottle.

As with her over-the-top efforts to blame Whittington, the victim, for getting in the way of Cheney's birdshot blast, Armstrong's line on liquor smells a little more like an attempt to cover for the vice president than full disclosure.

This is where the hunting accident "incident" becomes a serious matter. The role played by the Secret Service in preventing questioning of Cheney on the evening of the shooting becomes takes on new significance. If Cheney was in any way impaired at the time of the shooting, it was certainly to the vice president's advantage put off the official investigation until the next morning.

Cheney may be able to say, unequivocally, that he was not in an impaired condition when he shot Whittington. But he does now need to start speaking to this precise issue and to all of the other questions that have been raised -- and, no, it is not enough for the vice president to take a few softballs on Fox News, the administration's house network, as the White House crisis management team arranged for him to do at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday.

When legitimate questions arise regarding the role that the Secret Service might have played in undermining the investigation of a shooting in order to protect the vice president from embarrassment, and possible legal charges, those issues have to be addressed fully and completely. And they must be addressed in a setting where reporters are able to press the notoriously cagey Cheney to actually answer all of the questions that are asked.

Up to now, the whole "hunting-accident" controversy has been little more than a diversion from more serious matters involving Cheney -- not least among these, the investigation into whether the vice president authorized the release of classified information as part of a scheme to discredit critics of the administration's rush to war. But if Cheney used his Secret Service unit to prevent a necessary and proper official inquiry at a time when it might have uncovered relevant information regarding his condition when he shot a man, then the vice president has abused his office in a most serious manner.

The prospect that such an abuse occurred requires Cheney and any White House aides who were involved in "managing" the story -- put Karl Rove at the top of this list -- to stop stonewalling and provide a detailed explanation of their actions in the hours that followed the shooting incident. This is certainly not the only issue on which the vice president needs to come clean, but it is no longer a joking matter -- or, more precisely, it is no longer merely a joking matter.

John Nichols's newest book, "The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Most Powerful Vice President in American History" (The New Press) is described by Publisher's Weekly as "a Fahrenheit 9/11 for Cheney," and Esquire magazine says it "reveals the inner Cheney."

© 2006 The Nation

###

Dude, please see post #30.

Let me add one possibility to the poll.

5. The double secret cover up. Cheney waited 15 hours because he knew it would look like a cover up and would energize the press so that they began focussing on this instead of other important issues such as, the Katrina report, the leak from the Plame case in which Libby suggests that Cheney asked him to leak classified information, etc...

I vote for #1, with a little #3 added in, LeftintheUS. By the way, Cheney now admits to whacking back "one beer" before shooting his friend in the face.

ETA that I respectfully think that #5 is out of the question.

I didn't. Thanks


Don't be quite so quick to dismiss this possibility. It is awfully Rovian!!

From that article...

Whittington was in stable condition on Wednesday, hospital officials said earlier on Wednesday. But the 78-year-old was moved back into the intensive care unit because of concerns for his privacy.

My comment...

"his privacy"?? Hmmmmmm.....

From the article...

Cheney said he agreed that ranch owner Armstrong should make the story public, because she was an eyewitness, because she grew up on the ranch and because she is "an acknowledged expert in all of this" as a past head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He also agreed with her decision to choose the local newspaper as the way to get the news out.

My comment...

He can't help but lie. It is in his blood. See here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060215/...wN5bnN1YmNhdA--

Armstrong said she saw Cheney's security detail running toward the scene. "The first thing that crossed my mind was he had a heart problem," she told The Associated Press.

In other words, she didn't see the accident. All of her statements, replete with colorful sidebars about getting "peppered pretty good," gave the false impression she was an eyewitness. She wasn't.

I know I'm stirring the pot. I know I shouldn't do this. I'm just purely evil and I can't help it. Zippy, my man, this is for you -- more on the drinking theory and the philandering theory.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/che...-i_b_15711.html

There some interesting links in the blog entry, too.

god i hate tucker carlson... hunters don't drink LOL

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/02/15.html#a7166

Keri: At least Tucker Carlson has Rachel Meadow on for comments. Men who wear bowties are wierd.

Cheney's Buckshot Reader
By , AlterNet
Posted on February 16, 2006, Printed on February 16, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/32311/
The saga of Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of Harry Whittington on a Texas ranch continues to unfold. Every twist of the tale reveals more juicy details. Here is a roundup of some of the most interesting information about the shooting that's been swirling around in the press and the blogs:

Is Pam Willeford more than Cheney's hunting partner?

Sirius Radio's Alex Bennett came out and said what many folks in the media had been whispering about but were too timid to report: Pam Willeford, the ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein who was standing at Cheney's side when the shotgun went off, could be more than his hunting partner. RJ Eskew has more: "The real story is already emerging, if you're willing to do a little digging. Cheney and Whittington went hunting with two women (not their wives) …"

An AlterNet search on Cheney's ties to Pam Willeford revealed that:

She and her husband George have made at least two overnight visits to the Bush White House between June 2002 and December 2003.
She and her husband were overnight guests at Camp David on one occasion between January 2001 and December 2002
Pamela hosted a reception in Davos, Switzerland, for Vice President Cheney on Jan., 23, 2004.
Pamela's daughter, Emily, was named deputy chief of staff to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in June 2005.

Was Cheney boozing it up?

Yes. Cheney told Fox News host Brit Hume that he drank beer before he went out hunting: "We'd taken a break at lunch -- go down under an old -- ancient oak tree there on the place and have a barbecue. I had a beer at lunch. After lunch we take a break, go back to ranch headquarters. Then we took about an hourlong tour of ranch, with a ranch hand driving the vehicle, looking at game. We didn't go back into the field to hunt quail until about, oh, sometime after 3 p.m." Cheney contended that no one in his hunting party had been drinking during the hunt.

Ranch host Katharine Armstrong at first denied there was any drinking going on: "No, zero, zippo, and I don't drink at all," she said. "No one was drinking." Later, Armstrong was described as saying that "no one that day was drinking, although she sa[id] there may have been beer available during a picnic lunch that preceded the incident," and quoted as saying," There may be a beer or two in there. But remember not everyone in the party was shooting." Those quotes were later scrubbed by the reporting agency, MSNBC, from its website.

According to the AP, "Gilbert San Miguel, chief deputy sheriff for Kenedy County, said his department's investigation had found that alcohol was not a factor in the shooting, but he would not elaborate about how that had been determined." But the importance of this tidbit is rather debatable, considering that San Miguel and his fellow officers didn't interview Cheney until Sunday morning, long after Cheney shot Whittington.

In his early life, Dick Cheney was convicted of two DWIs in an eight-month span.

What's Cheney's account of the shooting?

In his interview with Fox News host Brit Hume, Cheney said:


Cheney: There were three of us who had gotten out of the vehicle and walked up on a covey of quail that had been pointed by the dogs. Covey is flushed, we've shot, and each of us got a bird. Harry couldn't find his, it had gone down in some deep cover, and so he went off to look for it. The other hunter and I then turned and walked about a hundred yards in another direction …
Hume: Away from him?
Cheney: Away from him -- where another covey had been spotted by an outrider. I was on the far right …
Hume: There was just two of you then?
Cheney: Just two of us at that point. The guide or outrider between us, and of course, there's this entourage behind us, all the cars and so forth that follow me around when I'm out there -- but bird flushed and went to my right, off to the west. I turned and shot at the bird, and at that second, saw Harry standing there. Didn't know he was there …"

In the same interview, Cheney took full blame: "… I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry. And you can talk about all of the other conditions that existed at the time, but that's the bottom line. And there's no -- it was not Harry's fault. You can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.

Is the White House livid at Cheney's handling of it all?

Apparently, yes. According to one New York Times reporter:

"The tension between President Bush's staff and Mr. Cheney's has been palpable, with White House officials whispering to reporters about how they tried to handle the news of the shooting differently. Mr. McClellan, while being careful not to cross Mr. Cheney or his aides directly, has made a point of reminding reporters of how he dealt with Mr. Bush's bicycle accident last summer, when the president collided with a Scottish policeman at the G-8 summit.


"I immediately briefed the press on how the accident had happened and the condition of the police officer," who was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, Mr. McClellan said.

On Tuesday former Bush White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer went after the White House's handling of making information about the shooting public, saying, "It would have been better if the vice president and/or his staff had come out last Saturday night or first thing Sunday morning and announced it. It could have and should have been handled differently."

Cheney, in his interview with Fox's Hume, sustained that he thought his approach with the media "was the right call," and "still do[es]."

Cover-up in the early hours

We learned from ABC news that:


Sources close to the vice president say that there was actually a statement prepared either by Cheney, or with his help, to be delivered Sunday morning after the accident. It was something the White House suggested -- and might have been prepared with some White House help. But it was determined by his advisors and by him that morning that it was too "convoluted" and might not be the best way to proceed. They decided it might be best to have somebody who actually witnessed the accident explain what happened. For some reason, they thought that would seem more "credible," hence, the involvement of Katherine Armstrong. They now see that this was likely bad judgment.

Also, ThinkProgress explained that the White House knew for 22 hours that Cheney had shot Whittington and also delayed disclosing that he had suffered a heart attack.

A story loaded with holes

BarbinMD's diary on DailyKos summarized that ranch hostess Karen Armstrong's account of what she saw kept changing:

[F]rom the inside of a car, 100 yards from the scene, Armstrong neither saw nor heard Whittington announce his approach, he was "more bruised than bloody," and he was "bleeding profusely," he was "fine," and he didn't know, "if he was going to the hospital or the mortuary," there was "no drinking" and there was, "beer available," Cheney "urged" her tell her story on Saturday, and it was her family's "idea" on Sunday, except when it was her idea on Sunday. As clear as mud, isn't it?

Did Dick Cheney break any hunting rules?

Yes. According to numerous hunting pros and press reports, he broke two hunting rules: "He failed to buy a required stamp, and experts say hunters must always know what they're aiming at."

From the AP:


The Parks and Wildlife Department said Cheney and Whittington will be given warning citations for violating game law by not having an upland game bird stamp, a requirement that went into effect in September.


We always stress to anybody that before you make any kind of a shot, it's incumbent upon the shooter to assess the situation and make sure it's a safe shot," said Mark Birkhauser, president-elect of the International Hunter Education Association and hunter education coordinator in New Mexico. "Once you squeeze that trigger, you can't bring that shot back."

Political pundit Paul Begala -- also a longtime hunter from South Texas -- disputed many of the witness accounts of what happened:


It is not best practice -- in fact it's unsafe -- to send three guns into the field and to chase two coveys at once. I would never -- ever -- go chasing a second covey while someone else was occupied with a first covey. My experience is that safe quail hunters generally hunt no more than two guns in the field at a time and chase one covey at a time.

The Wall Street Journal noted that hunting injuries like Whittington's are extremely rare in Texas: "In 2005, there were more than one million hunting licenses issued in Texas, and about 30 reported accidents involving a firearm or bow that resulted in injury or death. Of those accidents, two were fatal, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said."


© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/32311/

zippy, you'll love this

http://www.cockeyed.com/images/whittington

Whoa there, Keri. I have limits. That poor guy's life is forever changed. Assuming he lives.

By the way, Brit Hume is an absolute jackass.

Dick Cheney is the quintessential “white man” depicted by Joseph Conrad in the novel “The Lagoon” Any Conrad readers out there?

http://www.dasma.dlsu.edu.ph/colleges/cla/...ol5no2/mata.asp

There can be no question he has a "Heart of Darkness".

Its incredible! The observations of humanity, made by Conrad, Wells, and Joseph Orwell are as relevant today as when they were first put on paper. Cheney seems to have this “colonial” nobility sense that he is above the law: That laws customs and regulations are for “those common folks. The arrogance of that man is despicable !

Less literary but pee your pants funny

scroll down to Jon Stewart's Valentines Day show

http://www.crooksandliars.com/