in his tv comments, cheney had the nerve to insinuate that other people were at fault by repeatedly saying he can't blame the other people who were there as if he was holding something back. he kept beating around the bush instead of just accepting responsibility. scumbag
Man Shot In Accident After Laughing At Cheney (AP) LAFAYETTE, Colo. Hours after laughing about Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting mishap, Josh Kayser was himself shot by a friend during a hunting expedition. The 21-year-old Lafayette man was taken to the hospital Monday night after his girlfriend accidentally shot him while they were trailing a raccoon that had been preying on chickens on his family's property. "I read that thing about the vice president and said to myself 'how can you shoot your friend with your gun?' And look what happened," he said Tuesday. Kayser was crouched down to look under a shed where he thought a wounded raccoon was hiding, and his 17-year-old girlfriend accidentally shot him with a .22-caliber rifle. Police have not identified the girlfriend.
The headlines should read: Crack-Crazed Cheney goes on Murderous Texas Rampage! Millions evacuated as Texas Governor declares entire state a disaster area. The fate of the entire world hangs in the balance.
Saturday, Feb. 18, 2006 TIME Poll: Cheney's Latest Stats Here are some results from this week's TIME poll Almost two-third of Americans (65%) think Vice President Dick Cheney should have taken immediate responsibility for shooting incident Dick Cheney approval rating 29%; President Bush approval rating 40% 7-in-10 (69%) Say Shooting Incident Has Had 'No Effect' on Their Overall Opinion of the Vice President; About One-Fourth (24%) Say it Has Had a 'More Negative' Effect More Than Half of Americans (56%) Do Not Think Cheney Was Trying to Hide Something By Waiting to Disclose the Incident; However, More Than Half (58%) Say He is Too Secretive New York, NY - Almost two-thirds of Americans (65%) think Vice President Dick Cheney should have immediately taken public responsibility for last week's shooting accident on a quail-hunting expedition in Texas, according to a new TIME poll. Americans are narrowly divided on the way the Vice President has handled the situation. About half (52%) approve, while a little more than two-in-five (42%) disapprove, according to the TIME poll. The latest national TIME poll of 1,001 adults was conducted on February 15-16, following the Vice President's first interview with Fox News, where he broke his silence about the shooting incident. Cheney's Approval Rating 29%: The shooting incident had little impact on the Vice President's job approval rating, according to the TIME poll. Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Americans approve of Cheney's handling of his job (41% disapprove). This is little changed from November (32% approve-45% disapprove). Cheney's second term ratings are in contrast to his October 2004 rating of 51% approve-38% disapprove, right before his re-election. About 7-in-10 (69%) say the recent shooting incident has had "no effect" on their overall opinion of the Vice President; about one-quarter (24%) say it has had a "more negative" effect. 56% Don't Think Cheney Was Trying to Hide Something By Waiting to Disclose Shooting Incident: A little more than half of Americans (56%) do not think the Vice President was trying to hide something from the public by waiting to disclose the shooting incident, about 2-in-5 (39%) think he was. More than half of Americans (58%) say the Vice President is too secretive, (33% disagree). Americans Are Split on Whether the Vice President Has the Country's Best Interest at Heart: Americans are split on whether the Vice President has the country's best interest at heart (46% agree-45% disagree). 41% Think Cheney is More of an Asset to President Bush, 37% Think He is Damaging: About two-in-five Americans (41%) think Cheney is an asset to President Bush; while slightly less (37%) think he is damaging, according to the TIME poll. Bush's Approval Rating 40%: The shooting incident had little impact on President's Bush's job approval rating (40% approve-54% disapprove), little changed from late January (41%-55%), just before his State of the Union Address. The President's handling of the war on terrorism (46% approve-50% disapprove), slid from (47% approve-48% disapprove) just three weeks ago. Cheney and 'The Leak': Americans are unclear as to whether Cheney had anything to do with the leaking of a CIA officer's name whose husband publicly opposed the war in Iraq. About one-third of Americans (36%) think Cheney did have something to do with the leak; a similar number (34%) think he didn't and another third (30%) are unsure.
I would be interested to see a poll of what percentage of people think Cheney pulls all the strings in the White House.
Bonfire of the inanities By John Burtis Sunday, February 19, 2006 When Harry Whittington strode out of the Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, wearing a blazer, a crisp white shirt and a smile, as well as a bruise and a few small scabs, to face the media last Thursday, the whole artful and painfully constructed edifice of the liberal communications industry and their Democratic hand maidens came crashing down around them. With Harry walking into the daylight under his own power, alone, sans wheelchair, without an iron lung, without a company of white suited orderlies and paramedics to brace him, with nary an IV bottle and hose in view, without sunglasses, without constant medical attention, without a single tremor or palsied movement, without a give-away halt to his gait, with not a single visible bandage in sight, with his hair combed perfectly, the jig was up on all of the liberal mediaâs monkey business and clowning around. It also became painfully obvious, even for the most backward and ill educated red state rube, that the daily death watch was over, that the high stakes mortality pool had come to an end, that the heart attack which was expected to claim the life of Mr. Whittington was firmly relegated to the past and that the high-temperature media frenzy was instantly put on ice. And, further, that this particular instrument of destruction - this latest and greatest, almost nuclear, weapon, which had fallen into the hands of the Democrats and their media tools courtesy of the Vice President, who appears to be so heedless of their power and influence that he tended to his friend before he deigned to inform them, the loyal liberal protectors and Myrmidons of progressive thought - was spent. But for the Democrats, even for the few Democratic political experts schooled in the arcane arts and courtesies of hunting, and for their slavish lackeys, it had been quite a ride â a lengthy sin wave of peaks and troughs - and had lasted for the better part of a week. They had found that a Vice President of the United States had waited almost 24 hours before he notified the media of his heedless and reckless attempt on the life of another human. They had uncovered the fact that he had failed to obtain a seven dollar quail stamp for his hunting license. And, contrary to the accepted conventions which govern every known and accepted aspect of high-level media relations inside and outside the beltway regarding everything the media deems important and then some, the sitting Vice President had scoffed at the power of the White house press corps and related the incident to a small town newspaper â a paper rarely seen and almost never read by this august coterie of earnest seekers and writers of the truth. Well, concerning the latter, at least when fellow liberals, progressives, left-wing dictators, "peace" activists, the feminist fringe, Ward Churchill, anti-Republican whistle-blowers, towering geniuses like Al Gore and Sandy Berger and the like are fondly mentioned, glorified and interviewed favorably. In their Herculean efforts to lend further "gravitas" to the beleaguered story, the media trundled out grizzled hunting experts, college-trained weather men and women, experts on color recognition and the reasons for the use of international orange on hunting outfits, the problems to be encountered from lead poisoning, ornithologists and the year of the expected Texas quail extinction, medical experts and the grave damage to be expected from the horrors of bird shot, cardiologists, Neil Young and the needles and the damage done, schematic diagrams of shooting victims, savvy attorneys to discourse on the legal ramifications of the expected charges for attempted murder and great bodily harm, pettifoggers to discuss the upcoming civil penalties, constitutional scholars to describe this latest nail in the proverbial coffin of impeachment, pundits to describe in glib detail the replacement of Dick Cheney for this strategic gaffe of immense proportions and experts in finer points of haberdashery to explain the meaning of the pink tie - the full list may never be fully tabulated because of its absolutely daunting size and the fact that it was pounded out in 24 news cycles for nearly a week. Of course, Dick Cheney, in what was called a pre-meditated effort to kick additional amounts of sharpened silicates in the already reddened, and blackened, eyes of big media and the press corps, gave an exclusive TV interview to Brit Hume on the dreaded Fox News. This act caused an apoplectic shock wave to reverberate through CNN, and caused this lockstep liberal Democratic mouthpiece to bawl loudly in protest, thus adhering a further wry comedic twist to the Schadenfreude already attached to the entire media hunting ship of fools. The Lazarus-like arising of Harry Whittington, who had existed in state of both being alive and dead at the same time in the eyes of big and all-knowing media, like Schroedingerâs cat, or is it Dick Whittingtonâs cat, had dashed it all to hell and an entire weekâs worth of work and programming, of advance men being thrown ahead for funerals, trials and similar pursuits was dashed â thrown into the dustbin and down the drain because Harry Whittington had the temerity to survive, to walk out and face the music and to look good, dammit. And then, seen by the media kingpins, Democratic operatives, and walking parodies like Alec Baldwin, as an effort to pile on and as part of the ongoing cover-up directed from the lowliest small town deputy to the highest reaches of government, the Kenedy County Sheriffâs Office issued a report exonerating the Vice President, which called for no further action, calling the unfortunate incident, an "accident." Can you imagine the cheekiness of that modest rural office, failing to knuckle under to the vastly superior forward-looking kingpins? And on the world front, as the hunting accident is still being rehashed for inconsistencies, investigated for further nefarious activities and the possible consumption of, gasp, a beer in the woods, the cartoon wars go on, Iran continues its nuclear build up, North Korea remains a menace, Hamas continues its activities to destroy Israel, we have helicopters down off the African coast, the UN remains a rotten borough, Islamist terrorists are still killing people in Iraq and the Philippines and the beat goes on. But at home the US press burns in its own bonfire of inanities and it wonât step out of the fireplace or look outside its ridiculously small box because there was a hunting accident and somebodyâs got to pay.
We can see that the polls are reflecting the way in which Americans are viewing Cheney thus far. Is this the fault of the MSM? What if in fact, Dick did something wrong, or illegal, etc. Would you want to know? Would you want the press to ignore the executive office, simply because they say they did nothing wrong? If this was the Clinton Administration, and Gore did the same thing, would you want the press to back off? What is so bad about the press doing their job, to investigate, to question authority, to do their very best to discover the truth and keep people informed. Apparently Mary Matalin doesn't like it, she compared a TV reporter to a Muslim extremist. Mary Matalin Tells White House Correspondent David Gregory He Went On A "Jihad" Against Cheney... Notice she said, Jihad, not crusade? If Cheney has nothing to hide, why can't he stand before the press and answer their questions? Do this. For the sake of argument, take the position Cheney has done something wrong. Then look at everything that has happened, time line, way in which the investigation by local cops was performed, discrepancies in statements, comments from hunters, etc. and examine the facts, as we know them. Then take into account how this administration is the most secretive perhaps ever, making the concept of transparency in government moot.... The continual attempt to muzzle the press, be they left or right, is anti America in my opinion. I doubt the founding Fathers would have supported such attempts to silence dissent and a free press to do whatever they want.
Big loser in this whole affair? Bush? Nope, it took spotlight off his failures. Cheney? No one really cares about him, he'll nver run for office again. Nope, the big loser was the White House press corps, who looked like a bunch of whiny little self-important twerps, no doubt an accurate depiction but one they don't seem to appreciate. Of course the networks couldn't care less about what their few remaining viewers think and have long demonstrated their contempt for their viewers by continuing to shove annoying assholes like Dan Rather and Bryant Gumble in our faces. Those guys now seem positively attractive, compared to the likes of the pathologically self-important David Gregory or the reptilian Terry Moran. I give Cheney credit for understanding that the mainstream media are only interesting in trashing the administration, not in rpeorting actual news. Giving an exclusive to Fox and its anchor Brit Hume was a smart move. Personally, I wish Bush would stonewall the network jerks in his news conferences and treat them like that pathetic Helen Thomas.
The biggest loser is actually Harry Whittington, the bigest winner is American Tort Reform Association and their supporters. By shooting a lawyer Cheney finally demonstrated that this administration is dead serious about the issue.
=================== Good points & agree with the lawyer himself, its the lawyers fault. Not to play a blame game or excuse the lack of a $ 7.oo quail stamp, but to further prevent a similiar acident; local news paper noted the sun & Texas gully played a role in accident. So they got the safety orange vest right but; ,we always hand waved at one another, wave meaning i see you, dont shoot me accidently. And if a hand wave isnt returned, meaning i dont see you & may accidently shoot you, then call the person by name. Even a right wing conservative seldom will shoot a lawyer who calls you by your name. So agree with Harry the lawyer who didnt sue/go to court, the lawyer failed to make his position known in quail killing field, sun glare just helped throw light on lawyers mistake. However a disadvantage of truths like that; it doesnt smear republicans, it makes the lawyer take the blame, it doesnt smear republicans, or smear Bush administration. And worst of all ,that truth may prevent a similiar accident; and thus doesnt smear 2nd ammendmen or smear hunters.