Manage updates with the Download AppFebruary 14, 2006 2:50 PM PST
Blogosphere declares open season on Cheney
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Cheney's accidental shooting of an attorney friend during a quail hunting foray in Texas on Saturday prompted quips from late-night television hosts such as Jon Stewart, David Letterman and Craig Ferguson. The jokes offended or tickled audiences, depending on their political beliefs, and skittered around the Web on Tuesday.
Video: Gates' cheap shot at Cheney?
During his keynote at the 2006 RSA Conference, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates took a tongue-in-cheek shot at the vice president.
"You can understand why this lawyer fellow let his guard down," Ferguson said. "Because if you're out hunting with a politician, you think, 'If I'm going to get it, it's going to be in the back.'"
On the "Late Show," David Letterman tied the shooting to another one of the administration's past controversies to poke fun at Cheney.
"Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It's Dick Cheney...but here is the sad part--before the trip Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy's request for body armor."
Cheney accidentally fired bird shot that struck 78-year-old attorney Harry Whittington in the face, neck and chest as the pair hunted for quail, Texas law enforcement officials say.
Controversy grew out of the vice president's expired hunting license and his failure to speak with police until 18 hours after the incident. The tone of the blogs turned gloomier when word came that a piece of bird shot circulated to Whittington's heart, causing a minor heart attack.
There was also speculation about whether the vice president had been drinking, an accusation Cheney denied.
"How do we know there was no alcohol?" Lawrence O'Donnell, a television producer and Democratic commentator, asked on The Huffington Post. "Cheney refused to talk to local authorities until the next day. No point in giving him a breathalyzer then. Every lawyer I've talked to assumes Cheney was too drunk to talk to the cops after the shooting. The next question for the White House should be: Was Cheney drunk?"
The Washington Post reported that both the Kenedy County, Texas, sheriff's department and the state have determined that alcohol did not appear to be a factor.
Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison, also on The Huffington Post, lamented that the "law and order administration" can justify hunting without proper licenses as well as eavesdropping on Americans without court orders.
"Anyone sense a pattern here?" Morrison wrote.
Some of the more notable bloggers on the right were quiet about the incident on Tuesday. There was nothing about the Cheney shooting on the Web sites of commentators Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly.
On Blogs for Bush, bloggers blamed the escalating controversy on the media.
"I can only wonder how different the reaction would be to this incident had it been a Democrat vice president," wrote Matt Margolis.
On the same site, Mark Noonan pointed out that Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank wore an orange hunting jacket on Keith Olberman's MSNBC show as proof of a liberal bias in the media.
"Imagine for a moment," Noonan wrote, "if a Republican commentator had worn a blue dress with a white stain back during Clinton's administration."
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150 comments
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Here's the difference between conservatives and liberals: conservatives want to put us all in jail, liberals--God forbid--want to rehabilitate us.
One law--one justice.
akin to a character assassination. Both attack the messenger as
a means to invalidate the message. Apparently liberal cannot
equal correct, or so goes the reasoning.
It's logically nonsensical.
But, it works pretty well, apparently.
I'm a moderate swing-voter... but... It seems the right nearly
always prefers character attacks to logical rebuttals.
House finally realized ducking and dodging was not doing it any
good. But, the GOP faithful on the Internet will likely keep right on
blaming the victim and the media.
"Imagine for a moment," Noonan wrote, "if a Republican commentator had worn a blue dress with a white stain (on the) back during Clinton's administration."
Was the parenthetical "(on the)" in the original blog (Noonan's piece isn't showing there) or did Greg Sandoval add it?
I think the word "back" goes with "during the Clinton administration," meaning "back in the days of the Clinton administration." I don't think the word "back" goes with "white stain," meaning that the white stain was on the back of the dress....please, let's hope not....
Thanks for the help. It's been fixed.
Greg Sandoval
All one has to do is see how Osma Bin Laden is responsible for 9/11 and yet we find ourselves in Iraq removing one U.S. puppet regime of Saddam Hussien and replacing it with another. Guess Ronald Reagan's "Freedom Fighters" didn't live up to their expectations.
I doubt that Dick will have his expired hunting liscense revoked, wouldn't want a Texas D.O.W. employee being the scapegoat for "Quailgate".
I'm surprised that Dick was using a shotgun and not the N.R.A. designated hunting assult rifle instead.
What else should we expect from a fat old drunk gimp with a bad heart!
A simple armed robbery gets multiple charges, all for the use of a weapon during the commision of a crime. Hunting without a proper license is a criminal offence. Shooting someone while during a crime is another crime in itself.
WHY IS CHANEY NOT UNDER ARREST.
Give yourself a break, pal. Cheney and company received the proper action when they were found to be lacking a migratory bird stamp... which they paid for, but the outfitter did not provide, according to my research. No other crime was committed.
You remind me of the guy I rear-ended in traffic a few years ago. Wet rainy day and he slammed on his brakes in the middle of an intersection. Sure, I hit him. Sure, it was my fault. But the luny old kodger couldn't understand why I wasn't being arrested. How about.... Because no crime was committed!
Crimes require intent. Can you prove that Cheney INTENDED to shoot his friend? If so, you may have a point. If not, you are just another confused and angry anti-Cheney mouth-spouter who also probably has an irrational fear of guns.
Arrested for mistakes.... LoL.... that's rich.
>>
Chaney did not accidentally fire anything. He pulled the trigger on purpose. That some might term his hitting something other than what he intended and accident, I would call it a clear case of personal negligence.
The handling of the incident after it took place is a case of Administrative misconduct and shows a clear case of cover-up. The only reason that's concievable is that Chaney was not in any kind of shape to talk to the authorities. Again the only concievable reason is that good ol' Dick had a few too many and would have been arrested on the spot. His only concern was that the old man would die and his kin would take him and the ranch to the cleaners.
Secret service: Its OK sir. We have the authority to deny entry to any law officer. We also have the authority to legally shoot them if they attempt to gain entry. Or for that matter if we feel threatened enough, after all, they might really be terrorists, sir.
Dick: Very good then. I think I'll have a night-cap and retire.
LK
outrage
over not getting the complete disclosure of an essentially none
event that no one really cares about. It was a minor hunting
incident, one most people would just ignore are go on with their
lives. But in Washington, there is a press corps of flaming idiots
for
whom a hangnail is a global incident. And to think that someone
actually pays their salaries.
And now we have the Cnet responses, once again trying to make
a non-event into something more than nothing. How dumb can
people get?
Hang on, we're about to find out.
back page story in the local paper. Probably not more than a
note in the police blotter. Because it was the Vice President it's
suddenly THE most important story in the world. So large it
seems to have its own gravitational field.
And the Washington Press Corps shows that it has no common
sense whatsoever by whining about not getting details for some
twenty hours after the fact. Gee, could it be that the Vice
President was busy making sure his friend, whom he'd just
accidentally shot, was going to survive the incident?
That's the national news media, though. It's all about ratings and
scandal sells big on both sides of the aisle.
bounds, Earl. You actually seem to think that calling the top news
story a 'non-event' will make it one. If it were a non-event you
would not be here making multiple comments about it. Speaking
of payrolls, are you on the GOP's?
It is a driver's responsibility not to lose control of their car and kill another driver, is it not? Yet when it happens accidentally, do we tell them they can never drive a car again?
Stop trying to demonize guns and Cheny. This was an accident plain and simple. Could he have been more cautious? Probably. Could drivers who try to visit the grocery store in the snow be more intelligent about their desicsion? Probably.
Unless Cheney committed a crime, there is no reason or justification for punishing him by revoking his constitutional right to own and use a firearm. Get over it.
Cheney should leave hunting to folks that can shoot straight and stick to getting some actual productive work done. Then again, if by Cheney's age you can't shoot straight you probably never will.
Perhaps Cheney would have fared better if he had fired blanks for the thrill. Better for the birds, better for his friend, better for the nation.
1. Cheney and his gun shot perfectly straight. There were no boomerang bullets.
2. Hunting in modern America is not about getting work done - it is about recreation and conservation. There is no expectation of work.
However, it would seem I was wrong. And it would appear that the folks who are causing it to have the greatest public interest are the protesters that the public (through the media) has any right to have any interest at all!
My suggestion to you conservatives out there: Just let it die a natural death. The media didn't shoot a weapon wounding someone. And posters to the blogosphere and this discussion group didn't either. The VP did and he deserves at least a some harranguing for that. He also deserves at least some grief over a decision to delay reporting the incident to the media and to his boss (Bush, that is); he's too public a figure to expect otherwise.
So all you conservatives out there .. sit back and watch. It'll die if you let it. Just stop trying to shift the blame and attention somewhere else (a tactic used a lot by this administration). You look silly doing it (just as the administration does whenever it tries).
mark d.
Cheney is supposed to be interviewed in a few moments. I hope he
doesn't continue to let the blame rest with Whittington. That would
be disgraceful.
-Iran is suspected of being capable or close to enriching weapons-grade fissible materials.
-Many followers of Islam around the globe are outraged over tasteless and baseless depictions of their key religious figure, considered by many to be horrible blasphemy.
-The PS3 may finally be unveiled (!!) at the Taipei Game Show.
-The freaking Olympic games!
And that's just a quick inventory of four of the things in this world that are many orders of magnitude more important than a hunting accident and the American media's apparently bruised ego.
It was fantastic for a quick laugh, but for the love of God, move on. As of 2:21 PM CDT, the Cheney story had 4,509 news hits on Google News. The riots have 1,248. Doesn't anyone else see anything wrong with this?
It's a micro incident, but then the micro minds get all upset.
hunting incident is not important. They are, of course, wrong.
The incident is important because it reveals the belief system of
this administration -- that its members can do no wrong.
Whether the member is Cheney negligently shooting a
companion, Michael Brown making reservations at an elite
restaurant while people die in New Orleans, an Ohio
representative introducing legislation written by Jack Abramoff,
etc., the pattern is the same. These people engage in wrongful
acts and then deny any responsibility for having doing so.
Anyone who has not watched the newly added video of Bill Gates
joking about Cheney's stand-by shooting should. It is funny.
If the media (& the DNC) had it's way, Cheney would be followed around with a cameraman 24/7- so one lucky network would make a reality show out of it. Good ol' sensationalism- Need to make those marketing $.
However given the whereabouts, this is not hunting per see, for the intended targets were caged birds! on a closed range, so alas it was more like shooting fattened turkeys at a farm!(a rich man's forest shoot without the trekking, and as many victims that money can buy or bankroll!)
Given the extent of the bird shot injuries reported by the media, the shot range spread would indicate that it was close, that one would have been blind not to see the victim!
Soon, it will be time to send in the legal total cleaning team, to bankrupt the shooter!
Oh well, we only use the word accident to absolve ourselves from blame!, but unfortunately any where guns are in use, that word should never be used, as it implies the one who pulls the trigger is blame free!
As for any public figure, like the VP cheney, you get what you ask for, and ask for what you get!, like all horses for courses!
mark d.
Just what scrap of fraud are you using for proof this time?
You're a little bit late to change the trend. So you might as well join the bandwagon and enjoy the ride. What a show!!! Another great performance by the troupe!!!