Forum Moderators: open
Rumour of a second shooter on the grassy knoll.
<mod note> As incredibly tempting as it may seem to take political shots on this one, lets try and show some restraint.</mod note>
>>I'm not talking about Court TV cases
Please see my last sentence in #28.
Associated Press, via Yahoo!: Hunter Shot by Cheney Has Heart Attack [news.yahoo.com]
The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he had a "minor heart attack," a hospital official said Tuesday.
Whittington...had been moved to a "step-down unit" Monday after doctors decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them.
Apparently the ones in his heart also. These are steel, ain't they? X-rays anybody?
Of course Cheney won't be charged with anything; it was an accident. My point was that the law makes no distinction between shooting someone with a shotgun vs. a handgun or rifle. The man was shot, save the spin.
If they are, stick the fellow in an MRI machine and pull the pellets out that way!
Stewart: Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?Corddry: Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush. And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington's face.
Stewart: But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?
Corddry: Jon, in a post-9/11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak.
Stewart: That's horrible.
Corddry: Look, the mere fact that we're even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know "how" we're hunting them. I'm sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little "covey" of theirs.
Stewart: I'm not sure birds can laugh, Rob.
Corddry: Well, whatever it is they do -- coo -- they're cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.
Even The New York Times used the word "peppered"; so did the Washington Post. I can't imagine anyone accusing either of them of spinning in favor of a conservative.
7.5 shot from a 28 gauge at 30 yards.
Chenneyquiddick: 24 hours before officially announcing that the VP had shot another human being?!
Rather misleading comparison.... Kennedy delayed reporting his accident to the police at a time when something might still have been done to save the girl. In this case, the accident was reported to the police immediately, and the party made sure the man got immediate medical attention.
What's got the press's panties in a bunch on this one is that they(esp the White House press corps!) were not immediately informed!
The old guy's feeling this close to his heart. He's a tough #*$!. Let him sound like one.
Anyway, there's little chance that myself or anyone I know will go hunting with the Vice-president of the United States any time soon, so what the hec... if you want to hang out with Elmer Fudd, you shouldn't complain when you get "peppered". That said, I hope the current pepperee lives through the experience.
There are rumours floating around online suggesting it wasn't reported immediately because Cheney was intoxicated at the time. They gave him time to sober up. It puts a very different slant on things.
Hmmm, rumors floating around online. I wonder how that happens.
I have not read or heard anywhere that there was any delay in notifying the police. It is the press who weren't notified immediately.
As the saying goes: Never tick off some one who buys ink by the barrel.
I have not read or heard anywhere that there was any delay in notifying the police.
Good point. Any idea of when the police were actually notified? I haven't noticed that in the news reports (haven't been following it too closely, though).
Hey, rumours - it's the blogosphere, man. The current future of the net, at least for the next year or so ;-)
I have not read or heard anywhere that there was any delay in notifying the police.
There was not delay in notifying the police about the incident. Apparently, the delay was in filing a report about various details. (Some suggest the VP was treated differently in this regard, but others say that is not at all unusual in such a case of a non-fatal hunting accident.) But I think the main thing that is confusing everyone is the press complaints about REPORTERS (the press, not the police!) not being told right away. Rather a different business.
There are rumours floating around online suggesting it wasn't reported immediately because Cheney was intoxicated at the time.
Again, let's be clear about what we mean by "reported".
As for this rumor. No one is saying this is based on anything said by anyone who was there. Rather, it is based solely on the suggestion of Lawrence O'Donnell (who oddly says he did not "suggest" it, only said it was a "likelihood"?!.... anyone want to ask him about the meaning of "is"?)
And where did he get this idea? Well, he says he talked to several lawyers (though he won't name any of them) all of whom suggested this was a very likely explanation. He compared it to Ted Kennedy's not reporting the accident at Chappaquiddick (to the police, in his case!) in a timely manner because he was drunk.
Actually, I can't summarize him very well. If you're curious, you might check out his Wednesday (Feb 15) interview with Hugh Hewitt, posted on <Snip [webmasterworld.com]>
[edited by: lawman at 6:06 pm (utc) on Feb. 16, 2006]
[edit reason] No Blog Links [/edit]
There was not delay in notifying the police about the incident.
Now that some of the details and the time-line have trickled out, it seems that technically you're right. The local police were notified within an hour. However, the local police felt no urge to investigate things until the next day.
Maybe things work differently in Texas than most other parts of the western world. In most countries, a shooting incident of any sort will have the police on the scene within minutes of the report, interviewing witnesses, the shooter, and the shootee (if he's still alive).
Judging from some of the posts earlier in the thread, it seems getting "peppered" with a shotgun is fairly common in Texas. Maybe that explains it.
When you think of the stereotype of Texas as deserted and uninhabited wilderness, add a ton of mesquite trees and you have Kenedy County. The county is nearly the size of Rhode Island but has a population of around 500 people. I would dare say that there are more people on the highway passing through from South Texas to the Rio Grande Valley than there are living in the county at any given time.
We're talking about an extremely remote area where hunting is just about the only industry around.
Regarding Whittington and his statement, the difference between the response of the 'victim' and the people attempting to use him as a political pawn in a wild goose chase speaks volumes.
sung to Aerosmith's, "Jaime's got a gun"
