Mickey

Can't help it, anytime I read one of you posts which unerringly praises/defends the Bushies, "ball sweat" immediately suggests itself. I think having a VP who is so careless, so negligent that he shoots a guy in the face and then imposes a news blackout while they all get their stories straight, is interesting. About the best spin that can be put on this for Cheney by his legions of ball washers is "...just a hunting accident..." which, without fail, is exactly your tack. Did the media shoot Bill Whittington in the face? Lets blame them anyway because, afterall, they are spending a lot of time on a story that is a negative one for the administration and that can't be tolerated. No wonder your annoyed.

She was interviewed by everyone who investigated that tragedy, she just didn't go on Larry King. Her husband committed suicide because his reputation was being savaged by the right wing media, in particular the Wall Street Journal. She isn't being "loyal" to a "gang", she was not willing to lend her grief to the same lunatics whose enthusiasm for assassinating the character of any democrat led directly to her husband's death. Even Kenneth Starr, not exactly a friend "loyal" to the Clinton "gang", concluded, after 3 years trying to find to the contrary, that it was simply a very sad episode of suicide. Even "loyal Clinton gang member" Ann Coulter has referred to the Foster conspiracy theory as "discredited". Like I said, anyone who, even now, thinks Foster's death was anything other than a suicided needs to check themselves into a clinic and get help. At the least, they should have to wear a sticker on their lapels saying "I think Vince Foster was murdered" so that we know they are crazy and that we shouldn't take anything they say seriously.

I can't imagine him switching parties. Hillary will run, lose a few primaries early and drop out. Whoever the democratic nominee is will choose another VP. NY is going to be in the democratic column anyway, what electoral votes would Hillary bring in that aren't going to the democrats anyway? Could she bring in enough women voters to cancel out the male voters she would lose for the dems? I highly doubt it. I hear much more talk about her candidacy from republicans than I do among democrats. I keep waiting for McCain to distance himself from Bush but he is another one of these "independent" republicans who are "deeply troubled" and who have "grave concerns" over this or that administration screw up. When push comes to shove though, they enthusiastically geld themselves. Really, having three branches of government was such a bother. So much simpler to just have one.

I used to say to myself, "Self, that SilverNRed is so absolutely devoted to the Bush Cult that they could shoot a guy in the face and he would find nothing wrong with it and in fact, would attack and mock anyone who thought maybe such a thing was not exactly their finest hour." Call me prescient. What do you use to get the stench of their ball sweat off of your breath? Trident?

Did Dick Cheney shoot him too? Don't take this personally but the Foster thing was investigated about 18 times and even Clinton hating goons reached the same conclusion, it was a suicide. In fact, shrinks use Foster's suicide as a short hand test for paranoid schizophrenia. It's in the DSM. Not even Pat Robertson thinks it was anything other than a suicide. So that puts you one step crazier than Pat Robertson. What lofty ground you occupy. "Clinton lover" ?? Oh well, I used to get "N..... lover" all the time when I lived in Greensboro, NC so I guess I can get used to that.

Did you guys not read the story that was linked? "The program did not show all of the pictures. It deemed some of them too graphic for air, Carey said. Among the images broadcast were pictures of naked men who appeared to have suffered physical trauma, one of whom the report said had 11 nonlethal bullet wounds in his buttocks. Other pictures show corpses, one of which the program said a U.S. Army report identified as one of three men killed during a riot over living conditions at the prison. According to the TV report, two Abu Ghraib soldiers said that guards were ordered to use lethal rounds on prisoners after they ran out of rubber bullets trying to halt the riot. One image depicts two women described by a guard to "Dateline" as prostitutes held at the prison for two days. In one picture, the breasts of one of the women are exposed. Another grisly image shows a corpse that appears to have had a section torn from its head, while another one features a man whose arms are covered in purple bruises. Also broadcast was video that appears to show a prisoner -- handcuffed to a metal door -- repeatedly slamming his head full force against the door. Though the guards appear to have videotaped the incident from several vantage points, no one is seen intervening to stop the prisoner. The network said the man allegedly had mental problems and frequently covered himself in feces, but he was not given any psychiatric care." Fraternity prank? What freak show fraternity were you guys in?

I missed it, is there someone out there arguing that violent protests are okay? I mean besides the violent protesters themselves?

Whoa, I just go the chills.

That'd be a hunt to televise on ESPN.

Little things, like, "had you had any alcoholic beverages in the 24 hour period leading up to the incident"? Or maybe something along the lines of "Were you taking any medications which effected your ability to tell the difference between a 78 year old man and a 10 ounce bird? Questions like that. There are only two ways of questioning a witness, direct examination and cross examination. Inadequate tools though they may be in terms of finding out the truth, they are often all we have. As between the two, hostile or adversarial cross examination is my preference. Its what the media should always do. We hear enough self serving spin from sycophants and shills as it is.

No legal need obviously but from a political standpoint, its probably a pretty good idea. I don't think stories like this go away on their own. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. The longer he stalls on making a public statement, the longer it takes to get to the middle part and closer to the end part.

If by "hostile" you mean, "not willing to mop the sweat off of their scrotums", then yes, "media" only includes those "hostile" to the Bush administration. This may come as a surprise to you but adversarial interviews usually pull out a lot more truth than the ball washing kind.

Cheney continues to refuse to be interviewed by the media about his having shot Harry Whittington in the face and instead is going to be interviewed on Fox. Originally he planned to subject himself to a no holds barred interview to be conducted by his wife but he ultimately decided no to risk it and opted for the friendlier folks over at FOX.

not in a family paper

Awwww, c'mon, they are all whores using abortion as a form of birth control. Awwww, c'mon, they are all whores using abortion as a form of birth control. Awwww, c'mon, they are all whores using abortion as a form of birth control. Awwww, c'mon, they are all whores using abortion as a form of birth control. Awwww, c'mon, they are all whores using abortion as a form of birth control. Awwww, c'mon, they are all whores using abortion as a form of birth control. Awwww, c'mon, they are all whores using abortion as a form of birth control. If you repeat a talking point often enough, doesn't it become the truth?

I think we can all be thankful for the wealth of new Dick Cheney nicknames and political cartoons this incident will fuel. "Dead Eye Dick" for example. I think that from now on any depiction of him in a cartoon should include an Elmer Fudd hat. "QMD's" (quails of mass destruction). I can't wait to see what professional comedians will do this one. You have to admit, "Vice President Shoots Friend" is not the kind of headline you see everyday.

Not that it will solve the problem in Iraq or anything but I think it is pretty clear that he broke the basic safety rules. It does provide people with an opportunity to discuss hunting safety and that is probably a good thing. Based on my limited hunting experience, the rules here are first, you're responsible, as the shooter, for knowing no person is in your line of fire before you pull the trigger. Second, in a quail hunt, for basic safety purposes you keep a clear mental picture of where your fellow hunters are at every moment. Based on that mental picture of where people are, you create a safe fire area, a range in front of you covering some number of degrees where you know no one else is. You do not fire out of that range without first making sure it is clear. It appears here that the birds flushed, Cheney aimed and tracked them 180 degrees so that he was basically facing the opposite direction from where he started. He was then firing into an area where obviously had no idea whether it was safe or not. He is lucky no one got killed. I imagine that among hunters this particular manner of screw up will forever be called, "pulling a Chaney".

Not his fault, he was told that the guy in the orange vest was a covey of quail cleverly disguised. Chalk it up to bad intel and give him a pass.

Lets see, slave labor, now what could that have to do with Nazis helping out German Industrialists...hmmm.....how would that relate to individuals, oh say the slaves for example, being taken advantage of by the Nazis for the benefit of German Industries....hmmmm.....I dunno, I'm stumped.

My first response to you was short, impersonal and without insult, your response was insulting and accusatory. Not the first time I have tried to deal evenly with you and then had to put up with that and I'm tired of it so I decided it was no longer worth it trying to have a discussion with you. My first response: Your response, at least the a$$clown part of it: You are right, I don't usually call you or your argument stupid but since that is usually your response to me as was the case here, I decided to join in on your fun and adopt your style. It is very liberating.

Pharmacies do not want to lose the business and they have a powerful lobby from Wal Mart to Eckard's to every grocery store chain you can name. People getting prescriptions is great walk-in business creating lots of foot traffic. Much, much money to be made. Those businesses wouldn't just lose all these oh-so-painful moral choices being mercilessly forced upon them, they would lose the business period. If faced with that choice, Wal Mart would change their minds faster than you can say Pat Robertson.

I'm not sure what they can do since they can't force real hearings, hell, they can't even force the witness to testify under oath. That having been said, one thing they could do is at least question the AG like they mean it. It won't happen.

Keeping the sheep in the pen I can't resist having some fun with this one : The gelding of Senator Specter having been long ago accomplished, Rove is moving to jar the testicles of the remaining Republican Senators lest any vestige of Senatorial power survive. I guess it was only a matter of time before they started eating their own. I predict that Republican Senators will pronounce their grave concerns over the NSA tapping accompanied by sober expressions of how troubled they are by the whole mess but in the end will do nothing about those grave concerns and willingly lay down to be snipped into submissive, weenie-less sycophants. I'd watch the hearings but I don't want my kids to stumble into the living room and accidentally see Senator Spector taking the chrome off of the Attorney General's trailer hitch. Rather than spend all that money on senators, their elections, their staff, their gyms, their retirement packages and endless perks, we should just run down to staples and buy a sturdy rubber stamp for $1.95, send it to the White House and tell the Senators, all of them, to get real jobs. We are down to one branch of government hardly troubled by the straggly weeds the other branches have become. And as for the Democratic Senators, shame on all of you for not providing a credible alternative, for failing to be able to ask a set of decent questions a first year prosecutor could write in his sleep.

Yes, there couldn't possibly be any position short of the extremes now could there? It couldn't possibly be true that government interference in one endeavor could be pernicious and in another, a blessing. It must be all perfectly good or all perfectly bad. I either fly to Cuba or declare myself in favor of Wal Mart determining public policy with regard to access to medicine. History has shown what happens when there is no regulation of business at all. Anyone who would be in favor of zero regulations of any and all businesses is an idiot. By the same token, anyone who thinks regulation is always the answer is just as big of an idiot. Of course, since I am in favor of people being able to get the medicines their doctors prescribe, I am a Cuba bound fascist in your book. Makes sense.

The medications at issue can be of value in treating other conditions besides pregnancy but why should we listen to doctors, what the eff do they know? Lets let Wal Mart executives decide those issues because doctors just don't get it. If Wal Mart can decide not to dispense medicine A, there is no reason why some other pharmacy couldn't refuse to dispense medicine B. Sooner or later they'll get to a medicine that you need and maybe then you'll give a damn. I won't even bother to bring up that what they are doing is specifically illegal in a number of states but why should a little thing like breaking the law matter? Clearly, that no longer matters to the right anymore. As for your analogy, it certainly was obvious, obviously stupid. You see, labor unions are large institutions too. So you proposed an analogy using two powerful institutions pitted against one another in a discussion about large institutions and individuals.