The bird shot moved just this much, that’s all…
Hunter shot by Cheney has heart attack — Geez. I thought this guy was ready to go home. Now apparently the bird shot is moving around his body mysteriously.
This story is just getting better.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — 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.
Peter Banko, the hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, said Harry Whittington had the heart attack early Tuesday while being evaluated.
He said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a birdshot pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization. Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week.
I really don’t have a problem with Dick shooting his friends. His friend is a lawyer. Too bad there wasn’t return fire.
to gquaglia how can you be center when you say us liberals “hate america”? sounds light extremist right to me like that crazy anti-masturbation guy from a while back this is his blog he can do what he wants with it and if your side cant take crticism theb may they langish in arrogance
I think we should now ban all shotguns and call it the Whittington bill. If the Vice President who was once the Secretary of Defense accidentally shoots someone with one of these, it really must be to dangerous for the general populice.
There is absolutely no reason for people to get a gun-control burr up their tokus about this. It was a simple hunting accident which does occur even with people that are very cautious.
That said, when you get past the death-grief-tragedy-involuntary manslaughter thing, I find this situation incredibly entertaining. How often does the Vice President accidentally plug his buddy who happens to be a lawyer? This is situation is begging to be made into comedy. Yes, I hope the lawyer lives and is not permanently damaged, but am I the only one who finds this thing comedic?
BTW, I image the caption for this picture right from Get Smart: “I almost missed him by that much”
….and now reading the other post on this from a day or two ago, apparently John already thought of the Get Smart line…
34 – Thomas – “Just a simple hunting accident” … duh!
In the first place, the shootee could die as a consequence of this ‘simple accident’… it is not nearly the “he got peppered pretty good” hope-it-will-not-be noticed story that they gve us in the beginning, when he has pellets as deep as his heart.
Aside from that…. ‘just a simple hunting accident’… well, the same page that I list earlier with reference to safe hunting guidelines also lists 540+ hunting related deaths in Texas alone. There is no such thing as a ‘simple’ hunting accident.
Al Gore taking Saudi Dollars over this weekend to trash America not a bigger story than this?
I forgot the media swings way way to left.
The blue on the edges will wake up the red in the middle come election day again again agin……the left will never learn.
Obviously the VP is completely incapable of gun control. That’s the problem. Any slight error and lack of gun control can blow a guy away. He also needs to work on his war control.
-iNova
“I forgot the media swings way way to left.”
I love that line. So easily disproved it’s funny, unless you lump all people left of extreme right (most bloggers are centrist) into “the media”.
Al Gore = no-one really, not any more. No more than any other politian.
Dick Cheney = Vice President of the USA.
Ok so just from a who it involves point of view – This story is more important.
How about the content? Well Al Gore may (or may not) have taken Saudi money. Yes that is potentially serious. Of course it might not be good to throw stones here as the Bush family has been taking money from the Saudi royals for years (proven, there is no dispute here).
Moving on from that – Dick Cheney has accidentally shot a man. Ok, it was an accident. I can understand that. However he has shown no remorse, and might actually end up having then mans death on his hands (its possible).
So – vague political scandal with not too many concrete facts to it VS death of a man.
I’d go with the second being a better story atm. The first might develop into something interesting however. More evidence is needed.
So the VP Shoots Hunting Buddy story is unsurprisingly more important. It’s not hard to work out. John’s delight in seeing Cheney potentially in the crap is a little tasteless concidering the life of a man is at stake.. but that doesn’t make the story less important.
An interesting point in this story is that one of the leaders of the “law and order” party in the US didn’t even bother to obtain a proper hunting license.
Several posts have referred to this as an “accident”. Sorry, but it wasn’t an accident. Slipping on the ice might be an accident.
accident – anything that happens by chance without an apparent cause,
The shooter in this case did not take all reasonable precautions to prevent hitting another person. He apparently admitted being unaware of where the other members of his party were. That rises to the level of negligence, not accident.
The interesting, and scary question of this is, was alcohol involved? The Secret Service prevented the local sheriff’s office from talking to the Vice President for 14 hrs, long enough to sober up sufficiently. It is not inconceivable that liquor is a contributing factor, three old friends out together, it is cool outside, private property, no other hunters, press, or witnesses, the SS keeping everybody at bay. But we will never know because the Secret Service prevented the Deputies from interviewing Cheney. Anyone think they might be charged with Obstructing Police?
“gquaglia how can you be center when you say us liberals “hate america”?”
Read my post again, I said liberal Idologs and U.S. haters, as in 2 different groups. I don’t belive liberals hate american, but there are several posters here how do.
All of those posts, and the libs around here proved nothing.
Point of fact: The guy that got shot was negligent, not Cheney. For those of you who have never hunted, it is the responsibility of everyone in a hunting party to let everyone else know where they are. It is not the charge of a shooter to verify a line of sight clear of others in his party (when not in a public area), unless he has been notified that there is someone in his way.
I’m not saying this is a great system, I’m saying this is how things are.
As for the comments about the content of the blog, this thing isn’t nearly as popular as when it was mainly about technology… or when it was actually edited by JCD. Calling this a blog is a stretch of the term as is.
I consider it more of a sounding board for libs who can’t make a point, but want advice about technology.
James, I think the problem you have is that you have no sense of humor. It’s apparent to me. First off, most of the “editors” are libertarians and all are fairly conservative when it comes to fiscal, borders, free speech, bill of rights and other normally conservative issues. It does’t mean they like Bush or Cheney or DeLay or whomever. That’s old-fashioned knee-jerk party politics.
As for the popularity of the blog, since I brought on the contributing editors the blog readership went from 115,000 page views (Dec. 2004) to 1.1 million page views a month (Dec. 2005). It’s currently running out pages at just under a gigabyte per day! So I have no idea what you’re thinking regarding popularity.
Actually, Cheney’s silence is only prudent for someone who may be charged with manslaughter. I saw that the NYT demanded a grand jury to investigate the hunting “accident” if the man dies.
And it was an accident, just like the many auto accidents that happen every day. (I don’t know where you found your definition, Mr. Fusion, but The American Heritage Dictionary includes, “Something that occurs unexpectedly or unintentionally.”) And just like an auto accident, if someone dies from a hunting accident, a manslaughter charge is a potential outcome.
Hunting accidents are tragic for the people involved, but there is nothing particularly sinister about them. Many years ago I was leaning on a wooden fence in my father’s pasture. I was watching my neighbor hunt pheasants on his property about 70 yards away when his dog flushed a pheasant that flew between him and me. His shotgun came up and I hit the dirt. The pellets struck the planks above my head a half-second later.
I got up, waved at him to let him know I was ok, then headed back to the house. No big deal. Stupid … but no big deal.
Decent post, no name admin, but meaningless.
The political tilt of the editors doesn’t mean much: It’s the people replying that are interesting. It used to be a pretty diverse (in terms of interests) group, but now consists of political hacks. Technology articles get less replies than political articles, showing that the people coming here are more about flame-war political debates and less about being interested in a wide variety of things (where this blog was going, at one point).
As for popularity, I would argue that in Dec. ’04 the blog wasn’t well known and not visted multiple times per day. Now you have a small group of people, off of its peak after Dec. ’04, who are constantly here. If that’s something to brag about then so be it, but I would prefer a larger and more diverse population.
As for a sense of humor, the only joke around here is the content of the stories, since I’m reading them 6 hours earlier on other sites. Besides, editors taking pot shots at posters is sad. Another reason this thing is failing.
The last definition of accident is the proper one in the above blogs. I have been a long time hunter and I am also 78 like Mr. Whittington. When a teenager, while hunting qual, I stepped into the line of fire of my dad’s shooting friend and he did not shoot. However, I got a complete a__-chewing and was sent back to the car! It was my fault! It is also the lawyers fault! Cheney is not to blame!
Jesus, shut up about the blog already. If you don’t like it, go read a Chinese blog or something. I wouldn’t be surprised if John got all WaPo on yer ass.
We could all save a lot of time and space if we didn’t say anything negative about posters. Attack the argument, not the person (or their intellect, or their douching habits, etc.)
Let’s just stick with the usual boiled-over political tripe and knee jerk responses (of the non-personal kind).
Now to contradict my first two paragraphs: the site has, um, changed in tone since John opened it up to outside moderators. That’s merely an observation. I still love it. And I’m still here. (but then I don’t read Chinese.)
P.S. Cheney is a dick.
No wait! Cheney is a douche.
>accident – anything that happens by chance without an apparent cause,
>
>The shooter in this case did not take all reasonable precautions to >prevent
I guess Ron Brown’s death was no accident. The pilot and trip planner didn’t take all reasonable precautions to avoid a plane crash into a mountain. Why go into a war zone at all? Let’s get Jesse Jackson back on this story.
Every comedian in the world will double his income this year thanks to good old dick!
What would we do without Dick!
And it wasn’t even a shot in the dark!
Every President and Vice President in the history of The United States was poked fun of. Including George Washington for his wooden teeth and really bad wig.
As American citizens its our obliagtion to vote in the biggest smucks to office, or lets face our lives would be soo damm boring. so Bill Clinton Stick that in your Mouth and smoke it! Bush and Dick Thanks for being you!
God Bless!
Acidents are acidents but lets face it this shooter is a little bit above the law. The man could die.
If this happen to one of us we would be in a texas jail handcuffed to a chair right now with a spotlight tanning our faces as sweat pour down out puffy faces.
Looking at 20 to life for pre meditateted attempted murder or even murder charges
That big fat smelly texan with the shing star on his chest, sucking on a spare rib would be beating our butts until we confessed why we hated the man enough to shoot him several times.
And if we was Black..lordy lordy
Smith
Many Police Departments no not refer to two cars hitting each other as an ACCIDENT. They call them collisions. In an accident there is no blame assigned. With a collision, the investigation will assign blame to the responsible party. If you ask any “Accident” Investigator, they will tell you that there can be no such thing as an accident, there will always be a reason someone got hurt. It might have been alcohol, inattention, bad brakes, speeding, following too close, or yakking on your cell phone. But collisions don’t happen by “accident”.
I used to do Workman’s Compensation Accident Investigation. I can tell you, I always found a reason why the incident happened. That is how corrections are made to make the workplace safer.
With Cheney, there seems to be some confusion about how it happened. It was reported that he swung the gun following the bird. He was unaware of where Wittington was. Because he didn’t know where all of his party was before he shot, he was negligent. Maybe you guys have been “peppered” by bird shot before. That does not excuse any shooter from his / her responsibility to shoot safely.
It was also stated that he shot from 30 yds, or 90 ft. No way. At that distance the shot would have peppered him from head to toes. In order to penetrate his clothing and into his chest the shot must have come from closer to 20 feet.
As Will said above, Think first. Shoot second.
http://www.nrahq.org/education/guide.asp
The only reason this is a big story is because it was reported to a local paper first, and the national media’s mad.
ABCD
I have no idea who your Ron Brown is and why it is the trip planner’s fault. Enlighten us.
The question to ask is “Why did the plane fly into the mountain”? Or is this just another of your posts that have absolutely nothing to do with the issue but might embarrass a Democrat.
The Ron Brown I know is very much alive and working for me. He is a good employee too and I expect him to advance in our company.
T.C., thanks for agreeing with me. I think.
Mr. Fusion
Hmm, so the Highway Patrolman I listened to on the radio yesterday was wrong when he said, “We’ve responded to 113 accidents today, so please be careful and slowdown.” Odd, I don’t believe anyone listening to him had trouble understanding what he was talking about.
You are trying to force your personal dictionary upon the general public in order to push a political point. This sounds a lot like “that depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.”
Did you learn this trick from Bill or did he from you?