CNN TV reports a pellet landed in muscle near the heart of wealthy Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, shot “accidentally” by Dick Cheney while quail hunting Saturday. CNN says that Mr. Whittington has suffered a heart attack (see MSNBC story). An anonymous source tells me that Whittington is back in ICU (Caller Times).
My anonymous source, an expert on Texas law, tells me this:
My [hunting] friend further told me that if Whittington got hit with quite a few pellets, he was most likely closer than 30 yards away. […]
If Whittington dies, Cheney is looking at negligent homicide (state jail felony, causing death by criminal negligence), or what is called here manslaughter (second degree felony, causing death by recklessness).
When I say “looking at,” there are of course caveats to that. More later, depending on events.
A cardiologist from Emory University just told CNN TV that, unless the pellet is LODGED FIRMLY in a heart muscle, it can move, causing more life-threatening complications.
Let’s review the OBVIOUS: If his wounds had ALL been superficial, a man as rich as he could go home, have a doctor/nurse visit him, and go to the doctor in Austin. BIG SIGNS this was bad:
- He was in INTENSIVE CARE on arrival Saturday. Nobody goes to Intensive Care unless there is some kind of life-threatening injury.
- He is still in the hospital after being shot on Saturday — that’s four days, with NO discharge plans being announced. Nobody stays in hospitals that long unless there are grave concerns or more tests to be taken.
- We don’t know the man’s health history, do we? He could have various ongoing conditions that gave doctors a great deal to worry about.
- He is almost 80 years old, CNN’s medical expert, Sanje Guptke, just said on CNN. He has an old body, no matter how previously healthy he’s been.
I just checked Google News and found — most astonishingly and callously — this top FORBES story (via AP) headlined there:
Update 22: White House Finds Humor in Hunting Mishap
Finding humor in this situation reminds me of Bush’s press dinner joking about hunting around his dais and the White House for Iraq’s non-existent WMDs. It was as callous and sociopathic: He did not acknowledge the immense suffering and death he has caused to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani people, or to the soldiers and their families. The AP story continues:
The White House has decided that the best way to deal with Vice President Dick Cheney’s shooting accident is to joke about it.
President Bush’s spokesman quipped Tuesday that the burnt orange school colors of the University of Texas championship football team that was visiting the White House shouldn’t be confused for hunter’s safety wear.
“The orange that they’re wearing is not because they’re concerned that the vice president may be there,” joked White House press secretary Scott McClellan, following the lead of late-night television comedians. “That’s why I’m wearing it.”
The president’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, took a similar jab after slapping an orange sticker on his chest from the Florida Farm Bureau that read, “No Farmers, No Food.”
“I’m a little concerned that Dick Cheney is going to walk in,” the governor cracked during an appearance in Tampa Monday.
Cheney, an experienced hunter, has not been joking or saying anything publicly at all about the accident Saturday, when he accidentally sprayed a hunting partner with shotgun pellets when aiming for a quail.
…Read all
I am outraged. This Whittington may be another rich fat-cat Texas Republican, but his life is in danger because of Dick Cheney’s utter disregard for basic hunting safety precautions. Dick Cheney had better pray this man lives.
Update [2006-2-14 14:52:55 by susanhu]: Along with more news on Whittington’s condition, Brad Blog points out that ‘it was not notable enough for McClellan to mention that in today’s White House Press Briefing!”
P.S. Dick Cheney has shot me in the heart too. It hurts … the pain never goes away, for some reason.
I don’t care about Whittington actually. If he dies, I hope SCI dumps his corpse, too. That’s how he made his money. Dumping bodies.
Bush Inc always laugh when people die or are hurt. Always. Our troops, our Gulf Coast Citizens… they always laugh. Bush can’t help but smirk in times of trouble.
Seriously. And if Whittington dies, it would probably be a good thing for the country because of the scandal it would bring on the WH.
Hate to be callous, but really…..too many people are losing their lives and livelihoods for me to give a damn about one less rich republican on the planet.
republican or no….i don’t hope he dies. i can’t believe i just read this on Booman….
Agreed. I do not wish death on anyone, no matter how much I despise them or my beliefs about what death is.
where did I say “i hope he dies”? — I said it would be a good thing for the country–I never said I hope he dies. I said I wouldn’t give a damn. Those are two very, very different things.
How many people die EVERY DAY in this country of gunshot wounds? Are we all sending condolences to THEIR families, are these victims getting national press?
Tell you what, if Whittington dies, I’ll personally see to it that the day he dies, I’ll ferret out the name of some other innocent victim of violent crime in this country and send his or her family a card. WOuld that make y’all feel better?
seriously uncool.
when he went into the press briefing and he did not say a word about it to reporters. Tell me again, what is his job?
“Tell me again, what is his job?
Chief Republican Administrator of Poo
or, of course, C.R.A.P
Apparently to lie and decieve
told about the heart attack (known around 9:00 am to the WH) before he went to the press briefing around 1:00 pm. So that leaves poor old McLellan standing alone wearing an orange tie, being set-up by the treacherous WH.
What I’m outraged about is that Cheney lied to get us into a war, and used the leaking of classified information to do influence public opinion. That war has resulted in the death and maiming of hundreds of thousands of people, including 2300 dead American soldiers. Yet it is thius stupid hunting accident that the press is all gaga about.
Ask yourself — what is the worse offense?
it’s an outrage for many reasons, Steven:
I acknowledge the suffering of others, Steven. If you’ll read my story.
You put together an excellent presentation in a very short time. Well done.
Thank you. I was tearing ’round the net trying to find info, and listen to CNN at the same time ….
wish I had a link to Bush’s WMD stunt at that press banquet. No tmie.
THANKS for the support!
Did you see this?
Medical info also included:
Can anyone translate the medical jargon?
I’ll give it a shot…
This should be obvious. Hard things lodged in soft tissue – IE, most of the body – tend to move around. Scar tissue, which is harder than normal tissue, usually develops and prevents them from doing so, but had not had time to in this case.
Some of the tissue around the heart swelled up. Again, a natural response to something hard being jammed in at speed. But in this case, it also caused pressure on the heart itself, cutting off blood flow. Think of it like having a rubber pump that you’re using to move water around that’s been subdivided into a bunch of different chambers. If one or two of those chambers are squished by a rock, you’re going to have to work a lot harder to move the same amount of water around.
Because of the swelling and blockage, the heart’s beating became irregular. This causes problems because blood that’s not moving tends to clot, and clots within the veins are bad. Usually, irregular heartbeats can be corrected by medication, so no surgery necessary – while potentially life-threatening, it’s not serious. No info provided there about whether this case can be treated with medicine, or whether surgery is/was required.
If I understand correctly, a sitting President/Vice President may not be charged with criminal actions via the courts while they are in office. In an observance of the contituional implications of such criminal acts, they can only be Impeached (or forced to resign). Not very likely that will or would happen in this shameful congress.
Any constituional scholars or lawyers out there to set me straight if I am mistaken about this?
Susan I’ve been out of pocket for the afternoon and didn’t realize you thought i was reacting negatively to you. Nothing could be further from the truth, I was just upset that our media makes a big deal out of this story but lets other stories go, which are far more serious to our country as a whole.
I had no intent to criticize your work in compiling this story and I apologize if I offended you in any way.
At least something caught their fancy. Sometimes the strangest turn of events will create a positive change. This incident is a mirror image of the way the admin operates. How they deceive and duck responsibility. Maybe those who are not normally political will get an inkling of what a bunch of fucks are in the Whitehouse. Same here as Katrina – Blame the Victim.
Not only points up the fact how Cheney operates in secrecy but how freaken out of the loop Bush is…as usual.(kinda like when his wife was evacuated to a safe location when there was a perceived threat to WH and he was out jogging or bike riding and not told untill it was all over)
Really this would have been a simple, straight foreword story of a hunting accident. All the VP would have had to do was have a small press conference on site at hospital saying how sorry he was and that his friend was getting the best care possible for a supposed ‘minor’ accident. End of story except for updates..
Instead we seem to be getting an extremely delayed news release to a newspaper in Corpus Christi..which wasn’t even the newspaper but the papers website and not by Cheney but by the owner of the ranch and then on to the ridiculous minor problems yet he’s in intensive care and oh yeah the President didn’t even know the shooter was Cheney for a whole day..WTF
I didn’t particularly care about the story to start with but now I do simply because of all the obfuscation going on.
On another note, I’m hoping that this whole thing about canned hunting comes out and shows up just how much of a ‘hunter’ Cheney really is and this disgusting practice of canned hunting. So far only the Daily Show seems to have made a point of this.
Come on guys, don’t be so harsh with little dick. He is trying to get some combat experience.
Also, he can’t just go hunting for Dan Quail, and not shoot anyone. It would look bad in his resume!
Hey susan….ha obvious signs this was bad maybe to some of us here in blogland but not so obvious to our stupid MSM…who once again went along with the WH reports of move along not much to see here.
I don’t think one reporter asked that ‘obvious’ question of why if he was doing so swell was he still in intensive care-or did they? The one time I turned on cable news I heard two co-anchors laughing about the whole incident-no kidding..and saying that this wasn’t serious and they had just had reports Whittington was joking with nurses..wonder how that story got out right…They were treating the whole thing like it was no big deal at all..brain dead assholes…my IQ drops everytime I turn the sound up on cable ‘news’.
My feeling from the start was the reason for the long delay in the story getting out was that this guy was in bad shape and doctors were trying to stabilize him so then they could come out on tv and state he was doing well, no big deal, hey everyone stays in Intensive Care for no reason right?..
just mentioned that this story is turning out to be more serious than originally thought (listening to him on ESPN Radio with Dan Patrick) — expect him to devote at least a bit of significant time to Whittington’s condition on “Countdown” tonight.
At first it was humorous, in the mode of “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” that typifies this entire misAdministration. And if it had been Cheney that had been accidentally shot by Whittington, there wouldn’t be jokes in the halls of the White House, and we wouldn’t have had the delay in reporting. (Hell, they probably would have “found” some sort of al-Qaeda link.)
“…the reason for the long delay in the story getting out was that this guy was in bad shape and doctors were trying to stabilize him…”
Or maybe the delay had less to do with the victim’s condition and more to do with Cheney’s. (hic! urrrrp!)
The Republicans made the Secret Service testify against Clinton, maybe someday they could be forced to testify against Cheney. Unlikely, true, but it would be only fair.
White House physicians who attended to Whittington at the scene after Cheney accidentally shot him were involved in the treatment, the officials said.
Some of Cheney’s medical team are still at the hospital with Whittington. Would White House physicians be involved in the treatment if his condition wasn’t a serious danger to Cheney?
This would require that Cheney acknowledge that there is a power superior to himself. That is why it will never happen.
Will Frist and Delay fight Cheney to not pull the plug?
This kind of situation is a serious nightmare for me. I can imagine being careless or self-absorbed and seriouly hurting someone.
Oddly enough, if Cheney had ever showed any ability to accept responsibility or to acknowledge the effects of his actions, I would proably feel inclined to show empathy toward him at this moment.
But the way this was all handled makes me realize that Cheney believes the social contract that binds us all together has nothing to do with him.
of this entire misAdministration — they never make mistakes…and admitting you were wrong is a sign of weakness that will immediately cause dancing and rejoicing amongst America’s Enemies(tm)…if we admit we screwed up, the terrorists win…
Right on!
And people minimizing this significance do NOT UNDERSTAND the thinking of the average American.
Up here, in hunter country where people only get their news from the local AM station that plays news only at the top of the hour — in short headline format — this will RESONATE.
People up here understand how dangerously Cheney behaved, and will also HEAR how the administration has been hiding, downplaying, and joking about this terrible accident.
Whether we like Whittington or not is also irrelevant. It could have been anyone who got shot … he could have shot a Secret Service agent, one of his doctors, a child along to watch.
i think you’re right–this will indeed “resonate” with the American people in a way that, for example, Katrina did not.
It’s depressing, seriously depressing.
One rich white Republican, one missing white woman, one white woman in a coma…..and the rest of us can go to hell.
I do hope it works to generate outrage and scandal, but what that says about the national psyche does not bode well for the future: regardless of who’s in the WH or hiding in a foxhole in Wyomming.
Back during the Jessica Lynch show, a writer for the Oberver, a UK paper, her first name was Debra, I am ashamed I do not remember her last name, wrote a piece about the hierarchy of life, blonde females first, brunette caucasians second, etc, and at the bottom of the heap, African and Native Americans.
She was referring to the overwhelming fascination with Jessica Lynch, compared to the relatively small interest in the fate of Shoshana Johnson, an African-American woman who was in the same vehicle and experienced the same “capture,” as well as the similarly muted reaction to the death of Lori Piestewa, a Native American woman with whom Jessica is said to have become close friends.
Thus while Mr. Whittington may not hope to aspire to the lofty heights of Natalee Holloway, being neither pretty, nor blonde, nor even a girl, and in all fairness, Natalee is more attractive, he naturally inspires greater sympathy than a few thousand African-Americans, most of whom never had two dimes to rub together.
I haven’t forgotten about her for one minute. I have a MIA bracelet with her name on it that sits right next to my computer.
I take your point but I think you’ve got it wrong.
The Vice President of the United States SHOT someone. I mean, he actually pulled the trigger and shot someone! In the face and heart…
There’s something so far beyond surreal about that, in context of all the other, larger outrages that this Administration has committed.
It’s like, JEE-sus, he SHOT the guy!
And of course, the fact that it’s a canned hunt just increases the utterly stunning, “OMG, what will they do next?” factor of it all…
Somehow the incident just encapsulates the sadism, carelessness and sheer mind-bloggling incompetence of this gang…
Yeah, he shot the guy. ANd at the moment, the guy is still alive.
There are thousands in NOLA who cannot say the same.
I completely lost my faith in the American people after they sat back and did nothing (except write some checks I suppose) after what they saw on TV in the aftermath of Katrina.
I’ve been trying my damndest, really, to find something somewhere to convince me that this “Volk” is not completely and totally so absorbed with itself and itself alone, that this “Volk” is NOT racist to the bone, that this “Volk” actually saw, as I did, AMERICAN CITIZENS in those images….but at this point, everything points to the notion that they did not (in their hearts) see AMERICAN CITIZENS in those images–they did not see themselves in those images–they saw the “Others”, the Blacks. And as much as I really don’t want to think this, I suspect that at least some members of this “Volk” were actuallly thinking to themselves (tho they’d never, ever admit it!) that it was probably a good thing that these black folk were being “weeded out” this way.
Sorry. But I can come to no other conclusion.
blogs, and the chatter, that the city needed a good cleaning.
NO, no …. Katrina was a HUGE DEAL, even up here in the most northwestern part of the continental U.S.
Every public group, every school participated in fund-raising. School children sold lemonade and cookies … adults and businesses sent tens of thousands of dollars.
Everyone I ever talked to was utterly horrified by Katrina. I heard talk about it in supermarkets and my doctor’s office, etc., etc.
Since we have ZERO local television stations (because of the mountains), almost everyone has cable or satellite (better / more channels), and a LOT of people who have those are news junkies.
And even our local little paper did a great job covering Katrina, and printing angry LTEs from people who live here who were very upset that people were stuck in the Superdome.
Of course, we get inundated on cable shows about Holloway, etc., but I really don’t think that most people care that much, except for the Fox news junkies.
our local paper –and the Seattle papers, which we can buy here — also do not cover the missing white women — and DO concentrate on the big news.
Our local paper also has, in Section B, a very good rundown on all national news … it’s short, but most of the big stories are there, including mistreatment of prisoners, Guantanamo, etc.
And they publish Molly Ivins, Maureen Dowd, etc…. as well as Cal Thomas for the right group. (They DROPPED Ann Coulter because she was so disgusting.)
I agree, Susan.
The Adminstration is totally f**king over New Orleans and the entire region, as far as I can see, by refusing to make it a budget priority, people don’t know whether they can rebuild or not…what am I supposed to do, other than donate or volunteer? Shovel dirt on top of a dike?
And New Orleans I think shifted a lot of people against the Adminstration because it showed their utter callousness and incompetence.
This Cheney thing is just another such moment. It shows you who these people are on a very personal, individual level.
And, oh yes, the secrecy part, mustn’t forget that…
“Everyone I ever talked to was utterly horrified by Katrina.”
Sure. But not enough to get up, stand up and say enough is enough.
Send checks.
Money alone is not the answer.
(I’m thinking back on all the rich white foster homes the social services tried to put me in, thinking it was just a matter of money. It’s not. The damage done to Others in this society can’t be fixed by money alone.)
Did you happen to catch Stanley Fish’s OpEd in the NYT this weekend? He was commenting on the cartoon fiasco, but one sentence struck me as getting to the heart of a matter I’ve been trying to pin down for about as long as I’ve been on the planet:
I think the same kind of applies to the business about Americans being “horrified” by Katrina.
I’m horrified. Now don’t bother me.
was so small they were easily kept out of the theatre by a handful of FEMA goons, state troopers, and of course Blackwater was there on day one, just in case more than a few showed up. Maybe somebody remembered those Hurricane Mitch scenes – thousands, for days, without sleep, standing knee deep in mud, passing food and water, hand to hand, over mountains, down gorges and back up, to keep alive people in villages that were inaccessible.
And most of Blackwater was deployed in the “worst damaged areas” of the city, for help with “cleanup.” operations.
They weren’t even needed at the city gates…
I didn’t expect people to necessarily go to NOLA–I would have expected them to descend upon the WH/Washington DC.
Sorry, I gotta run here so am checking out.
There were many, many other things that this Volk did not do in the aftermath of Katrina to indicate that they just really didn’t give a fuck and/or did not see “those people” in “that part of the world” as American citizens.
Compare what was happening in this country at around noon on september 11, 2001.
Don’t know about anyone else, but by the time I got to the office the entire university had been SHUT DOWN. Automatically, without any “decree” from above.
WHY didn’t that happen while those people were standing on their roofs, at the convention center, in the superdome?
Why did that not happen?
You want a good look at the heart of the American people? Compare the process of public mourning for these two events. Beyond BushCO–just in terms of what the AMerican people themselves did.
And I cannot and will not even attempt to describe the agony of not being able to go myself.
Some did, Muslims and Mennonites snuck in. But in the dozens, at most hundreds.
There were no millions, not even thousands, I actually expected they would be. More than a handful of gunmen could hold back, I thought, will go.
Their countrymen were being slow-cooked alive.
Some wrote checks, mostly to the Red Cross, some cluck-clucked, most, as far as I could tell, saw it as a positive thing. Get the city cleaned up, it’s about time. As Condi said of the Tsunami, a great opportunity.
They could always have gone to Washington later, but that week, they could have saved the children, the mothers and fathers and grandmothers and aunties, and the ones who had no one.
It was the most terrifying, unbelievably horrible thing I have seen in, well, a very long time. 🙂
This is how they treat their own.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
just a question here…if you couldn’t go when you wanted to…how many others are there out there that had the same problem? do you demonize them too?
The need was for young, able-bodied people. As with the earthquake or the tsunami, in any such situation, it would be counter-productive for someone to go who would divert scarce resources needed by those in danger, and be of no practical use whatsoever.
As I said, I am not in the demonizing business, but I would consider that any very elderly person with compromised physical capacities who went to any place where there were people in great need, and limited resources to help them, would at the very least, show extremely poor judgment and frankly, a lack of concern for those who needed help.
i am a young able bodied person who couldn’t possibly be able to hope to go. i still don’t think that you answered my question.
I generally answer everything at length.
Maybe I missed something. You think I am a demon because I was shocked that the people who could go chose not to?
never once said that you were demon did i? i said demonize other people. i am pretty sure that’s what i said. and as i also said…i am a young able bodied person who couldn’t even hope to go…am i demonized because of that? and how many other people are out there just like you and me?
First, I can’t possibly list, or even know, all that people around here did besides send checks — which is NO SMALL THING for a lot of people here who are on fixed incomes and find it hard to find work here (i’m going to do s a story on how Bush is screwing us over here soon).
Second, I said that large numbers of people did more than just send checks.
And, I didn’t mention the non-stop phone calling and letter writing that people did to all of our senators and congresspeople, both in and out of the state.
Minimize us if you muist. But you’re wrong to do so. We care plenty … and, as Other Lisa points out, everyone was completely shocked by how badly the Bush administration did on Katrina.
ALSO: Our local Coast Guard rescue squad was chomping at the bit to get to Katrina, and help rescue people … they finally got the green light, about three weeks afterwards … not THEIR fault. And we all followed their stories.
AND: Many locals here flew down to help both the human and animal victims. We have both rescued people and rescued animals living up here now. Seattle is full of Katrina people.
And the governor of Washington has gone to great efforts…. three times she was told to set up for evacuees, and she got it all ready, and three times she was told to cancel by FEMA. It was truly nuts. We ALL wanted to help any way we could. We here were very angry with FEMA.
why did they wait for the green light? Why didn’t they just GO?
B/c they’d have risked losing their jobs? Then why weren’t they willing to risk that?
Oh for fuck’s sake. I give up.
Going for a cup of sanity now. Later, all…
.
save that single bird,
a quail flushed from his very movements through the Texas shrub of the royal Armstrong estate of 50,000 acres in Corpus Christi.
Any word whether the bird was missed by Richard the Lyinghart and survived this lethal onslaught?
By Mary Lee Grant © July 13, 1999 — Caller-Times
ARMSTRONG - In the brush country south of Sarita, a few miles east of U.S. Highway 77, sophistication and political power have mixed with the independence of Texas pioneers.A lot of times people joke about Cheney being the “real president” or the “shadow president” but yesterday’s White House press conference makes this startlingly clear.
A lot of people have been focusing on how long it took to notify the press about Cheney shooting a man in the face, or why he let the property owner be the one to release the story. Those are interesting angles to pursue, but what I want to focus on is how long it took Bush and Bush’s people to learn about the event.
● Latest News from Corpus Christi – Texas
Guess whose quote and at what festivity in Houston Texas ::
“And to see Senator Zell Miller again, I tell you what, Zell, we already miss you in Congress. What a great American.”
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
that it’s incredible that the White House withheld the heart attack news. Then he said it makes you wonder what else they’re hiding.
This was on fucking FOX!
Ed, that’s a big find by you.
I’ll see later if I can find that transcript. (It’s a bummer trying to find Fox’s damn transcripts.)
I have to go to the doctor shortly … will try to find it when i get back. If you stumble on it, or can remember it well enough to paraphrase, I’ll use it. Send me an e-mail. Thanks, Ed!
He also just teased a segment by stumbling over “Next up, prospects for the hunter accidentally shot by the President.” Maybe he said “vice” in such a quick tone that I didn’t hear it, or possibly the freudian slip came because it took him several tries to spit out the word “accidentally”. Someone needs to get video of this clip (at roughly 3:20pm est).
Yeah, funny ha ha..these people are such pathological fuckers..how do you think the MSM would be covering this if it had been Gore when VP who shot someone and then delayed news, issued no statement himself and then people around him made jokes about it.
Why isn´´t it possible to consider that Cheney was drunk?
Why i´sn´t possible to consider that Cheney and Whittington were both drunk and had an argument and Cheney shot him in the face?
Cheney has been arrested 2x for drunken driving.
He is reckless as a politician and as a hunter. He needs to be removed.
I have a fairly knowledgeable friend who definitely thinks at least Cheney was drunk.
was merely “sober up” time for the veep?
Yeah, I could believe that.
Yesterday in Hardball, Ron Reagan mentioned it about 4 times. Wonder if the hospital will release the blood analysis
him up as if the very suggestion was ridiculous.
Yes, because this doesn´t add up. Shot in the face and heart. Permanently disfigured. Quite a coinkadink, from 30 yards away. Sounds like the man may die sooner or later from this. I cannot imagine him appearing on larry king to talk about this with his face disfigured from buck shot.
Cheney shoots a man dead. You never know, maybe Cheney really was hunting humans, he´s doing it everywhere else isn´t he?.
Or in his drunken stupor he thought he confused Whittington with a terrorist…maybe he thought he saw Bin Laden.
Cheney had the opportunity to prove he wasn’t, and ducked talking to the police until the next morning. The hospital seems to be complicit in a cover-up so I doubt any tests of Whittington’s sobriety are ever released. This whole thing stinks of coercion and manipulation of basic facts.
I agree that perhaps Cheney was drunk. As for the rest, I suppose it could have happened your way, but I’m thinking it’s more likely that ‘ol Dick was feeling no pain and just shot the guy, because ‘ol Dick is such an asshole.
information that could be embarrassing to the US or its allies?
.
In hunting party on a ranch of the Armstrongs, discussing Funeral Commission – Disposition Dead Human Bodies – Texas Pandemic Influenza Plan?
U.S. Post Office in Armstrong, Texas, is shown with the Armstrong Ranch behind it.Texas Funeral Service Commission – Gov. Bush Testimony 1999
A Catherine Armstrong and Harry Whittington (78) serve on the Texas Funeral Service Commission —
STAFF
Catherine Armstrong – Cemetery and Crematory Licensing 936-2466
COMMISSIONER
Harry Whittington (Austin), Presiding Officer/Term Expires 2/1/07
(TFSC Meeting Minutes January 11, 2006
[…]
VIII. Mr. Robbins relayed information regarding the pandemic meeting that he attended on Dec. 12, 2005. As a result of attending the pandemic meeting, Mr. Robbins will assist in developing an appendix to the Texas Pandemic Influenza Plan relating to the disposition of dead human bodies.
O.C. “Chet” Robbins Harry Whittington
TFSC Executive Director TFSC Presiding Officer )
● Kellogg Brown Root (Halliburton) and the Corpus Christi Naval Station
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
enough of a scandal for such um, ostentatious measures?
What other things might Mr. Whittington know about?
Hypothetically, if Whittington dies and the state of Texas decides to prosecute Cheney for negligent homicide or another felony, does Bush pardon Cheney? To what extent would this aggravate or mitigate the fallout from Whittington’s death?
Cheney victim suffers heart attack
But CNN has the title “Cheney hunt victim has heart scare”, which sounds a lot less ominous.
Love it. If the Dems had hearts or brains or balls, this headline, with a photo of the vic, would be on every phone pole in America.
They are all a bunch of cold,lyin’,incompetent but dangerous bastards, not willing to take reponsibility for any of their their actions. May they be frogmarched through the International War Crimes Court, and renditioned to Morocco, to have their penisi cut.
“Do unto others, as They would have done unto You.”
or…”In America, No One is above the Law”
Okay, let me get this straight… Cheney is known, if what I understand from TV news is at all accurate, for going on “business trips” like this for negotiations and such. This man is a former “associate” of Bush and, thus, likely knows where a lot of bodies are buried, both literally and figutarively. The man was shot at very close range, in such a way that most of the damage was concentrated around his heart and face. Cheney’s medical team is attending to him very carefully, but he’s already had a spontaneous heart attack.
If he dies, I think we have to consider the following scenarios:
Either way, Cheney must be impeached, as he is obviously not qualified for his position.
my husband is a CATCH AND RELEASE FLY FISHERMAN he doesn’t hunt. Fly fishing is more like an artform… CATCH AND RELEASE.
He has to buy a fishing license each year.
Down in CALIF. the game warden will treat CATCH AND RLEASE FLYFISHERMAN as if they are liars who are actually POACHING. They study the fly fisherman with a look of disbelief and scorn. After an HOUR of this standing and watching the fly fisherman… they’ll go and call in the license of the car, make sure it’s parked correctly etc etc.
AKA harrassment.
Cheney shoots a guy in the fucking face and NOTHING!!!
Gawd bless hypocrisy. Bloodshed that I love!
I was listening to news radio a couple of hours ago and heard someone — a hospital spokesperson, perhaps — quoted declaring that they were “very very optimistic” about Whittington’s condition. The story may have come by way of CBS but I wasn’t sure. It was just a short item among a bunch of others and of course, by the time I started paying attention it was mostly over. I’d hoped to find some confirming reference to it through Google by this time, but there doesn’t seem to be anything yet.
Anyway, that way of putting it — “very very optimistic” — sounded really peculiar to me. I thought Whittington must be in real trouble if someone was bending that far over backwards to deny it.
What I heard may have been this AP story or one related to it:
— Hunter Shot by Cheney Has Heart Attack, by Lynn Brezosky and Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writers (in today’s Guardian; also found at WaPo and other sites).
(I dunno. Isn’t that exactly what we now fault the captain of the Titanic for — going out of his way to be extremely optimistic?)
“They said they are not concerned about other birdshot, widely estimated to be between six and 200 pieces, that might still be lodged in Whittington’s body.”
From: Cheney victim has ‘silent heart attack’ following weekend hunting mishap
Up to 194 pieces MIA, and yet they feel certain that they should not be concerned. Well this dude would be looking for a new doctor.
LYNN BREZOSKY AND NEDRA PICKLER
Found it at yahoo, can not figure out how to shorten the link…..
LYNN BREZOSKY AND NEDRA PICKLER — it’s from the same story I just linked to.
Wow the talking heads must feel really stupid now. Check out their response to Mike Stark’s call today.
brought up this demonizing thing, and I answered you as well as I could. I do not demonize anybody, and I will repeat, I do not think it would be responsible for anyone with diminished or limited physical abilities to go to any disaster zone.
I am sure there are also young and able-bodied people who wished to go, and felt as I did, people who had no resources to get there, people who care for children, elders, who could not leave them. In fact, I know this to be the case, I spoke with people in those situations, and I can attest that their frustration was no different than my own.
like i said earlier..no offense meant…but why paint with such a broad brush? we have no idea what other people are thinking. maybe they were naive just as most of us were when we expected the government to do their job? why does no one take that into account i wonder?
I probably take too much into offense because i am from that area. an area which is so fucking poor that most people don’t have a pot to piss in.
I described the emotions I felt. I suppose if there is a brush, you could paint me naive to be shocked. You could paint me foolish, and I do not think I could make a very hefty argument against either charge.
I can say that when the next cleansing operation occurs, I will not be.
you will not be what? there? accountable? what exactly is it that are you trying to say? i have to say that you have done nothing but confuse me, which is i expect the point.
i think that we were all naive and shocked…i don’t see how we could condemn or “demonize” to use my own words, people who didn’t help when don’t know why or how or what their movitations could and would be is my point.
I have a better understanding of the situation now.
It is not to me that those who could have gone, and chose not to, must answer. Predictably, here is a blogrant from a couple of weeks after the event.
are you accusing me of standing by while my countrymen died? i wanted to go…i couldn’t afford to. my mother is sick, mymother in law is sick, i am but a humble house-wife, with a husband who has been umemployed for months…what exactly is it that you trying to imply here? i am here in maine…what could i do but donate? unfortuantely i could only afford 20 bucks to habitat for humanity. am i to be to shot down because of that? i want to know. i feel i am being accused of something here and i want to know why. i am a young and able bodied person like i said above but couldn’t go. should i neglect my child so that i can help others? should he go without so that others can have? tell me. you seem to know so much better than i. tell me what i should do in your esteemed opinion…i feel like the people who were fucked are my people. i am from pensacola fl, the gulf coast. there’s something about the gulf that knits people together.
i am gonna stop now…too angry to continue. thanks for the debate.
same way I did.
I will save you the trouble of scrolling up:
How’s the sugar today, Ducky?
I will test again in a little while, I just had some coffee for the 1st time since November, very little sugar, blue milk, it was vile.
Have you discovered a cure yet? What is taking so long? I hope you are not dawdling.
Ah, back on the coffee…
I am taking a 3-day break from diabetes…and I will spare you the ugly details of what I am working on instead. Which hopefully you will not be needing.