Does anybody hear the eerie echo from the past...Chappaquiddick? Damage control. Delay. Why? How delicious to find out that they were all chugging brews, blasting away like good ol' boy wannabees. I live in hope.

ALL of this could have been avoided, so easily.

Once the shooting occured, Cheney should have designated Mr. Whittington an "enemy combatant", had him transported to Guantanamo, and put everyone there on notice that the incident was a "national security" matter whose disclosure would "aid terrorism".

They just didn't think straight or fast enough.

I've been sworn to secrecy on this one, but it's too important for the American people not to know this, so I'll disguise the source, who is an old friend:

"I have something else to pass on which I hope doesn't

get out. I know how smearing can distroy a person and have seen it over the

past 5 years. Thus you must be sure not to pass this on to any bloger.

Now, I happen to be a close friend of the brother-in-law of the guiy who

runs the hunting dogs on the Armstrong ranch and he told me the real skinny

on what was going on down there this weekend. Actually Dick and Harry

Whittington have been feuding over Kay Armstrong for a long time and it's

been getting pretty nasty. Everyone in Washington knows of this, but it's

been kept quiet. This weekend it heated up again and Harry told Dick that

he thought that W's listening in on us Americans wasn't right. Dick

errupted and demanded an apology and when he didn't get it he simply shot

Harry and demanded that the Secret Service finish him off - which they

refused. A big arguement ensued and Harry was just left there lying on the

ground bleeding. Kay finally demanded that they take Harry to Chorpus

Christi while they put together their cover story - which took 20 hours.

They decided that Cheney would say he was sorry and would write Harry a get

well card. So that's the story. Katherine Armstrong is due to be appointed

the ambassador to Chechnea as a reward for her helping out and to keep her

away from the press. Isn't that fantastic? Remember don't start any rumors

that would hurt the Vice."

I haven't read the piece yet, but I have an opinion about the press release that came out of Cheney's office. When you have a gun, it is your responsibility, first, to be safe. You are never supposed to point a gun at anything you shouldn't be shooting. When you're hunting, you should be aware of where other hunters are, and you should make sure they know where you are, but that doesn't mean that the person who decides to fire bears any less responsibility. If you shoot someone, it's your fault for pulling the trigger when you shouldn't have, not the victim's fault for getting in your way.

...is the funniest I've ever seen here!

I'm glad I stopped by.

I have to wonder: Was the group was hunting via vehicle? That's a huge crime, but it would explain how Armstrong was such a great eyewitness while sitting in a vehicle.

Don't forget that Cheney has been arrested for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol in the past.

What group of good old boys doesn't booze it up when they're out hunting in the winter?

No, which is why the American people have never elected George W. Bush President of the United States.

I bet the powers that be were waiting to see what old Harry's prognosis was before announcing the most recent debacle. If Harry "bought the farm" so to speak, the spin would be what a terrible tragedy had befallen our leader as he sought to release some of the tensions accumulated from years of eating babies. If Harry just had fifty or so facial and torso wounds the spin would be it was old Harry's own fault.

But enough of the past. Lets move on. Any chance of Dick becoming part of the USA Biatholon team?

ski, shoot, call an ambulance, ski, shoot, call an ambulance, etc.

You just know there was some real drinking going on....

Let us sum up the evidence here:

Planes slam into the World Trade Center, but the President is left to sit there for 7 minutes. No one comes and gets him, while his aides decide what to do.

The 9/11 commission staff wanted to include a finding that Vice President Cheney was giving an order to shoot down Flight 93 without consulting the President. (It crashed first, due to the heroes on board, before the order could be executed.)

It's widely believed that the Vice President was involved in "cherry-picking" the intel on Iraq. He ran the whole Iraq project prior to invasion.

A plane flies into restricted airspace, forcing the evacuation of the White House, including First Lady Laura Bush. The President, on a bike ride, is not informed.

And now, the President is not informed of the Vice President shooting someone.

How much more evidence does this country need that the man they elected (selected?) to be the leader of the free world IS NOT IN CHARGE?!?

No one needs or seeks his advice or orders in a crisis. Not just because he has delegated authority. It seems clear to me that no one counts on him, no one trusts him. He's fed information from the people who only want to use him to further their own agendas, their own quest for power.

Is that what this country really wanted in November 2000, and November 2004?

Chris

Henderson, NV

Can you see the headline? "Quayle Shoots Hunter." Now there's a story.

What I don't get about the whole thing is why this story has sent the White House Press Corps into attack dog mode. Where have they been for the past, oh, five years, during which people have been lying about issues of substance?

Re: Bush being told someone in Cheney's party had been shot hours before he was told Cheney was the shooter

Don't you have to be extraordinarily incurious to not want to know who fired the gun? Or was Bush told a lie originally? If so, why?