Perhaps do the experiment with ballistic gelatin instead of paper.

That's an unfair representation of what it means to be hit. Clothing and skin are much denser, and the projectiles would lose force as they shed velocity.

I'm not saying the guy wasn't injured, I'm just saying that using a paper target to try to demonstrate the effect of a shotgun blast on a human being is like taking a trip into the "No-Spin Zone".

You can do better than that.

Look folks, we're at war. War. And in a war, people get hurt. It's sad, but stuff happens. At times like this we've got to support our brave vice presidents who are out there risking their necks to protect our freedoms. And what you can be sure of is that our vice presidents are doing everything they can - they got smart buckshot, the best technology - everything they can to reduce civilian casualties. And you've gotta ask, what was this guy doing out there with the quails, in the bushes, in camouflage, in an area where vice presidents were known to be conducting operations. I don't have the facts and I don't want to speculate on this alleged lawyer's motivations and loyalties, but it doesn't look good, does it?

The paper target shown in your article does not remotely

resemble the graphic shown on tonight's CBS broadcast news.

On CBS, they showed a much tighter pattern, confined to the

left shoulder/chest area around the heart, indicating to me that

the victim was much (MUCH) closer to Cheney than 30 yards.

Wild guess: 30 feet?

Has anyone asked if Cheney was drinking, or drunk, or if the

victim was? Was a blood sample taken from Cheney?

That's what he uses to shoot a quail? Man that must be real tough to shoot a small farm-raised bird with spread wide enough to hit the bird and anything else within a couple square yard of it. What does he use to go sport fishing? A trawler with a 200 foot net? I guess the bar for being "manly" in Republican circles isn't quite as high as I thought.

Send a letter to the editor

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times created the visual, Salon just reported it. I, for one, appreciate the information. Do I think Mr. Whittington is made of paper? No. Am I amazed how much ground that ammunition can cover? Yes. I believe that was the point of the demonstration.

The big story here is not lack of information to the press, although that is important. It is that Cheney avoided talking to the sherrif until 14 hrs. after the shooting. Your average citizen would've been required to talk to the cops immediately after shooting someone. What Cheney did might constitute "flight" which is a reason to create suspicion of wrongdoing. And if he had been say, drinking, there might have been some additional legal issues. But, we'll never know now will we? Above the law?

Should that be 20 gauge?

OK. Did the person who performed this test reveal the size of the shot, nature of the load, choke size? These are among the details missing about the Cheney shooting. Has any reporter yet asked Cheney what type of load he was shooting? (Of course, I know that Cheney isn't talking to any stinking media, but....)

According to the New York Times article, "Dr. David Blanchard, the emergency room chief, estimated that Mr. Whittington had more than 5 but "probably less than 150 to 200" pellets lodged in his body." Come on, I think the first thing a hospital would have done on Whittington's arrival would have been to X-ray him to find out how many pellets were in him, and where they were. If the ER Chief can only estimate between 5 and "probably" less than 150 to 200, he must be afraid to tell the truth.

The same article also states about the hospital's cardiologists that: "They said they did not consider the other pellets in his body problematic, and they currently have no plans to remove them." Face it, Whittington's f***ed. "Probably" less than 150 to 200 bird shot pellets throughout his body and chest cavity for the rest of his life, only one of which is already damaging his heart.

What a concept. Republicans shooting each other with their guns.

My husband is a volunteer firearms safety instructor for the DNR. He wonders if Whittington was 30 feet away instead of the 30 yards that Cheney is claiming.

Given the weather at the time, Whittington would have been wearing two layers of clothing, one of which was probably heavy canvas. For birdshot, which is microscopic in size, to penetrate that surface and cause such damage, (a doctor once told me, there's no such thing as a "small heart attack"), could Whittington have been closer than Cheney said?

I suppose we'll never see the photos, will we.

When I read the NY Times this morning, my attention was drawn to their visual account of the birdshot spread on Harry. Their diagram showed a very tight pattern that immediately made me believe that the blast came from close range. This paper demonstration seems to indicate that the shooter was considerably closer than 30 yards.

Why does the media hate America?

Surely we all know that it's a tragic mistake to question our government when we're at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and gearing up for an attack on Iran. The terrorists must be laughing at us as we expose the Vice President (and through him the President) to inappropriate mockery and ridicule. His actions in every sphere should be off limits and beyond public discussion, or we dishonor the victims of 9/11.

I'm sick of all these lies about our honorable Vice President. Now the liberal media, including Salon, is claiming that Whittington had a heart attack because birdshot got into his heart?

That CAN'T be right. He was just lightly peppered, that's all. Salted, as it were. Cheney sprinkled the buckshot on him, the way a bee sprinkles pollen or Tinkerbelle sprinkles fairy dust. So there's no way it could have reached his heart. It could hardly have broken his skin! So this picture is an obvious fake.

This sort of liberal media lie should be considered treason in a time of war.