Dick Cheney Hunting Accident

It has been pointed out that it's a bit strange for ranch owner Katharine Armstrong to have FAXed her account of the shooting to the Kenedy county sheriffs department.

The same DMN report also says this:

Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong, who had seen the shooting from a car, said Wednesday that the group ate lunch about 1 p.m. She said she wasn't aware of the vice president having even one beer.

I thought she had parked a distance away and didn't see what happened. Now we're informed she saw it happen. Or, the DMN got it wrong.

And, of course, Dick Cheney did have "a beer" at lunch, and a "cocktail" after the incident.

We're also informed that everyone was encouraged to tell the truth, which is much better than encouraging people to lie.

In his big interview, Cheney said this:

Well, Scott [McClellan] does a great job and it's a tough job. It's especially a tough job under these conditions and circumstances. I had a bit of the feeling that the press corps was upset because, to some extent, it was about them -- they didn't like the idea that we called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead of The New York Times. But it strikes me that the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is just as valid a news outlet as The New York Times is, especially for covering a major story in south Texas.

Perhaps the way this was handled was an intentional attempt to show that the Washington press corps isn't the information gatekeeper to the American people:

[Journalism professor/blogger Jay Rosen] correctly points out ["Dick Cheney Did Not Make a Mistake By Not Telling the Press He Shot a Guy"] that if you step back and look at it, little of what Cheney did and how he did it is something the Veep would consider a mistake. It all fits within his world view of a changing political, societal and infomedia context...

In short: the press and many of administration critics expect Cheney & Co to play by "the rules" but this administration (on several fronts) has no problem changing the rules if it doesn't like them.

As described in "Secret Service describes medical response to Cheney shooting", Cheney's medical crew made the decision to take shooting victim Harry Whittington to Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg in Kingsville. Note that that's a smaller hospital than Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial, which is the area's trauma center.

So, why was Whittington taken to the smaller hospital rather than the trauma center? Could it be because it was a bit less "visible"? Would it be easier to hide the victim's condition?

An apparent doctor raises questions here. Are they trying to hide something? And, if so, what?

There's a disjointed transcript of a Dick Morris appearance on Hannity & Colmes here. In includes this CLM:

Morris:: It's hard to speculate, but usually when there is something like this alcohol is involved....

Hannity: Do you think the VP was drunk and firing bullets?

Morris: None of them will come forward.

Hannity: You're insinuating he was drunk which is totally irresponsible.

Morris: Well why would he not go to the hospital?---He could have followed him in a car.

We now know that Cheney drank not just at lunch, but after the incident. So, it's time for a flashback to the "NBC Investigative Unit" report "Cheney's hunting host lobbied White House". For a brief fleeting moment it contained this paragraph:

[Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong] also told NBC News that she does not believe alcohol was involved in the accident. She says she believes no one that day was drinking, although she says there may have been beer available during a picnic lunch that preceded the incident. "There may be a beer or two in there," she said, "but remember not everyone in the party was shooting."

That paragraph was removed...

Apparently she said this during a telephone interview. I can think of absolutely no reason to remove that paragraph, since the article was probably reviewed by an editor who listened to the (presumably taped) interview before it was published to the web.

There's a screengrab of the original version here, and more links here. The DUmmies discovered this.

According to CNN:

Armstrong had previously told CNN that she never saw Cheney or Whittington "drink at all on the day of the shooting until after the accident occurred, when the vice president fixed himself a cocktail back at the house."

As speculated here, could this have been an attempt to cover up having drunk earlier in the day? Just how big of "a beer" did Cheney have at lunch?

The LAT says that "[i]t was at dusk that Whittington shot a bird and went to retrieve it, taking him behind the vice president."

However, now see the second page of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report, specifically 'lighting' in section VI. It has a checkbox for 'Dusk', but that's not checked. Instead, 'Sunny' is checked.

Tags: Dick Cheney, Cheney

According to an MSNBC online poll, 70% of respondents care about the Cheney shooting accident.

(Via this)

First of all, Dick Cheney has admitted having a little to drink:

We'd taken a break at lunch -- go down under an old -- ancient oak tree there on the place, and have a barbecue. I had a beer at lunch. After lunch we take a break, go back to ranch headquarters. Then we took about an hour-long tour of ranch, with a ranch hand driving the vehicle, looking at game. We didn't go back into the field to hunt quail until about, oh, sometime after 3:00 p.m... The five of us who were in that party were together all afternoon. Nobody was drinking, nobody was under the influence.

"A beer", eh? Could it have been one of those "ice" beers with increased alcohol content? Perhaps even a 40 of King Cobra could be called "a beer" under the right circumstances.

And, thinking ahead, Peggy Noonan offers "Hit Refresh: Why Bush may be thinking about replacing Cheney".

To save time, and since nearly every other message at DUmmieland is about Dick Cheney shooting Harry Whittington, so let's mine their collective intelligence for clues.

First up, there are a couple prior pictures of Cheney hunting here and here. Notice anything about those pictures that might cast doubt on part of Cheney's explanation? Yes, that's right, he's wearing ear protection. One DUmmie supposes that the Secret Service probably is in contact with him through those earphones and could have broadcast something such as, "Harry is walking behind you".

And, "The Swiss Miss...the VP... & UBS Enron?" tries to find links between the various members of the hunting party.

See also "Poll question: How big of "a Beer" did Cheney Consume at lunch?"

There are penetration test for shotgun loads here. That would tend to cast a bit of doubt on how such small pellets fired from such a (stated) distance could cause such penetration.

Another angle involves "Funeralgate", a Texas scandal apparently involving the Bush Gang and Whittington. See also this and this.

And, a public defender in New Hampshire offers obsessive coverage including raising the possibility that Cheney engaged in felony witness tampering and questioning the time of the accident.

I wondered about the sunny/dusk discrepancy earlier.