Today’s White House Press converence was taken up with a lot of time devoted as to why a property owner released the news regarding the veep and his good friend being involved in a more or less minor hunting (shooting) incident. The evening news likewise made much of the incident. It is really something to be devoting so much time to when there are much more serious subjects to be concerned with.
Iran and the potential prospect of nuclear warfare is worthy of serious discussion.
Should the news media concern itself with relative trivia and neglect the momentous problem facing the nation and provide relevant information?
I agree that it doesn’t rise to the level of an Oval Office blowjob, but if there was some attempt to cover up this “accident”, then the press needs to do its frickin’ job and find out what actually happened. For example, how many bottles of Wild Turkey had Big Time Dick consumed before the quail hunt? (I’m guessing 2).
There wouldn’t have been even a small circus if they’d come clean with what is, I admit, a minor issue. It builds the feeling that there’s more to the story when something isn’t disclosed.
Feh. Unless Cheney had been hitting the bottle (for which I haven’t seen any evidence) this is a one day story. It’ll be gone shortly, as it should.
I agree. I heard the criticism on the radio and it seemed sooooo petty.
Believe me, I’d like any opportunity to criticize the current administration for hiding facts, but I don’t think they had an obligation to call CNN the minute it happened. Now, if Cheney had bribed everyone not to talk or had encouraged the guy to lie to police or hospital staff or something, that would be a story.
Yes. I voted Bush twice. I wouldn’t call myself a Republican (because any party spending that much money and hacking the Constitution to pieces -isn’t- representing my principles), but yeah, I can be pretty right leaning on a lot of issues.
Dick Cheney should be impeached, have his assets cleaned out and sent to the victim & family, and be sent to the nastiest jail in America. He was supposed to set an example, for both law and also for the political party he represents. He failed at it. Accordingly, we MUST make an example of him.
If there had not been a delay in releasing the information and if the normal procedure had been followed for an accidental shooting incident, there would still be the usual jokes, but there wouldn’t be so many raised eyebrows.
I don’t care. From what I hear, Whittington is a big Pub contributor, long-time supporter of Bush, whom Cheney has no reason to want dead. So I figure it was just a hunting accident. Two old men in the woods playing with guns. Nothing suspicious. As for the delay in letting the news out, I would expect the exact same spin-management from any administration in these circumstances.
I think the real story should be how utterly pathetic this sort of “hunting” is. I have a lot of respect for real hunters, who fight to conserve wildlife ranges and reserves so that they can go out, track, cleanly kill, and then take home an animal. I have pretty strong leanings towards te idea that animals are due moral consideration as befits their capacities, but hunting them in this manner doesn’t really bother me, because real hunters care and respect the animals they kill, and sincerely do their best to kill them quickly and humanely.
Cheney and his fucktard friends: they instead have hundreds of tame animals released in front of them just so they can run around slaughtering them en masse.
It certainly wouldn’t much surprise me if this was done drunk, and alcohol was part of the “accident.” Because I can’t imagine any other way someone could convince themselves that executing hundreds of confused human/cage-raised birds is somehow in any way noble or sporting. It tells me a lot about someone personally how they treat animals. Wanton, pointless cruelty on this scale is indicative of sociopathy, not sportsmanship.
I don’t know about the “tame” part – the bird are not housepets. But they are farm raised and stocked at a facility where rich people come to shoot them in huge numbers. The guys I know that have been shoot hundreds at a crack and have talked about how their guns get so hot they have to change them. It’s not “hunting” by any stretch of the imagination. (Just like you don’t “fish” at a stocked pond.)
In any incident where someone is injure, be it a millionaire Republican shot by the Vice President of the United States or John Smith of Valparaiso, Indiana there will be a delay between moment of incident and releasing of information. The authorities in question tend to respect the privacy of the individuals involved in the earliest hours, to make sure family and friends are aware of what’s happening before it becomes a headline.
The difference in this case is ostensibly the White House wasn’t forthcoming with the info within a few hours after the shooting.
As Revtim said this is news, it involves the number two man in the country’s executive branch. But is it important news? No.
Jon Stewart also focused on the non-sportsman-like nature of quail hunting at a ranch as well. One of the correspondents said the birds had their wings clipped, but they’re comedians, so I don’t know if that’s true. :rolleyes:
They didn’t address it until the following day. It’s not a significant story, but that was a stupid decision. I think they guaranteed a bigger media reaction by doing so.
It was almost 24 hours before the press at large learned what had happened. This CNN story places the shooting at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, and says CNN and other news sources confirmed it after 3:30 p.m. Sunday. I don’t think anything suspicious happened here, it’s probably a very routine hunting accident. It’s just that they were not forthcoming.
They’ve been raised by human beings all their lives. They aren’t wild. They barely even know what to do when released except wander around aimlessly. They may startle at the approach of the baying dogs, but most the accounts I’ve read of these sorts of hunts commonly feature hilarious stories of the birds wandering around in the open blissfully unaware that they are supposed to be in some sort of noble manly ritual. It’s divinely stupid in every way. You might as well go to a puppy mill and shoot all the dogs there in their cages for as much “sport.”
He personally shot 70 of them, as well as some captive mallards.
Can’t seem to find the link to the Pittsburgh paper that first reported on it, but here’s a local news story reporting the humane society comment, which notes the figure:
I dunno. Considering your need to stretch the facts, I’m not inclinded to take your analysis at face value. I think I’d like to hear from some folks who’ve actually done it before I decide. I thought there were a few guys in the Pit thread who said they’d participated in similar hunts.
I have not hunted like that - the only hunting I’ve ever done was rabbits on a farm with a 22.
But, if the information adds up to what it sounds like - basically, shooting fish in a barrel - it amounts to free-range pheasants being harvested.
Not my idea of fun, and if oogs me out a bit that someone would do that for recreation (I heard on the radio the birds were in captive space), but better than turkeys who live in small cages their entire lives.
If there is a story, it’s about the delay. How could nobody in the media have heard about this for most of a day?
Only UncleBeer said he had been on any canned hunts but he said that his “hunts” had not been anything as expensive or plush as the kind of chauffered. catered blood orgy that Cheney and his croneys are accustomed to.
I don’t know what you think you’re going to find out that will make this activity remotely sporting or somehow non-pathetic.
One of the correspondents said the birds had their wings clipped, but they’re comedians, so I don’t know if that’s true. :rolleyes: