No, I’m not making this up. All charges were promptly dropped, but still, how and why could this have happened in the first place?!
Take a look around you. Take a look at what Cheney has been doing ever since he got into office.
Now tell me you’re surprised.
If they had arrested him as he was saying it, I would probably defend the SS but the fact that they arrested him 10 minutes after he said it, with his 8 year old son no less, looks pretty darn bad.
In case anyone’s interested in the story and is afraid of Left-Wing Cooties, The Rocky has a blurb on this. The Eagle County DA dismissed the charges.
Somehow, BrainGlutton’s abbreviation for the Secret Service is starting to fit…
Honest, Godwin, I was just saying…
Ummm, how and why?
According to the story, he got about 2 feet away from Cheney. Were I a major public figure, I’d feel that’s dangerously close for a stranger to come up to me. But I don’t think there’s any actual law that makes it a crime to walk up close to someone in public, say something, then walk away (absent a previous restraining order to the contrary) even if they are a major executive branch official.
Yeah, the “SS” abbreviation threw me for a minute and I thought we were back in WWII Germany with the fascists and Gestapo and all that.
Oh wait, I think we are.
But seriously, I don’t think it matters at what point he was arrested. He shouldn’t have been arrested at all. He didn’t threaten Cheney, just gave him a personal opinion on what he thought about Cheney’s job performance. Sounds like waaay overzealous SS eager to impress the boss and move up in the ranks. :rolleyes:
When did it become a crime to walk up to someone close enough to speak to them? What law makes Dick Cheney’s “feelings” relevant?
It really has more to do with our perspective as readers of an article though. If the article had said that a man was arrested while criticizing the vice president and all we had to go on was the word of the guy that was arrested, we really would have to wait for the other half of the story. I guess that’s not really defending the SS…
The situation as it stands, though, is pretty indefensible.
I’ve got a question; the charges of harassment were dropped, but does the fact that they were brought up in the first place indicate Cheney’s active choice to press charges? I mean, are these charges something the SS agent could have made, or does the victim of the supposed crime need to bring charges themselves?
Posted without further comment:
Supporting cite:
Military Commissions Act of 2006 – Turning bad policy into bad law
So much for speaking truth to power.
Answer to your query in second link of above post.
Can’t wait to see the Bush flag-wavers (names omitted to protect the stupid) defend this one.
Well, guess the guy was lucky he wasn’t passing by on one of the VP’s “hunting” jaunts, because it mighta been a lot worse then, facially speaking.
Jesus, this is just pitiful, creepy, and pitifully creepy. Grow up, Mr. Cheney and Jackboot accomplices. You signed up under Freedom of Speech when you took the job.
I don’t know. Could he get an inch in front of his face? Is there some sort of cutoff point when the SS can intervene? In any case, they should have done it right as it was happening instead of 10 minutes later when any possible threat has gone away.
I hope someone keeps an eye on this story…this should be front page news…
Well, in the vein of Mauricio (“Shallow Hal”), Cheney apparently didn’t realize he only had about eight seconds to get his comeback in there.
“You can’t come back with a comeback after eight seconds. You got three seconds. Five, tops. It’s called a quip, not a sloooowwwwp.”
Ten minutes? No way. He missed the boat at eight seconds.
Is it possible that if Senator Palp… uh… Mr. Cheney was still in the area, they believed he intended to again violate Mr. Cheney’s personal space?
Just an idea.