By the time Mr. Shakes and I shared our first kiss in London’s Norfolk Square, we had already exchanged “I love you”s, already had our first fight, already planned to marry. We did everything backwards; it was only after we had come to trust one another implicitly and confessed our deepest secrets that we gazed into each other’s eyes for the first time. It was only after spending so much time apart that we were finally able to spend time together.
In retrospect, it seems impossibly crazy—and thoroughly unlikely. A brief online encounter between two people, 4,000 miles apart. Emails, IMs, phone calls. Exchanged pictures. Books sent through the mail. Foolish convictions that it would all translate seamlessly into real life when we finally met.
And then, on August 9, 2001, we did.
I flew into London the night before, arriving at 7:30 am. I dumped off my bags at the hotel and freshened up a bit in their tiny WC; the room wasn’t ready yet. And then I wandered around for awhile—a neighborhood I knew, and I was glad to be back in the area. Though I was jittery with nerves, walking its familiar streets was comforting. I bought a paper at the corner shop, peered into the windows of a great little Greek restaurant where we would eat two nights later, with my girlfriend Miller. When the time came, I made my way to King’s Cross, and looked at the giant arrivals and departures board, to find out on what platform I should wait. I went to the bathroom and peered at myself in the mirror. I looked like shit—exhausted, scummy with travel, my hair tied up in a messy twist. I went back to the platform and nervously chain-smoked, and then the train was pulling in.
People were pouring out of the train, and I watched them walk toward me as I slouched against a column, my knees weak and my heart about to pound right out of my chest. When I saw him, my back went straight. We held each other’s eyes. He came to me and I wrapped my arms around his neck—he leaning down and I on my tiptoes, to accommodate the difference in our height. “Hi, Lissie,” he said, against my ear.
We started to walk out of the train station, and at a V, he started to veer the wrong way. I grabbed his hand. “This way,” I said, and pulled him gently. Our fingers stayed entwined as we walked out into the air, the noise of the London streets. We chattered nervously about our respective trips as we made our way to the tube, to head back to the hotel. On the train, we stood, looking at one another and babbling nonsensically and bumping into each other with the motion of travel. And by the time we reached Paddington Station, and walked above ground, the nerves were disappearing. We crossed the street and walked to Norfolk Square, and on the corner, across from the park, he dropped his bag and pulled me to him and kissed me.
And that was that.
By the time we’d done all the official paperwork of a fiancée visa, allowing Mr. S. to move to the States, his stay predicated on our getting hitched within 90 days, we’d been in each other’s presence just a little over a month, spread over a year. The rest of the time we spent apart, connected only by the internet, the phone, and the mail. A six-hour time difference meant little sleep for both of us; he stayed up too late; I got up too early. We were constantly sick with missing each other, and the worry that our paperwork would never come through. But it did—and on June 12, 2002, we were married by a judge in a 10-minute ceremony…and then we went out for burgers.
When we were apart, all we could talk about is what it would be like when we were together. Sock feet on hardwood floors on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Curled up on the couch on a wintry day, under the same blanket, reading our own books. Hugging each other whenever we wanted. Going to the movies. Making dinner together in our kitchen, bumping hips and sharing a glass of wine. Never feeling again the joy of being together cast in the shadow of knowing it wouldn’t last. When we spoke about how we would never take for granted the chance of being together, even then I thought we would. I figured there would come a time when not every day felt precious, when the routine of life inevitably replaced our gratitude.
But it hasn’t. Every time we snuggle up on the couch to watch a film, I think about the time when we couldn’t. Every time he takes my hand, I remember a time when it wasn’t possible. Every evening, when he walks through the door, I am happy to see him, and the memory of seeing for the first time at King’s Cross lays itself across my heart.
We did everything backwards, you see. I felt the loss of him first. And it will forever make me keenly aware of what having him really means.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Mr. Shakes. I love you.
(The first picture is Back Where You Belong by a Scottish artist called Jack Vettriano. The second is Edward Hopper’s Room in New York. Copies of each hang in our home.)
My Valentine
Kerplunk
39 Percent.
Say it with me: "George W. Bush is not a popular president."
Now say it to ten other people.
Hackett’s Out
Paul Hackett has dropped out of the Ohio senate race, and says he will leave politics altogether.
Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.If it’s true that his donors were being called and told to stop contributing to his senatorial campaign, that’s absolutely outrageous, and, frankly, I’ve no reason to think it isn’t true. The Dems are just shooting themselves in the foot again. That Sherrod Brown was likely to trounce Hackett in the primary makes no difference. Better to let a candidate compete honestly in a primary and lose than push him out—especially a candidate with a big mouth and a penchant for saying it like it is, which by no means should be taken as a criticism of Hackett.
Mr. Hackett staged a surprisingly strong Congressional run last year in an overwhelmingly Republican district and gained national prominence for his scathing criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War. It was his performance in the Congressional race that led party leaders to recruit him for the Senate race.
But for the last two weeks, he said, state and national Democratic Party leaders have urged him to drop his Senate campaign and again run for Congress.
"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement comes two days before the state's filing deadline for candidates. He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.
"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."
Honestly, I wish Hackett had given more consideration to a House run, because it would have been better for Ohio than this all-or-nothing scenario. I don’t agree with the Dems’ tactics at all, and Hackett isn’t the only candidate they’re messing about. Political parties play politics—even (perhaps, especially) within their own ranks.
The truth is, he’s a political novice who just got a rude awakening, so I understand his chagrin. But I hope instead of giving up on politics altogether, he regroups, and finds a way to play politics with the Dems, or runs as an Independent.
You Really Should Read This*
This has been making the blog rounds, but if you haven't read Glenn Greenwald's "Do Bush Followers have a Political Ideology?" yet, you really should.
Now, in order to be considered a "liberal," only one thing is required – a failure to pledge blind loyalty to George W. Bush. The minute one criticizes him is the minute that one becomes a "liberal," regardless of the ground on which the criticism is based. And the more one criticizes him, by definition, the more "liberal" one is. Whether one is a "liberal" -- or, for that matter, a "conservative" -- is now no longer a function of one’s actual political views, but is a function purely of one’s personal loyalty to George Bush.
One can see this principle at work most illustratively in how Bush followers talk about Andrew Sullivan. In the couple of years after 9/11, Bush followers revered Sullivan, as he stood loyally behind Bush, providing the rhetorical justifications for almost every Bush action. And even prior to the Bush Administration, Sullivan was a fully accepted member of the conservative circle. Nobody questioned the bona fides of his conservative credentials because he ascribed to the conservative view on almost every significant political issue.
Despite not having changed his views on very many, if any, of those issues, Sullivan is now frequently called a "liberal" (at best) when he is talked about by Bush followers. What has changed are not his political views or ideological orientation. Instead, he no longer instinctively and blindly praises George Bush, but periodically, even frequently, criticizes Bush. By definition, then, he is no longer a "conservative."
Give it an eyeball.
*I think I'll abbreviate this as "YRSRT" from now on. I forsee using it a lot.
Question of the Day
Continuing on a similar thread as Saturday’s QotD, today’s is: What book (or play, or comic, etc.) would you like to see made into a film (single or multipart)?
It can either be a work that’s never been brought to the big (or small) screen, or one that has, but never successfully (in your opinion). For example, Anna Karenina was once made into a dreadful miniseries with Christopher Reeve, but there’s never been any kind of great adaptation of which I’m aware.
If you’re feeling really ambitious, feel free to choose a director and cast for your dream adaptation, too.
I’d like to see Geek Love turned into a film; I think we’re finally getting to a point where CGI might make that possible. Dream director: Tim Burton or Peter Jackson.
I’d also like to see The Secret History onscreen, although only if it’s serious and not in the same vein as Cruel Intentions, which wasn’t awful, but The Secret History deserves better than to serve as a mediocre teen vehicle for up-and-coming young stars. Dream director: Sam Mendes or Jane Campion.
And, while I’m at it, I’d really love to see a series of films on the Flashman books started. Royal Flash, the second in the book series, was made into a film in 1975, but that’s been it. Dream director: George Clooney. Dream casting for the title role: Colin Farrell.
Mr. Shakes casts his vote for Iain M. Banks’ Use of Weapons—“a sci-fi opera of the highest caliber,” according to Mr. S. Dream director: Ridley Scott.
What a Polite Caption
U.S. President George W. Bush (R) listens to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan during their meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, February 13, 2006. REUTERS/Jim Young
I guess “The King of Obvious Body Language drifts off with boredom and spends some time in La-La Land while UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says important things” would be considered rude.
Rumsfeld Horses Around
Visiting Morocco this weekend, Secretary of Defense and “horse enthusiast” Donald Rumsfeld got a tour of King Mohammed’s “elaborate, well-maintained ranch” and joked that he’s ready to chuck it all to be a horseman:
Donald Rumsfeld admired Arab stallions from the stables of Morocco's king being put through their paces, then jokingly offered to give up his job as U.S. defence secretary to manage the royal horse ranch…When I first read that, I assumed the “royal employees” were presenting the horses with sweets, like sugar cubes. But no—they were presenting Rumsfeld with sweets. Wasn’t that what was supposed to happen in Iraq? Just more mixed intelligence messages, I guess.
Black, grey and chestnut stallions, some purchased in the United States, trotted and posed for Rumsfeld as royal employees presented him with sweets.
Ranch manager Amid Abdelhamid showed Rumsfeld such items as a saddle fashioned from crocodile skin and explained, among other things, the pros and cons of using frozen sperm to breed horses. He also told Rumsfeld of his travels searching to buy the world's best horses.I hope there weren’t any discussions of human-animal hybrids, though!
"You've got the best job in the world," Rumsfeld told Abdelhamid. "Any time you want to trade jobs, I'll do it."So go, you jackass. What’s the hold-up? The rest of us have been ready for you to be put out to pasture for years.
Is it just me, or is anyone else sick to fucking death of hearing about the leaders of our government parading around palatial estates talking about million-dollar animals, or flouncing about in private fields shooting animals, or taking lavish international golf trips, or shoe-shopping while NOLA drowns, or spending egregious amounts of leisure time clearing brush outside a mansion-cum-ranch? I never thought I’d miss news reports about the president making trips to McDonald’s.
Fuck every last one of these hillbilly Gatsbys and their Lollipop Gilded Age.
Keep an Eye on any Patriot Act Rewrites
How long will it be until you're required by law to get one of these to "fight terrorism?"
2 Workers have Chips Embedded Into Them
CINCINNATI - Tiny silicon chips were embedded into two workers who volunteered to help test the tagging technology at a surveillance equipment company, an official said Monday.
The Mexico attorney general's office implanted the so-called RFIDs — for radio frequency identification chips — in some employees in 2004 to restrict access to secure areas. Implanting them in the workers at CityWatcher.com is believed to be the first use of the technology in living humans in the United States.
Sean Darks, chief executive of the company, also had one of the chips embedded.
"I have one," he said. "I'm not going to ask somebody to do something I wouldn't do myself. None of my employees are forced to get the chip to keep their job."
The chips are the size of a grain of rice and a doctor embedded them in the forearm just under the surface of the skin, Darks said.
They work "like an access card. There's a reader outside the door; you walk up to the reader, put your arm under it, and it opens the door," Darks said.
Darks said the implants don't enable CityWatcher.com to track employees' movements.
"It's a passive chip. It emits no signal whatsoever," Darks said. "It's the same thing as a keycard."
I can just hear it now:
"I don't mind if I'm implanted with a chip to fight terrorism... I've got nothing to hide!"
Step two: Barcode tattoos.
America for Sale—Literally
Preservation schmeservation. We need cash for the empire!
The Bush administration Friday laid out plans to sell off more than $1 billion in public land during the next decade, including 85,000 acres of National Forest property in California.The beast is getting hungry—the inevitable consequence when you endeavor to starve it.
Most of the proceeds would help pay for rural schools and roads, making up for a federal subsidy that has been eliminated from President Bush's 2007 budget.
"This is a fire sale of public lands. It is utterly unprecedented," said Char Miller, professor of environmental history at Trinity University in San Antonio, who has written extensively about the Forest Service. "It signals that the lands and the agency that manages them are in deep trouble."The proposed sale would be the largest of its kind in the century since President Theodore Roosevelt—who actually paid attention to the root of the word “conservative”—established the U.S. Forest Service.
The U.S. Forest Service has earmarked more than 300,000 acres for sale in 32 states.
In a companion proposal inserted into this week's massive 2007 budget, White House officials directed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials to sell off at least $350 million worth of public land, with the funds to go directly to the general treasury.
The public has 30 days to contest “after maps of the acreage proposed for sale are published, which the agency expects to do by the end of the month.” I question whether enough of “the public” will even hear about this crackpot plan for their collective complaint to register as more than a mere blip on the radars of those who care little to hear dissenting opinions in the first place.
(Hat tip to Tata at Blanton’s and Ashton’s, and Fix, who pointed me there.)
Stinkier and Stinkier
Judd at Think Progress points to this CBS news report which notes that local law enforcement were barred from interviewing VP Dick Cheney after he shot a fellow hunter on Saturday.
CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer reports Texas authorities are complaining that the Secret Service barred them from speaking to Cheney after the incident. Kenedy County Texas Sheriffs Lt. Juan Guzman said deputies first learned of the shooting when an ambulance was called.Judd also offers some snippets from today's White House Press Briefing, during which Scott McClellan was asked about local officals being prevented from speaking with Cheney and whether the accidental shooting could constitute a criminal offense:
The Secret Service is looking into how the case was handled at the scene, Maer added.
QUESTION: Scott, there’s a report coming out of a sheriff’s deputy there who said that he was prevented from interviewing the vice president by the Secret Service. Do you know anything about that? And is that appropriate?Meanwhile, the National Review Online's Byron York shares that Cheney’s spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, called NRO to confirm that Cheney and the property owner, whose call to the local media provided the first insight into the incident, directly discussed the decision to go public:
MCCLELLAN: No, I don’t know anything about that. You have got to direct that to the Secret Service. My understanding was that Secret Service took the appropriate steps to inform law enforcement.
[…]
QUESTION: Under Texas law, is this kind of accidental shooting a possible criminal offense?
MCCLELLAN: I won’t even speculate on that, but I think the sheriff’s office or the local law enforcement office has already commented on that and said it was a hunting accident.
Cheney and Katharine Armstrong did discuss telling the public about the incident. "The vice president was on the Armstrong ranch, and they were talking directly," McBride said. "The vice president and Mrs. Armstrong agreed that the media should be notified, and Mrs. Armstrong called her local paper."Which raises the obvious question, if Cheney had decided that the media shouldn’t be notified, would we ever have known?
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
The Money Pit
They just keep shoveling it in, and shoveling, and shoveling, and shoveling... and never look to see where it lands.
Audits Show Millions in Katrina Aid Wasted
WASHINGTON - In its rush to provide Katrina disaster aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasted millions of dollars and overpaid for hotel rooms, including $438-a-day lodging in New York City, government investigators said Monday.
Two reports released by the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general detail a series of accounting flaws, fraud or mismanagement in their initial review of how $85 billion in federal aid is being spent.
The two audits found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA's emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.
Separately, the Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors have filed fraud, theft and other charges against 212 people accused of scams related to Gulf Coast hurricanes. Forty people have pleaded guilty so far, the latest report by the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force said. Many defendants were accused of trying to obtain emergency aid, typically a $2,000 debit card, issued to hurricane victims by FEMA and the American Red Cross.
Thousands of additional dollars appear to have been squandered on hotel rooms for evacuees that were paid at retail rather than the contractor's lower estimated cost. They included $438 rooms in New York City and beachfront condominiums in Panama City, Fla., at $375 a night, according to the audits.
You know something? I don't want to hear one more goddamned thing about how every solution that Democrats or Liberals suggest is "just throwing money at the problem." Once again, we have a situation that requires government response, and the response is to simply dump truckloads of money over the entire thing, hoping it will solve the problem (and repair their tarnished image). Now, I will say that the people that capatalized on this disaster and scammed money out of the Katrina funds are scum, and deserve whatever punishment they receive. However, this is just another example of how sloppy money management is milking every American taxpayer dry, and keeping needed funds from those who desperately need them. Like the victims of Katrina that are getting the shaft yet again:
NEW ORLEANS - About 12,000 families made homeless by last year's hurricanes were hoping for a last-minute reprieve that would force the federal government to continue paying directly for their hotel rooms past Monday's deadline.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has promised the evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita that they will still receive federal assistance that they can use toward hotel stays or fixing their ruined homes, although FEMA will no longer pay for the hotels directly.
But in a motion filed Sunday, lawyers for the evacuees say the money they'll get now won't be enough for reasonable living accomodations or for continued hotel stays.
As the fabricated war sucks up an obscene amount of money, we're still missing 9 Billion Dollars in Iraq funds that have just vanished into thin air.
Meanwhile, the tax cuts for the richest Americans stand rock solid and untouchable, while the defecit soars out of control, all cuts in spending are laughable and serve only to slap the poor, the elderly, and the most needy in the face.
And they just keep shoveling.
I guess that when you've never had to worry about money, you're blind to how important it is. After all, if there's an endless supply, why worry about how you're spending it? Besides, it's not like its their money. When the Bush "presidency" is finished, all of the orchestrators will have their nice mansions to return to, and big fat wallets.
The rest of us had better develop a taste for cake.
(The best cross-posts in life are free...)
The Brady Bunch
Jim Brady, who served as Reagan’s Press Secretary and was caught in the crossfire during John Hinckley’s assassination attempt on Regan and, after being shot, became an outspoken advocate of sensible gun laws, has issued a statement on the Cheney shooting:
"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him," said Jim Brady. "I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog - and I thought he was an idiot."Even better was his wife Sarah’s comment:
"I've thought Cheney was scary for a long time," Sarah Brady said. "Now I know I was right to be nervous."Ha.
Quick, Pull Over to the Right Side...
...because the Whaaaaaambulance is coming!
First Lady Dismisses Clinton's Criticism
(Bolds mine)
TURIN, Italy - Laura Bush said Saturday that Hillary Rodham Clinton's criticism of her husband's administration was "out of bounds," arguing that the former first lady should show some empathy for the current White House occupants.
Leading the U.S. delegation at the Winter Olympics in Turin, the first lady talked about a range of subjects, from the violent protests across the Muslim world over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to the quality of the U.S. Olympic team. She was interviewed by ABC and CBS.
Clinton, the New York senator and a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, has called the Bush administration "one of the worst" in history. In the interview with ABC News, Mrs. Bush was asked if Clinton's comments were "just politics, fair game or out of bounds."
"Of course I think it's out of bounds," the first lady said. "But I think it's politics, it's certainly politics."
And as we all know, the Bushes never, ever "play politics."
Mrs. Bush pointed out that former Presidents Bush and Clinton and her husband are part of a unique club that also includes the wives.Oh, please.
"We know what it's like to live in that house. We certainly know what it's like to have your husband criticized," Mrs. Bush said. "So I think there's a certain empathy that we might have for each other that we wouldn't have maybe for somebody else who said something like that."
Of course. Hillary should stop saying nasty things about your husband, because she should know how that feels. So just forget all the vicious attacks against Bill and yourself, Hillary. You know, the ones that are still going on, and are still being used to excuse the colossal screwups that Bush makes on a daily basis.
Quit being so mean, Hillary! We'd never do that to you!
Excuse me while I pick up my eyeballs; rapid rolling pops them right out of the sockets. Suck it up, Laura. You're married to the Worst President in American History. Get used to hearing it.
(And don't tell me what to say, and don't tell me what to cross-post )
File this under WTF: US to sell oversight of ports
The WaPo reports:
A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.Stranger at Blah3 comments:
The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
The $6.8 billion sale could be approved Monday and would affect commercial port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.
[J]ust where does the Right side of the blogosphere--you know, the people who wake up in the morning thinking of new ways to demonize people from the Middle East--come down on this issue?I don't know what I find more disturbing--that the oversight of ports is being sold like a bobblehead on eBay, or that a "secretive U.S. government panel" has cleared the way for the sale without so much as a murmur beyond page A17.
My guess? Since their Handsome and Powerful SuperPresident Bush has approved it, it's all just peachy-keen with them. Morons.
And one more note--the Washington Post obviously sees the import of this story, seeing as how they chose to print it on page A17. Way to go, WaPo.
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
California Conservatives to Governator: Terminate Lesbian!
The Governator is risking another fat lip at the hands of the homobigot crowd.
By way of 429 News comes the news that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is facing a potential Republican Party rift, and risks losing the state GOP's endorsement for reelection, if he doesn't shitcan his lesbian--and Democratic--chief of staff.
Conservative Republicans are threatening to withhold the party's endorsement of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bid for re-election unless he fires LGBT activist Susan Kennedy, Democrat, as his chief of staff.Kennedy, who served as a top adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis, was hired by Schwarzenegger in an attempt to mollify the LGBT community and many moderate voters who were irked by his decision to support a state bill seeking to prohibit gay marriage. Now the wingers are pissed off. Poor guy--I just feel so sorry for him that his flaccid attempt to pander has only enraged his wingnut, gay-hating base.
The group is demanding a vote on what it calls its "Susan Kennedy Resolution" at the Republican Party winter convention in San Jose…
The resolution says Kennedy "has spent most of her adult life pursuing a partisan Democratic agenda for higher taxes, greater government spending, gay rights, abortion rights ... and other anti-Republican policy issues."
The measure calls on the party to withdraw its endorsement of Schwarzenegger, effective March 15, unless the governor fires her.
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
Move Along, Nothing to See Here
E&P’s Greg Mitchell reports that more questions are being raised about the delay in reporting Cheney’s shooting of a fellow hunter, about whom press reports continue to assert that he is “very stable,” and that he’s only in intensive care because it’s routine for gunshot victims to be treated there.
E&P has learned that the official confirmation of the shooting came about only after a local reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, received a tip from the owner of the property where the shooting occured and called Vice President Cheney's office for confirmation.The Chicago Tribune’s Frank James is none too pleased, either.
The confirmation was made but it is not known for certain that Cheney's office, the White House, or anyone else intended to announce the shooting if the reporter, Jaime Powell of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, had not received word from the ranch owner…
The Cheney spokesman Powell spoke with, Lea Anne McBride, would not comment on whether the Cheney office or the White House would have ever released the information had the Caller-Times not contacted them.
"I’m not going to speculate," McBride said, according to Powell. "When you put the call into me, I was able to confirm that account."
… The president, who was at the White House over the weekend, was informed about the incident in Texas after it happened Saturday by Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and was updated on Sunday, press secretary Scott McClellan said.
But neither the White House nor the vice president's staff announced the shooting.
Unsurprisingly, the rightwing blogosphere has very little to say about it. Just a mistake; happens all the time. Of course, it’s not the
Cheney Shooting Kept Quiet for Almost 24 Hours
The indispensable Brad Friedman points out that some reports are noting the shooting incident took place yesterday at 5:30pm, and asks:
Did they wait until they could report that he would be fine before releasing it at all? Would we have found out about it at all, therefore, if the man had died? Did they wait until after it could be discussed on the Sunday News shows?Under normal circumstances, I might think such questions are a stretch, but we waved bye-bye to normal circumstances long ago, thanks in no small part to the shooter in question—an integral player in the ushering in of The New Order. The delay of the story until after the Sunday news shows seems pretty likely, at minimum.
Brad’s also got more on the Armstrongs, on whose ranch the incident occurred.
Meanwhile, I see that the victim of the shooting, Harry Whittington, is a longtime Republican who has served on the Texas Department of Corrections Board, the Texas Public Finance Authority Board, and the Texas Office of Patient Protection. He was also appointed to the Texas Funeral Services Commission by then-Governor George W. Bush, and during his tenure, the board paid $50,000 as part of a settlement with a state funeral home regulator who said she was wrongfully fired for investigating a large funeral home chain operated by a longtime family friend of George W. Bush. In what might seem a familiar story, the then-governor was not required to testify in the case.
It never ceases to amaze me that no matter what name appears in any news story with any prominent member of the administration, they always seem to be attached to some scandal in George Bush’s past.
Ha!
The story to which I linked below is now running this photo alongside it:
Vice President Dick Cheney, center, accepts a rifle from National Rifle Association President Kayne Robinson, right, and NRA Vice President Wayne R. LaPierre, after concluding his keynote address to the 133rd annuanl NRA convention in this April 17, 2004 file photo in Pittsburgh. Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday Feb. 12, 2006. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
Please feel free to offer your own captions....
