I want a medal too!!!!!

for bl8ant

Cheney and the shooting event:

"The Late Show With David Letterman" (CBS)

"Good news ladies and gentleman, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction … It's **** Cheney."

* * *

"We can't get Bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney."

* * *

"Honestly, I don't know what all of the fuss is about. What's more American than shooting your hunting buddy in the ass?"

* * *

"The guy who got gunned down is a Republican lawyer and a big Republican donor and fortunately the buck shot was deflected by wads of laundered cash. So he's fine. He took a little in the wallet."

* * *

From "Cheney's Excuses," Monday night's Top 10 list: "I thought the guy was trying to go gay cowboy on me."

"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" (Comedy Central)

A partial transcript:

Jon Stewart: "Yes, as you've just heard, a near-tragedy over the weekend in south Texas. Vice President **** Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt at a political supporter's ranch. Making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting VP since Alexander Hamilton.

"Hamilton, of course, shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird.

* * *

The other player in the drama? Ranch owner and eyewitness Katharine Armstrong.

Katharine Armstrong: "We were shooting a covey of quail. The vice president and two others got out of the car to walk up the covey."

Jon Stewart: "What kind of hunting story begins with getting out of your car? As I sighted the great beast before us, my shaking hands could barely engage the parking brake. Slowly, I turned off the A/C and silenced my sub-woofers…"

* * *

Katharine Armstrong: "A bird flushed. The vice president took aim at the bird and shot and unfortunately, Mr. Whittington was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty well."

Jon Stewart: "Peppered. There you have it. Harry Whittington, seasoned to within an inch of his life.

* * *

Jon Stewart: "I'm joined now by our own vice-presidential firearms mishap analyst, Rob Corddry. Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?

Rob Corddry: "Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Wittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush.

"And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington's face."

Jon Stewart: "But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, in a post-9-11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak."

Jon Stewart: "That's horrible."

Rob Corddry: "Look, the mere fact that we're even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know 'how' we're hunting them. I'm sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little 'covey' of theirs.

Jon Stewart: "I'm not sure birds can laugh, Rob."

Rob Corddry: "Well, whatever it is they do … coo .. they're cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.

Jon Stewart: "Okay, well, on a purely human level, is the vice president at least sorry?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, what difference does it make? The bullets are already in this man's face. Let's move forward across party lines as a people … to get him some sort of mask."

"Jimmy Kimmel Live" (ABC)

Among the jokes in consideration for Monday's telecast:

"It's part of the president's new Social Security plan. Once you hit 78, kablamo."

* * *

"Luckily, the guy he shot was wearing the body armor that never got shipped to the troops."

* * *

"You know what they say, if **** Cheney comes out of his hole and shoots an old man in the face, 6 more weeks of winter."

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (NBC)

"Although it is beautiful here in California, the weather back East has been atrocious. There was so much snow in Washington, D.C. **** Cheney accidentally shot a fat guy thinking it was a polar bear."

* * *

"When people found out he shot a lawyer his popularity is now at 92%"

* * *

"After he shot the guy, he screamed, 'Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?' "

* * *

"Something I just found out today about the incident. Do you know that **** Cheney tortured the guy for a half hour before he shot him?"

* * *

"Cheney's defense is that he was aiming at a quail when he shot the guy. Which means that Cheney now has the worst aim of anyone in the White House since Bill Clinton.

but of course ya do realize Addington is the master mind here.....

This was what is known, in the cloistered world of constitutional lawyers and scholars, as a "signing statement." Such statements, in the years before President Bush and his aides moved into the White House, were rare. A signing statement is a legal memorandum in which the president and his lawyers take legislation sent over by Congress and put their stamp on it by saying what they believe the measure does and doesn't allow. Consumed by the 9/11 attacks, Americans for the most part didn't realize that the signing statement accompanying the announcement of the Brown v. Board commission would signal one of the most controversial hallmarks of the Bush presidency: a historic shift in the balance of power away from the legislative branch of government to the executive. The shift began soon after Bush took office and reached its apogee after 9/11, with Bush's authorization of military tribunals for terrorism suspects, secret detentions and aggressive interrogations of "unlawful enemy combatants," and warrantless electronic surveillance of terrorism suspects on U.S. soil, including American citizens.

The "invisible hand." Much of the criticism that has been directed at these measures has focused on Vice President **** Cheney. In fact, however, it is a largely anonymous government lawyer, who now serves as Cheney's chief of staff, who has served as the ramrod driving the Bush administration's most secretive and controversial counterterrorism measures through the bureaucracy. David Addington was a key advocate of the Brown v. Board and more than 750 other signing statements the administration has issued since taking office--a record that far outstrips that of any other president.

The signing statements are just one tool that Addington and a small cadre of ultraconservative lawyers at the heart of the Bush administration are employing to prosecute the war on terrorism. Little known outside the West Wing and the inner sanctums of the CIA, the Pentagon, and the State Department, Addington is a genial colleague who also possesses an explosive temper that he does not hesitate to direct at those who oppose him. Addington, says an admiring former White House official, is "the most powerful person no one has never heard of."

Name one significant action taken by the Bush White House after 9/11, and chances are better than even that Addington had a role in it. So ubiquitous is he that one Justice Department lawyer calls Addington "Adam Smith's invisible hand" in national security matters. The White House assertion--later proved false--that Saddam Hussein tried to buy nuclear precursors from Niger to advance a banned weapons program? Addington helped vet that. The effort to discredit a former ambassador who publicly dismissed the Niger claim as baseless, by disclosing the name of his wife, a covert CIA officer? Addington was right in the middle of that, too, though he has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Yes, Addington is powerful, but my sense is that he is taking orders from Cheney. Addington's job is to draft the documents and frame the legal issues so that Cheney can move forward.

Addington is the guy who brought John Yoo (who wrote the torture memos) from the Justice Department, as the second member of a three-man legal team. The third was the President's own deputy legal counsel, Tim Flanigan. Together, they are the lawyers who executed the Cheney orders. William Haynes at the DoD helped them.


Oceans

Most of the stuff you are talking about Alex came from Cheney's office!

Most of the stuff in that article, Oceans, is old news. Why has it taken the post so long to catch up? I have read more damning stuff on Cheney than any of that, and months ago! Basically the same, but they are way behind with the story.

If it's so easy there to get a medal, I want one, too.
For trusting the postal system in Europe

Whats wrong with the postal system in europe, invisible?

A brown envelope from Ireland to Holland, 1 day short of 2 weeks

Dam!

I mailed my rent one day, and my land lord called to say she hadnt got it. I went to the mailbox and there it was, returned, because I had put a 39cent stamp on it and the postage went up to 41cents. Now every time I see my postman I give him a nickle and a smile!!

The same sized envelope to Australia took only four days longer, and to America it was only 9 days

Thats funny! I thought we had the worst postal system!!!

Good morning everyone Try to get something to China from America Although things get here fine from Kuwait

good morning JJ

How many hours ahead of the East Coast USA are you there?

Good morning JJ,

KITTTYYY! =p

Cripes Allan, put your jumper on

Dumb question...whats a jumper?

Mornin Glen Well right now it is 5 am Friday morning. I believe I am 12 hours ahead of you...
Andrea hope your feeling better....nice new picture