Suspicious Minds
15 February 2006 12:23 am by Taylor Marsh
Suspicious Minds
“I'll tell you what really
doesn't add up here. It's the 30 yards distance. When I talked to friends of
mine who were avid hunters, a 28 gauge shotgun is not a powerful weapon unless
you happen to be a quail or you happen to be very close. And I think that there's
just a question whether at that distance those kind of injuries could occur.”
- Paul Burka, executive editor of Texas
Monthly magazine (interviewed by Keith Olbermann)
You know it's bad when Trent Lott is referring to Dick Cheney
as the “shooter
in chief.” There's lots more where that came from, so let's just call
it incoming.
Lawrence O'Donnell is being equally blunt, but on another front.
“Was
Cheney drunk?”
Well, Lawrence, it depends on when you looked at the stories out
there, which stories you perused and how quickly you did a screen capture, because
the truth is disappearing faster than Dick Cheney's allies.
According to an interview on “Countdown,” as well as
other news reports, we now are aware that the pellet in Mr. Whittington is “around
the heart and the muscle of the heart and the lining of the heart, called the
pericardium.” If the pellet doesn't migrate further, it can be a “treatable
condition,” according to trauma surgeon, Dr. Sumitra Eachempati, from New
York Presbyterian Hospital. He also said that we have to treat any information
we're getting with a degree of “caution,” because — and these are
my words but they convey the sentiment — they weren't straight with us from
the get go. We don't even know if we're being told the truth about the full
extent of the birdshot in Whittington's body, because they're not releasing
all of the information. So, we absolutely do not know his full condition. All
we can do is pray for the man. Amen.
News reports yesterday, however, started to offer that some pellets had
lodged in his chest, might have even “penetrated deeper into the chest cavity,” giving a fuller picture of the seriousness of Mr. Whittington's condition.
This is really bird shot that
penetrated the chest to get immediately adjacent or even into the heart and
is damaging the heart by the direct force of the bird shot.
The
News HourAlthough hospital officials mentioned
that the pellet had “moved” to Whittington's heart, Dr. Soumitra
Eachempati, a trauma surgeon at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Hospital
said it was not clear whether the birdshot had somehow penetrated deeper into
the chest cavity to reach the heart, or if it had been lodged elsewhere and
carried to the heart through a vein. Scripps
Howard News Service
The only person who has all the facts is Vice President Dick Cheney
and he isn't talking.
Besides W.'s Dick being unbelievably dense about this whole tragic
incident. The entire Administration has created another serious problem for
themselves. I've cut Scott McClellan a lot of slack, considering his bosses,
however, he's now turned the corner, with his spin becoming a professional train
wreck. It was bad enough when he blew the Rove – Libby, they don't know nothin'
nonsense, but now he's actually starting to sound like his bosses.
“The protocol was not followed by
Mr. Whittington when it came to notifying the others that he was there,”
McClellan said. “And so, you know, unfortunately these type of hunting
accidents happen from time to time.” Cheney
Lacked $7 Hunting Credential
If we hear the word protocol, in reference to Cheney's abject
negligence in shooting a fellow hunter again, I think it's time to start a new
drinking game, complete with tequila, suction dart guns or, if you live on the
east coast, snow balls. Every time we hear “protocol” by one of the
president or vice president's people we launch our weapon of choice at a silhouetted
figure of the vice president, then take a shot. We'll be drunk by sundown, Cheney's
time of awakening. That way, when he shoots us, we'll care less.
On the other hand, the press corp should do something entirely
reactionary like ask him this question: Scott, are you blaming the victim here?
Then push it: Are you saying it's Mr. Whittington's fault that Dick Cheney shot
him?
It's right about now we should cue an old Elvis record, hearing
“Suspicious Minds” in the background as you read, because this is
getting downright conspiratorial at this point. The media is following us, folks,
so let's lead on.
Yet another variable pops up with the president's pal. Was Dick
Cheney and his team trying to hide the fact that he'd shot Mr. Whittington?
Why did they choose to take him to Kingsville instead of the larger Corpus Christi.
“…I wondered why in the
first place they moved him by ambulance to Kingsville, which is a small town
which would not have the medical facilities that Corpus Christi had and if you
were a suspicious soul you might think that they brought him to Kingsville
because they would more likely be able to conduct things out of the light of
day than they would be in Corpus Christi. But of course the same might
have happened in Corpus Christi if the ranch owner, Ms. Armstrong, had not decided
to call. But certainly you're going to get better medical treatment in Corpus
Christi, you would think — I don't want to denigrate Kingsville but it's a
much smaller town. That raised my eyebrows, because they were starting from
the middle of a ranch, so they had to drive through some pretty rough country,
probably unimproved roads to get there and it took quite a while.” -
Paul Burka (interviewed by Keith Olbermann)
Dr. Sumitra Eachempati, talking to Keith Olbermann, who got his
yardage mixed up, which is real easy to do if you're not a hunter, confused 90 yards with 90 feet, which would be 30 yards,
the distance in question, asked the Dr. about Burka's point above. Dr. Eachempati
said that he thought it sounded as if the shot would have been fired from 15-30
yards away. Thirty yards was his maximum.
We're still doing some research on the 28 gauge – 30 yard question,
but it's not looking good for Dick.
LATE UPDATE: Late in the above “Countdown” episode, Keith corrected the yardage confusion. I didn't see the whole show until today, compliments of my TiVo.
