Life in OUR America, Volume 5, the Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

And while we are on the subject of "sleazy" in here this morning ....

As that word applies to the WHITE HOUSE ....

In this day and age of George W. Bush ...

And corrupt REPUBLICAN politics ....

We have ....

"White House Aims to Protect New Texas Map"

Fri Feb 17, 3:14 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Bush administration's request to join Texas in defending a Republican-friendly congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay.

The administration will share time with Texas lawyers on March 1, when the court holds a special afternoon session to consider four appeals that stem from the bitter dispute over Texas congressional district boundaries.

Justices are considering whether the Republican-controlled Legislature acted purely for partisan gain in 2003 when it threw out district boundaries that had been used in the 2002 elections, and whether the new map violated a federal voting rights law.

The Justice Department approved the plan although staff lawyers concluded that it diluted minority voting rights.

The Bush administration asked the high court last week for permission to participate in the case, supporting Texas.

The redistricting helped Republicans win 21 of Texas' 32 seats in Congress in the last election, up from 15.

The congressional districts were redrawn after Republicans took control of the state House in 2002.

DeLay, R-Texas, has been indicted on money laundering charges stemming from his efforts to aid Republicans in state legislative elections that year.

DeLay stepped down as U.S. House majority leader because of the charges but denies any wrongdoing.

The cases are League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 05-204; Travis County v. Perry, 05-254; Jackson v. Perry, 05-276; GI Forum of Texas v. Perry, 05-439.
___

On the Net:

Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/

[Livyjr]

What we really have is this "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" program of George W. Bush's .....

Which no one seems to really understand ...

At least up here where I am ...

WHAT EXACTLY IS IT THAT THESE CHILDREN WILL NOT BE KEPT AWAY FROM?

I mean ...

NO child left behind ...

That implies a line of children ....

And someone is taking them somewhere ...

Or someone is leading them someplace ....

And someone else is watching, apparently, to make sure none escape ....

And up here, in the cold country ...

Where there is really not much to do during the winter ...

Well, us yokels get to sitting around the fire ...

And we get to talking ....

And musing ....

And we consider whose program this really is ....

Which is George W. Bush's ...

And we consider this man ...

Who is violent ....

And who is in favor of torturing OUR fellow human beings ...

"Teachers warn of violent students - Livingston staff asks for formation of alternative middle school in Albany" 
 
By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, February 9, 2006

ALBANY -- Discipline is so bad at Philip Livingston Magnet Academy that nearly a fifth of the students should be removed to a more restrictive alternative school, according to a teacher who pleaded to the school board for help.

Sixth-grade science teacher Susan Paultre said the middle school has "become a dangerous place" where students strike and stab at each other with sharpened ends of rattail combs.

"Threatening staff members and classmates, using language that isn't even fit for a brothel, bringing in weapons; gang activity and violence have become the norm, not the exception," said Paultre, flanked by about 30 Livingston teachers and staff as she addressed the board at its meeting Tuesday.

And as the policies of unbridled violence and utter contempt for human rights and dignity that George W. Bush and the BIG GRIZ, Dick Cheney the LAWYER SHOOTER, are imposing on OUR America in the name of God only knows what begin to really take root up here in BUSH WATER CARRIER REPUBLICAN George Pataki's corrupt capital city of Albany, New York, we have ....

NO CHILDREN BEING LEFT BEHIND ....

From the violence being fostered by George and Dick ...

And that is a fact ...

"'This school is lost,' student says - Albany High ends week of unrest as mayor joins effort to find answers"

By DANIELLE FURFARO and BRIAN NEARING, Staff writers, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, February 18, 2006

ALBANY -- At the end of another week marked by violence at Albany High School, students heading home for winter recess discussed their fears and hopes to restore order in an atmosphere they said is increasingly volatile.

At least one fight erupted every day this week in the hallways, 17-year-old senior Dana King said.

"This school is lost," he said Friday afternoon as he walked off campus onto Washington Avenue.

Nearby, sophomores Chelsea Hoffler and Chanel Parson debated the merits of beefing up security.

Parson, who enrolled at Albany High this year, is no stranger to school violence.

When she was a freshman at the High School for Contemporary Arts in the Bronx, she said, 53 fights broke out, prompting the administration to call in city police and install security cameras.

In her view, Albany's administrators should do anything they can to keep kids and faculty safe.

"I don't want to get hurt," said Parson, who is 15.

"And I like the teachers I have."

"I don't want them to get hurt."

Hoffler, 16, said the high school is already filled with watchful adults, but they are unable to get some tough teenagers to respect them, each other or themselves.

"The problem is we only have one school and the people here don't like each other," she said.

Meanwhile at City Hall, Curtis Sliwa was meeting with Mayor Jerry Jennings and Superintendent Eva Joseph.

The founder of the Guardian Angels had come up to Albany, at Jennings' invitation, to discuss his group's training programs aimed at reducing violence and bullying.

After their 40-minute discussion, Joseph had tentative praise for Sliwa's pitch.

"They have offered a program that may answer some of the questions that we have in our schools," Joseph said, but any decision on the training is the job of the school board.

Jennings, a former assistant principal in the school, stressed that the district needs a "fair and consistent" enforcement of rules against school violence.

He said students told him in a recent meeting that rules are not always evenly applied.

His comments were echoed back at the high school in an observation by Hoffler.

The 16-year-old girl claimed administrators played favorites with students, holding them up to varying standards of discipline.

"They choose what they want to enforce," she said.

Sliwa rose to prominence in 1979 when he and a handful of members began patrolling violent sections of New York City.

In 2003, the group branched out into anti-bullying and anti-violence training in schools.

The programs do not involve Guardian Angels patrolling in or around schools, according to Joseph Crooms, director of the Junior Guardian Angels, a club for 12- to 18-year-olds.

He said the techniques focus on three kinds of troubled students: those who may be in gangs or influenced by gangs; prospects who are being recruited by gangs; and predators who belong to a gang.

Bill Ritchie, president of the Albany Public School Teachers Association, said the district should explore options like the Guardian Angels.

"Given our situation, it is essential to reach out to agencies that can assist in terms of providing real improvement," the union leader said.

Police Chief James Tuffey, who attended the meeting with Sliwa, said he has resolved initial misgivings he had about the presence of Guardian Angels.

"I think we are all on the same page here on what we need," he said.

Despite the unruliness at Albany High, good kids can still avoid becoming part of it, said Dana King, the Albany High senior.

"After a while, you get used to it," he said.

"You just keep your head down and stay out of trouble."

end quotes

As George W. Bush and his crowd continue to divide OUR America ...

And make it into an uglier and uglier place for non-REPUBLICANS ....

This above is just a glimpse of what is yet to come ....

Where only George's people have any hope of being "protected" ....

While they in turn victimize the rest of us ..

Who are the non-REPUBLICANS ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

And by way of contrast to the THUG-like policies of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that are reducing OUR America to a beastial level ........

Where gun-slinging DESPERADOS like Dick Cheney can just wheel and draw down on and fire upon anyone they choose, with impunity, as though they were the new Samurai class here in OUR America ....

We have from HISTORY ....

This counter-example of what real LIBERAL LEADERSHIP can look like ....

If only ....

The Emporer K'ang Hsi (A.D. 1655-1723) succeeded to the throne at the age of eight and took up the reins of government at fifteen.

His understanding and compassionate policies endeared him to his people, and although he was personally frugal, he lavished large sums on public works.

He regularly toured the empire to inquire into the welfare of his people; and during his sixty-one-year reign the empire became so peaceful and prosperous ....

THAT TAX PAYMENTS WERE CANCELLED SEVERAL TIMES ....

K'ang Hsi had a superior and inquiring mind, and his literary undertakings along with his sense of the importance of recorded history made him one of China's most illustrious leaders.

He edited the vast Imperial Dictionary of over forty thousand characters and ordered the compilation of the two extensive illustrated encyclopedias of Chinese life and customs.

Because he believed that cultural information would help strengthen and protect the empire, the Emporer K'ang Hsi supervised the production of a vast compendium of Chinese literature containing over ten thousand volumes.

[Livyjr]

And by way of contrast to the THUG-like policies of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that are reducing OUR America to a beastial level ........

Where gun-slinging DESPERADOS like Dick Cheney can just wheel and draw down on and fire upon anyone they choose, with impunity, as though they were the new Samurai class here in OUR America ....

We have from HISTORY ....

This counter-example of what real LIBERAL LEADERSHIP can look like ....

If only ....

The Emporer K'ang Hsi (A.D. 1655-1723) succeeded to the throne at the age of eight and took up the reins of government at fifteen.

K'ang Hsi had a superior and inquiring mind, and his literary undertakings along with his sense of the importance of recorded history made him one of China's most illustrious leaders.

Because he believed that cultural information would help strengthen and protect the empire, the Emporer K'ang Hsi supervised the production of a vast compendium of Chinese literature containing over ten thousand volumes.

And of course ...

That was then ....

And THIS ...

THIS FOLLOWING IS NOW ....

And while we could have had different ...

This is what we ended up with, INSTEAD ...

Here in OUR America ....

Where someone who can't read ...

And who don't like people who can ....

Has become our EMPORER ....

"325,000 Names on Terrorism List - Rights Groups Say Database May Include Innocent People"

By Walter Pincus and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Page A01

The National Counterterrorism Center maintains a central repository of 325,000 names of international terrorism suspects or people who allegedly aid them, a number that has more than quadrupled since the fall of 2003, according to counterterrorism officials.

The list kept by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) -- created in 2004 to be the primary U.S. terrorism intelligence agency -- contains a far greater number of international terrorism suspects and associated names in a single government database than has previously been disclosed.

Because the same person may appear under different spellings or aliases, the true number of people is estimated to be more than 200,000, according to NCTC officials.

U.S. citizens make up "only a very, very small fraction" of that number, said an administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his agency's policies.

"The vast majority are non-U.S. persons and do not live in the U.S.," he added.

An NCTC official refused to say how many on the list -- put together from reports supplied by the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA) and other agencies -- are U.S. citizens.

The NSA is a key provider of information for the NCTC database, although officials refused to say how many names on the list are linked to the agency's controversial domestic eavesdropping effort.

Under the program, the NSA has conducted wiretaps on an unknown number of U.S. citizens without warrants.

The government has been trying to streamline what counterterrorism officials say are more than 26 terrorism-related databases compiled by agencies throughout the intelligence and law enforcement communities.

Names from the NCTC list are provided to the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which in turn provides names for watch lists maintained by the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies.

Civil liberties advocates and privacy experts said they were troubled by the size of the NCTC database, and they said it further heightens their concerns that such government terrorism lists include the names of large numbers of innocent people.

Timothy Sparapani, legislative counsel for privacy rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, called the numbers "shocking but, unfortunately, not surprising."

"We have lists that are having baby lists at this point; they're spawning faster than rabbits," Sparapani said.

"If we have over 300,000 known terrorists who want to do this country harm, we've got a much bigger problem than deciding which names go on which list."

"But I highly doubt that is the case."

Asked whether the names in the repository were collected through the NSA's domestic intelligence intercept program, the NCTC official said, "Our database includes names of known and suspected international terrorists provided by all intelligence community organizations, including NSA."

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he could not discuss specifics but said:

"Information is collected, information is retained and information disseminated in a way to protect the privacy interests of all Americans."

The NCTC name repository began under its predecessor agency in 2003 with 75,000 names, and it continues to grow.

The center was created as part of a broad reorganization of U.S. intelligence agencies after the failure to disrupt the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

It is the main agency for analyzing and integrating terrorism intelligence and is under direction of Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte.

Its central database is the hub of an elaborate network of terrorism-related databases throughout the federal bureaucracy.

Terrorism-related names and other data are sent to the NCTC under standards set by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6, signed by President Bush in September 2003, according to a senior NCTC official.

The directive calls upon agencies to supply data only about people who are "known or appropriately suspected to be . . . engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism."

"We work on the basis that information reported to us has been collected in accordance with those guidelines," Vice Adm. John Scott Redd, the center's director, said in a statement.

Analysts at the NCTC review all incoming names and can reject them if they do not have an apparent link to international terrorists, officials said.

"That is not common, but it does happen," an NCTC official said, citing as examples a domestic or foreign drug dealer or a member of a U.S.-based extremist group, when neither has any sign of international terrorist connections.

The NCTC then sends a subset of the repository list to the FBI's screening center, and each entry includes a reference "to how the individual is associated with international terrorism," according to a June 2005 report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.

This reference is assigned one of 25 codes such as "Member of a Foreign Terrorist Organization," "Hijacker" or "Has Engaged in Terrorism," according to the report.

The report also notes that the codes are split in two categories: "Individuals who are considered armed and dangerous and those who are not."

Fine's office criticized the TSC for including nearly 32,000 records of people in the "armed and dangerous" category but giving them the lowest handling code, which means that no report needs to be sent back to the FBI if they are encountered in the United States by law enforcement officers.

The TSC consolidates NCTC data on individuals associated with foreign terrorism with the FBI's purely domestic terrorism data to create a unified, unclassified terrorist watch list.

The TSC, in turn, provides, for official use only, a version giving each person's name, country, date of birth, photos and other data to the Transportation Security Agency for its no-fly list, the State Department for its visa program, the Department of Homeland Security for border crossings, and the National Crime Information Center for distribution to police.

Shannon Moran, a spokeswoman for the FBI screening center, declined to answer detailed questions about the center's work, including how many names are on its list, how many U.S. citizens are included and whether the FBI database includes names linked to the NSA program.

Fine's office reported last year that the FBI database contained more than 270,000 names, including a large number of people associated with domestic terrorist movements such as radical environmentalists and neo-Nazi white supremacists.

"If being placed on a list means in practice that you will be denied a visa, barred entry, put on the no-fly list, targeted for pretextual prosecutions, etc., then the sweep of the list and the apparent absence of any way to clear oneself certainly raises problems," said David D. Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who has been sharply critical of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies.

The growth of terrorist-related data networks within the U.S. intelligence community has greatly accelerated since Sept. 11, 2001.

Before the al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there were databases containing terrorist identities at the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI and State Department.

In addition there were 13 independent watch lists, but the lists or databases were not interoperable.

Currently, according to an NCTC official, there are 26 classified data networks carrying terrorism material.

In a December 2005 interview on Federal News Radio, Redd said his agency "is really the only place in government and certainly in the intelligence community where all counterterrorism intelligence comes together."

He also said that analyses of terrorism issues from all 15 intelligence agencies come into the NCTC, which then puts them on its Web site.

"What that means," Redd said, "is about 5,000 analysts around the counterterrorist intelligence community can pull up that Web site and see . . . what every other agency has as well, assuming they have the clearances."

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the size of the NCTC list and other terrorism-related databases underscores the severity of the "false positive" problem, in which innocent people -- including members of Congress -- have been stopped for questioning or halted from flying because their names are wrongly included or are similar to suspects' names.

"One of the seemingly unsolvable problems is what do you do when someone is wrongly put on this watch list," Rotenberg said.

"If there are that many people on the list, a lot of them probably shouldn't be there."

"But how are they ever going to get off?"

[Snuffysmith]

Is this so, jeffmoskin?

The demise of Starbucks?

The end of the $3.00 cup of coffee that you can get for a dollar anywhere else?

Can this be so .....

Oh .....

What a disaster for OUR America this will be ......

Not clear about this Liv - but I also think Dunkin Donuts makes a better brew. And costs considerably less. There is something to be said for market forces and competition.

[Livyjr]

Well ....

The BIG GRIZ sure does have tongues wagging all across OUR America this morning .....

And here I am referring to all the news types on such organs of GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA as FOX NEWS FAIR AND BALANCED, YOU DECIDE .....

And the BIG ISSUE right now is the 24-HOUR GAP ....

Kind of like those gaps in the NIXXON WATERGATE TAPES, way back when ....

What happened in that 24-hour period of silence?

The "24-HOUR BLACKOUT", as it is now being called all across OUR America .....

To me, that answer is simple ...

They needed 24 hours to get all the stories straight ....

And then, there is the question of MOTIVE ...

Why the BIG GRIZ shot this guy in the first place ...

A gambling debt, perhaps ....

Some say it was over a woman, but that I'm not at all sure about, myself ....

Or some other kind of "deal" that went bad, especially down there in Texas, which is near the Mexican border of course, where you know what comes across for sale here in OUR America ....

Some wags are saying that with the noose tightening around his own neck, now that SCOOTER looks like he might turn "STATE'S EVIDENCE" against the BIG GRIZ here, that Dick is trying to buy his way back into the good graces of the American people as a "REFORMIST" by blowing away not only a lawyer, but a REPUBLICAN lawyer, but I don't know ...

Some people would say it was a good start, but again, I think we have to wait for more evidence on that line of reasoning to emerge ....

For I don't think Dick Cheney can even spell REFORM, let alone take an action, however laudable it might appear to him, to effect true reform, here in OUR America ....

And regardless of the true reasons the OLD GRIZ blew this REPUBLICAN lawyer away, I think it is a perfect metaphor for the MESS that Dick and George have got this nation in, especially with respect to IRAQINAM ....

JUST DRAW AND SHOOT ....

And then go see what you killed afterwards ....

And so it goes ....

I wonder how many people read this little "stack" of news clippings above here ....

About Dick Cheney, the BIG GRIZ from Wyoming, shooting this Texas lawyer ....

And fail to see the questions that these accounts raise .....

For example ....

The Texas lawyer is shot in the right side of his face and body ....

Everybody seems to agree on that ...

And it would be hard to do otherwise, actually ....

Since that is where the BIG GRIZ's shot struck the lawyer .....

NOW ....

The ranch owner says the the lawyer Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter ....."

SO .....

He is coming up from behind ....

AND ....

He is hit in the RIGHT SIDE .....

And now ...

Look at what the BIG GRIZ is saying .....

"Cheney said he was trying to shoot a low-flying quail when he swung his 28-gauge shotgun to the right, the setting sun in his eyes."

SO .....

The lawyer is behind the BIG GRIZ ....

And the BIG GRIZ is turning to the right .....

Turning from south to west ....

And then ...

BA-BOOOOM .......

The lawyer is shot in the right side .....

Which would be the SIDE AWAY away from the BIG GRIZ .....

IF the lawyer was really coming up from behind as the REPUBLICAN ranch owner claims ....

And the BIG GRIZ was himself turning to his right when he shot the lawyer ....

Somehow ...

Something just don't seem to add up here ...

Which is probably why they waited the 24 hours before letting the news slowly leak out .....

They tried to get their stories straight ......

BUT .....

The reason they waited 24 hrs is because BIG GRIZ was snockered.

Only reason I can think of.

Or the old lawyer was .....

Or the both of them, for that matter .....

And while this WHITE HOUSE crowd is making quail hunting seem like some arcane, highly technical enterprise that only lawyers and above can even begin to understand ....

The fact is that there are a lot of people here in OUR America with experience of guns ...

And especially the various types of fools that one can find attached to them ....

In the driver's seat, so to speak ...

As was the BIG GRIZ when he shot this lawyer .....

And many of those people, like me, are wondering just what these two clowns were really up to when the BIG GRIZ shot the old lawyer ....

ESPECIALLY NOW THAT THE LAWYER HAS APOLOGIZED TO DICK CHENEY FOR BEING SHOT BY HIM .....

"Oh, gee, Dick, you just shot me in the face ..."

"But it's my fault ..."

"Oh, yes, it is my fault ..."

"And I don't know if I'll ever be able to give you as sincere an apology as you deserve ...."

"But hey ..."

"How about this ..."

"I'll go on national television, say, FOX NEWS FAIR AND BALANCED, YOU DECIDE, and I'll try to expiate my guilt at being shot in the face by you on Britt Hume's show ..."

"Britt's a good egg ...."

"Britt will give us some air time ..."

"And a real sympathetic ear ..."

"And Dick, as a lawyer, let me tell you ....

"You'll come out of this smelling like a rose, and that's a fact ..."

"After you sue me for shooting me, well, Dick, you'll be just rolling in dough ..."

"Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP - Public Statement On Shooting Urged"

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Page A01

Vice President Cheney's slow and unapologetic public response to the accidental shooting of a 78-year-old Texas lawyer is turning the quail-hunting mishap into a political liability for the Bush administration and is prompting senior White House officials to press Cheney to publicly address the issue as early as today, several prominent Republicans said yesterday.

The Republicans said Cheney should have immediately disclosed the shooting Saturday night to avoid even the suggestion of a coverup and should have offered a public apology for his role in accidentally shooting Harry Whittington, a GOP lawyer from Austin.

Whittington was hospitalized Saturday night in Corpus Christi, Tex., and was moved back into the intensive-care unit after suffering an abnormal heart rhythm yesterday morning.

"I cannot believe he does not look back and say this should have been handled differently," said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota who is close to the White House.

Weber said Cheney "made it a much bigger issue than it needed to be."

Marlin Fitzwater, a former Republican White House spokesman, told Editor & Publisher magazine that Cheney "ignored his responsibility to the American people."

The episode is turning into a defining moment for Cheney, a vice president who has operated with enormous clout to shape White House policy while avoiding public scrutiny over the past five years.

President Bush has allowed Cheney to become perhaps the most powerful vice president in history and has provided him with unparalleled autonomy.

Early in Bush's first term, Cheney developed the administration's energy policy, largely behind closed doors, and then heavily influenced Iraq policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

No evidence has emerged to suggest that the shooting was anything more than a hunting accident, but the spectacle of the vice president wounding a prominent Republican at an exclusive Texas ranch has become the punch line for politicians and comedians alike, and has penetrated the popular culture through late-night television.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said he referred to Cheney as the "shooter in chief" in a meeting with members of Congress yesterday morning.

It has also raised anew criticism of Cheney's operating style.

Cheney has avoided public comment on the shooting other than to release two short statements.

One stated that he would be issued a warning for not paying a $7 hunting fee in Texas; the other, released by his office yesterday, detailed when he learned of Whittington's worsening condition and said his "thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Whittington and his family."

Whittington suffered an irregular heartbeat yesterday after a shotgun pellet in his chest traveled to his heart, according to hospital officials in Corpus Christi.

Some current and former White House officials said Cheney's refusal to address the issue or accept any blame has the potential to become a political problem for Bush because it reinforces the image of a secretive and above-the-law White House.

Top White House aides are pressuring Cheney to discuss the incident as early as today, according to people familiar with the matter.

Cheney, a former House member, White House chief of staff and corporate executive, is dismissive of the national media and unfazed by criticism and unflattering publicity.

Bush picked Cheney as vice president in large part because of his lack of political ambitions and his ability to keep confidences.

"If I read Dick Cheney right, he's got to be just devastated" by the shooting incident, said Robert H. Michel, a former House Republican leader from Illinois and a longtime friend.

But Michel said he is mystified that the vice president has not come out in public to express his feelings.

"I guess he's so measured with what he does say personally, but boy, I'd think on something of this nature, you'd let your feelings [be] known," Michel said.

In general, Michel said, Cheney has "enclosed" his personal feelings so tightly to avoid showing them in public.

"I guess that discipline upon himself is probably the thing that holds him back."

Cheney, he added, is virtually immune to public criticism and image problems:

"I don't think he really cares."

Former senator Alan K. Simpson, a fellow Wyoming Republican who hunts with Cheney, said the vice president decided when he was defense secretary during the Persian Gulf War that journalists ask "stupid questions" and distort things, and so he probably sees no need to publicly explain himself.

"Whatever he does, Dick will do it his own way, because whatever he does, it will be the subject of ridicule," Simpson said.

That disregard for public approval, though, can become a problem for the White House, according to veteran presidential aides from both parties.

"When the vice president is immune to politics and tone-deaf to politics, as Vice President Cheney has shown himself to be at various stages along the way, then his perspective on this kind of situation isn't as sharp," said Ronald A. Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore.

Despite a string of political embarrassments linked to Cheney, including not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff in the CIA leak case and now the shooting, he remains a powerful force inside the White House.

A testament to his power is the deference Bush showed Cheney in the handling of last weekend's shooting episode.

White House aides said Bush has not pressured Cheney to disclose more details about the shooting or to apologize.

One person close to both men said that Bush is the only person in the White House who could persuade Cheney to change strategy and that even high-level White House aides are reluctant to take on the vice president's office.

That left White House press secretary Scott McClellan to be battered by reporters on national television.

"This is one of the challenges of having a high-profile, very powerful vice president inside the White House," said Klain, who added:

"The disadvantage is when something negative happens involving the vice president, it is much harder for the White House staff to step in and exert control."

Typically, the relationships between vice presidents and White House staffs are fraught with politics and personal ambitions because nearly every modern vice president has used the position as a launching pad for his own campaign for the top job.

With Cheney, Republicans have often boasted that no such dynamic would get in the way because he does not covet the presidency.

Cheney has said he will never run for president.

Nonetheless, the relationship has become increasingly complicated.

With no political future of his own at stake, Cheney seems indifferent to public perceptions of him.

He prefers not to talk with reporters, favoring red-meat speeches before friendly audiences such as last week's Conservative Political Action Committee gathering or call-in chats to conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity.

His approval rating dropped to an all-time low of 36 percent in November, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, before rebounding to 41 percent last month.

Although White House officials disagree, some outside Republicans wonder whether he has lost influence because his aggressive promotion of the Iraq war led to the CIA leak case and the indictment of his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who resigned after being charged.

Mary Matalin, a Cheney adviser who has helped him deal with the shooting fallout, rejected suggestions that the White House's handling of the incident might result in political damage.

"We have a history replete with evidence to the contrary," she said.

"Every time we've had predictions of monumental liability, it never occurred."

Staff writer Shailagh Murray contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP - Public Statement On Shooting Urged"

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Page A01

Vice President Cheney's slow and unapologetic public response to the accidental shooting of a 78-year-old Texas lawyer is turning the quail-hunting mishap into a political liability for the Bush administration and is prompting senior White House officials to press Cheney to publicly address the issue as early as today, several prominent Republicans said yesterday.

The Republicans said Cheney should have immediately disclosed the shooting Saturday night to avoid even the suggestion of a coverup and should have offered a public apology for his role in accidentally shooting Harry Whittington, a GOP lawyer from Austin.

The episode is turning into a defining moment for Cheney, a vice president who has operated with enormous clout to shape White House policy while avoiding public scrutiny over the past five years.

President Bush has allowed Cheney to become perhaps the most powerful vice president in history and has provided him with unparalleled autonomy.

No evidence has emerged to suggest that the shooting was anything more than a hunting accident, but the spectacle of the vice president wounding a prominent Republican at an exclusive Texas ranch has become the punch line for politicians and comedians alike, and has penetrated the popular culture through late-night television.

Some current and former White House officials said Cheney's refusal to address the issue or accept any blame has the potential to become a political problem for Bush because it reinforces the image of a secretive and above-the-law White House.

Cheney, a former House member, White House chief of staff and corporate executive, is dismissive of the national media and unfazed by criticism and unflattering publicity.

Bush picked Cheney as vice president in large part because of his lack of political ambitions and his ability to keep confidences.

"I guess he's so measured with what he does say personally, but boy, I'd think on something of this nature, you'd let your feelings [be] known," Michel said.

In general, Michel said, Cheney has "enclosed" his personal feelings so tightly to avoid showing them in public.

"I guess that discipline upon himself is probably the thing that holds him back."

Cheney, he added, is virtually immune to public criticism and image problems:

"I don't think he really cares."

Former senator Alan K. Simpson, a fellow Wyoming Republican who hunts with Cheney, said the vice president decided when he was defense secretary during the Persian Gulf War that journalists ask "stupid questions" and distort things, and so he probably sees no need to publicly explain himself.

"Whatever he does, Dick will do it his own way, because whatever he does, it will be the subject of ridicule," Simpson said.

Despite a string of political embarrassments linked to Cheney, including not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff in the CIA leak case and now the shooting, he remains a powerful force inside the White House.

A testament to his power is the deference Bush showed Cheney in the handling of last weekend's shooting episode.

White House aides said Bush has not pressured Cheney to disclose more details about the shooting or to apologize.

With no political future of his own at stake, Cheney seems indifferent to public perceptions of him.

Mary Matalin, a Cheney adviser who has helped him deal with the shooting fallout, rejected suggestions that the White House's handling of the incident might result in political damage.

"We have a history replete with evidence to the contrary," she said.

"Every time we've had predictions of monumental liability, it never occurred."

Well ......

The PORTRAIT emerges .....

The portrait of a REAL STONE KILLER ....

Is OUR Dick .....

The socio-pathic tendencies ....

The "LONER" .....

The rabid GUN NUT .....

His love of torture ....

His victims helpless ....

Completely disdainful and contemptuous ....

Of everyone ...

And everything .....

Very reminiscent, actually, of those scenes in Silence of the Lambs where they were interviewing Hannibal Lector .....

This is a time that cries out for a Truman Capote, actually ....

In COLD BLOOD, II ....

The SEQUEL America has been waiting for ....

EXCEPT ...

No Truman Capote .....

Just Britt Hume instead .....

And "SOFTBALL" .....

"Oh, Mr. Vice President ..."

"Um, do you mind IF I call you Mr. Vice President?"

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, thank you ..."

"I'm a big fan of yours, actually, Mr. Vice President, and I find myself absolutely thrilled to be in your presence ..."

"Did you know that?"

"Could you really tell?"

"I find myself drawn to your hands, Mr. Vice President ..."

"Did I ever tell you that?"

"You have such powerful hands, you know ....."

"President Bush likes to tell us about the times that he was scared ..."

"And you would take his hands in your big powerful hands ..."

"And he would no longer be scared ..."

"Can I touch one ..."

(camera zooms in on one of Britt Hume's rather smallish hands reaching out tentatively to touch the index finger on Dick Cheney's right hand)

"And is this the one, Mr. Vice President?"

"Is this the finger that smoothly and steadily exerted just the slightest pressure on that trigger as you instinctively practiced your breath control while laying the sights squarely on that old lawyer's temple ..."

"Oh, Mr. Vice President ..."

And so that all went ....

Up here where I am, which is a TEST MARKET for TV news concepts, sort of like a "farm team" system for the BIG NETWORKS to try out different concepts, such as the "GOO-GOO GIRL", or "BUBBLEGUM GIRL", on the Six O'Clock News up here, Britt Hume is what is known as a PML ....

Or "PRETTY MALE LEAD" .....

Which is one of the more successful "marketing" concepts that they say was invented or created right up here ...

In the "farm team" system ..

Before going NATIONAL with it whenever Britt Hume came on the NATIONAL SCENE .....

Because he was also NKABAI ......

Which is media parlance for "Not known as being an intellectual" ...

Which has been determined by the BIG MEDIA EXECUTIVES to be a pre-requisite for any of their national news people who might have anything at all to do with REPUBLICAN politicians in Washington, D.C. .....

Which means that Britt could be counted on, like a "GOO GOO GIRL" ....

During this recent Cheney interview ...

To bob his head at appropriate times like a bobble-head doll ..

And say GOO-GOO ...

Instead of questioning the BIG GRIZ about all these holes in his story ....

[Livyjr]

Well ......

The PORTRAIT emerges .....

The portrait of a REAL STONE KILLER ....

Is OUR Dick .....

The socio-pathic tendencies ....

The "LONER" .....

The rabid GUN NUT .....

His love of torture ....

His victims helpless ....

Completely disdainful and contemptuous ....

Of everyone ...

And everything .....

Very reminiscent, actually, of those scenes in Silence of the Lambs where they were interviewing Hannibal Lector .....

This is a time that cries out for a Truman Capote, actually ....

In COLD BLOOD, II ....

The SEQUEL America has been waiting for ....

EXCEPT ...

No Truman Capote .....

Just Brit Hume instead .....

And "SOFTBALL" .....

"Oh, Mr. Vice President ..."

"Um, do you mind IF I call you Mr. Vice President?"

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, thank you ..."

Up here where I am, which is a TEST MARKET for TV news concepts, sort of like a "farm team" system for the BIG NETWORKS to try out different concepts, such as the "GOO-GOO GIRL", or "BUBBLEGUM GIRL", on the Six O'Clock News up here, Brit Hume is what is known as a PML ....

Or "PRETTY MALE LEAD" .....

Which is one of the more successful "marketing" concepts that they say was invented or created right up here ...

In the "farm team" system ..

Before going NATIONAL with it whenever Brit Hume came on the NATIONAL SCENE .....

Because he was also NKABAI ......

Which is media parlance for "Not known as being an intellectual" ...

Which has been determined by the BIG MEDIA EXECUTIVES to be a pre-requisite for any of their national news people who might have anything at all to do with REPUBLICAN politicians in Washington, D.C. .....

Which means that Brit could be counted on, like a "GOO GOO GIRL" ....

During this recent Cheney interview ...

To bob his head at appropriate times like a bobble-head doll ..

And say GOO-GOO ...

Instead of questioning the BIG GRIZ about all these holes in his story ....

"Dancing Around Accountability - Dick Cheney's Fox Trot"

By NORMAN SOLOMON

When Dick Cheney surfaced on Wednesday long enough for an interview with Fox News eminence Brit Hume --

An event that CNN’s Jack Cafferty promptly likened to “Bonnie interviewing Clyde” --

The vice presidential spin emerged from a timeworn bag of political tricks ....

"Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was "alert and doing fine" in a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday after he was shot by Cheney on a ranch in south Texas, said Katharine Armstrong, the property's owner.

Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.

Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.

"The vice president didn't see him," she continued.

"The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot."

"And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

"Cheney Cited for Breaking Hunting Law"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

Katharine Armstrong, owner of the ranch where the shooting occurred, said it happened toward the end of the hunt, when it was still sunny but as darkness was encroaching and they were preparing to go inside.

She said Whittington made a mistake by not announcing that he had walked up to rejoin the hunting line, and Cheney didn't see him as he tried to down a bird.

Armstrong said she saw Cheney's security detail running toward the scene.

"The first thing that crossed my mind was he had a heart problem," she told The Associated Press.

SO ....

Had we had a more probing and intelligent interviewer on board in this case ....

Someone other than the PUFF-PIECE ARTISTISTE Brit Hume, anyway ....

Perhaps that interviewer, or let us say, investigator, would have looked at this statement by Katharine Armstrong, the property's owner, where she said that she "was watching from a car" while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail .....

And that investigator might then have questioned Ms. Armstrong as to whether or not she ever got out of the car ....

Or was the door and window closed ...

Or open ...

BECAUSE ....

Ms. Armstrong, who is Dick Cheney's ALIBI, is saying that she knows definitively that the old lawyer never announced himself to the other hunters ....

And that the BIG GRIZ DID NOT KNOW that he was about to shoot the old lawyer when he swung on this alleged bird ....

BUT ....

The old lawyer was thirty yards away from Dick Cheney when he was shot ..

And so ....

Thirty yards is about 90 feet .....

Which means that the old lawyer was not even up to where Dick was when the BIG GRIZ wheeled on him ...

And shot him in the face ...

SO ...

Ms. Armstrong ....

IS THIS A DISCREPANCY, HERE, OR WHAT?

And then ....

We have Ms. Armstrong saying that she saw Cheney's security detail running toward the scene .....

AND ...

"The first thing that crossed my mind was he had a heart problem," she told The Associated Press ....

NOW ....

From what Ms. Armstrong is saying here, that she saw the BIG GRIZ's security detail "running" towards the scene, and that she thought the BIG GRIZ had had a heart problem ...

One must surmise ...

That Ms. Armstrong could not in fact see Dick Cheney ...

Nor could she have seen what actually happened ...

Because IF she had seen what had actually happened, she would have known from looking at the BIG GRIZ that he wasn't having any heart problem ...

She would have seen him shoot the old lawyer ...

And whether she stood there or not ..

She would have known why the BIG GRIZ's security detail was running ....

And so ....

But Brit Hume never put two-and-two together, here ...

Which is why the BIG GRIZ had his interview with Brit .....

"Anything you say, Mr. Vice President ...."

"Say ..."

"Did I ever tell you that you have such powerful looking hands?

"Could you hold my hand ..."

"The way you hold the president's when he is scared ..."

"OH, Mr. Vice President ..."

[Livyjr]

And by way of contrast to the THUG-like policies of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that are reducing OUR America to a beastial level ........

Where gun-slinging DESPERADOS like Dick Cheney can just wheel and draw down on and fire upon anyone they choose, with impunity, as though they were the new Samurai class here in OUR America ....

And here ...

LIBERAL AMERICA attempts to reach out to Dick Cheney ....

Who has gone LOBO on us ....

Here in OUR America ....

Can Dick Cheney be "saved"?

Or has he just gone too far ....

"Around that bend in the road" .....

A LIBERAL AMERICAN PLEA TO DICK CHENEY TO JOIN THE HUMAN RACE

Desperado Dick ....

Dude ....

Hey ...

Dick ...

Why don't you come to your senses?

You been out ridin' fences for so long now .....

That's it's driving you plumb loco, Dude ....

Oh, you're a hard one, alright ....

And we know that you got your reasons .....

As unfathomable as they might be ...

To a more rational person than you ....

These things that are pleasin' you, there, Dude ....

Like torturing these people ...

And shooting this old lawyer in the head ....

These perversions can hurt you somehow, Dick ....

Which statement assumes that you do have a shred of humanity left in that husk of a human being that you inhabit ....

Desperado Dick ....

Oh, you ain't gettin' no younger .....

Your pain and your hunger ....

They're drivin' you insane ....

And freedom .....

Oh freedom .....

Well .....

That's just some people talkin' ....

And they sure are not associated with the Bush adminstration, and that is a fact ....

Dick ....

Your prison is walking through this world all alone ....

And trying to shoot people in the head ..

As you go ....

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time, Dick?

The sky won't snow .....

And the sun won't shine .....

Not for you, anyway ....

SO ...

It's hard for you to tell the night time from the day .....

Holed up down there by yourself in those bunkers all the time ....

You're loosin' all your highs and lows, Dick ....

And your reason, too ....

If you ever had any to begin with ....

Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado Dick .....

Dude .....

Why don't you come to your senses?

Come down from your fences .....

Open the gate .....

It may be rainin', Dick ....

But yes ....

There is a rainbow above you .....

You better let somebody love you, before it's too late ....

And it's alright, Dick, if it is George W. Bush ....

We're liberals, after all ...

We're tolerant people ....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

And getting back to this on-going story about the cartoons ....

And the uproar ....

It seems if you look hard enough ...

There is a BUCK to made in anything ..

And so ....

"European Papers Benefit in Cartoon Uproar"

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

That street corner cry of yesteryear is resonating at some European publications that have enjoyed a boom in sales and Web traffic after printing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have stoked outrage across the Islamic world.

Denmark's biggest-circulation broadsheet, Jyllands-Posten, triggered the controversy in September by publishing 12 cartoons of the prophet, including one showing his turban as a bomb.

Its weekday circulation of about 154,000 hasn't moved much.

But for newspapers in France and Norway that reprinted the drawings with much international ado, sometimes in defense of free speech, the caricatures have become a profile boost and tonic for lackluster sales.

If there's a lesson, it's an old one: Controversy sells.

Yeah ......

Controversy sells, alright .....

"Muslim Boycotts of Danish Products Costly"

By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer

Thu Feb 16, 4:01 PM ET

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Consumer boycotts of Danish goods in Muslim countries in protest of the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad are costing Denmark's companies millions, and have raised fears of irreparable damage to trade ties.

From Havarti cheese to Lego toys, Danish products have been yanked off the shelves of stores in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries around the Middle East as Muslims await an apology for the cartoons, which the Copenhagen government has said it cannot give.

The boycotts have also spawned counter-boycott campaigns to "Buy Danish."

The boycotts began in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 26 when supermarkets either put up signs saying to stop buying Danish goods or removed products from shelves.

Since then it has spread to other Muslim nations, and even to Western stores doing business there.

A supermarket in Cairo run by France's Carrefour has had signs, for example, saying that it is not offering Danish products "in solidarity with Muslims and Egyptians."

A spokesman for Carrefour in France said the store was a franchise run by a local company.

While Carrefour is strictly neutral, he said, the stores operated by partners and franchises are free to make commercial decisions according to the local situations.

Indonesia's importers association on Wednesday began boycotting Danish goods, which it said made up $74 million in 2005, about 1 percent of the nation's annual imports.

In Syria, banners on walls and storefronts all call for consumers to avoid Danish products.

Employees of Danish Lurpak butter agent Yasser Al-Srayyed recently raised a banner in front of his Damascus office saying:

"Yasser al-Srayyed has stopped importing Lurpak."

The banner is now gone, but the imports have not resumed.

"It's a situation that causes a great concern from our members," said Henriette Soltoft, director of international market policy for the Confederation of Danish Industries, which represents Denmark's major companies.

"There's also the fear (for the future) ... that the consumer will not remember exactly what happened, but they will remember the connection to Denmark," she said, noting that the Middle East is seen as a growth area.

"Our good relations with these countries have been damaged but we don't know yet to what extent — that we'll see in the future and it will depend on how soon this crisis will be solved and how it will be solved."

The drawings published by newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September have sparked protests, sometimes violent, in Muslim countries.

Islam widely holds that representations of Muhammad are banned for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manushehr Mottaki reiterated a common position on Thursday, saying that "in order for the Danish government to mend its relations with the Islamic world and Muslim peoples, it should issue a formal apology."

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has repeatedly rejected demands for an apology, saying the government cannot be held responsible for the actions of an independent newspaper.

The paper itself has apologized for offending Muslims, but has stood by its decision to print the drawings, citing freedom of speech.

European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has warned governments that if they are behind the boycotts that they could face action at the World Trade Organization if the EU proves they are involved.

If the boycotts are purely consumer-driven, however, little can be done.

Denmark's Danske Bank estimates Danish goods worth $1.6 billion annually are threatened in 20 Muslim countries by the boycott.

That compares with worldwide exports in 2004 of about $73 billion.

But Soltoft cautioned that the damage goes beyond exports, extending to service contracts, shipping and production facilities in the area — losses that cannot yet be quantified.

"It's really difficult to give an exact picture of the situation for the time being," she said in an interview Thursday.

Arla Foods, one of Europe's largest dairy companies, is thought to be the worst hit, losing an estimated $1.6 million each day.

Others have been affected to a lesser extent, like Lego, which said Middle Eastern sales only account for 0.2 percent of its sales and that many do not identify it as a Danish company.

"We have never marketed ourselves as a Danish product, we see ourselves as an international brand," said spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen.

"You can ask Americans who think it is American, ask Germans who think it's German — many people don't know that it's Danish."

The boycott has also spawned a grass-roots Internet campaign by people around the world urging others to "Buy Danish," generally in support of freedom of speech.

"The Danish government has nothing to do with it and has been very correct that they have nothing to say about what newspapers publish, and we should not let these religious fanatics try to make them," said Tijl Vercaemer, an engineering student in Ghent, Belgium.

He started his supportdenmark.com Web site after watching Palestinian gunmen briefly take over an EU office in Gaza on Jan. 30 in anger over the drawings.

Vercaemer said he has received thousands of e-mails in response to his site — one of many that have sprouted up in support of Denmark — including from Muslims expressing their solidarity.

On Wednesday he started selling stickers, at about $1 for 15 to cover his costs, with the slogan "Help the Danes defend our freedom: SUPPORT DENMARK" and said he has already shipped more than 700.

"It's hard to say whether the 'Buy Danish' campaign really works, it was more intended as moral support," the 23-year-old said.

"But I was very happy to read ... that some companies say that they really thought the 'Buy Danish' campaign could give them more income than the boycott could cost them."
___

Associated Press Writers Sally Buzbee in Cairo, Egypt, and Joe Panossian in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

Well ......

The PORTRAIT emerges .....

The portrait of a REAL STONE KILLER ....

Is OUR Dick .....

The socio-pathic tendencies ....

The "LONER" .....

The rabid GUN NUT .....

His love of torture ....

His victims helpless ....

Completely disdainful and contemptuous ....

Of everyone ...

And everything .....

THE BALD-HEADED STRANGER

with apologies to Willie Nelson

The bald headed stranger from Casper, Wyoming ....

Rode into a Texas town one day ....

And under his knees was a raging black stallion ....

Walking behind was a bay .....

The Bald Headed Stranger had eyes like the thunder ....

And his lips, they were curled back in a rictus ....

Like the BIG GRIZ that people thought he was .....

Don’t cross him ....

Not Dick Cheney, anyway ....

And surely don't boss him ....

Big Texas lawyer or not .....

And don’t fight him .....

Not when he has his gun in his hands ....

And, Texas lawyer ....

Don’t spite him, either .....

Just wait till tomorrow, Texas lawyer man ....

If you're lucky ....

Maybe he’ll ride on again .....

Now .....

Down there in Texas ....

A big-time REPUBLICAN lawyer .....

Leaned out of his window ....

And watched as the BIG GRIZ passed his way ...

He drew back in fear at the sight of the BIG GRIZ on his stallion ....

But he cast greedy eyes on the bay .....

But how could he know that this dancing bay pony ....

Meant more to the BIG GRIZ than life ...

For this was the horse that his little lost darling George ....

Had ridden when they would go quail hunting together ....

Back in the old days .....

Don’t cross him ....

Not Dick Cheney, anyway ....

And surely don't boss him ....

Big Texas lawyer or not .....

And don’t fight him .....

Not when he has his gun in his hands ....

And, Texas lawyer ....

Don’t spite him, either .....

Just wait till tomorrow, Texas lawyer man ....

If you're lucky ....

Maybe he’ll ride on again .....

The big-time REPUBLICAN lawyer .....

Came down to the tavern ....

And looked up the BIG GRIZ there ....

The BIG GRIZ bought the Texas lawyer a drink .....

And he gave the Texas lawyer some money ...

He just didn’t seem to care .....

Especially about what the media thought of him and his escapades ....

The big-time REPUBLICAN lawyer ......

Followed him out ....

As he saddled the stallion .....

And laughed as he grabbed at the bay,

The BIG GRIZ from Wyoming shot him so quick ....

They had no time to warn him ....

He never heard anyone say ....

Don’t cross him ....

Not Dick Cheney, anyway ....

And surely don't boss him ....

Big Texas lawyer or not .....

And don’t fight him .....

Not when he has his gun in his hands ....

And, Texas lawyer ....

Don’t spite him, either .....

Just wait till tomorrow, Texas lawyer man ....

If you're lucky ....

Maybe he’ll ride on again .....

The big-time REPUBLICAN lawyer ....

Was in intensive care at sunset ....

The BIG GRIZ from Wyoming .....

Went free of course ....

For you can’t hang a man for shooting a lawyer .....

Who’s trying to steal your horse ....

This is the tale of the Bald Headed stranger ....

And if he should pass your way ....

Stay out of the path of the raging black stallion ....

And don’t lay a hand on the bay .....

Don’t cross him ....

Not Dick Cheney, anyway ....

And surely don't boss him ....

Big Texas lawyer or not .....

And don’t fight him .....

Not when he has his gun in his hands ....

And, Texas lawyer ....

Don’t spite him, either .....

Just wait till tomorrow, Texas lawyer man ....

If you're lucky ....

Maybe he’ll ride on again .....

[Livyjr]

And leaving the BIG GRIZ from Wyoming behind .....

For the moment, anyway ....

We have ...

The weather ....

Which has not changed at all ...

Everything is exactly as it always was ...

There is no climate change, here in OUR America ...

Or in the world, for that matter ...

And I can say these things with a high degree of certainty ....

Because some White House lawyers told me it was so ....

And they would know ...

Wouldn't they ...

I mean ...

White House lawyers don't lie ...

Do they?

And of course they do ...

What was I thinking there ...

"Thousands in Northeast Still Without Power"

By BEN DOBBIN, Associated Press Writer

35 minutes ago

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - A deep freeze stretched from Arkansas to New York as workers tried to restore power to 200,000 homes and businesses left dark by fierce winds that were also blamed in four deaths.

The storm carried a wave of bitterly cold air as it swept out of the Midwest, prompting temperatures in western New York to plunge from 60 degrees to below freezing within hours.

Winds of 10 to 15 miles per hour Sunday made the temperature feel like it was below zero, said National Weather Service meteorologist Steve McLaughlin.

Parts of Arkansas had 5.5 inches of snow Saturday and freezing temperatures extended across the state.

Hayward, Wis., had a Saturday morning low of 26 below zero, and daytime highs in the Upper Midwest reached only the single digits.

On Friday, wind of more than 60 mph buffeted the Rochester area and a 77-mph gust was recorded at the city's airport, the weather service said.

The frigid temperatures forced officials in Madison, Wis., which had a high 3 degrees on Saturday, to cancel the "Polar Plunge" into a lake, a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.

"We first really realized it was a problem when we cut the hole this morning and it immediately skimmed over with ice," Cheryl Balazs of the Special Olympics told WKOW-TV.

Utility officials in New York said crews would work through the weekend to restore power to about 85,000 customers, down from at least 328,000 customers who were blacked out Friday.

Thousands of customers were also without power in Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, where the National Weather Service reported a wind gust of 143 mph on Stratton Mountain.

Several states opened shelters, providing havens with light and heat for those without power.

"Most people tough it out the first night and then come in the second night," said Mark Bosma, spokesman for Vermont Emergency Management.

The wind toppled many trees, including one in Billerica, Mass., that killed the driver of a pickup.

A falling tree crushed a car outside Rochester, killing a 52-year-old woman, and another killed a state worker in a truck at Saratoga Spa State Park.

East of Rochester, a man was killed when his vehicle slammed into a tractor-trailer rig whose driver had stopped to clear storm debris from his windshield.

Wind also knocked out a 12th-floor window in a high-rise office building in Syracuse, and falling debris barely missed passers-by, police said.
___

Associated Press writers William Kates in Syracuse, N.Y., Mark Johnson and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y., Beverley Wang in Concord, N.H., Todd Richmond in Madison, Wis., and Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vt., contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

And leaving the BIG GRIZ from Wyoming behind  .....

For the moment, anyway ....

We have ...

The weather ....

Which has not changed at all ...

Everything is exactly as it always was ...

There is no climate change, here in OUR America ...

Or in the world, for that matter ...

And I can say these things with a high degree of certainty ....

Because some White House lawyers told me it was so ....

And they would know ...

Wouldn't they ...

I mean ...

White House lawyers don't lie ...

Do they?

And of course they do ...

What was I thinking there ...

"Thousands in Northeast Still Without Power"

By BEN DOBBIN, Associated Press Writer

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - A deep freeze stretched from Arkansas to New York as workers tried to restore power to 200,000 homes and businesses left dark by fierce winds that were also blamed in four deaths.

The storm carried a wave of bitterly cold air as it swept out of the Midwest, prompting temperatures in western New York to plunge from 60 degrees to below freezing within hours.

And here, I was just told to not tell people that White House lawyers lie to us all the time ...

What I am supposed to say instead is that this CLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE are presenting us with some incredible new ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES ....

Some brand-new ways to make a buck ....

And here are some now ...

"Frigid ordeal follows storm - Residents of Saratoga, Warren counties battle darkness, freezing temperatures after very high winds knock out power; some isolated areas won't see service until Wednesday"

By KATE PERRY, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, February 19, 2006

Tens of thousands of wind-battered homes and businesses were still without power Saturday as residents flocked to shelters to escape rapidly dropping temperatures brought on by one of the most devastating storms to hit the Capital Region in years.

The ferocious weather, which left Saratoga and Warren counties more damaged than any other part of the state, forced residents to buy generators or flee south to towns with electricity.

The wind gusts, already blamed for two deaths statewide, caused a fire that destroyed a Saratoga Springs home.

"This is the most damaging storm in terms of the number of customers without service in more than five years," said National Grid spokesman Alberto Bianchetti.

"We peaked statewide with 225,000 customers without power."

Crews are working to restore power to more than 60,000 homes and businesses, but service won't resume in the most rural areas until Wednesday, Bianchetti said.

Power is on, except for isolated areas, in Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties.

The upheaval started after gusts howled across the state Friday morning, toppling trees onto power lines and snapping power poles in half.

A Saratoga Springs transportation worker, George Green, 53, and a Rochester woman were killed in separate instances when trees blew over and crushed their vehicles.

The National Weather Service reported the highest wind speed in Saratoga County at 67 mph Friday.

But Bill Stanwyck, the engineer who maintains the weather observation system at the Saratoga County Airport, said he clocked winds at 98 mph there just before 1 p.m.

In Saratoga Springs, 7,000 National Grid customers were facing their second night with no heat Saturday.

Some took advantage of two emergency shelters set up in the county or headed to a handful of community centers and firehouses that opened as warming centers.

Deece Lambert, an 81-year-old Saratoga Springs resident, drove to the Maple Avenue Middle School emergency shelter Saturday morning after spending the night wrapped in long underwear, a heavy robe, a wool hat and piles of blankets.

She planned to spend Saturday night in the shelter or a hotel with her 83-year-old husband Alan.

He stayed home when she headed to the shelter Saturday morning, determined to stick it out.

"He decided he'd rather stay home and freeze," she said.

"I decided I was going to take my little book someplace warm to read."

Lambert was one of 260 people who stopped at the shelter on Route 9 between Friday and Saturday afternoons, said Richard Borden, director of community preparedness for the Red Cross' Adirondack-Saratoga region.

Buses dispatched by Saratoga Springs police picked up residents who needed rides to the shelter, which had room for 1,300.

Other residents headed south to Clifton Park looking for something more than cots and free food.

The Holiday Inn Express in Clifton Park was booked solid Friday and Saturday nights, mostly with residents of Saratoga Springs and the surrounding area, according to general manager Patti Voska.

"We must have turned away about 100 people last night," Voska said of Friday.

"By 7, we were sold out."

Saturday night was equally busy.

Voska found most of the hotels in town were experiencing the same problem while she looked for places to send overflow guests.

The town's restaurants, like the Halfmoon Diner, were also flooded with a southbound exodus.

Jimmy Vasilakos said his family-run restaurant was busier Friday and Saturday than Mother's Day, the busiest day of the year.

Curtis Lumber in Ballston Spa was out of generators and kerosene heaters by 10 a.m. Saturday.

Assistant manager Bob Eakin said batteries, flashlights and roofing repair materials were flying out the door.

A Saturday afternoon chimney fire tore through one powerless Saratoga Springs home at 314 Nelson Ave., where residents fought the chill with a fireplace, officials said.

No one was injured but the one-family home was damaged enough to be uninhabitable, fire officials said.

Residents were using a rarely used wood fireplace.

Radiant heat from the chimney then ignited a back porch.

Firefighters were called at about 4:30 p.m. and soon got the blaze under control.

It was the only fire in Saratoga Springs on Saturday, despite the fact that thousands of powerless homes were relying on alternative heating sources.

Saratoga Springs Fire Capt. Peter Shaw said fire and police officers were going door to door throughout the city on Saturday, checking on residents and looking for problems.

"We're making sure they are OK -- making sure they are using good common sense with alternate heating sources," he said.

For Saratoga Springs businesses, financial losses suffered over the weekend could not be recovered.

Downed power lines forced merchants to close their doors to flocks of Dance Flurry participants.

The annual dance festival, which was cut short by the outage, usually brings thousands of visitors to the city.

Dollars from the dancers normally shake businesses out of their post-holiday doldrums, said Raymond Morris, the owner of Lillian's restaurant on Broadway.

He estimates his business lost $10,000 to $15,000 from lack of dance customers.

Down the street at the Saratoga City Center, at least 2,000 hard-core Dance Flurry participants danced Friday night and into most of Saturday, despite no heat in the building or the adjoining hotel where many stayed.

"There is a Woodstock feel to what's been going on here," said Doug Haller, the festival's administrative director.

"The rooms that we are using are being warmed by the dancers, it's been fun."

Wicked winds also dashed hopes for the Lake George Winter Carnival for the third weekend in a row, said village Mayor Robert Blais.

The ice on the lake, which is used for several carnival activities, was blown north Friday morning.

As the ice sliced across the water, Blais said, it mowed down several boat houses and docks.

A tree smashed an empty car in the village and there was other damage throughout Warren County along with power outages.

Blais said much of the power was restored in Lake George by Saturday afternoon.

Down in Saratoga Springs, Tom McTygue, department of public works commissioner, said his crews were working around the clock to keep the water and sewer plants running.

They were also assisting National Grid teams in untangling downed wires and trees.

The city is covered with pine trees, McTygue said, and their soft wood was easily brought down by winds that reached at least 67 mph.

It will be three weeks before all of the debris is picked up, he said.

National Grid had 1,500 people working on storm-related damage statewide, including crews from around the Northeast and Canada.

Around Saratoga Springs, crews were dealing with about 100 downed power poles.

Authorities urged residents where power may be out for three more days to take precautions to save their plumbing.

Water should be left running at a trickle to prevent freezing and it is recommended that radiator systems be drained if possible.

Perry can be reached at 454-5420 or by e-mail at kperry@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

Not clear about this Liv - but I also think Dunkin Donuts makes a better brew.

And costs considerably less.

There is something to be said for market forces and competition.

And there is probably something to be said for plain, old common sense, as well, Snuf ....

At least with respect to taste buds and what constitutes a good cup of coffee ...

Which is certainly not the Starbucks name ...

Regardless of what HYPE they may spin about the subject ....

And changing times, of course ....

Starbucks to me represents an "interlude" here in OUR America ...

Something ephemeral ....

Something that in reality ...

Just could not last ...

A place for people with a lot of leisure time ...

And money ....

To go and have an over-priced cup of coffee ....

In the company of their "peers" ....

A "class" kind of thing ....

That depended upon a "stability" that itself was but a chimera ...

Kind of like the "dot.com" thing ....

"Oh, look, this is the way things are going to be, NOW ..."

As if the ephemeral "NOW" could somehow guarantee anything even a few moments into the future ....

Which is never "cast in concrete" ...

Despite the best efforts of misguided and deluded politicians and BID-NESS people ...

To have it be so ....

For me to go have a cup of over-priced Starbucks coffee, I would have to drive about 20 miles ....

And then, back, again .....

And that is just not going to happen ....

Not in this day and age of over-priced everything, anyway .....

Maybe Starbucks will end up like the HULA-HOOP ....

Something that once was ..

And could perhaps be again ...

BUT FOR ....

[Livyjr]

SO ....

Had we had a more probing and intelligent interviewer on board in this case ....

Someone other than the PUFF-PIECE ARTISTISTE Brit Hume, anyway ....

Perhaps that interviewer, or let us say, investigator, would have looked at this statement by Katharine Armstrong, the property's owner, where she said that she "was watching from a car" while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail .....

And that investigator might then have questioned Ms. Armstrong as to whether or not she ever got out of the car ....

Or was the door and window closed ...

Or open ...

BECAUSE ....

Ms. Armstrong, who is Dick Cheney's ALIBI, is saying that she knows definitively that the old lawyer never announced himself to the other hunters ....

And that the BIG GRIZ DID NOT KNOW that he was about to shoot the old lawyer when he swung on this alleged bird ....

BUT ....

The old lawyer was thirty yards away from Dick Cheney when he was shot ..

And so ....

Thirty yards is about 90 feet .....

Which means that the old lawyer was not even up to where Dick was when the BIG GRIZ wheeled on him ...

And shot him in the face ...

SO ...

Ms. Armstrong ....

IS THIS A DISCREPANCY, HERE, OR WHAT?

And then ....

We have Ms. Armstrong saying that she saw Cheney's security detail running toward the scene .....

AND ...

"The first thing that crossed my mind was he had a heart problem," she told The Associated Press ....

NOW ....

From what Ms. Armstrong is saying here, that she saw the BIG GRIZ's security detail "running" towards the scene, and that she thought the BIG GRIZ had had a heart problem ...

One must surmise ...

That Ms. Armstrong could not in fact see Dick Cheney ...

Nor could she have seen what actually happened ...

Because IF she had seen what had actually happened, she would have known from looking at the BIG GRIZ that he wasn't having any heart problem ...

She would have seen him shoot the old lawyer ...

And whether she stood there or not ..

She would have known why the BIG GRIZ's security detail was running ....

And so ....

But Brit Hume never put two-and-two together, here ...

Which is why the BIG GRIZ had his interview with Brit .....

"Anything you say, Mr. Vice President ...."

"Say ..."

"Did I ever tell you that you have such powerful looking hands?

"Could you hold my hand  ..."

"The way you hold the president's when he is scared ..."

"OH, Mr. Vice President ..."

A LIBERAL AMERICAN PLEA TO DICK CHENEY TO JOIN THE HUMAN RACE

Desperado Dick ....

Dude ....

Hey ...

Dick ...

Why don't you come to your senses?

You been out ridin' fences for so long now .....

That's it's driving you plumb loco, Dude ....

"A hapless outing offers lessons"

Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, February 19, 2006

Pondering what to write about, the Bush administration's warfare against anyone so much as mentioning global warming, whether from a scientific or intelligent design perspective, seemed a worthy topic.

Especially so because the latest report had Greenland's glaciers melting, the oceans rising and littoral real estate moistening at the edges.

Or this column might have been about the Dow making it up over 11,000, as consumers spent exuberantly and their savings rate remained weak.

Or it might have been about the billions of dollars worth of benefits the U.S. government is ready to bestow on the long-suffering oil companies for the discomfort they've had to endure these past months, what with their accountants growing bleary-eyed tallying record profits.

That sort of thing takes a lot out of you and deserves some taxpayer-provided aid and comfort.

Still, as attractive as these issues are, they don't hold a candle to the Saga of Shooter Dick Cheney, a morality play illuminating these days of our lives.

I come to this subject uncontaminated by expertise in the hunt.

My motto is:

"As I would not fish, so I would not hunt."

In later life, I was enticed to target shoot at clay pigeons, hit my first two, missed the third, and on the spot retired from future competition, content forever to rest on a .667 shooting average rooted in beginner's luck.

The little I do know leads me to wonder how the vice president, a veteran hunter equipped with a shotgun that costs as much as an automobile, pulled it off.

He was out with friends shooting at birds.

Fair enough, because everyone knows that a flying object is hard to hit.

But it turns out after days of secrecy, in which details of the occurrence failed to emerge for no doubt valid national security concerns, the bird the veep was hoping to blast was not soaring but was near ground level, roosting or some such.

Shooting a sitting duck or other almost-perching bird would not appear to be the kind of challenge that makes for a more level playing field between hunter and prey.

It's not exactly what's generally meant by sportsmanship.

Furthermore, the unintended target, a 78-year-old Texas lawyer attired in a bright orange vest to ward off being shot by fellow hunters, was estimated to have been as far as 30 yards distant from the muzzle of Cheney's weapon or as close as 15 yards.

Summoning up just plain human charity, it must have been a matter of the veep being in an awful hurry to gun down that bird.

Despite my ignorance of the protocols of hunting, I have a smidgen of knowledge about how to handle a lethal weapon around friends from what was taught in basic training in the U.S. Army.

When I raised my M-1 Garand for the first time on the firing range, the instructor questioned me about my experience with firearms.

I confessed that this was the first time I held a rifle.

The instructor's reaction was "Good, you have no bad habits to unlearn."

Among other things, I learned to point my rifle only at the target I wanted to hit.

I learned that with others around me, never to switch the direction in which the rifle was pointed.

Knowing that the veep did not have the benefit of Army training, because he had better things to do during the Vietnam War, he did not know or could not remember that he shouldn't swing his rifle to his side while he was standing amid a group of fellow hunters.

Furthermore, his unintended target was not only off to his side but slightly in back of him.

A double no no.

What to do about the vice president's unfortunate lapses?

Clearly what is needed is a federally funded refresher program that would Leave No Hunter Behind.

Had such help been available, Dick Cheney's hunting skills would have been monitored and any lax tendencies identified and nipped.

That would have spared the victim, first of all, but also the vice president, the White House and the body politic at large from pondering the incident's implications and larger meaning -- and vast numbers of trees from becoming fodder for newsprint.

Harry Rosenfeld is editor-at-large of the Times Union. He can be reached at 454-5450 or by e-mail at hrosenfeld@timesunion.com.

Ah, yes, Harry ....

You do have some of it ....

Like the KILLER INSTINCTS of the BIG GRIZ kicking in when he saw that small bird ..

And the lawyer's head ....

In his sights ....

BUT ...

Harry .....

IF the BIG GRIZ is swinging to his right to shoot ...

And the old lawyer is coming up slightly behind the BIG GRIZ ....

How does the BIG GRIZ end up shooting the old lawyer in the right side of the lawyer's body ...

And not the left ....

And why is Katharine Armstrong telling us she witnessed what went down ....

When her own statements appear to put the BIG LIE to that assertion ....

Eh?

This post has been edited by Livyjr: Feb 19 2006, 08:25 AM

[Livyjr]

"Jail sentence mutes freedom's ring"

By GARY WASSERMAN
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, February 20, 2006

"Persons who have unauthorized possession, who come into unauthorized possession of classified information, must abide by the law. That applies to academics, lawyers, journalists, professors, whatever."

-- Judge T.S. Ellis III

The judge was speaking last month after sentencing a former Pentagon desk officer for Iran to prison for sharing classified information too widely.

It didn't seem to matter that Lawrence Franklin was a conservative former Air Force colonel who was using contacts outside of government to lobby for a harder line on Iran.

In a week when an American soldier was given no more than a reprimand for smothering an Iraqi general to death, Franklin's 12 1/2 -year sentence was a reminder that this is an administration more horrified by leaks than torture.

The judge's comments were directed to a related trial that he will oversee on April 25 of two former staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman.

They face a possibility of 10 years in prison for allegedly having classified information verbally leaked by Franklin and others and passing it along to reporters and diplomats.

Not content with jailing an employee for mishandling classified material, the government is applying to private citizens a never-used part of the 1917 Espionage Act.

Its expanding secrecy powers threaten to paralyze public participation in making foreign policy.

The experts, lobbyists and journalists who, in the normal routines of their jobs, discuss confidential information could now become criminals.

No one disputes that verbal leaks occurred; two years of FBI wiretaps on AIPAC recorded them.

But despite all this wiretap evidence, the government felt it necessary to add a "sting" operation, which was engineered with Franklin's help in the summer of 2004.

Having "flipped" Franklin after finding confidential documents that he had carelessly brought home to work on, the government had him call the AIPAC lobbyists -- whom he hadn't spoken to in a year -- on a supposedly life-or-death matter.

He claimed that Iran was planning to kidnap and kill Americans and Israelis working in Iraq.

Franklin said he wanted to warn the White House, something that he, as a midlevel analyst, didn't have the clout to do himself.

The lobbyists fell for the appeal to save lives.

They contacted a Washington Post reporter and an Israeli diplomat and tried, unsuccessfully, to reach the National Security Council.

Months afterward, under what former staffers say was considerable pressure from the government, AIPAC fired them.

A year after the sting they were indicted.

U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty announced the indictments last August, declaring that "when it comes to classified information, there is a clear line in the law."

Alas, nothing could be less clear.

Information is the lifeblood of policymaking.

Expanding restrictions on information adds greatly to the power of the executive; criminalizing citizens' contact with that information adds even greater uncertainty.

Any Washington power lunch touching on national security issues -- between Reporter A or Lobbyist B and Official C -- inevitably contains something that someone has classified.

Who's to know what's legal?

Are "classified" White House discussions about Hurricane Katrina to be treated the same as troop movements?

Even if the information is classified, is the official authorized to disclose it?

In a long conversation, where is the "clear line"?

For some leaks, Bob Woodward gets a best-seller; Steve Rosen may get jail.

Officials have their own uses for leaks.

In the past, AIPAC has provided an informal back channel to the Israeli government.

Giving a lobbyist details about illegal Israeli settlements is a diplomatic warning to Jerusalem, but only if he passes them on.

How is he to know the difference between an authorized official and an FBI sting?

For better or worse, the rules of this game have traditionally been enforced by the players.

Reporters receiving national security leaks have shown them to officials for confirmation and comment.

Advocates and experts who spread information meant only for their ears were cut off from further briefings.

This rough-and-ready marketplace lasted throughout the Cold War.

Now a more fearful leadership finds such practices intolerable.

One argument for why autocratic regimes such as pre-World War II Germany and Japan have engaged in risky foreign adventures is that these narrow elites are not subject to the kind of outside review by knowledgeable people that exists in democracies.

The run-up to the Iraq war has raised questions about whether America's marketplace of ideas in foreign policy is still viable.

Did the Bush administration's success in gaining public approval for its invasion of Iraq have something to do with its ability to control secret information in a way that muted doubts about inflated claims of Iraqi threats?

Judge Ellis has it backward.

A democratic government does not, in general, "authorize" the information citizens are allowed.

Given enough information, citizens authorize and control their government.

Or at least we used to.

Gary Wasserman teaches at Georgetown University. He wrote this article for The Washington Post.

[Livyjr]

"Imam loses 4th bid for release - Albany suspect in FBI terror sting still danger to society, jurist rules" 
 
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, February 11, 2006

ALBANY -- An imam at an Albany mosque facing terrorism charges lost his fourth bid for bail Friday, despite a lawyer's impassioned plea that he is a peaceful, deeply religious man desperately needed by his family and faith.

Outside, Kindlon said he was desperately disappointed with the decision, his client is heartbroken, but it doesn't stop here.

When asked if he thinks the federal government is tapping lawyers' phones, Kindlon unloaded:

"I think anyone's phone may be tapped."

"This administration is acting lawlessly."

"They don't give a damn about the Constitution."

"Every time I hear George Bush speak, I think someone should really read that guy his Miranda rights."

end quotes

For the record, Terry Kindlon served in Viet Nam ....

In combat ....

Where he was wounded in the head ....

And quite seriously so .. 

And so ...

He is entitled to express his opinion on this administration ....

And what he calls its lawlessness .....

And as a fellow wounded combat veteran from the Viet Nam ...

I have to salute his candor ....

"Cheney needed lesson taught to armed forces"

Letter to the Editor
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, February 19, 2006

Once again, we're reminded that Chickenhawk Cheney had all those "other priorities'' to keep him home safe from the Vietnam War.

If he wasn't so busy back then perhaps he could have joined the Army like a few million of his more patriotic contemporaries and spent a little time at boot camp sharpening his marksmanship skills at the rifle range.

That way, one of the very helpful sergeants there could have instructed him that if you don't look before you shoot, you might just pull the trigger and hit some innocent bystander in the face.

TERENCE KINDLON
Glenmont

[Livyjr]

Yes, indeed ...

You do hear it said from time to time that these big, predatory carnivores like Dick Cheney, the "BIG WYOMING GRIZ", that they can be tamed ...

Domesticated ...

As though they were just some big dog or something ....

And some people do appear able to tame them ...

To have wild animals like wolves and grizzly bears around them ...

Even living with them in houses and such ....

But the question always does remain ...

Are they really tame?

Might they turn?

And no one, absolutely no one ...

Ever quite knows for sure ....

"Another day, another accident"

By JOHN KENNEY

Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, February 17, 2006

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot documentary filmmaker Michael Moore yesterday as Moore was walking out of a Manhattan Denny's.

A spokesman for the vice president said that it was a "complete accident" and that Cheney felt "horrible."

The White House released a statement saying that the shooting was "just bad timing.

Vice President Cheney, who is well-versed in firearms safety, was merely sitting in a shrub, wearing camouflage, outside of a Denny's frequented by Mr. Moore."

The statement went on to say that Cheney had been in the shrub for "several days."

Moore is said to have suffered only minor injuries and was released from the hospital.

The White House was put on the defensive again today when Air Force Two was forced to make an emergency landing 25 miles west of New York City after a loss of cabin pressure because of the accidental shooting of former FEMA Director Michael Brown and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Both men have recently come under criticism for their handling of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Cheney was said to be "laughing, but also deeply concerned" when he was awakened from a nap after accidentally shooting the men at close range.

Typically, shotguns are not allowed on either Air Force One or Two, but Cheney is, the statement said, "a seasoned hunter and also planned to accidentally shoot both men."

Both Brown and Chertoff are expected to recover, although it remains unclear as to why Brown was duct-taped to the wing of the plane.

A White House spokesman later added that the vice president had been on his way to New York City to accidentally shoot New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton miraculously escaped injury today after Cheney accidentally ran up to her motorcade and accidentally shot at her car.

The White House said the vice president "tripped."

A member of the vice president's staff said Cheney apologized to the former first lady and potential presidential candidate in a note.

"I'm sorry I almost shot you."

"But know that I will try again and will also be sorry then, too."

"I like the sound a gun makes and the smell of the gunpowder."

"'Flint' is a neat word."

John Kenney is a novelist. He wrote this article for the Los Angeles Times.

[Livyjr]

"Iraq is a country, not a corporate boardroom"

Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, February 17, 2006

As the congressional hearings on Hurricane Katrina droned on, I happened to read George Packer's memorable book on Iraq, "The Assassins' Gate."

Sociologists are fascinated by bureaucracy because Max Weber, one of our founding fathers, studied them and wondered whether they would work.

Could any governmental bureaucracy have coped with Katrina?

The Committee of House Republicans (you can't have Democrats on such a committee because they might suggest that something was lacking in President Bush) lambasted the Department of Homeland Security for its failures.

Could a more nimble and alert bureaucracy have responded better than a hastily assembled hodgepodge of disparate agencies, each jealous of its own freedom, presided over by political hacks?

The department came into being so that the Bush administration might seem to be doing something constructive about domestic security when it was merely manipulating organizational charts.

The underlying rationale was that an agency designed to protect Americans from terrorists would also be able to protect Americans from natural disasters.

Clearly, it could not do the latter and it seems unlikely that it can do the former.

Could a more focused agency, led by highly trained and charismatic specialists -- or supervised by a sophisticated and intelligent president -- have done a better job?

We will never know the answer as long as critical positions are filled by men whose talents are based on political loyalty, personal financial contributions and skill at bureaucratic infighting.

Could a CEO who has been in and out of administrations for 20 years and learned the art of pleasing presidents successfully preside over a war in a distant country about which most Americans, including himself, know practically nothing?

A man like Donald Rumsfeld could certainly take charge of such a war.

He elbowed aside Secretary of State Colin Powell, ignored then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, turned CIA director George Tenent into a babbling sycophant, and browbeat the military leadership into submission.

All he needed was memos from the neoconservatives to fight such a war.

As should be patent by now, he mad a terrible mess of it.

The American military contingent was too small by half, ill prepared in equipment and training to contain the early looting and the ongoing guerrilla war it is still fighting, uneducated in the history and the ethnic politics of Iraq, unable to restore and sustain the country's oil industry, and generally insensitive to the hopes and fears of the Iraqi people.

The United States was the only superpower in the world.

It possessed a mighty array of military technology from smart bombs to killer drones.

With the help of friendly local support and ingenious special force units, it would be relatively easy to institute a democratic regime in Iraq and thus (to the joy of the neocons) take pressure off Israel.

It did not have to plan in minute detail what should be done when the war was over.

Packer admits in his book that he tended to support the war at the beginning and still thinks it could be won.

He has great sympathy for the hard work and bravery of the Americans.

He's an extraordinarily gifted writer and portrays the Iraqis with sensitivity and sympathy that one rarely reads in shorter and more simplified accounts.

Yet the war has been a series of blunders from beginning to end.

The worst crime was not the deception of the American people about the reasons for the war, but the failure to plan for the postwar situation to take responsibility for it.

"I came to believe that those in positions of high responsibility for Iraq showed a carelessness about human life that amounted to criminal negligence."

"Swaddled in abstract ideas, convinced of their own righteousness, incapable of self-criticism, indifferent to accountability, they turned a difficult undertaking into a needlessly deadly one," Packer writes.

What kind of a man should preside over a war, if there must be one?

The lesson of both Vietnam and Iraq is that the last sort of person to be responsible for war, especially with a president who admits no mistakes, is a brilliant, hard-charging corporate executive.

Of such men, war criminals are made.

Andrew Greeley's e-mail address is agreel@aol.com.

[Livyjr]

"After Bush election, nation saturated with lies"

Letters to the Editor
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, February 17, 2006

Since President Bush's election in 2000, our country has become as saturated with lies as a baklava with honey.

The mantra we keep hearing from on high is that the truth doesn't matter.

Anything goes, and no amount of spinning, exaggerating or misrepresenting is unjustified as long as it does the job.

The "job" may be winning an election.

It may be covering up after some mistake.

It may be convincing a skeptical public.

The lying goes on, and there is never any hint of moral compunction or twinge of conscience to interfere with it.

No wonder the Democrats are so helpless.

They are still playing by the old rules.

They still believe in pre-2000 standards of good government, civility in public discourse and respect for the law.

And no wonder the public is so apathetic.

We disengage.

What's the use of trying to sort the truth from the lies when the lying is so overwhelming?

What's the point in feeling outrage, even, when there's never any sign of contrition or desire to change?

We stand back and watch it all as though it were TV.

What will their next tall tale be?

What way will they find this time to cover up?

How will they extricate themselves from this one?

The day will come, no doubt, when we look back on this sorry era as though it were a bad dream.

And then we'll wonder how we could have ever let it happen to us.

ANTON G. H.
East Greenbush