Posted on 02/12/2006 12:46:46 PM PST by bayourant
Edited on 02/12/2006 2:10:43 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.
Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed him with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.
Armstrong said Whittington was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Whittington was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.
Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president was with Whittington, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, and his wife at the hospital on Sunday afternoon.
Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shot at a covey of quail late afternoon on Saturday.
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 found 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 told the Associated Press in an interview.
"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."
The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic.
"It broke the skin," she said. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."
She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington, holding his face and cleaning up the blood.
"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."
Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year. She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.
"This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.
___
Associated Press writer Paul Weber in Dallas contributed to this report.
That is hilarious!
You forgot that Karl Rove orchestrated the immediate cover-up of this outrageous attempt at silencing someone no one ever heard of over absolutely nothing. It was only through the efforts of a well placed undercover Dem from DU masquerading as a Nurse that this was leaked out so everyone would know what a murderous regime is in the White House today.
Oh well, we should get a good laugh over this unfortunate, but no news incident being expolited this week.
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer
Whittington has been a private practice attorney in Austin since 1950 and has long been active in Texas Republican politics. He's been appointed to several state boards, including when then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
Whittington owns property in Travis County worth at least $11 million, the Austin American-Statesman reported last year, not counting a downtown block at the center of a long-running dispute with the city over a condemnation issue.
I'll never be in the field or on a trap/skeet range with you.
Where do you read this crap? Ever fired a few hundred thousand rounds from a shotgun? Ever rolled your own rounds?
(rolling eyes - shaking head)
I imagine that in the next few days, there will be many Barf Alerts on FR covering this. Especially as slow as the news has been lately.
Don't know how to post pictures; don't want to learn.
http://www.westessexguide.com/gcb/ph.htm
The news channels would be silent about 23 1/2 hours a day.
I won't go into the details, but an incident very similiar happened to me many years ago. I was one scared pheasant hunter. I learned a lesson, but like this incident you can't have eyes in the back of your head. Luckily I was using light loads and Louie was a long ways off on my right. He still has the shot embedded in his scalp and reminds me about it everytime we meet.
"I'm seeing that Cheney himself was shot."
And just where did you see/hear that?
They corrected the headline shortly after posting it, but of course a lot of people had already picked it up.
I doubt you are a bird hunter.
It's amazing really (not).
Some of these folks up here haven't yet discovered the cause of reproduction(human or animal), and one can visit a local animal shelter and walk out with some fine Blueticks, Redbones, Walkers and Black and Tans.
I was at the shelter a few weeks ago when some local rabbit hunters came in looking for some beagles. There were lots of beagles, and a LOT of good looking hounds in there, waiting to be gassed. One bluetick pup caught my attention: a beautiful speciman of that breed.
I ended up with an old man (labrador), riddled with arthritus, teeth worn to nubs, and now just as spoiled and demanding as the girl in the picture. They didn't even make me pay the adoption fee (Gee I must be famous or good looking or something, NAW).
Good hounds will keep bears, and other wildlife from becoming public nuisences/dangers. In fact, some wildlife agencies have actually tried using hounds to "untame" bears causing problems in some northern states.
If your friend lets her hound out, and he is a good tracking, striking, or trailing dog, he'll be long gone.
Tracking collars have been used here for a LONG time. I know a guy who sued the National Park Service (Great Smoky Mountains) and ended up with a settlement because a park employee (and AR activist getting paid with our tax dollars) took his dog's collar off, threw it aside, and gave the dog to some park visitors who couldn't stand the thought of dogs actually being subjected to "hunting, blood sports."
The dog had crossed the line between public land and the Cherokee Indian reservation, where Cherokees can hunt without a license. etc. The federal employee was moved out of this area quickly, fired, whatever.
FWIW, no harm was done and a lesson was learned........
Undoubtedly...
Dead Eye Dick...Rides with the Wild Bunch, out of Crawford...
Never been a better dog house invented than an old rusty car hood stacked against a tree.
I don't bash hillbillies, I am one.
I just know an idiot when I see one. And you are right, this species is not native to one region. I know some from England, Russia, New York, Pennsylvania -- but they are PREVELANT where I live.
Just check out my family tree :)
I asked the same question about 300 posts back. Squantos said no.
LOL Is it time to visit Jeff Foxworthy's website for some creative images??
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