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.
It happened yesterday. Why is it still ZOMGEPIX news? Nothing has changed so far. Why make some special announcement about it every 15 to 20 minutes?
"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums
quote:
Fazum'Zen Fastfist enlisted the help of an infinite number of monkeys to write:
Ouch, I got shotgunned by the vice-president.
I'll bet he's one of those noobs that uses the auto-shotty.
quote:
Peter had this to say about Duck Tales:
Texas doesn't require hunter orange to be worn?
From the sounds of it, it wasn't an aimed shot that happened to hit him, it seems like Cheney was trackin a bird from a flock that was flushed out, turned, and fired at the one he was tracking, not realizing that the path put the third guy in the way. Not suprising, it takes a lot of focus to track a moving target like that and its easy to lose track of things in the background, thats why skeet shooting is a competitive sport.
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Peter had this to say about Tron:
Texas doesn't require hunter orange to be worn?
I'm pretty sure we don't. Bright colors are for queers! 
I think the whole thing is funny, personally. It's like the Republican party has decided to collectively shoot itself in the foot all at the same time lately.
-H Hellbender fucked around with this message on 02-13-2006 at 03:07 AM.
quote:
How.... Peter.... uughhhhhh:
Texas doesn't require hunter orange to be worn?
Cammo is usually the way to go for fowl. Blaze for mammals.
no, I don't know why. It's just what I remember growing up with a hunter.
"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums
quote:
x--HellbenderO-('-'Q) :
I'm pretty sure we don't. Bright colors are for queers!I think the whole thing is funny, personally. It's like the Republican party has decided to collectively shoot itself in the foot all at the same time lately.
-H
Haha, what are you referring to? The wiretapping "scandal" that nobody cares about? Scooter Libby getting off scott free? The failure to indict anybody else relative to the valarie plame idiocy?
I'm just curious because the left hasn't come up with a "scandal" that hasn't blown up in their face for quite some time now.
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Maradon! thought this was the Ricky Martin Fan Club Forum and wrote:
Haha, what are you referring to? The wiretapping "scandal" that nobody cares about? Scooter Libby getting off scott free? The failure to indict anybody else relative to the valarie plame idiocy?I'm just curious because the left hasn't come up with a "scandal" that hasn't blown up in their face for quite some time now.
Actually, I just heard/read that Libby has implicated VP Cheney, saying that Cheney ordered him to out the CIA agent. Howard Dean has gone on CNN and said that if it's true, he needs to resign as VP.
I first heard about the Libby-Cheney implication, then heard Cheney had shot somebody on a "hunting trip." My first thought was, "Damn, don't mess with Cheney, he'll make your death look like an accident..." Like finding a deer hunter with six 9mm wounds in the chest. Ah, well.
Hey, anybody else noticing some patterns, here? Domestic spying, right around the time a VP resigns due to legal issues? Could we be looking at President Hastert in the next few years?
It's not something people hear about.
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Maradon!, alone in the world and surrounded by danger on every turn, still managed to type this:
Haha, what are you referring to? The wiretapping "scandal" that nobody cares about? Scooter Libby getting off scott free? The failure to indict anybody else relative to the valarie plame idiocy?I'm just curious because the left hasn't come up with a "scandal" that hasn't blown up in their face for quite some time now.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, and I don't want to think about it too hard. The implications are worrying.
Anyway, on CNN someone was like: "The president knew immediately, he thought immediately, oh no, I've shot someone. Why didn't we know immediately?" WTG American news media.
Disclaimer: I'm just kidding, I love all living things.
The fastest draw in the Crest.
"The Internet is MY critical thinking course." -Maradon
"Gambling for the husband, an abortion for the wife and fireworks for the kids they chose to keep? Fuck you, Disneyland. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the happiest place on Earth." -JooJooFlop
Then we outfit you with a cybernetic pacemaker/defibrilator. And we give you massive amounts of Viagra.
You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
quote:
The hunter shot and wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney suffered a minor heart attack after a piece of birdshot moved to his heart, a hospital spokesman said today. "Some of the bird shot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart ... in what we would say is a minor heart attack.
All joking aside I hope Harry Whittington gets through this ok.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
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Dave had this to say about Robocop:
All joking aside I hope Harry Whittington gets through this ok.
Oh great, an excuse for the right wing media to feign indignance at people making fun of Cheney over this.
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Peanut butter ass Shaq Big Easy booooze lime pole over bench lick:
Actually, I just heard/read that Libby has implicated VP Cheney, saying that Cheney ordered him to out the CIA agent. Howard Dean has gone on CNN and said that if it's true, he needs to resign as VP.
Haha, I heard the same idiotic and poorly thought out myth. There's a couple of problems with it, though.
1) Scooter Libby is charged with perjury for some minor discrepancies between his testimony and that of other people involved with the plame case. He hasn't been charged with leaking information related to the case. Why in the hell would his defense claim that Cheney told him to leak the information when he isn't even charged with leaking information!?
2) To quote Libby's defense - "We haven't told anybody anything about our defense yet, but it's not going to be that."
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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Azizza who doth quote:
You all should read the transcript of yesterdays Press Briefing at the White House. The Media is angry because they were not contacted before Medical Treatment was sought for the guy.
Yeah, I'm listening to a press conference now and it's absolutely hilarious. They're just trying so goddamn hard to turn this into a bloodbath, but they have absolutely nothing.
"Do you think the vice president should step down?"
"That's an absurd question." Maradon! fucked around with this message on 02-14-2006 at 07:19 PM.
quote:
Kinanik sent this coded message via a team of nanites:
Anyone see the Daily Show last night? Jon Stewart just took this and ran a marathon with it.
I'm watching the marathon...
The duck hunt part wins at life.
Disclaimer: I'm just kidding, I love all living things.
The fastest draw in the Crest.
"The Internet is MY critical thinking course." -Maradon
"Gambling for the husband, an abortion for the wife and fireworks for the kids they chose to keep? Fuck you, Disneyland. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the happiest place on Earth." -JooJooFlop
quote:
So quoth Maradon!:
In a way I'm glad this happened. The absolute blood frenzy that the media is whipping itself into looking for a scandal here is refreshingly revealing.
It's not that we don't all already know the media on the whole doesn't like the Bush administration, it's just that we don't care.
quote:
JooJooFlop had this to say about Reading Rainbow:
It's not that we don't all already know the media on the whole doesn't like the Bush administration, it's just that we don't care.
The media doesn't like any administration. Look at the 24/7 clintion sex scandal coverage way back. The media loves scandals and wants them to happen because scandals make people buy newspapers and turn their TVs on.
Personally I have no love for the Bush administration, but going by what we know now there is not doubt that this was an accident. Tnless Cheney was somehow incredibly negligent this shouldn't even be a political issue.
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith
quote:
Kinanik attempted to be funny by writing:
Anyone see the Daily Show last night? Jon Stewart just took this and ran a marathon with it.
Yes. And it was HILARIOUS. 
I'll bet there was a party in their offices when this happened. "Holy shit, we've struck gold!"
quote:
How.... Kinanik.... uughhhhhh:
Anyone see the Daily Show last night? Jon Stewart just took this and ran a marathon with it.
"Ever have one of those weekends where at the end you don't think anything good can come from it? Then it does. Thank you, thank youg god."
quote:
Moding:
The media doesn't like any administration. Look at the 24/7 clintion sex scandal coverage way back. The media loves scandals and wants them to happen because scandals make people buy newspapers and turn their TVs on.
That's part true. The mainstream media sure does love bad news, regardless of who is in office.
However you also have things like Rathergate and the absolute failure to report things like the plummeting unemployment rate, rapidly rising standard of living, and the thwarted attacks on San Francisco that were plastered all over international media but didn't even receive a page B-22 blurb in America (even on fox news). During the clinton administration the strong (but totally static) economy was heralded as a new golden age even though the economy had hardly changed at all from the time Clinton entered office.
Things like that illustrate that the majority of the mainstream media has a strong and obvious bias toward the left.
quote:
Personally I have no love for the Bush administration, but going by what we know now there is not doubt that this was an accident. Tnless Cheney was somehow incredibly negligent this shouldn't even be a political issue.
Well, you're right about that. It's not a political issue, it's a rather hilarious issue about media bias. You really should listen to some of the rhetoric these idiotic and self important journalists are spouting off at the press conferences. Funnier than anything jon stewart has ever come up with. Maradon! fucked around with this message on 02-16-2006 at 05:27 AM.
