DSL again

I spent most of the evening on tech support - the DSL was installed in the new place, the kit was there, but it took many tries to get the Internet installed correctly.

However, all's well...

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Not so with the Vice-President, however. I'm not sure what the press is going ballistic about:

As reporters scold the White House for skimming on the details, Democrats also called on the vice president to be more forthcoming. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged Cheney to hold a press conference, which he has not done since 2002. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused the administration of being the most secretive in "modern history."

"Talk about secrecy, the vice president accidentally shoots someone and keeps that a secret for nearly a day. That man, of course, is now very sick," Reid said.

Cheney's office said that he had been informed around 12:30 p.m. EST that hospital officials were going to hold a 1 p.m. press conference. When the vice president returned from a meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill, he watched part of the news conference, his office said.

On Monday, the state gave Cheney and Whittington warning citations for breaking Texas hunting law by failing to buy a $7 stamp allowing them to shoot upland game birds. A spokesman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said warnings are being issued in most cases because the stamp requirement only went into effect five months ago and many hunters weren't aware of it.

The Parks and Wildlife Department report said Whittington was retrieving a downed bird and stepped out of the hunting line he was sharing with Cheney. "Another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest at approximately 30 yards," the report said.

Let's see - the Vice-President, in a normal huntin trip, accidentally shoots a friend. It appears that the friend also concurs with the VP's assessment of the situation, and the VP is not legally culpable.

The friend later suffers what his doctors term a "silent heart attack", easily treated, and not needing surgical intervention. In deference to the privacy of his friend, Cheney waits for his medical team to make a report.

Have I got that? Oh, and did I mention? Cheney hasn't made statements about the incident:

Cheney's staff made an agreement with the owner of the property on which the incident occurred to have her notify the local media, he said.

"This was handled by the vice president's office," McClellan explained. "The vice president felt that Mrs. Armstrong should be the first person to get that information out since she was an eyewitness."

Reporters countered that they thought it was highly bizarre to make such an arrangement with a private citizen.

Well, actually, it seems to me to be a proper way to deal with it. Rather than immediately jumping in, and making himself the focus of the story, Cheney allowed an eyewitness to tell her version of things. If he had immediately issued a press release, wouldn't the media have jumped all over him, because he was trying to control the story.

The man can't win. Oh, except at the voting booth.

Tags = News & Politics