likearock

While the decision to change names may have been based on expected monetary gain... the REAL question IS about PC... the real question is about how stupid people can be with any issue. Even a non-offensive one like when Texas won their independence. I think the team owners are pussies for changing the name because someone got their feelings hurt. I also think that anyone offended by the name "1863" is a dumb-shit. Most of the hispanic people that called the show were not offended by the name, but then it was a conservative station. I have a feeling that the team MIGHT lose 1% of their ticket sales because of the name... so what does that add up to 5-10 tickets? I suspect that it would quite a bit more than that since 27% of Houston is Mexican and interest in soccer is considerably greater than for non-Mexicans. We're probably talking big bucks here. I agree that its pretty thin skinned to be offended by such a name.

Are you saying that it's okay to go out hunting after a few drinks? How many?

In any accident scenario, whether it be a car accident or gun accident, the appropriate action is for the shooter/driver to be interviewed as soon as possible by the police (and no, the Secret Service is not equivalent to the police no matter how many time GM repeats it). This is done for a number of reasons not the least of which being to dispel questions of negligence or any other activity that could make the incident more than just an accident. And if the shooter were anyone else, you'd have no problem seeing the importance of this policy. I'm not suggesting that there was anything wrong that Cheney had to worry about in this particular case so spare me the strawman arguments that I'm saying he was drunk or some other thing. However, he should have submitted to a police interview that same night just as anyone else would have had to. He shouldn't have gotten a pass just because he's Vice President.

Yes I'm serious. The Secret Service are the Police and were there when it happened. So unless you are prepared to make some disparaging remarks about the Secret Service covering this up, I'd say that's about it, wouldn't you? You still didn't answer my question. If it had happened to you, would the police have given you 14 hours? If it happened to me and I had 10 or 20 Federal Agents with me to protect me and I happened to be in a rural area, yes. Apparently you have spent too much time living in the Big City and have no idea about how things are done in small towns. Do you think the press would be rakig me over the coals because the Federal Agents with me didn't notify a small town sheriff. Get real, dude. Get real yourself. The question was whether or not Cheney received special treatment here that would not have been afforded you or me. I ask you again, if you had been the shooter, do you think that you would have been able to wait 14 hours before your police interview?

Yes I'm serious. The Secret Service are the Police and were there when it happened. So unless you are prepared to make some disparaging remarks about the Secret Service covering this up, I'd say that's about it, wouldn't you? You still didn't answer my question. If it had happened to you, would the police have given you 14 hours?

No. The bigger issue is how long it took for the police to interview Cheney. 14 hours. That's how he was treated differently than an ordinary citizen. Then your issue is with the police, not Cheney. An obvious hunting accident, which occurs occaisionaly in that part of Texas isn't treated the same way as an accidental shooting would be in NYC. Of course a Cityboy wouldn't understand that. What a load of crap! You think Cheney had nothing to do with delaying the interview? Do you have some evidence he did? Is it now guilty until proven innocent? Are you serious? So you're saying if you accidentally shot someone on a hunting trip and called the police to report it that same night, they'd say, "Well Gravity, my good man, it's kind of late right now, why don't we wait till tomorrow to pop in for the interview?"

No. The bigger issue is how long it took for the police to interview Cheney. 14 hours. That's how he was treated differently than an ordinary citizen. Then your issue is with the police, not Cheney. An obvious hunting accident, which occurs occaisionaly in that part of Texas isn't treated the same way as an accidental shooting would be in NYC. Of course a Cityboy wouldn't understand that. What a load of crap! You think Cheney had nothing to do with delaying the interview?

No. The bigger issue is how long it took for the police to interview Cheney. 14 hours. That's how he was treated differently than an ordinary citizen.

Wrong. I read hunting incident reports quite frequently and parties are seldom charged in a case like this. It sounds to me like they are treating him similiar to others in this case. Really? So if you accidentally shot someone during a hunting accident, the local authorities would wait 14 hours to interview you? Dream on.

The latest news is not good: http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/14/cheney/index.html Hunter shot by Cheney has 'minor heart attack' Doctors: Birdshot moved to Harry Whittington's heart Tuesday, February 14, 2006; Posted: 2:19 p.m. EST (19:19 GMT) CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (CNN) -- The fellow hunter who was shot and wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney has suffered a "minor heart attack" after a piece of birdshot migrated to his heart, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday. Harry Whittington, 78, is in stable condition in intensive care and will remain hospitalized for up to seven days, hospital officials said. "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," said Peter Banko, administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial. Cheney and Whittington were hunting quail on a friend's south Texas ranch Saturday when the vice president shot and wounded him. Doctors were deciding how to treat Whittington's condition, which was discovered after doctors noticed an irregularity in his heartbeat, Banko said. Dr. David Blanchard, the hospital's emergency room chief, said Whittington suffered an "asymptomatic heart attack," without displaying symptoms such as chest pains or breathing difficulty. He said a roughly 5 mm piece of shot became lodged in or alongside Whittington's heart muscle, causing the organ's upper two chambers to beat irregularly. Physicians from the White House staff, who helped treat Whittington after Cheney shot him in a Saturday hunting accident, have been consulted on the situation, Banko said. Authorities have cleared Cheney of wrongdoing in the accidental shooting of Whittington, but questions about Saturday's incident remain. During Tuesday's White House news conference, spokesman Scott McClellan was asked if waiting 14 hours after the shooting before Cheney spoke with police was appropriate, and whether an average citizen would have been afforded the same amount of time. "That was what was arranged with the local law enforcement authorities," McClellan said. "You ought to ask them that question." McClellan referred other questions about Cheney's shooting of Whittington, a Bush-Cheney campaign contributor, to the vice president's office and local police. Cheney arrived for work at the White House on Tuesday without comment and a spokeswoman said the vice president had no plans for any public statement about the matter. "This department is fully satisfied that this was no more than a hunting accident," the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department announced in a statement issued Monday evening. Sheriff's deputies in Kenedy County, near Corpus Christi, questioned Cheney on Sunday and Whittington on Monday. A prominent Texas lawyer and a campaign donor to the Bush-Cheney campaigns in 2000 and 2004, Whittington was hit on the right side of his face, neck and chest when Cheney turned to fire on a covey of quail at a ranch near Kingsville, Texas, on Saturday. But Cheney's office did not disclose the shooting until Sunday afternoon, after the family that owns the ranch told a Corpus Christi newspaper about it. McClellan told reporters on Monday that the focus in the immediate aftermath of the shooting was to make sure the man Cheney wounded got medical attention. "It's important, always, to work to make sure you get information out like this as quickly as possible," McClellan said. "But it's also important to make sure that the first priority is focused where it should be, and that is making sure that Mr. Whittington has the care that he needs." McClellan said Cheney agreed that his friend Katharine Armstrong, who accompanied the shooting party, should tell the Corpus Christi Caller-Times about the incident, a move that provoked sharp questions from reporters. Asked whether it was appropriate "for a private citizen to be the person to disseminate the information that the vice president of the United States has shot someone," McClellan said, "That's one way to provide information to the public." "The vice president spoke with her directly and agreed that she should make it public and that they would provide additional information," he said. Cheney, an avid hunter, was shooting at a covey of quail at the Armstrong Ranch near Kingsville, southwest of Corpus Christi, when the accident occurred. According to Armstrong, a daughter of Anne Armstrong, Whittington shot a quail, dropped back from the rest of the hunting party to retrieve it and was rejoining the group when Cheney fired. Katharine Armstrong said no one discussed informing the public about the incident until Sunday morning, when she and her mother raised the matter with Cheney. Saturday night, she said, "The only concern we all had was about Harry." But she said Cheney made it clear he knew it had to be made public. A medical team accompanying the vice president administered first aid to Whittington when the accident occurred at 5:50 p.m., Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur said. The Secret Service told sheriff's deputies about the accident an hour later, after Whittington was headed for a hospital in Kingsville and the hunting party had returned to the ranch house, he said. A Kenedy County sheriff's deputy questioned Cheney about the shooting on Sunday, Mazur said. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told President Bush about 7:30 p.m. Saturday that there had been a hunting accident, but Card did not know the vice president had been involved at the time, the White House said. About 8 p.m., after talking with Armstrong, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Bush that Cheney had shot Whittington. Whittington was hit upon rejoining the group and "apparently came up unannounced" as Cheney prepared to fire, Armstrong said Sunday. Whittington has been active in Texas GOP politics since the 1960s and served as chairman of the state Board of Corrections from 1979 to 1985. In 1999, then-Gov. Bush named him to the state Funeral Services Commission, which had been stung by allegations of widespread corruption and mismanagement in the industry. Anne Armstrong served on the board of directors of Halliburton, the oil field service company Cheney ran before becoming vice president. She also served as U.S. ambassador to Britain in the Ford administration.

But aren't you just as guilty in judging those people?

Not likely. Maybe if he had been treated in the ER and released, you'd have a point. The fact that he's been hospitalized in the ICU for several days makes it clear the doctors thought his injuries were serious.

http://kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=2823&NEXTID=0&PREVID=1673&DISPLAYORDER=20051123180707&CAT=movies&NSFW=1&page=2&genre=0&rating=nsfw_sfw]

And how would you feel if you were one of the creditors that had their life savings wiped out? Uh, honeypie, it was a joke. As soon as I mentioned Africa having its debt forgiven, you should have realized I was being cynical and sarcastic about the legitimacy of just ducking one's debts in that manner. Thanks for that, sweetie. Good to know that you're not as much of a deadbeat as our president.

Good catch, my apologies. Here's a graph that shows only government debt (with figures taken from whitehouse.gov): http://zfacts.com/p/318.html Not as drastic as the other graph, but it does show clearly how seriously the ratio increased during the days of Reagan and the two Bushes, supply-side economics notwithstanding.

The problem is not so much the deficit as the debt (a word that is conspicuously absent from this overly optimistic analysis). After all, that's the value we pay interest on. In fact, the debt is at record levels in comparison with the GDP as can be seen here.

And how would you feel if you were one of the creditors that had their life savings wiped out? Remember, it's not just rich Chinese who own the debt, it's also poor shmoes with savings bonds. It's naive to think that that huge amount of debt would be forgiven without serious consequence, possibly even war.

I think what everyone seems to be missing is how much of our tax money goes basically for nothing, that is, it goes to pay off the interest on the debt. Let's see, for 8 trillion, let's say at a 3% rate (it's probably more), we have to pay out $240 billion a year! Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's more than Iraq and Katrina combined for nothing in return. And with each additional $500 billion deficit (seems to be the average for the past few years), the "bottomless" pit gets another $40 billion deeper. Likewise, with each rise of 1% in the interest rate, it gets $80 billion deeper. It may "feel good" right now to have those tax cuts, but it's gonna sting like a bitch if we keep on the way we are.

The hell they aren't anti-Semitic. Not when they play on centuries old stereotypes of Jews, such as the hook nose and the eating of babies. To say they're only anti-Israeli but not anti-Semitic is like trying to claim that the bomb-turban Mohammed cartoon is not a statement about Islam, but just about Al Qaeda.

Was that the same money Boehner got from Abramoff? Not exactly. What he said was, "We'll have a talk". But I'm inclined to agree with your interpretation.

You should check out the whole series. These guys started up months before the controversy broke. Start with the first one: http://www.jesusandmo.net/?p=18

Kind of an ironic argument to make here when a major Islamic head of state is doing just that. Why is it okay to deny the holocaust but not to show Mohammed with a bomb-turban?

I'm pretty sure the Danish cartoons inspired much less anti-muslim hatred within the West than the violent reaction to them did.

Maybe it should be. At least as far as our government is concerned. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3634257.html State Department criticizes Muhammad cartoons Associated Press WASHINGTON — The State Department criticized today cartoon drawings in Europe of the Prophet Muhammad, calling them "offensive to the beliefs of Muslims." While recognizing the importance of freedom of the press and expression, department press officer Janelle Hironimus said these rights must be coupled with press responsibility. There has been a wave of protests throughout the Muslim world in recent days following publication of the cartoon drawings in European newspapers. "Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable," Hironimus said. "We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices."

So much for those who choose to blame the parents. http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/03/bus.crash/index.html NTSB: Trucker had little sleep before wreck that killed 7 kids Friday, February 3, 2006; Posted: 5:31 p.m. EST (22:31 GMT) (CNN) -- The truck driver who plowed into a car near Lake Butler, Florida, on January 25 killing seven children in a fiery crash had little sleep in the 34 hours before the wreck, investigators revealed Friday. "Except for a short nap, he was awake for 34 hours, but I'm not prepared to tell you whether or not he was exceeding the allowable hours of service," said David Rayburn, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator. The truck driver, 31-year-old Alvin Wilkerson, of Jacksonville, Florida, has not cooperated with NTSB investigators on the advice of his attorney, Rayburn said. Investigators were able to determine he had been awake for an inordinate amount of time by examining records and interviewing many people. "We know that he was doing something almost continuously during those hours that he couldn't have been doing if he was asleep," Rayburn said at a news conference, without elaborating. No drugs or alcohol were found in Wilkerson's system, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Leeper said. The driver of the car was 15-year-old Cynthia Nicole Mann, who had six other children, all but one related, in the car with her at the time. Two of the children were 13 and the others were 15, 9, 2 and 20 months. Mann's parents were in the process of adopting the 20-month-old. In Florida it is illegal for a 15-year-old to drive without an adult being in the car. Mann, who had only a learner's permit, was stopped behind a school bus and talking on her cell phone when the semi truck smashed into her January 25. The truck's cab overturned, Mann's car caught fire and, Rayburn said, three children on the school bus were ejected from the back and had to be transported to hospitals by helicopter. Wilkerson suffered burn injuries. Compounding the Mann family's grief, the children's grandfather suffered a massive heart attack and died when he learned of the crash. The Florida Department of Highway Safety said Wilkerson had been cited in the past -- in 2000 and 2001 for operating a vehicle in unsafe conditions and in 2000 for driving with a suspended or revoked license. Wilkerson's truck was traveling between 50 and 65 mph when it hit Mann's car, police said, adding that there was no evidence Wilkerson tried to stop before the early afternoon crash. Marks on the road showed that he veered away only after the initial impact, police said. It could be a year before the NTSB issues its final determination of what caused the crash. However, Union County Sheriff Jerry Whitehead said charges could be filed against Wilkerson within a month, when state authorities finish their investigation.