Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

Now I'm officially going on too much about this, but I just can't help it. Yes, I'm talking about "Cheney's Chappaquiddick". For those too young to remember, that was when Ted Kennedy ran away from a drunk driving accident in which a young woman drowned as his car, which he had just driven off a bridge, sank in the Chappaquidick river.

RJ Eskow first made the Chappaquidick comparison, and in his latest article, he defends it as such:

1. "Someone with a documented history of drinking problems causes a serious accident, and then avoids the authorities for a period of time - one that happens to be long enough to get the alcohol out of his system.
   
2. "The first stories of the accident are confusing and self-contradictory. (In this case, since Cheney didn't speak himself, the most glaring inconsistencies are Armstrong's. Specifically, she - and now Cheney - describe her as an eyewitness, although she told the Associated Press she thought at first Cheney had suffered a heart attack. That would mean she never saw the shooting.)
   
3. "A powerful figure holds himself out as being above the law, and - at least for a time - appears to get away with it.
   
4. "When the powerful person finally speaks, allegedly to 'come clean,' there are still inconsistencies and glaring contradictions in his story."

To catch up on all the inconsistencies, click over to AlterNet for "Cheney's Buckshot Reader". Is Pam Willeford more than Cheney's hunting partner? Was Cheney boozing it up? What's Cheney's account of the shooting? Is the White House livid at Cheney's handling of it all? Did Dick Cheney break any hunting rules? Get the latest on the attempted cover-up.

But it keeps getting better... Just how much was old Dickie drinking? Media Matters reports that that keeps changing too: "Armstrongs' media accounts of the incident changed on a daily basis -- from claiming that nobody was drinking (February 13), to acknowledging that beer was available (February 14), to telling CNN that Cheney had a cocktail after the accident (February 15)."

By the way, are you even supposed to have "one beer" with all the medications that they pump into Cheney every day to keep his heart beating?

Now, I'm not suggesting that we spend $40 million of tax-payer money investigating whether or not he "had sex with that woman" or if "just one beer" is a fact or just the usual line that all drinkers give after an accident. I'd just like this to be treated like any other doddering old fool who, under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs, shoots somebody in the face, neck, and chest, and then leaves the state to avoid detection.

In other news... the roster of "known and suspected international terrorists" has grown to over 325,000. To be fair, some folks are on their twice under different alliases, so the actual number may only be about 250,000, but damn!

As Timothy Sparapani, legislative counsel for privacy rights at the ACLU, 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."