The DEM: Again, What You WON'T Read

QUAILGATE!

The DEM (Defeatist, Elitist Media) have their collective panties in a bunch once again, only this time it's about VP Cheney sending birdshot into his 78-year-old friend -- who is sitting up in bed this morning and laughing about the incident.

If you read closely between the lines and listen to the news conference, the complaint is that it took 14 hours for the DEM to be "notified." Their issue -- I should say, the WASHINGTON media's issue -- is that some rinky-dink "local" paper (in Corpus Christi) was notified by the ranch owner but no one placed THEM, the VERY IMPORTANT Washington Press Corps, into the loop. They got scooped! Zounds! Heresy!

About the $7 upland game bird stamp? What you won't read is that this new law came into effect as of January 1st, 2006, and the Veep already had a check in the mail. From the Drudge Report:

-- A member of the Vice President’s staff wrote a check for 140 dollars understanding that this would purchase a Texas non-resident season hunting license that would permit the Vice President to hunt quail in Texas. It appears now that the license itself cost 125 dollars, and an extra 15 dollars covered the cost of a Federal migratory bird stamp. The Vice President did not need the Federal stamp, as he already possessed one.

-- The staff asked for all permits needed, but was not informed of the 7 dollar upland game bird stamp requirement.

-- Because the requirement is new, the Department has informed us that it is issuing warnings, and the Vice President expects to receive one. He will take whatever steps are needed to comply with applicable rules.

CHENEY NEEDS TO RESIGN! was the mantra at the news conference. Poor Scott McClellan -- but at least he had the huevos to counter the charge with "that's a ridiculous question." The real issue is that the DEM became offended: they got scooped by "lesser mortals!"

Remember "back then" when the public was told it was no one's business if Clinton unzipped his pants in the Oval Office? So now it's everyone's business when there's a hunting accident, off duty, on the weekend, on a private person's ranch, involving a VP "less than popular" with the DEM?

I'm certain your employer, hearing that you got into a vehicle accident and another party was injured, would fire you in response to the rest of your co-workers calling for your head.

When it was discovered that Cheney shot a Republican lawyer, his popularity jumped 20 points.

Q: What's the difference between Gore and Cheney?

A: Gore shoots his mouth off.

About that Al Gore -- and again, what you WON'T READ:

On Sunday, speaking in Jiddah on Saudi Arabian soil, at the Jeddah Economic Forum, Al Gore said that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment. Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.

"The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake," Gore said during the Jeddah Economic Forum, at the Jeddah Hilton. "The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States."

Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."

Who sponsored Al Gore's presence at the conference? That would be The Bin Laden Group among others, per Bill Bennett.