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Well, after the White House was forced to acknowledge that Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot his friend in a hunting mishap, it decided to use its second-favorite tactic: blame-shifting.

Echoing comments made by Katharine Armstrong, the co-owner of the ranch where the shooting took place, the White House said victim Harry Whittington was to blame because he did not audibly announce his presence:

The White House blamed the 78-year-old man whom Vice President Cheney shot during a weekend quail-hunting trip in Texas for the accident, as officials struggled yesterday to explain why they waited nearly 24 hours before making the news public.

Neither Cheney nor President Bush made any public comments about the shooting. White House press secretary Scott McClellan tried to absolve Cheney for shooting wealthy Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, saying hunting protocol “was not followed by Mr. Whittington when it came to notifying others that he was there.”

“Unfortunately, these types of hunting accidents happen from time to time,” he said.

However, hunting experts and at least one National Rife Association representative say this is not the case, as Cheney did not follow a basic rule of hunting:

Several hunting experts voiced skepticism about McClellan’s view. They said Cheney might have violated a cardinal rule of hunting: Know your surroundings before you pull the trigger.

“Particularly identify the game that you are shooting and particularly identify your surroundings, that it’s safe to shoot,” said Mark Birkhauser, incoming president of the International Hunter Education Association, a group of fish-and-wildlife agencies.

Safe-hunting rules published by the National Rifle Association and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department echo Birkhauser’s advice.

This Philadelphia Inquirer story goes into more detail on the NRA’s stance on these types of situations:

The National Rifle Association places the onus of responsibility on the person pulling the trigger rather than the recipient of the gunshot.

“If that was just a regular Joe Blow, they’d say it was carelessness,” said Peggy Bodner, executive vice president of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, an affiliate of the NRA.

Bodner compared an unintentional shooting to a motorist who rear-ends another car. “It’s like if you were in a car and struck somebody from behind,” she said. “Even if the other person stopped short, it’s your fault.”

The NRA drills members on three fundamental safety rules: Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction, always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot, and always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

Hunters add a fourth commandment: Be sure of your target and what lies beyond it.

“This means observing your prospective area of fire before you shoot,” the NRA says on its Web site and in its promotional pamphlets. “Never fire in a direction in which there are people or any other potential for mishap. Think first. Shoot second.”

Somebody posted this on the PhilliesPhans.com site and I decided to do the same here…

OK…I took some artistic license with the quotes around the word “accidentally” in the headline, but I couldn’t resist.

Here’s the AP story (via CNN.com).

UPDATE: I guess I was too tired from shoveling snow yesterday to focus on this story and didn’t notice that this happened SATURDAY. The world didn’t find out about it until late afternoon SUNDAY.

Are you telling me this administration is so secretive that the Vice President can shoot a man and the world not be told about it until more than 18 hours later? I ask that rhetorically, of course, knowing the answer is “yes.”

According to Editor & Publisher, the Corpus Christi (TX) Caller-Times was the first newspaper to report the shooting, which took place around 5:30 p.m. Saturday. But the first reports did not come until Sunday afternoon.

And more questions were raised by Editor & Publisher late Sunday night:

E&P has learned that the official confirmation of the shooting came about only after a local reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, received a tip from the owner of the property where the shooting occurred and called Vice President Cheney’s office for confirmation.

The confirmation was made but there was no indication whether the Vice President’s office, the White House, or anyone else intended to announce the shooting if the reporter, Jaime Powell of the Corpus Christ Caller-Times, had not received word from the ranch owner.

One of Powell’s colleagues at paper, Beth Francesco, told E&P that Powell had built up a strong source relationship with the prominent ranch owner, Katharine Armstrong, which led to the tip. Powell is chief political reporter for the paper and also covers the area where the ranch is located south of Sarita.

Armstrong called the paper Sunday morning looking for Powell, who was not at work. When they did talk, Armstrong revealed the shooting of prominent Austin attorney Harry Whittington, who is now in stable condition in a hospital. Powell then called Cheney’s office for the confirmation around midday. The newspaper broke the story at mid-afternoon–not a word about it had appeared before then.

Powell asked Cheney spokesperson Lea Ann McBride if the White House intended to release information about the shooting and was told by McBride, “I’m not going to speculate. When you put the call into me, I was able to confirm that account.”

The E&P story goes on to say that McBride, when asked why she or the White House did not make a statement about the incident on the day it happened, told the New York Times, “We deferred to the Armstrongs regarding what had taken place at their ranch.”

So now it’s the job of a property owner to put out a press release saying the man who is second in command of the United States of America (or first in command, depending on who you ask) shot somebody? Are you freakin’ kidding me?

The E&P story ends with some strong words from the Chicago Tribune’s Frank James, who wrote the following on the paper’s “The Swamp” blog run by the paper’s Washington bureau:

When a vice president of the U.S. shoots a man under any circumstance, that is extremely relevant information. What might be the excuse to justify not immediately making the incident public?

The vice president is well-known for preferring to operate in secret….Some secrecy, especially when it comes to the executing the duties of president or vice president, is understandable and expected by Americans.

But when the vice president’s office, or the White House, delays in reporting a shooting like Saturday’s to the public via the media, it needlessly raises suspicions and questions of trust. And it may just further the impression held by many, rightly or wrongly, that the White House doesn’t place the highest premium on keeping the public fully and immediately informed.

Figured I’d blog along as this nor’easter goes through the area overnight…

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 – 4:28 p.m. EST
Some more pics…
I took this from ground level in the middle of the sidewalk leading to the parking lot. That’s my building in the background.

Here’s my snow-covered VUE. I think this may be the first photo of my car to ever appear on this site without it being on the back of a tow truck.

I took four measurements and three of them came in between nine and 10 inches. Although drifts make it difficult to get an accurate reading, I’m going with 9.5 inches as the official snow amount for my particular area.

Just a photo of the cars in the parking lot.

I cleaned off my car and started shoveling around it. However, the person who was parked on the one side of me came out and started cleaning her car. So, after I got the other side of my car dug out, I offered to help her get her car shoveled out. To speed things up, I started just piling snow up on the side of my car I had not done yet. The plan was to get her space cleared and then finish up shoveling mine. Of course, guess who showed up at that point? The owner of the car parked on the other side of me came out and started cleaning off his car, so now the one side I had done was just going to get snowed in again.

Hence, I gave up, came back inside and enjoyed my traditional, post-shoveling meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup…mmm, mmm good.

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 – 11:45 a.m. EST
Another pic…

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 – 11:02 a.m. EST
Just heard something on Philly’s NBC 10 that prompted me to write this…to all those who plan on driving in this mess today, here is one request: CLEAR OFF ALL THE SNOW FROM THE TOP OF YOUR VEHICLE!

I cannot stand these ignorant bastards who just clear off the snow on their hoods, windshield and windows, and then drive away cluelessly. Just to let you idiots know, THAT SNOW IS BLOWING ONTO THE CARS ON THE ROAD BEHIND YOU! And that hinders the visibility of other drivers on the road, which is very dangerous.

I never understood why people do that anyway. I mean, the first thing I clear off is the roof of my car and then work my way down. That seems like the logical thing to do…at least it is to me.

OK…end of rant.

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 – 9:23 a.m. EST
OK…update time. And it looks like there is a whole lot of snow outside my door. NBC 10 in Philly just showed some snowfall amounts in the area. Warminster, PA, which is a few miles to the west of me, reportedly has about 16 inches of snow on the ground (although I have a feeling drifting may be skewing that count). Meanwhile, Lawrenceville, NJ, a few miles northeast of me and where I drive to work everyday, is reporting 13 inches of snow. Since I am pretty much right in the middle, I have to assume I am going to be digging out of a double-digit snowfall…so I guess I was wrong about being on the low end of that 8-12 inches prediction (see two updates down).

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 – 5:42 a.m. EST
I was just about go back to sleep when it happened…THUNDER-SNOW! The wind suddenly picked up and the snow started hitting the window a bit harder. Then, I saw a flash of light through the window and…BANG…thunder. I love me some thunder-snow!

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 – 5:29 a.m. EST
Weather Channel still saying 8-12 inches for my area, but I think we’ll max out in the low end of that…but I could be wrong. Here is the radar image from National Weather Service:

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 – 5:13 a.m. EST
Another photo below of the scene outside my window. There is definitely a decent amount of snow outside, but I can’t really tell how much. At least there wasn’t a snowmobile incident this time (see below).

Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 – 11:47 p.m. EST
Below is the scene outside my window, but something odd happened while I snapped this picture…if you look closely, there is an object right behind the post. What is it, you ask? It’s some idiot riding a snowmobile around my complex. He was in mid-turn when I took the photo and he appeared to almost crash into the other side of my building. That was the first and only time I have heard the noise from it, so he either decided to drive it somewhere else or he learned his lesson.

(Yes, I know the photo is blurry…I didn’t use a flash and I moved the camera when I reacted to the noise of the snowmobile…sorry.)

With the “Blizzard of ’06” in its early stages outside my window, I was bored and went looking on the fantastic YouTube.com for some interesting videos. Perhaps inspired by Peter Gabriel’s performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine” during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, I searched for Peter Gabriel videos on the site and came up with this classic Genesis classic, “The Musical Box.”

Yes, that is Peter Gabriel as lead singer and Phil Collins on drums and vocals, along with Mike Rutherford (bass, guitar) and Tony Banks (keyboards, guitar) and Steve Hackett (guitars).

Adventurer Steve Fossett broke the record today for longest non-stop flight in aviation history, surpassing the previous mark of 24,987 miles when his experimental plane — the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer — flew over Shannon, Ireland.

Fossett was supposed to land at Kent International Airport in Manston, England, but his plane suffered an electrical problem and he had to make an emergency landing at Bournemouth International Airport — blowing out two tires in the process. However, Fossett is safe on the ground after a few tense moments.

CNN had been breaking into their Saturday programming every now and then to give updates on Fossett’s progress. Right after they broke in to say Fossett had broken the distance record, I noticed on the GlobalFlyer tracking site that the plane had made a sharp southwesterly turn west of London that took it from its intended southeasterly route to Manston. The plane then seemed to circle near Bournemouth, giving it the appearance that it was making a landing approach there.

Finally, the text updates on the tracking site confirmed this, saying “mayday declared…diverted to Bournemouth…generator problem with aircraft…Steve avoided having to ditch…Steve safely on ground.”

However, a few minutes later, CNN again gave an update on the flight, but the weekend anchor erroneously reported that Fossett “has successfully landed at Kent International Airport in England.”

Now, I know it’s not a big deal, but CNN had been covering the story and now when the flight finally comes to an end, it gets the story wrong. I’m just somebody who was casually following the GlobalFlyer on its official tracking site and knew what had happened. How come a major news organization can’t get it right?

Oh, well…another media screw-up.

Congratulations to Fossett and his team!

Katie will be happy to see I’m posting about something I saw on the Anderson Cooper 360 Blog.

Cooper recently paid a visit to a crime lab run by Target…as in the discount retailer. The lab, located at Target’s Minneapolis headquarters, is apparently one of the most advanced in the world and was set up to deal with things like theft, fraud and personal injury cases related to its stores. But it now also lends its services and facilities to law enforcement officials nationwide, including the FBI, Secret Service and ATF…and Target does it for free as a form of community service.

Sadly, the lab is used by so many law enforcement units because their labs are not as well equipped. Also, Target’s lab is usually able to get results quicker because of typical logjams in agency labs.

UPDATE…

I also found this Jan. 29 story from The Washington Post about Target’s crime lab. This is not only an interesting story, but it is also very well written. I especially enjoy the lead and the conclusion…

When arson investigators in Houston needed help restoring a damaged surveillance tape to identify suspects in a fatal fire, they turned first to local experts and then to NASA. With no luck there, investigators appealed to the owner of one of the most advanced crime labs in the country: Target Corp.

Target experts fixed the tape and Houston authorities arrested their suspects, who were convicted. It was all in a day’s work for Target in its large and growing role as a high-tech partner to law enforcement agencies…

…Such close cooperation sometimes has Target employees working as de facto law enforcement officials. Chris W. Nelson, director of assets protection for the retailer, recalled one case in which he worked with federal agents for two years to break up a crime ring. He questioned informants, got to know some of the suspects and was there as a federal SWAT team surrounded one of the ringleaders on a speedboat on a lake in Minnesota.

The suspect “stopped short as he spotted me in the crowd and shouted, ‘What the [expletive] is Target doing here?!’ ” Nelson said. “I still love that one.”

(Photo: By Ben Garvin For The Washington Post)

Veteran sports announcer Al Michaels—best known for his “Do you believe in miracles?” call when the USA ice hockey team beat the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics—has been “traded” to NBC/Universal for basically four rounds of golf, highlights of the Olympics, Notre Dame football, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness…and 1927 cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Why? Well, Walt Disney himself created Oswald and produced 26 cartoon shorts featuring the “lucky rabbit.” However, Universal Studios distributed the films and has owned the rights to Oswald ever since. Because he did not have any rights to Oswald, Disney created a similar character in the form of a mouse…and an empire was born.

But now Oswald is a Disney property…79 years later.

Some interesting quotes:

“When Bob (Iger) was named CEO, he told me he wanted to bring Oswald back to Disney, and I appreciate that he is a man of his word,” Walt Disney’s daughter Diane Disney Miller said in a statement. “Having Oswald around again is going to be a lot of fun.”

“Oswald is definitely worth more than a fourth-round draft choice,” Michaels said, referring to what the Kansas City Chiefs gave the New York Jets as compensation for releasing coach Herm Edwards from his contract. “I’m going to be a trivia answer someday.”

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer published this story about a hybrid sports car built by students at West Philadelphia High School’s Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering.

This car was named best overall at last year’s eco-friendly Tour de Sol competition, beating out those made by teams from some of the nation’s upper-echelon colleges and universities. The vehicle is currently on display at the Philadelphia Auto Show.

Although budget cuts threatened the West Philly auto program, it was saved by public outcry from parents and area auto dealers. And the students will be back at Tour de Sol this year to defend their title.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the article:

The high schoolers’ engineering feat may have observers wondering why Detroit hasn’t already made such a car.

“This is off-the-shelf technology, and we’re not 180 I.Q. people around here,” said Simon Hauger, a physics teacher who is the West Philadelphia automotive program’s administrator.

“We’re super low-budget,” he said, so automakers “should be cranking them out.

“Who wouldn’t want a cool sports car hybrid?”

The Motor City could have built one, but years ago, the Big Three domestic automakers misjudged where oil prices and consumer desires would be today…

…The West Philly squad’s car is based on a kit called the Attack, made by K-1 Engineering, based in Serbia and Montenegro. The kit’s carbon-fiber body fits over the chassis and frame assembled from a K-1 kit and a Honda Accord donor vehicle, which the team modified extensively.

The students altered the frame to accommodate a 200-horsepower electric motor under the front hood. An upgraded 150-horsepower, turbocharged Volkswagen diesel engine occupies what would be the trunk on most cars.

To comply with Tour de Sol rules, the engine runs on “biodiesel” fuel: It’s biodegradable and nontoxic, and has significantly lower emissions than petroleum-based diesel when burned.

I just recently discovered this trailer remix Internet craze. I have seen the “Top Gun: Brokeback Squadron” remix, but my friend Katie, a “Back to the Future” fanatic, sent me a link to this one and thought it was fantastic…

Brokeback to the Future – YouTube.com

Other good movie trailer remixes…

Sleepless in Seattle – Horror Remix

The Shining – Comedy Remix (now featuring Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill”)