Since the announcement of Dick Cheney’s shooting of Harry Whittington during a hunting outing over the weekend, the White House has failed to post the video of its daily Press Briefings on their website, The BRAD BLOG can report.
The video of briefings given by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan in the James S. Brady Briefing room are usually posted along with the written transcript of those briefings. So far, despite daily promises on the front page of the White House website that the video will be posted “shortly”, none of the posted text transcript pages since the shooting have included the promised video from the recent contentious briefings.
“Today’s Press Briefing with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has concluded. Video from the Press Briefing will be available on the web site shortly,” says the front page each day (see screenshot below), and yet as of today, 2/16/05, the video of the briefings from both 2/13, 2/14 and 2/16 have not been made available on the White House website. We wonder why
Video from briefings held for the White House Press Corps in the main James S. Brady Briefing Room, as opposed to teleconferenced briefings or “Press Gaggles” aboard Air Force One, are routinely posted along with the text transcript.
In October of 2004 — just prior to the November Presidential Election — The BRAD BLOG discovered that the White House had been removing or “scrubbing” various embarrassing information from their website. The information surreptitiously removed, in apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, included a web page listing countries described as part of the “Coalition of the Willing” in Iraq. A massive amount of audio and video, such as George W. Bush’s press conference in which he said he was “not that concerned” about Osama bin Laden, was subsequently discovered to have been removed as well.
The Washington Post picked up on our reporting at the time, and eventually, after pressure from the MSM, the White House restored all of that audio and video in the week just prior to the election. Though they never restored their list of “Coalition Member” countries reportedly fighting with the United States in Iraq.
When we contacted the White House for comment at approximately 6:15pm ET, the switchboard operator informed us that there was nobody available to give comment on the matter since “office hours are 9 to 5pm Eastern time” and that we’d have to call back tomorrow. We were told she could not take a message for us, “since nobody is in the office.”
When the operator asked where we were from, and we told her BradBlog.com we were immediately put through to a woman in the Media Affairs office.
When we asked about the reason for the missing video, we were put briefly on hold before she returned to report that a “spokesperson” in the Media Affairs office said, “They’re actually working on getting that video up right now,” but she was able to receive no explanation for the delay. The woman identified herself as “an intern” in the office.
UPDATE: Within an hour of our contact with the White House, they have now added the video from Monday and Tuesday’s (2/13 & 2/14) briefings to the transcript pages. Presumably video from today’s briefing (2/16) will be added as well, though we didn’t catch the front page of the website this morning to see if it had been promised as the previous ones had been.
Why was it taking the intern so long to upload the video? Did she have the presidents dick in her mouth? Apparently a good BJ story is the only way to properly investigate White House shenanigans. I can’t believe what this great nation has turned into. We’ll never get it back. I am sick and ashamed.
I just read on Yahoo that "Bush Is Satisfied With Cheney’s Account".
Like he had a choice?
(If you were a fan of "Deadwood") That’s like saying E.B. Farnham approved of Al Swearingen’s account.
The following letter was mailed to me in error. Thought I’d share it with everyone.
Mr. Harry Whittington
% Corpus Nearly Hospital
Corpus Christi, TX.
Dear Mr. Whittington:
It has come to our attention that you were struck by the discharge from a shotgun fired by one Richard Bruce Cheney, causing injuries to your face and torso and leading to a heart attack. As one of the leading personal injury firms in Texas, Diddy, Getchyall & Howe would be happy to represent you on a contingency basis. We have reason to believe we could suck the bastard blind.
While you were en route to the hospital, Mr. Cheney was having a drink at the Armstrong ranch, refusing to talk with a sheriff’s deputy who came out to investigate, and planning a cover-up story in case you, uh…well, we won’t say it. We have also gone ballistic in a sense, and our tests have shown that Mr. Cheney fired at you from much closer than 30 yards, as has been claimed.
You might feel that your personal friendship with Richard Bruce Cheney precludes you from seeking financial relief in this matter. If that’s the case, we understand fully. It might be that you don’t know the full extent of the damage this man has done throughout the world in the past five years. It might be that you don’t fathom how our country’s standing in the world has been compromised. Or, it could be that you’re just another dumb neo-con fuckhead.
Yours very truly,.
BILLY BOB GREENSEEKER, ESQ.
DIDDY, GETCHYALL & HOWE
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
Top Stories…
(2006-02-16) — The United Nations Security Council today tabled discussion about how to react to Iran’s ongoing nuclear weapons development in order to take up debate on what to do about U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s recently disclosed weapons capabilities.
“We don’t really know whether Iran is making a bomb, or just making cheap abundant electricity,” said an unnamed Security Council spokesman. “But we have hard evidence that Dick Cheney is armed and dangerous.”
The council will consider a variety of responses, from economic sanctions against Mr. Cheney, to a stringent inspection protocol with all weapons placed under U.N. seal, and 24/7 video monitoring.
“Of course, we cannot rule out a military response,” the source said. “We must keep our options open in dealing with what has quickly become the biggest weapons issue of our time.”
I’m kind of annoyed at the press deciding NOW to get all upity with Cheney. How about that issue of getting lied into war? Although I’m all for taking jabs at Cheney whenever he deserves them, I fear that we are getting too caught up in this an missing the big picture stuff. Even if Cheney was cross-eyed drunk and blew off his friend’s face, this act wouldn’t even be in the top 10 of crimes that Cheney has committed.
Well said Bejammin075.
But we need to remember the wisdom in the micro/macro analogies.
This act of The Dick, and I do mean act, is a microcosm of his modus operandi. The Dick loves to toy with the narcissic press and ignore them in glee. Laughs his ass off behind the scenes in his contempt for the press.
Not for the same reasons we needle the MSM, which are the reasons you gave.
The MSM is all over The Dick shooting because they retain the right to fondle themselves verbally all over the bandwidth as they ignore the major league issues and focus on the minor league issues.
Thus, misdirection is a crime that robs the American populus of knowledge of the greater crimes and offers them, instead, the pablum of commercialism with which they can fondle themselves as they watch the MSM fondle themselves.
Hey newscasters now seek out the celebrity persona and newscasters are becoming glamorous rather than journalistic.
The US is a trigger happy society that seeks happiness thru pulling a trigger. To the HCOCDRs of the world, pull a trigger and you will spread democracy thruout the world, and in the process bring happiness to all.
Trigger happiness, its a warm gun thang. Get it, get happy, then come back and protest the VA for not caring enough for the 30% suffering mental illness as a side effect of their trigger "happiness".
The Dick is trigger happy, see his sideways "smile".
There’s one deadly serious aspect to this that all our sarcasm and metaphor creation can’t disguise, as enjoyable as they might be.
Salaries of Secret Service employees are paid by the taxpayers. These men don’t work for Cheney and Bush, they work for the United States. Either on their own or at Cheney’s direction, they prevented a sheriff’s deputy from interviewing Cheney in the immediate aftermath of the incident. There was no threat to Cheney’s personal safety from a visit by a deputy, obviously. So the reason for the interdiction must have been to spare Cheney from personal embarrassment, either because he was drunk as a skunk or because he hadn’t yet prepared a cover story with the White House in case Whittington didn’t survive his injuries.
This is absolutely grounds for an investigation by Congress. A personal matter ceases to be personal when government employees are used in a manner contrary to their mission.
Re #7
Robert,
Exactly right. And what recourse do we have when our ’employees’ in the Secret Service do such a disgraceful job? To whom do we complain? Who hears our voice?
You know that legal expression "possession is nine-tenths of the law"?
They possess the power. They own the power. They ARE the power.
Sadly, I don’t see us getting it back anytime soon.
Joan #8
Exactly right. They only thing I would add is that the "they" are the republicans.
I agree with RLM on this to the extent that the microcosm does in fact put light on the macrocosm of The Dick.
I mean he is the epitome of secret, clandestine, coverup, "trust us" type of "gummit".
That is not American government. These guys campaign better than any other party, but govern worse than any other party.
Notice that the first thing done, as a knee jerk reaction, was to blame the victim who The Dick shot with his warm gun he calls "happy".
Next is to make a left-wing conspiracy out of it. The lefties are attacking The Dick so he can’t fight the terrorists effectively and "purteck the uhmerkan" people.
The only ones who are going to be voting for the republicans are the comedians who have enough material now to last til the election. After that when the democrats take back the House, the comedians are going to be in for a dry spell.
What’s "HCOCDR"?
Dredd,
I agree with all that, except I wish I could believe we’re gonna take back the House. I just don’t think they’re gonna let that happen.
I really REALLY hope I’m wrong.
After reading the Cheney/Hume transcript, I noticed a big discrepancy in that
Whittington should have been shot on the left side of his face, not the right
side. Cheney stated in the transcript that after leaving Whittington to hunt
for a down bird, he and the other hunter, (woman/girlfriend), continued hunting
to the south, when the next bird flew, and cheney swung to his right, west, and
the sun was in his eyes when he fired. Whittington was coming up from behind
them and out of the sun which would expose the left side of his face, not the
right.
There are only one or two real reporters in the White House Press Corps. The rest are hacks and stooges or frightened little mice who know they can’t ask the tough questions or they will lose their "access" and then be of no use to their corporate employers.
That said, I think the "pack mentality" still rules and as a rule, these "journalists" go after the story that they believe is "live" and just by its timing and perhaps because of the "insult" to the corps. from Cheney delaying information and then releasing it through a non-Washington mechanism, they decided to make this "the story" instead of the leak or the CIA report or the Senate vote on spying or Iran or Katrina or any other story that would make the Republicans in power look bad.
The only mistake they made this "the story" is it might turn out that it really IS a story. It looks like there were deliberate LIES and MIS-STATEMENTS made to a police official during the course of an investigation (who really witnessed the crime, the actual distance of the shooting, etc.) and that those are CRIMES and PUNISHABLE.
Will anything come of it?
Hard to imagine, with the Republicans controlling all branches of government; the mechanisms for deciding who gets to vote and whether their vote will be counted; the mass media; many of the predominant means of communication; and many of the police forces.
Vote anti-Republican, but don’t expect it to be counted or for the results to match the polls. What are YOU going to do about it?
Charlie L
Portland, OR
CLL2001@gmail.com
Here’s my favorite part of this whole incident. After Cheney shot the guy, the police later showed up at the ranch where Cheney was staying and wanted to talk to him, but was told to come back the next morning. And that’s what they did, they came back the next morning. Kev, that ever happen in the hood?"– Jay Leno
"Over the weekend while on a hunting trip down in Texas, Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a member of his hunting party. He apologized. In fact, he told Brit Hume that he was actually trying to hit Cindy Sheehan." –Jay Leno
"Cheney now says he can’t blame the shooting on the guy who got shot. He said we tried that for three days. It didn’t work." –Jay Leno
Joan #11keep the faith baby
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