Blind Hunters in Texas will serve as a model for Bush's new version of Shock and Awe
Dan Brawner
January 02, 2007
It's been about a year since vice president Dick Cheney shot a lawyer while quail hunting in Texas. Although Cheney insists it was an accident, the circumstances surrounding the incident might end up bailing president Bush out of the disaster in Iraq.
You may recall that last February, the hawkish vice president was preying upon small, frightened birds near Corpus Christi (Latin for "corpse of Christ") Texas when he blasted Austin attorney Harry Whittington in the face. Using small grain #7.5 birdshot in his Italian-made Perazzi 28-gauge shotgun, Cheney managed to hit Whittington with around 100 pellets in close grouping. Ballistics experts agree this was a remarkable shot from the 90 feet described in the report -- in fact, a practically impossible shot.
So how did he do it? The answer was: Cheney said he never saw Mr. Whittington. There! It sounds simple, doesn't it? But this is how great discoveries are made. In 1968, Dr. Spence Silver was trying to discover a stronger adhesive for 3M when he accidently invented a dramatically weaker adhesive and Post-it notes were born. So when Cheney made his incredible shot by not looking, it got some smart person thinking.
House Bill 308, introduced on November 21, by Rep. Edmund Kuempel, a Republican from Seguin, Texas, will allow legally blind people to hunt with guns or bows. Okay, this is Texas. But remember Mr. Cheney? Maybe it's a Zen thing—seeing without seeing—that kind of deal. We don't know how he knows this, but somehow, Rep. Kuempel is betting that blind people will make terrific hunters.
Meanwhile, president Bush's approval rating is hovering around 27 percent as he rejects expert's advice on Iraq and desperately searches for some advisor who will agree with him that the best plan is to stay the course. Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker warned Bush last week that the Army "will break" unless it gets an additional 7,000 soldiers a year. Are you starting to get the picture?
Yes, the Bush administration is planning to recruit blind snipers for Iraq and is using Texas as its proving ground. Soon, Bagdad will be teeming with blind soldiers and platoon leaders to form what is sure to become Bush's most formidable military strategy to date. Even now, Bush's speech writers are backing away from the slogan "The Way Forward" which Frank Rich of the New York Times pointed out was already used by the Ford Motor Company as it slid into insolvency and is replacing it with Bush's new battle cry, "The Blind Leading the Blind!" The very sound of it, will strike terror in the hearts of insurgents -- and pretty must everybody else within range.
You may recall that last February, the hawkish vice president was preying upon small, frightened birds near Corpus Christi (Latin for "corpse of Christ") Texas when he blasted Austin attorney Harry Whittington in the face. Using small grain #7.5 birdshot in his Italian-made Perazzi 28-gauge shotgun, Cheney managed to hit Whittington with around 100 pellets in close grouping. Ballistics experts agree this was a remarkable shot from the 90 feet described in the report -- in fact, a practically impossible shot.
So how did he do it? The answer was: Cheney said he never saw Mr. Whittington. There! It sounds simple, doesn't it? But this is how great discoveries are made. In 1968, Dr. Spence Silver was trying to discover a stronger adhesive for 3M when he accidently invented a dramatically weaker adhesive and Post-it notes were born. So when Cheney made his incredible shot by not looking, it got some smart person thinking.
House Bill 308, introduced on November 21, by Rep. Edmund Kuempel, a Republican from Seguin, Texas, will allow legally blind people to hunt with guns or bows. Okay, this is Texas. But remember Mr. Cheney? Maybe it's a Zen thing—seeing without seeing—that kind of deal. We don't know how he knows this, but somehow, Rep. Kuempel is betting that blind people will make terrific hunters.
Meanwhile, president Bush's approval rating is hovering around 27 percent as he rejects expert's advice on Iraq and desperately searches for some advisor who will agree with him that the best plan is to stay the course. Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker warned Bush last week that the Army "will break" unless it gets an additional 7,000 soldiers a year. Are you starting to get the picture?
Yes, the Bush administration is planning to recruit blind snipers for Iraq and is using Texas as its proving ground. Soon, Bagdad will be teeming with blind soldiers and platoon leaders to form what is sure to become Bush's most formidable military strategy to date. Even now, Bush's speech writers are backing away from the slogan "The Way Forward" which Frank Rich of the New York Times pointed out was already used by the Ford Motor Company as it slid into insolvency and is replacing it with Bush's new battle cry, "The Blind Leading the Blind!" The very sound of it, will strike terror in the hearts of insurgents -- and pretty must everybody else within range.
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