SHOTGATE; THE ARMSTRONG CHENEY CONNECTION

[exlrrp]

The MSM is being misled AGAIN!!
The Most important fact about this thing has been comp.etely soked and mitrrored AGAIN!!
KATHERINE ARMSTRONG IS A REGISTERED LOBBYIST!!
So the story line so far: Vice President Richard Cheney shot a man wearing a bright orange vest and hat with a $23,000 shotgun WHILE HUNTING ON THE RANCH OF A REGISTERED LOBBYIST!!
From a phone intervew with NBC: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11349649
"Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the ranch where Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting partner, is a registered lobbyist who has been paid to lobby the White House, according to records...Armstrong was paid $160,000 in 2004 by the powerful legal firm Baker Botts to lobby the White House, according to records she filed with the U.S. Senate as required by lobbying disclosure rules. The records indicate she was paid the money after she "communicated with the White House on behalf of Baker Botts clients....In a phone interview, she told NBC News that in return for the money in one case, she set up a meeting at the White House for a Baker Botts client, although she said she felt she could not release the client's name...."A meeting for doing something with one of their clients," she said, describing the event. "I'm not at liberty to say which." She says she cannot remember which White House official the meeting was with."

Let me get this right: Armstrong was paid $160,000 to set up a meetine with a veeery important WH official. Chney is an old old friend who hunts on her ranch--who else would she lobby BUT him--or Bush, who knows her well also. Scooter Libby might be a possibility---the article says she lobbyed Rove also, but he's not the WH official she won't name.

Here''s a laugh: she "can't remember" which White House official she was paid $160,000 to set up a meeting with--OH LOOK MSM!!! Natallee Holloways Mom is suing the perpetrator!!

CHENEY SHOT A MAN WEARING A BRIGHT ORANGE VEST AND HAT WITH A $23,000 SHOTGUN WHILE HUNTING ON THE RANCH OF A REGGISTERED LOBBYIST!!! It doesn't matter how good a friend she is, she's still a registered lobbyist.

Did Cheney go hunting on her ranch in 2004??If Cheney hunted on her ranch during the time she was lobbying the White House then Cheney has done a Safavian--who was arrested for taking bribes from Abramoff while Abramoff had business before the WH.

Did she do business with the White House in 2005? If she did, Cheney's goose could be cooked if he hunted on her ranch.

Thats a mighty good reason to give the story to The Podunk Times instead of the MSM also---the P Times wold just priint the story without questiojn where the MSMS wouldn't although that supposition might be wrong with the gutless lapdog media we have.

What SHOTGATE has given us is a snapshot into the life of a very secretive and corrupt man. Its a snapshot of the Republican C ulture of Corrruption. If we had anything resembling a responsible media they'd have done something about it.

but Cheney neutered them a long time ago.

[EwokMyWeewok]

1. Do A Barrel Roll! nt

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Interested gathering of the Aspens that weekend

Why would Cheney bring some of his closed friends/lobbyists/fixers together at this time? Nice to know these little hunting trips are not only dangerous but illegal too.

[Catrina]

24. Who lobbied the WH, if anyone, to get the Dubai deal on the ports?

And, Rove was also a 'close friend' of the Armstrong family ~ they financed his first business venture, I read somewhere this week. She may be lobbied Rove ~ isn't this information supposed to be all available? Any investigative journalists out there now we have this information? That woman should talk more to the media!

Cheney, in the interview on Fox, referred to the ranch as 'headquarters' several times. 'We went back to the headquarters at the ranch'.

Whittington is a lawyer, so they may have been working out a deal that needed legal advice from a trusted ally (funeralgate).

The Swiss Ambassodor was there also. Maybe to help with the deposit of funds?? A little money laundering from the Dubai deal, set up by a 'Secret Committee'?? How can something so relative to our National Security be done in secret like this? But it was in the works the week of the 'hunting accident'. It's worth billions of dollars, (and maybe more under the table)!

I have to find that link again, but on that 'Secret Committee' that set up the Dubai/Port deal was Condoleeza Rice and several other very, very familial names.

After Harry went to the hospital, Cheney 'had better things to do' other than go visit him! Harry probably told him to get on with the work they were there to do and not to worry about him.

We need to know way more about where this guy, Cheney spends his weekends ~ no more of this 'undisclosed location' nonsense. HE'S the threat, so why is he so PROTECTED? What makes him any more special than Gore was, eg, who never carried on with this nonsense, despite the many, many terror threats during that administration.

[FreedomAngel82]

29. Could be more going on

Maybe they're planning about Iran? Or what to do with the Plame case?

[DoYouEverWonder]

32. I lean toward Plame and Cheney's legal woes

Since Libby had just come out saying that it was Cheney who declassified the info regarding are status. I think that was why Cheney was off his 'game' on Sat. and jumped the gun. He was probably in a crappy mood to begin with.

[wordpix2]

3. Whittington's wife is James Baker's sister; this in thread from last nite

[Peace Patriot]

4. Thanks for the info on Armstrong! Nice catch! If we had even half the

good reporters and good Congresspeople as there are Cheney felonies, we might have a working democracy.

We can thank Diebold and ES&S, and the 5 CEO's who control the war profiteering corporate news monopolies for the fact that we don't.

[mod mom]

23. Our election system is mired with corruption and faced w the GAO Report

on Electronic Voting Machines, as well as the mountain of GOP fraud uncovered, hardly a word out of our leaders or the MSM(corporate). So what about '06? Are we going to roll over AGAIN and show our bellies?

[havocmom]

5. Armstrong was also on the board of Halliburton when Cheney hired as CEO

And I would guess she probably holds some stock which has become a BIT more valuable since he became the leader of the pack and started that profitable war...

Oh, and Mrs Whittington is the sister of James 'The Janitor" Baker. NOW, doesn't Whittington apologizing for getting in the way of Cheney's shot make more sense? ;)

[exlrrp]

6. IS WITTINGTON A LOBBYIST TOO??

Didn't know the Mrs Wittington/Baker connection
Is Wittington a lobbyist too?? it would be just like the MSM to ignore it

[havocmom]

8. Not sure on that one. But James Baker has been this mob's clean up guy

for a LONG time. That his sister's husband apologized to the president of vices is not much of a surprise to me. IF Whittington was trying to influence Cheney to do anything he didn't want to (like, step down for the good of the party?) and reminded Cheney of some of the things he knew, what he got was just a shot across his bow.

[FreedomAngel82]

31. Oh how I do wish

I was a fly out there! And were the women with them out hunting or back at the ranch? And why did they first say they had to call his wife but than said the wife was there?

[sandnsea]

19. Named to Texas funeral board

During Funeralgate. "acquaintance" my hind end.

[FreedomAngel82]

30. Do you mean the wife?

I don't know if we know her name do we?

[havocmom]

37. Mercedes Baker Whittington

[TomInTib]

16. That was Anne, Katharine's mother. nt

[exlrrp]

7. "I can't remember"

"I can't remember" is the Bush Administration way of saying: I don't want to answer that" The MSM pretends along with them that it is a denial
"I CAN'T REMEMBER" IS NOT A DENIAL!!
And all these paople, like Scooter libby conveniently can't remember cetain things although theyre well known for their good memories, like bush

[SammyWinstonJack]

20. Or Reagan/bush "I Can't Recall" Right!

[Burried News]

9. THE story is what you are now delving into.

We have an administration noted for it's secrecy. But for a moment we can see into their dealings.

An administration in trouble (Plame, Abramoff, DeLay, war going badly, Libby, NSA etc. etc.)that needs to meet with it's sponsors and coordinate the next round of initiatives.

A woman who sits on the Halliburton's board (cash coming in like crazy), a man whose brother in law (James A Baker)is an expert on money laundering (linked to Carlysle and the Bush Family, a man known as the Janitor) and a woman who is the Ambassador to Switzerland (they of the hidden bank accounts) and the defacto President of the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group

This meeting reminds me of the mafia meeting in upstate New York (Apalachin). That meeting was proof that there was ORGANIZED Crime - that a crime cartel, a mafia, La Cosa Nostra existed.

http://www.ganglandnews.com/column202.htm
"It's a fitting line up because on Nov. 14, 1957, a watershed event in the history of organized crime in America took place at this large stone house in the tiny upstate New York town of Apalachin, a few miles west of Binghamton and a few miles north of Pennsylvania."

Failure to look at the shooting of Harry Whittington from this perspective is a failure to see the forest because of the trees.

[exlrrp]

11. Exactly!!

"Failure to look at the shooting of Harry Whittington from this perspective is a failure to see the forest because of the trees."
EXACTLY!!! Couldn't have said it better myself
The media, of course is off chasing Neil Entwhistle--isn't that to be expected?

[FreedomAngel82]

34. I wonder if

anybody else from the Carlyle group was there. Does anybody know where Poppy Bush is?

[Clara T]

36. This is Texas aristocracy

On the Hunting Accident and Incident Report Form of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the shooter, Richard B. Cheney, checked the "No" box for the question, "Under the apparent influence of intoxicants or drugs?" But in an interview with Fox News Wednesday, Cheney admitted to having a beer earlier in the day, contrary to his statement to Texas officials.
The murky method by which Cheney decided to handle the disclosure of the shooting was guaranteed to raise questions about the incident. He behaved secretly, evaded standard protocol and brushed aside his obligations to the law.

<snip>

Both the vice president and the deputy chief of staff, as it happens, owed their previous, lucrative jobs in the private sector to their relationships with the Armstrong family. Anne Armstrong, Katharine's mother, was on the board of Halliburton that made Dick Cheney its chief executive officer. Tobin Armstrong, Katharine's father, had financed Karl Rove & Co., Rove's political consulting firm. Katharine herself is a lobbyist for Houston law firm Baker Botts, a major Texas power broker since it was founded in the 19th century by the family of James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and close associate of George H.W. Bush's.

Katharine Armstrong took up lobbying after her recent divorce. Her contracts include Parsons, a construction firm that has done work in Iraq, among others. Her business partner, Karen Johnson, a close friend of Rove's, does extensive business with the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and defense contractors. But Armstrong's protestations to news media that she does not lobby Cheney should probably be taken at face value given her background.

Katharine Armstrong is linked to two family fortunes -- those of Armstrong and King -- that include extensive corporate holdings in land, cattle, banking and oil. No one in Texas, except perhaps Baker, but certainly not latecomer George W. Bush, has a longer lineage in its political and economic elite. In 1983, Debrett's Peerage Ltd., publisher of "Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage," printed "Debrett's Texas Peerage," featuring "the aristocrats of Texas," with the King family noted as the "Royal Family of Ranching." The King Ranch, founded by Richard King in 1857, is the largest in Texas, and its wealth was vastly augmented by the discovery of oil on its tracts, making the family a major shareholder of Exxon. The King Ranch is the model for Edna Ferber's novel of Texas aristocracy, "Giant.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/02/15/cheney/

[kpete]

10. this is about as close as anybody is going to get

In light of the volumes of speculation about the Cheney shooting (drinking, not drinking? left side or right? ambulance or helicopter? "just fine" or unconscious?) there was something particularly captivating about this end-of-the-week image on yesterday's newswire.



According to the caption:


This 2004 U.S. Department of Agriculture aerial photo shows a portion of the Armstrong Ranch in Texas, where Vice President Cheney accidentally shot 78-year-old lawyer Harry Whittington while hunting Saturday, Feb. 13, 2006. The yellow spot, right, was extrapolated by University of Texas scientist Gordon Wells using longitude and latitude data from the Kennedy County Sheriff's Department report on the accidental shooting.

What makes the image so noteworthy? The trick is, you have to read it politically, not geographically. It's saying, this is about as close as anybody is going to get to what really happened in Texas last weekend.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-shaw/reading-the-pictures-em_b_15932.html

[HamdenRice]

12. Armstrong clients have $24 billion in Iraq, military contracts ...

I posted about this last week, but no one seemed particularly interested. The NYT article claimed that Armstrong had a few clients with $100,000 in business before the federal government and had never lobbied the administration. That was baldfaced disinformation and lies.

Here are some fun facts:

* One of Armstrong's clients, Parsons Engineering, has $4 billion in Iraq oil reconstruction contracts -- contracts that have to be harmonized the those of the dominant player in that area, Cheney's Halliburton.

* Another Armstrong client, Lockheed Martin, the largest single federal contractor, a builder of military equipment, especially jet fighters, has over $20 billion in contracts annually, and is projected to earn $200 billion in military contracts over the next few years.

* Armstrong's mother, Anne Armstrong, the owner of the Ranch where the incident took place, was on the board of directors when Cheney was hired as CEO. In other words, Katharine Armstrong's Mom got Cheney his job at Halliburton and now Katharine lobbies Cheney with fancy shooting parties.

* Anne Armstrong was on Reagan/Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, meaning she has all the dirt about poppy's role in Iran-Contra, CIA cocaine financing of war and death squad activity in Central America.

Enjoy!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=421677

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=417384

[exlrrp]

13. THANKS!!

Great Leads!!
Its only too bad I'm not part of the MSM.
but this information may yet come out

[Straight Shooter]

15. Lynne Cheney served on the Lockheed Martin board from 1994-2001

"Lockheed-Martin has the dubious distinction of being the world's largest weapons manufacturer, with 2002 sales of $26.6 billion and a backlog of more than $70 billion, according to their website (www.lockheedmartin.com)."

<snip>

"The revolving door from the White House/Pentagon to the largest weapons manufacturer is transparent: 8 senior policy officials in the Bush Administration had ties to Lockheed Martin before joining the administration including war criminal Otto Reich and ... Dick Cheney, whose wife Lynne Cheney served on the Lockheed Martin board from 1994-2001."

Lockheed Factsheet http://santacruz.indymedia.org/mod/comments/display/3698/index.php

[sellitman]

14. Please rename this story: "DICK-GATE"

Has a ring to it....doesn't it?

[exlrrp]

21. I like shotgate better

Although dickgate is good
Howabout dickshotgate?

[Libby2]

33. I like peppergate. nt

[sandnsea]

17. Baker Botts lobbyist is the real story

One of her client's is Baker Botts, James Baker. Whittington is Baker's brother-in-law. Baker Botts represents Michael Scanlon, Jack Abramoff's partner. That's at least one angle on the story. All so closely connected, but they didn't know Abramoff??

[FreedomAngel82]

38. Oh wow

That is pretty big. So they're very all closely together. Don't forget about Tom DeLay. Remember how the House went in loops to get DeLay back as their leader and even back when he first came back they changed the rules specifically to bring DeLay back. Hasert is just a figure head for the House. DeLay is the real power and he's connected to Bush too. Is he connected to this group as well?

[TomInTib]

18. you are making too much ado about the fees. $160,000 is no big

deal with the Armstrongs. The Ranch's oil royalties are at least 10 times that much every month. And that is just that property.
Katharine is not in it for the money.

[exlrrp]

22. $160,000 isn't money??

Youre right about the rarefied fees but $160,000 is serious money even to texas politicans--why'd she charge it if she wasn't in it for the money? Seeems like she charges big for her services.
There can be more than one motivation here. Money is just part of it but a significant part of it nevertheless.
The questiion here is not how much money she made but was Cheney hunting on her ranch 2004--if so his ass is exposed--its illegal to take gifts from a registered lobbyist when they have busniess before the government--its what Safavian was arrested for--taking gelt from Abramoff while he was doing business with the White House.
Doesn't matter whthyer she made $16.00, $160,000 or 160 million--its till the same.
Doesn't matter how old a friend either, she's still a registered lobbyist

[marions ghost]

25. I have no doubt

that bidness was being conducted...at least until Harry got shot up.

[lovuian]

26. Hey Abrahmhoff is in jail ... I guess Armstrong is the next one

to take up the flag...

[FreedomAngel82]

27. They go way back

Apparently her mother, Ann Armstrong, worked in the Nixon administration under intelligence.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[maveric]

35. A $23,000.00 shotgun??

I find that hard to beleive.

[sundancekid]

44. believe it ... believe it -- it was a 28 gauge Perazzi -- see link below

http://www.bullseyesportingarms.com/shotguns_m-z.htm

Perazzi MX-28 SC-3 Grade. Baby frame. 28 gauge with 29 1/2" vent rib barrels, fixed game chokes. Stocked with beautiful upgraded turkish walnut with lots of dark streaks and swirls. 15" lop small pistol grip. Beautiful full coverage scroll engraving. Pattern #101. This is the only MX-28 I have seen done like this. Weighs 6 lbs.2 oz. Gun is brand new and unfired in original hard case with all paperwork and accessories. Perazzi makes very few of these guns. The ultimate Argentina dove machine. New
$17,995.00

[0007]

39. ...James A. Baker III strikes again and again and agin

[InsultComicDog]

40. "Fuddgate" was a better name

[Nothing Without Hope]

41. A Feb 14 thread highlighting Armstrong's role as a major lobbyist - LINK:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x421677
thread title (2-14-06 GD): Cheney Shooting scandal hostess -- over $20 BILLION business w/ Bush admi
Comment/excerpt: “The real scandal at Armstrong Ranch was not the accidental shooting of Whittington, but the fact that Cheney was undoubtedly discussing business with his hostesses while enjoying the lavish hospitality of this elite facility owned by that same hostesses-lobbyist.”

See my sig line for COMPILATION of threads on the Cheney shooting. I'll be adding this current one.

[file83]

42. So, the "Cover-Up" wasn't for the shooting - it was for the fact Cheney

was even there and WHO he was with. It's a string he doesn't want anyone to PULL on because what might come unraveled his a whole history of "no-no"s Dick doesn't want anyone to discover! Now this is getting interesting.

[mrbill]

43. don't know about 2004, but Cheney went hunting on the ranch in 2005

26 February, 2005

HARLINGEN — Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Harlingen early Thursday morning for a hunting trip in Willacy County.

A spokeswoman for Cheney in Washington, D.C., who declined to identify herself, said early Friday afternoon she could not release the specific location or who is with him because of security issues. She could not say when Cheney was leaving the region, except to say he must be back in Washington, D.C., on Sunday for the National Governors Association’s winter meeting.

An airport employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said Cheney was hunting at the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch in Willacy County.


http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=5904&Section=Valley

[exlrrp]

45. Then all the media has to do is....

....find out if katherine Armistrong did any lobbying in 2005--no papers have been turned in so far.
If Armstrong had any business before the WH (or federal government) then Cheney has done a Safavian.
Likewise if Cheney hyunted on the ranch in 2004.
no wonder he wants to keep his activities secret--AlQaeda'a only a small part of it