Taxpayers pick up much of the cost of Cheney's hunting hobby (WaPo)

[kpete]

Hunting for Camaraderie With Shotguns and Friends
Companions Say Pastime Gives Cheney a Timeout

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 19, 2006; A07

.............

While Cheney pays any hunting fees or lodging expenses if charged, taxpayers invariably pick up much of the cost of Cheney's hunting hobby. As with his predecessors, the government pays for Secret Service agents, military aides and the rest of the entourage that travels with vice presidents wherever they go, as well as the expense of Air Force Two. But it is not clear how much that costs. The budget lists $1 million for the vice president's annual travel, including his official duties, but the figure is rounded to the nearest million, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

On a typical two-day hunting trip, as described by companions, Cheney rises as early as 4:30 a.m. and receives his morning national security briefing before heading to breakfast or sometimes a pre-breakfast hunt. While he and his partners often ride horses, a dog master supervises the pointers or other hunting dogs that track down the quail or other birds. Once a dog smells one, he stops flat in his tracks. Watching the dogs, some Cheney associates say, is as much fun as the shooting.

"You get quite a thrill," said former senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), a Cheney friend and hunting partner. "Sometimes you don't even shoot. It's just amazing. There's a lot to it. It's not romantic for me, but it's very satisfying. Not the killing. Sometimes I don't get a thing. Just the joshing, the talking, the outrageous babble you have out there."

Cheney naturally favors some of the country's most exclusive and remote hunting ranges, such as the Armstrong Ranch, the 50,000-acre private spread in south Texas where he wounded Whittington, or places such as the Paul Nelson Farm in South Dakota, where the owners boast of a separate gun cleaning room with four cleaning stations furnished with compressed air and individual boot dryers.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/18/AR2006021801147_pf.html

[rzemanfl]

1. "Rounded to the nearest million!" We have to get rid of these

crooks.

[Missy M]

2. I wish these guys would come up with a better way to relax...

than going hunting for small birds. It's almost sick to read how much they all enjoy it. If they are all so good at it perhaps they are the ones who should be in Iraq. Then we would see how much fun and camaraderie they would have, when they are the ones being shot at. This particular article made me sick.

[bballny]

5. Here's a way to enjoy the outdoors

Hike up a mountain in Glacier National Park. Oops! Dick would drop dead from a coronary. You are a out of shape blimp

[RC]

10. Can't be doing that in Iraq...

The prey shoots back. Ain't safe, dontcha know?

[formercia]

3. I bet

"Just the joshing, the talking, the outrageous babble you have out there."


Destroying the World can be a real hoot.

[slor]

4. They need that big of an entourage to shoot...

in a canned hunt? Methinks that some of the "leave cheney alone" crowd might not take to kindly to this extravagant "hunting trips" while the nation is being driven into a ditch.

[undergroundpanther]

6. They go on "canned hunts"

while we get medicare cuts,and wages capped.

Eat the rich or they will devour the safety net that saves millions from lives of abject misery for a hunting trip.
The rich never have to suffer so IMO rich people are unfit to decide the fate of poor people.Fuck the rich! What Part of US govt.has CEO in it?Government is a place for PUBLIC servants Not a cabal of PRIVATE economic mercenaries.
Fuck the"fortunate" for their fortune blinds them to the reality of being unfortunate.

[MrBenchley]

7. The story gets better and better....

Yes, there's no money for public schools, because the Republicans have to subsidize an armed drunk.....

[marions ghost]

8. I think that hunting the way

Cheney does it feeds his vicious and ruthless behavior in government. There's a direct parallel.
Everybody needs a way to unwind, but he needs a way to pump himself up and so gets a fix of this kind of killing as sport fairly often. Also goes along with the patrician "Lord of the Manor" fantasy.

[Maestro]

9. I had voiced my concerns about Dead-eye and this here.

Who pays?