Free Republic

Interesting.

Why?

I'm sure some of what was said is true, such as Vang was on private property in someone else's tree stand, alone. He was confronted, according to many reports, started to walk away, removing his rifle's scope, then turned and started firing.

Don't assume he's talking about the race-baiting or that someone who was shot in the back and killed actually fired first. If a presumption of innocence is to be given, I'd prefer it to go to the six dead men and two injured ones than the unharmed, unmarked guy in custody who was carrying the murder weapon.

Or maybe the shooter was just a homicidal butthole who didn't feel like giving up what he thought was a free tree stand.

I don't know why the media is working overtime trying to turn this into a cultural issue. Madison has a giant Hmong population, none of which are running around setting up squat claims in public parks.

This guy was a violent jerk who'd been in trouble with the cops before. I hope the hunters up north don't go all redneck and try to make this into an immigration issue. Is it even an issue about whether or not he was in the country legally? He obviously had a legal hunting license and the last time I went and got one, they slapped a booklet into my hand about all the rules.

How much more handholding are we expecting the state to do? It's not like this kind of shooting happens often - it's the first one in a long, long time I can remember. Usually it's just the drunks shooting themselves or falling out of tree stands.

BTW, what was Katie wearing?

Tight black turtleneck sweater with black leather shoulder patches with silver buckles; black and white micro mini houndstooth skirt (looked like wool to me); black fishnet stockings and black patent leather stilettos.

In other words, something a woman 20 years younger and ten times more attractive should be wearing.

I think too many people are looking too hard (not here but in the reports I'm seeing on local Wisconsin TV) for an excuse.

He was a violent, irrational guy. He threatened to kill his wife with a gun at some point. He was out hunting with a fairly high-powered weapon on private land using someone else's tree stand. Was this his first time hunting? If not and if he had five brain cells, he'd have known it's considered impolite to bogart someone's tree stand.

The majority of the guys in my family hunt and the majority of them do a lot of drinking while "up north" - although they don't drink while hunting.

So maybe this nutty guy with anger issues was up there drunk as a skunk, got separated from his hunting party, climbed up in another guy's tree stand and when he was asked to get his butt out, got belligerent and started shooting then continued shooting when more guys showed up.

I doubt it's too much more complicated than that. I only wish Tommy would have located his balls when he was governor and brought back the death penalty here.

I hate to say it, but those aren't Photoshopped, or at least they aren't by much. I was there. Stuck in traffic trying to get to a doctor's appointment around the corner on Park Street. What you don't see is that behind Kerry in that second picture, the crowd thins out to almost nothing. Our local CBS station said that if the crowd reached the sign up near the capital, then there were roughly 50,000 people there.

But if it helps at all, every single news report of the event found the majority of the people were there to hear Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen. There were many, many Republicans interviewed that lived close by who said they were going to watch the spectacle.

Sly is and has always been a huge racist ass. I live in the Madison area and let me assure you, this is only the latest in a long, long string of similar incidents. Sly never apologizes for anything and his bosses have never held him responsible (he changed stations about eh, five or so years ago, I believe but I don't know if it was related to something he said or just more money).

His schtick is to be racially and politically inflammatory, then scream and yell at people who call in to his show, call them names then hang up on them when they try to respond. Ambush radio. And he's not even very smart or educated - the majority of his points are crap and the only reason he gets away with them is because he won't tolerate discussion.

I've run into the guy in public a number of times. He's about 6'4", 300-350 lbs., stinking and covered in zits. He's never with anyone, he drives a rusted out old green Buick and wears sweatpants and flannel shirts everywhere. I've seen his fat sloppy self at the Chilis behind West Towne Mall three or four times (and I rarely eat there so he must be there every day). The waitresses hate him and no one talks to him while he's there. He was in a couple of local parades a handful of years ago but had to stop because he got booed every time.

I'd love to see him get fired too, but I assure you, the public here shuns him anyway.

He's just po'd because Jane Mansfield's daughter has taken over as star.

Uh, that would be another show that Mariska Hargitay is on. Special Victim's Unit, not Criminal Intent. I know they all sort of look and sound alike after awhile, but if you're going to blast him for being jealous of a costar, make sure it's actually a costar.

I despise his politics, but he's (in my opinion) a fairly good actor. He played Private Pyle (the one who blew his head off on the john) in Full Metal Jacket, among about 50 other movies, most of them with big name costars and directors. I can't watch him now because the character is all twitchy and gaspy, but it's the character, not the actor that they supposedly belong to.

But who cares? He was just a man, and likely a scumbag like we all are, no? Innocent of this crime, but surely guilty of being male if nothing else, right?

Feeling sensitive and projecting much? Oh wait, you are claiming to be a liberal.

So she gets axed for cutting CSI-NY a few minutes short and months later, Mary Mapes and Dan Rather...

Forget it. I don't know why I expected CBS to make sense or be consistent.

It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye...

Or a rear-view mirror.

I'm from Wisconsin, where cheese is revered. Rather is too cheesy even for me.

He could stand on his head stark naked professing his love for GWB and I still wouldn't watch.

Jose, a 67-year-old administrator, emerged into the arrivals hall bringing with him just the clothes he was wearing: "A pair of espadrilles, a pair of shorts, two T-shirts and a briefcase that my neighbours managed to rescue by some miracle," he said.

Thank God he managed to find his espadrilles instead of those tacky huaraches.

No, the situation itself is not funny but the general bewilderment of the French is painfully ironic.

There were worthwhile points buried in that mass of self-congratulatory, aren't-we-pleased-with-our-own-archness twaddle. Unfortunately, even while having a good sense of what went wrong for the libs, the author comes off as a horsey-faced cricket-playing dink.

But this..

I bet there was organic muesli spattered up rag-rolled walls and IKEA furniture all over Montpelier.

was funny.

Elihu, come loofah my stretch marks!

And my personal favorite, which I use liberally in parenting..

You'll get nothing and like it!

And here's a more coherent look at his recent show: Olberman Chasing Windmills

Olberman took the hook, line and sinker of some stupid Dim woman who claims to have proof that there was voter fraud via Diebold and the black box vote counters. Every other news organization has dismissed the claims but Olberman is convinced he can be a big "Stah!" if he just beats the story into the ground a la Dan Rather (that is to say, despite mounting evidence that he's been had).

The more psychotic Rats have leeched onto Olberman, making him their new demi-god and coming up with a convoluted conspiracy theory where Kerry is staging a coup, is un-conceding, is being blackmailed to not contest the election results, has abandoned the Dims because he never was meant to be POTUS and was only a Clinton plant....

You get the idea. Olberman is sitting over at MSNBC with a vat of Kooky Frooty Kool-Aid and the Rats are lined up for their share.

gasp

There's a special place in hell reserved for people who post pictures of cellulite dripping off of the ass of 90 yr. old women in shredded denim Daisy Dukes.

Wonder who she got to pick the wedgie out?

I literally shudder when I see McAwful. He's a sure channel-turner for me, as is Juan Williams, dyspeptic turtlehead Alan Colmes, Julian Phillips (someone fire him and put me out of my misery) and of course, Susan Estrich.

It goes without saying that I don't watch anything with Michael Moore or Dan Rather.

I practically am aching with the need to offer a sarcastic response. And yet, I draw a blank.

Curses.

Margaret, Margaret. Just because you were funny for five minutes in the mid-80's doesn't mean your opinion now is worth any more than, oh, say my cat's most recent bowel movement.

Fat, ugly and stupid is no way to go through life, young woman.