Petrelis Files

Ft Worth Star: Cheney Delivers Eulogy at Funeral

I used to think Dick Cheney avoided all funerals, but after reading about him attending a funeral this week in Texas and delivering a eulogy, I now know he only fears certain funerals, like those for American service men and woman killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.


October 21
Ft. Worth Star Telegram

The mourners gathered beneath the oak trees, and the Texas prairie stretched far away on every side. Hundreds came last week to say goodbye to rancher Tobin Armstrong, 82, the son of pioneers, and friend to presidents and princess, cowboys and Texas Rangers. [...]

The cattleman's work-worn hat and poncho rested on the coffin, and a mariachi band played. Texas Rangers and Secret Servicemen cleared the road as a motorcade approached, carrying first lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lyn. [sic]

U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn and Gov. Rick Perry attended. Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker delivered one of the eulogies; the vice president gave the other. [...]



Nice of the Veep to eulogize this rancher, but has he attended a single funeral for our brave soldiers who've died fighting on the battlefields during his time in the White House? Not that I can recall.

Since we're on the topic of Cheney and funeral services for Americans killed in action, read this story about a father who lost his son in Iraq and is complaining about the Bush administration's lack of communication to him over the death of his child.


October 21
Houston Chronicle

A day before his family moved into their new home, Sgt. 1st Class Brandon K. Sneed was killed when an explosive device detonated near his military vehicle in Iraq. He was 33.
The 1990 graduate of Hastings High School in Alief was serving his second tour in Iraq when he was killed Oct. 10.

Alvin Mann, his father, said Sneed had just ordered his men to dismount a M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Ar Ramadi and were coming to the aid of wounded soldiers in a firefight when the device exploded, killing him and gunner Sgt. Leon M. Johnson, 28, of Jacksonville, Fla. [...]

Mann praised the Army for its handling of the tragedy, but remains upset that he has heard nothing from President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld since his son's death.

He said he also had expected to hear from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessor, Colin Powell.

As architects of the war, they should have reached out to the family, he said. [...]



I grieve for you, Mr. Mann, and pray your son's death was not in vain. And I hope White House officials one day find the courage to personally express their condolences to you. It's the least to expect in this time of war.

Yes, the war, and war chests for political allies, is never far from Dick Cheney's thoughts, guiding his public actions.

Did you know he was in St. Louis recently, raising money for Sen. Jim Talent's reelection campaign? You better sit down for this news: Cheney exploited the 9/11 tragedy for political gain.


October 12, 2005
St. Louis Post Dispatch

Vice President Dick Cheney used his appearance in St. Louis County on Friday to make the administration's case for staying the course at home and abroad, including Iraq.

"To give up the fight against terrorists in Iraq would take us back to an old pattern" of appeasement and denial that Cheney said "stimulated the attacks of 9/11."

Cheney didn't mention the controversy swirling in Washington over whether his office was involved in leaking to journalists the name of an undercover CIA operative who is married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the nation's Iraq policies. Cheney chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and White House special adviser Karl Rove have testified before a federal grand jury investigating the leak. [...]


Hey, why dwell on the negative and the troubles prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating? Shift the focus to the evildoers who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks and hope that chanting 9/11, 9/11, 9/11 will get poll numbers to rise.

Like her mate, Mrs. Cheney has also been out shaking a tin cup, oh, not for soldiers and their concerned families, but for her own retirement fund.

She put in an appearance at a Borders book store in Houston on October 21 to peddle her new book, on American freedom and sacrifice, where shoppers were given the chance to purchase her book in an intimate setting. But freedom to snap a picture of her signing books and ringing up the cash register was not on the agenda.

The news release explicitly stated taking photos was prohibited, supposedly for the comfort of all book buyers.

Like mother, like daughter. This is the latest scoop on lesbian daughter Mary's fun activities in the publishing world, and it's from the Conservative Voice:

Having served as Rush Limbaugh's research director from 1994 to 1996, I can't say I ever imagined being invited to James Carville's house. [...]

John Engler, the former Michigan Governor turned president of the National Association of Manufacturers was there, as was Mary Cheney, who is now writing book for Threshold, the new conservative imprint at Simon & Schuster of which Mary Matalin is the Editor-in-Chief. [...]


I can't wait to ignore Mary's book when it hits conservative book stores. Wanna bet she also bars photograph-taking on her book promotion tour?