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21 years ago today - Bud Dwyer. Anyone remember him and what did?

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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:41 PM
Original message
21 years ago today - Bud Dwyer. Anyone remember him and what did?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Dwyer

Budd Dwyer (ironically a republican) was a Pennsylvania elected official that was corrupt as they come. Just when we thought he was going to resign at his press conference instead he pulled a gun and killed himself (all live on TV - I actually was watching it as it happened since they broke into my afternoon soap operas for the press conference).

Anyone else from Pennsylvania who remembered this?
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davidinalameda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:43 PM
Response to Original message
1. I remember it
I didn't actually see it happen, although I was home from school that day

I saw clips of it on the Pittsburgh stations
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RB TexLa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:43 PM
Response to Original message
2. Here, for those who missed it
Edited on Tue Jan-22-08 09:45 PM by RGBolen

Warning: graphic

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=860c9b9f3b&p=1
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:51 PM
Response to Reply #2
10. EXTREME GRAPHIC WARNING FOR THE ABOVE POST
Seriously - you should put that in your subject. I was remembering about the Dwyer incident but I refuse to click on any of the links to the video. Just way too disturbing.
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RB TexLa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:52 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. It has a warning, you can't click the link without seeing the warning
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:55 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Well at least you know I wasn't kidding about not wanting to see the link
I almost wish you hadn't of posted it but it is what it is
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:59 PM
Response to Reply #12
17. BTW, I did click on the link and there was no warning
I lasted until he grabbed the envelope with the gun and I shut it off.
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RB TexLa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:01 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. I meant in my post, I have a warning right above the link

I forgot it at first hopefully no went to it that didn't know what it was.
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:29 PM
Response to Reply #18
26. Well, I just wanted to put a serious warning out there
I mean it's pretty much a snuff clip. It's one thing that this thing was broadcasted live in a press conference but it always galled me how it was showed all throughout the news channels that night (although to be fair not every news station showed the complete clip)
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RamboLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:57 PM
Response to Reply #2
15. Being from PA I remember it
But first time I've seen the full video. That is graphic! Interesting site.
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JVS Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 11:00 PM
Response to Reply #2
31. Oh the things a kid can see staying home on a snowy day and watching live TV!
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Maine-ah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 09:58 AM
Response to Reply #2
48. holy fucking shit.
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Postman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:44 PM
Response to Original message
3. I remember it...
Edited on Tue Jan-22-08 09:46 PM by Postman
I'm not from PA but in the Delaware Valley...
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qanda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:44 PM
Response to Original message
4. I had the misfortune of seeing this live
Absolutely the worst thing I've ever seen on tv. It's hard to believe that it was that long ago.
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:50 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. You were at the event or just happen to be watching the press conference on TV?
I saw it live on TV. First, I was in an extremely sad mood because this is also the day that my father passed away although 6 years earlier. Plus I had a major fight with my boyfriend and skipped lab for a veg day in front of the TV (ironically it was the ex's TV set and I made up the lab later that week). So needless to say I was bummed that they cut-in to the soaps with the press conference but was too lazy to get up and change channels (no remote).

One of the frats had taped the clip of his suicide and ran the thing on loop at a party that weekend. Yes, I knew some sick fucks in college.
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qanda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 09:22 AM
Response to Reply #9
43. I just happened to be watching it
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:45 PM
Response to Original message
5. yep
I was still in Cleveland when it happened; there were stations that showed the whole tape after the fact, I watched the edited one. Horrible. Christine Chubbuck 15 years earlier, too; what a sad story hers was.
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johnnie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:13 PM
Response to Reply #5
21. And I was lucky enough to see the station that showed the whole thing
...while eating my dinner... a big bowl of spaghetti.
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 01:54 AM
Response to Reply #21
38. oy!
I remember Ted Henry and Wilma Smith practically having dry heaves on the air after they showed the clip; even they were stunned...
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BulletproofLandshark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
6. The Filter song "Hey Man Nice Shot" was about this incident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJVpn4BM_Y
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AlCzervik Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:48 PM
Response to Original message
7. i remember seeing that and i can't remember who breaking in from ABC news.
i was 20 at the time and that was the most fucked up thing i ever saw on the news or any where else.
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SmellsLikeDeanSpirit Donating Member (471 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:48 PM
Response to Original message
8. They don't give press conferences like that anymore.
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AlCzervik Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:52 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. no they really don't.
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MikeNearMcChord Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:56 PM
Response to Original message
14. That was a major story nationwide
I seem to remember that people were demanding the station replay the incident so that they can set their video recording to it.
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 09:57 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. And parents were freaking out that it was on the evening news
The whole thing just made me sad
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:03 PM
Response to Original message
19. I vaguely recall, and never saw the footage -- but i just watched it. Heartbreaking.
I also read the Wiki info i --

I'm still shaken up over it. It just makes me so sad when people don't see any way out of their pain but death.

I'm not surprised you remember this - it must have been such a shock to witness.
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:30 PM
Response to Reply #19
27. If it happened any other day other than 1/22 I probably would have forgotten it
but this was the day that my father had died (several years earlier). So stuff like this sticks to especially when it happens on a day like this. I'll probably now always remember this is the day that Heath Ledger died again because of the date.
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:57 PM
Response to Reply #27
29. Oh my God -- a day that will live in your heart and mind forever. Sorry
about your dad - I never stop missing mine. :hug:
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NewHampshireDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:04 PM
Response to Original message
20. I didn't see it and don't care to ...
Budd Dwyer is an alumn of college I attended, and in fact was in the same fraternity that I was (years and years apart, of course). I know more than a handful of people who knew him personally, and many people who to this day maintain that Bud was an innocent scapegoat, or at worst a minor conspirator who became the fall guy for the political machine that ran the state.

Either way, it's important to remember that Budd had family and friends, and that his final act was clearly the act of a desperate man who was in a lot of pain.
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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:18 PM
Response to Original message
22. My favorite kind of republican
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Dante_ Donating Member (246 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 12:10 AM
Response to Reply #22
35. that's not really funny.
but I bet you like the anonymity of the coward on the internet
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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 09:31 AM
Response to Reply #35
44. Not an attempt at "funny"; I was dead serious
While the fact that he was a corrupt republican is nothing out of the ordinary, I do find his willingness to feel shame (and do something about that) to be rather remarkable


And I bet you like the anonymity of the self-righteous scold on the internet
Eh?
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Nailzberg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:19 PM
Response to Original message
23. It was a major media ethics lesson in journalism school
I think it is in everyone's journalism school.
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jkshaw Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:24 PM
Response to Original message
24. Another shooting shown live on TV
was Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's assassin, shot by Jack Ruby. Now that I recall, I'm not sure it was caught by cameras as it was shown live (Oswald was being moved from one place to another) or shown on TV later. But I remember seeing it. Not like a shot to the head, though. It looked like Ruby got Oswald in the chest.
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Manifestor_of_Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:36 PM
Response to Reply #24
28. My dad saw Oswald shot live on TV. Sunday morning.
Ruby got Oswald in the stomach. The cops were marching him thru the basement as a publicity stunt and didn't haev enough security.
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:58 PM
Response to Reply #28
30. I remember that too. Not nearly as haunting as this one, though. nt
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JackBeck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 10:24 PM
Response to Original message
25. I remember watching it live on ABC news.
Edited on Tue Jan-22-08 10:25 PM by JackBeck
Grew-up in the Philly suburbs of South Jersey. I was a teenager and had been sent home from school early because of a winter storm warning. Never did properly process what I had seen until I watched the news later that day. Quite the controversy between warring affiliates over whether or not it was ethical to show the footage unedited.

Can't remember which Moore docu, but during a clip segment, he shows Dwyer pulling the gun from the manila envelope and placing the weapon in his mouth.
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Richard Steele Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 11:06 PM
Response to Original message
32. Yup. Lived in PA & saw it live; my circle called brown paper bags "Bud Dwyer holsters" for years. nm
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Dukkha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 11:26 PM
Response to Original message
33. suicide is a dramatic way of saying
you can't fire me I quit. to God and society.
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SmellsLikeDeanSpirit Donating Member (471 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 02:24 AM
Response to Reply #33
39. It's the ultimate act of rebellion that's for sure.
Edited on Wed Jan-23-08 02:25 AM by SmellsLikeDeanSpirit
Something I heard many years back.

A gun to the mouth = rage
A gun to the head = sorrow
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TwilightGardener Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-22-08 11:33 PM
Response to Original message
34. Yep--grew up in Pittsburgh, saw news clips of it right after it happened--
I don't know why I was out of school that day. Snow day, perhaps? Lots of sick Bud Dwyer jokes among classmates after that.
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tuckessee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 01:01 AM
Response to Original message
36. Now that was REAL reality TV. n/t
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uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 01:52 AM
Response to Original message
37. I took care of someone after he tried this.
His aim was off and he survived. I met him in a nursing home a few yrs later. He said the worst moment of his life was realizing he didn't succeed, with people running around all over, and blood all over. He was a very nice guy, mostly stayed in his room because of deformaties. So sad.
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Jamastiene Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 02:46 AM
Response to Original message
40. Not from Pennsylvania but I remember it.
There is a video of it up online somwhere. Not for the squeamish.
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SalmonChantedEvening Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 06:34 AM
Response to Original message
41. Yep.
I can still see it without the need for video.

Pa. State Treasurer if I remember correctly.
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 09:11 AM
Response to Reply #41
42. Yep - Bob Casey Sr was just sworn in as governor
What a way to start off your term as governor
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 09:33 AM
Response to Original message
45. Yep.
I'm from NY, and I remember it well.
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LeftinOH Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 09:49 AM
Response to Original message
46. I was in Europe (Spain) at the time.. and the video clip was the lead story on the news
..proving that lurid sensationalism isn't unique to the USA.
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Zynx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 09:56 AM
Response to Original message
47. I've studied the incident, but was only 1 when it happened.
It is horribly depressing what happened to him, even though he broke the law.
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Javaman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-23-08 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
49. Yeah, saw that, really screwy. nt
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