A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit filed by former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband against Vice President Cheney and top administration officials over the disclosure of Plame's name and covert status to the media.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said that Cheney and White House aides cannot be held liable for the disclosure of information about Plame in the summer of 2003 while they were trying to rebut criticism of the administration's war efforts levied by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The judge said such efforts were certainly part of the officials' scope of normal duties.
The perjury trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff calls up high-profile witnesses.
"The alleged tortious conduct, namely the disclosure of Mrs. Wilson's status as a covert operative, was incidental to the kind of conduct that defendants were employed to perform," Bates wrote in an opinion released this afternoon.
Bates also ruled that the court lacked the power to award damages for public disclosure of private information about Plame. The judge said that was because Plame and Wilson had failed to exhaust other remedies in seeking compensation from appropriate federal agencies for the alleged privacy violations.
The Wilsons' lawsuit claimed that Cheney, his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, senior White House adviser Karl Rove and former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage violated the couple's privacy and constitutional rights by participating in discussions that led to Plame's identity being publicly revealed. They claimed the leaks to reporters were an effort to retaliate against Wilson.
Spain Criticized for "Quail Catapulting" YJCMTSU
The Spanish sport of quail-catapulting, in which the birds are flung into the air alive and shot down, highlights that cruelty to animals is a firm part of Spain's culture, says Germany's animal welfare society. Germany has had some cruel traditions too, though. Ever heard of cat-poking? Or goose-clubbing?
Germany's animal welfare organization has protested against a form of quail shooting practiced in a region of Spain in which baby quails are fired from a cannon and then shot down for fun. If the cannon doesnt get them, the buckshot will.
Thousands of quails are being killed in this way in the region of Valencia on Spain's Mediterranean coast, said the German Animal Protection Federation -- Europe's largest animal welfare society, with 700,000 members. Photos showing the quails, bred for the purpose and just a few weeks old, being pushed into a cannon, fired into the air and fired at with a shotgun were published in Germany's Bild newspaper on Tuesday. Wouldnt want any meat on em to reduce their hang time, ya' know. "Spain tends to defend behavior that is cruel to animals by arguing that it is part of its tradition and cultural heritage," said Thomas Schröder, director of the federation, noting that animal rights groups routinely complain about bullfighting. At least bullfighting has its risks for the Toreador. Far fewer hunters are ever taken down by a wounded baby quail.
He noted that Spain was a top destination for German tourists, some of whom have come back with shocking accounts of the birds being mistreated in this way. The federation issued a statement complaining about quail catapulting two years ago in which it declared that Spain was more cruel to animals than any other country in Europe. Schröder said the group had in 2005 sent letters to the Spanish embassy in Berlin and to Spain's Queen Sofia, but had received no response. Animal rights campaigners scored a success in 2000 when the village of Manganeses de la Polvorosa in northwestern Spain abandoned its annual custom of tossing a live goat from the church tower. A tradition, no doubt, dating back to times of Muslim occupation as the result of a lovers quarrel.
He noted that Germany itself is not free of bizarre and cruel traditions such as "tomcat poking". In 2004, the federation filed a legal complaint against people in the eastern German village of Wiednitz who had carried out the medieval custom for a bachelor party. They put a young cat in a sack and locked him in a crate which had a hole drilled in the side. Blindfolded, they prodded the broomstick through the hole to make the cat miaow while others banged on the crate. The cat was released after 45 minutes of torture. "It was like in the Middle Ages," said Schröder. The tradition has since been abandoned. Sorta like a feline S&M glory hole except less fun for the kitty. Undoubtedly this was abandoned after several prospective groomsmen showed up at hospital with severe lacerations from an enraged tom.
Another German custom is "goose clubbing", which used to be popular in the industrial Ruhr region of the northwest: A goose is hung up and clubbed until its head comes off. Villagers still indulge in the custom, although these days the goose is killed before it is strung up, said Schröder. Keep honking, Im reloading on my backswing.
#1
And here in the good ol' US of A we do a similiar bird outa cannon thingy: dead and frozen chikens are fired at approx. 600 mph into aircraft windscreens / canopies to simulate an in-flight bird strike; used to use real live chickens until PETA came along and protested. Attempts to stuff a PETA-ite into the cannon to replace the chicken were unsuccessful; the cannon rejected it.
#3
I remember a demonstration with the chickens by either Rolls Royce or GE on their turbo fan engines on our KC-10 aircraft, it was pretty cool. Also heard they use gerbils for celebrity aircraft engines.
Posted by: Rich G. ||
07/19/2007 17:24 Comments ||
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#4
defrosted: Not necessarily. Snopes Not everyone fires thawed birds: before switching to fake birds, the U.S. Air Force traditionally launched frozen ones. (Sensitive to the concerns of animal-rights activists, they now fling birds made of clay and plastic at canopies and engines.) The way the Air Force had it figured, if a canopy could survive an impact with a frozen bird, it would certainly live through a chance introduction to one that could still fly under its own power. They further believed cold chickens provided a better simulation of a bird that had tensed to prepare for the impact.
I could see canopies surviving frozen chickens, but surely the turbine tests used thawed birds.
One amazing vid I remember seeing was a crewman getting sucked into the engine of an A-6 Intruder as the pilot revved the engines and exiting the exhaust. Heck of a fire and light show, but the lucky victim escaped with only cuts and bruises.
Posted by: ed ||
07/19/2007 17:54 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
07/19/2007 17:58 Comments ||
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#6
Whoops, the crewman didn't go through the engine. A follow up video explains what happened. Man verses Jet Engine
Makes more sense than assuming the turbines blades broke off just before he went through the engine.
Posted by: ed ||
07/19/2007 18:09 Comments ||
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#7
we do a similiar bird outa cannon thingy
There's another cannon that I'd like to see even more. According to the NRC's FSAR (Final Safety Analysis Report), reactor containment walls are supposed to withstand the impact of a large object moving at hurricane force. The most common item fitting this description is a telephone pole flying at ~100 MPH speeds.
I've seen footage of a cannon that fires telephone poles into containment wall test samples. It is astonishing to an entire telephone pole disintegrate upon impact into toothpicks as if it's being fed into a shredder with a serious blowback problem. From another report I read while searching for a link to this, they did try flying a 481MPH fighter jet into an unanchored wall sample and it produced a two inch deep impact crater.
An underground steam pipe explosion tore through a Manhattan street near Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday, swallowing a tow truck and killing one person as hundreds of others ran for cover amid a towering geyser of steam and flying rubble. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the explosion was not terrorism, though the blast caused a brief panic about a possible attack.
Eighteen people were taken to local hospitals, officials said. One person was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital from an apparent heart attack, Bloomberg said. Two were in critical condition and another two were seriously injured. The others suffered minor injuries.
The explosion caused widespread chaos as residents and commuters heard a huge blast - and feared for the worst. Thousands of commuters evacuated the train terminal, some at a run, after workers yelled for people to get out of the building. A geyser of steam and mud shot from the center of the blast, generating a tremendous roar. The initial burst of steam rose higher than the nearby 77-story Chrysler Building, one of Manhattan's tallest buildings. Streets were closed in several blocks in all directions. Subway service in the area was suspended.
The steam cleared around 8 p.m., exposing a crater several feet wide in the street. A red tow truck lay at the bottom of the hole. Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert said workers were still trying to determine what caused the blast. Kevin Burke, the head of the utility, said the site had been inspected earlier Wednesday after heavy rains flooded parts of the city, but crews found nothing at that time.
#2
Interesting, that the 'explosion' occurred that close to the Grand Central Terminal! I wonder if the Feds would tell us if they found traces of C4 or dynamite at the blast point? Bloomberg didn't say whether pipes 'from the 20's' were in jeopardy in other places as well...hmmm!
(SomaliNet) Warning its residents to guard against outbreaks of disease Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, on Wednesday said it was forced to cut their water supply. City authorities said they had decommissioned one of Bulawayo's three remaining dams because water levels were too low, leaving in operation only two of the five dams that supply the southern city of about one million people.
Bulawayo has faced water problems before but this is the first time it has had to issue a health warning and officials said the water shortage was likely to get worse. "The city council is aware that water cuts may result in the outbreak of diseases and we wish to advise members of the public to take preventive measures," Bulawayo spokesperson Pathisa Nyathi was quoted by the state-owned Chronicle newspaper as saying. "Water will be available for seven hours in every two days and during that time people are advised to fill their containers and cover them up," Nyathi said.
Urban areas in Zimbabwe are struggling to provide services due to ageing infrastructure, including burst sewer pipes, and because foreign currency shortages have hampered imports of raw materials such as water treatment chemicals.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
No real surprises here. The modern Bulawayo city was chosen by King Lobengula and he also named his royal town Bulawayo, which is the Ndebele word for the place of slaughter
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has started serving notices on 20 more corruption suspects, including Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil, Sylhet Mayor Badruddin Ahmed Kamran, Rajshahi Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu and leading businessmen Abdul Awal Mintoo, asking them to submit their wealth statements.
Meanwhile, former prime minsters Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina yesterday received the ACC notices for submitting their wealth statements. ACC secretary Mokhles ur Rahman yesterday told reporters that BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia herself received the notice at her cantonment residence yesterday afternoon while prison authorities handed over the notice to Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina after receiving it from the ACC on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2007 00:00 ||
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The murder of a second Russian dissident on British soil was averted last month when police and intelligence agencies intercepted a suspected killer in London, it was confirmed last night.
In a move likely to damage already strained relations between Britain and Russia, Scotland Yard said that officers arrested a man on suspicion of conspiracy to murder on June 21 and held him for two days. He was later handed over to the immigration service and deported back to Russia. The man arrived in London in mid-June allegedly with orders to murder the billionaire Russian exile Boris Berezovsky, a staunch opponent of President Putin, who has been granted asylum to live in Britain.
The alleged murder plot would have been planned as Tony Blair, then the Prime Minister, held a tense meeting with Mr Putin at the G8 summit in Germany on June 8. It came in the wake of the British Governments formal request to Russia for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB operative, for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the dissident, in London in November last year. The Russians have refused to extradite Mr Lugovoy.
#2
I suspect Berezovsky's capital gains came from the blackmarket and a little polonium only true justice. I sometimes wonder at which causes Britain turns a blind eye to and which they ones they trump on moralistic grounds.
Fidel Castro blamed the United States and other rich nations on Wednesday for policies that encourage an international brain drain of doctors and scientists from Africa and Latin America. "Encouraging this type of emigration has become an official state policy in a number of (developed) countries, which use incentives and procedures especially tailored to suit this end," Castro wrote in the latest of the essays he has been writing every few days.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
1 word "capitalism"; another word "freedom". Does the rest of the article mean anything?
Posted by: Ho Chi Spomosh2247 ||
07/19/2007 1:03 Comments ||
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#2
It sounds as if Fidel may grasp supply and demand on his death bed.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/19/2007 1:19 Comments ||
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#3
Castro wrote in the latest of the essays he has been writing every few days.
Sure beats the hell out of listening to one of his four hour speeches.
#4
Well, since their health care system is so much better than ours, I guess the doctors are just trying to help us out. Surely Michael Moore wouldn't complain.
Posted by: Gary (no Samoyeds in hotel) ||
07/19/2007 10:04 Comments ||
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#5
Cuban doctors get $20/month and all the chicken feet they can eat. What more could they possibly want?
Posted by: ed ||
07/19/2007 10:36 Comments ||
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#6
Doctors should have the same ability as anyone else to legally enter the U.S.
However, we should be generating enough homegrown doctors not to depend on foreign imports, like the U.K. is apparently doing.
I'm so confused because Michael Moore is telling me that Cuba's health care system is the TOPS! Why would these docs (even if they are quacks) be voting with their feet? Oh, whom to believe, Michael Moore or Fidel?
Posted by: BA ||
07/19/2007 12:23 Comments ||
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The zombie in charge of Cuba wants all the brains for himself. Brainssss.
WASHINGTON, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - The risks of an accidental nuclear war have increased since the Cold War as Russia's early warning capability has deteriorated, a former U.S. defense official said.
William J. Perry, who is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-Director of the Preventive Defense Project at Stanford University, said in congressional testimony Wednesday that "the danger of nuclear war occurring by accident" still existed.
"Both American and Russian missiles remain in a launch-on-warning mode," Perry, who served as U.S. defense secretary in 1994-97, said. "And the inherent danger of this status is aggravated by the fact that the Russian warning system has deteriorated since the ending of the Cold War."
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Russia has heavily depended on its radars located abroad, particularly the Daryal facility in Azerbaijan and two Dnepr stations in Ukraine, near Sebastopol and Mukachevo.
Some reports said the outdated radar facilities that Moscow is renting on the territories of former Soviet republics were in poor conditions, and Russia had developed "holes" in its early-warning missile threat coverage.
In the same testimony, Perry blasted the Bush administration for concentrating its efforts on building defenses to protect the U.S. from a potential ballistic missile threat, while downplaying the danger of nuclear terrorism.
"The centerpiece of our government's strategy for dealing with a nuclear attack is the
National Missile Defense system now being installed in Alaska," he said.
"But the greatest danger today is that a terror group will detonate a nuclear bomb
in one of our cities," the expert said.
"Terrorists would not use a ballistic missile to deliver their bomb, they would use a truck or a freighter," Perry said, adding that a missile shield alone would not reduce the nuclear threat to the country.
#2
He has a point but the danger is more from rogue capitalistic amoral Russians, imo. The tactical nukes made for the KGB and not in the official arsenal with the ballistic missiles were stored in key locations, including the US, during the Cold War and only certain key KGB officers are even aware of their old contingency plans for sleepers living here. It also seems terrorists have been successful in obtaining some of them, as quite a few are reportedly unaccounted for.
#3
It also seems terrorists have been successful in obtaining some of them, as quite a few are reportedly unaccounted for.
The foregoing beggars an important question:
Suppose a nuclear explosion or radiological bomb is detonated in an American city and the isotopic signature points to Russian fissile material? What retaliation would Russian experience? Alsoif no one took credit for itgiven that our only trackback would be to Russia, how would we direct an appropriate response to whatever terrorist group was most likely responsible for the attack?
I'm confident that this sort of scenario keeps our strategists laying awake during the long winter nights. I sure hope that we've managed to "acquire" and refurbish a few of those nuclear devices that the USSR secreted over here during the Cold War. It would be more than fitting to have a couple of "work accidents" happen in Russia if their nuclear material ever fell into terrorist hands for use against America.
Moreover, this also points towards the importance of putting the entire MME (Muslim Middle East) on notice that a single such event will result in identical events occurring in the capital of every MME country. The MME must be made to realize they are skating over thin ice on a hot day.
This is so childish it seems laughable .... until you consider the likelihood that Putin is building up a perceived threat that will allow him to stay in power after the winter.
RAF jets were scrambled after two Russian aircraft were spotted heading towards British airspace on Tuesday, the Ministry of Defence has said.
A spokesman said: "Two unidentified aircraft came towards British airspace. They turned round before there was an interception and before they entered British airspace."
He confirmed the two aircraft involved in Tuesday's incident had been Russian. The spokesman added: "There was nothing to suggest this was linked to any other issues."
The incident came a day after the Government announced the expulsion of four Russian diplomats as part of its dispute with Russia over Moscow's refusal to extradite the chief suspect for the murder of dissident former spy Alexander Litvinenko.
#3
Now that Russia has expelled 4 British diplomats, look for the 'Great Poodle' to start looking for ways to soften the crisis and backdown! Come on now....can Britain really survive without interacting with Russia...I'll give the cowtowing a month!!
#4
Those ancient, propeller-driven BEARS carry a very nasty Air-to-ground nuke missile that can hit a target 1400 miles away, so don't dismiss them. They're also great for threatening. The Russers are playing an old game that we've learned to respond to quite well. The Brits did exactly the right thing - show Russia they're still a capable fighting force if pushed too far. Not a GREAT fighting force, but enough to bloody Russia's nose and make Moscow uninhabitable.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/19/2007 19:56 Comments ||
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They [EU leaders] decided that [the amended constitutional treaty] should be unreadable. If it is unreadable, it is not [the European Constitution, which the voters rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands], that was the sort of perception. [...] In order to make our citizens happy, to produce a document that they will never understand [...] There is some truth [in it]. Because if this is the kind of document that the IGC [intergovernmental conference] will produce, any Prime Minister imagine the UK Prime Minister can go to the Commons and say look, you see, its absolutely unreadable, its the typical Brussels treaty, nothing new, no need for a referendum.
#3
Just some extra details that the BBC didn't see fit to mention:
The scumsucking troll in question definitely killed Junny Rios-Martinez, Jr. He had stalked the boy after seeing his picture in Florida Today one month after he had been released from prison for raping another local kid. (He supposedly got life for that rape, but apparently that meant nothing here in Florida back then.) Mark Dean Schwab led law enforcement officials to where he buried a footlocker containing the boy's body after he was done torturing and raping him.
I didn't live in Brevard County when this went on, but from what I have heard from people who did, kids here were afraid for about a year afterwards that Schwab was going to come after them. Lots of them couldn't or wouldn't sleep unless they had a light on.
There is no doubt that he is guilty, and the idea that we could study his brain is a last ditch attempt to keep him from assuming room temperature.
I haven't read the police report, and have no intention to do so. Sorry, I don't have the stomach for that kind of thing ever since I had the Tsarevich.
May the family of Junny Rios-Martinez Jr find some peace, and may this monster rot in the darkest reaches of hell. November 15 can't come soon enough.
#4
Schwab's lawyer has argued he should be spared the death penalty so psychiatrists can study him and use what they learn to prevent other paedophiles striking.
On November 15th, the state of Florida will show them how to prevent other pedophiles from striking.
The recividism rate is zero.
#3
All international organizations what pretend that all of the World's socio-political units are basically the same should wither away---along with anybody who pretends that all people are basically the same.
Protesters believe as many as 10,000 people could assemble in Quebec to demonstrate against the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the trilateral group some critics see as a stepping stone to a North America Community.
Canadian state and national police are preparing for a possible violent confrontation when President Bush joins Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Aug. 20, 21 in Montebello, Québec, at the Fairmont Le Château Montebello resort.
Stuart Trew, a spokesman for the Council of Canadians, said his group plans to hold a public forum in Ottawa Sunday, Aug. 19, at about 4:00 p.m., bringing together speakers from the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
We are then going to encourage people to head to Montebello on Monday and get as close they can to the Fairmont resort where the SPP meeting is going to be held, so they can protest at the site of the summit, he said.
Trew said some of the same groups that brought 15,000 people to Ottawa to protest President Bushs Nov. 30, 2004, meeting with then-Prime Minister Paul Martin are organizing the demonstration against the SPP summit. CBC News estimated the number of protestors in 2004 at closer to 5,000.
Frederic Castonguay, the town general manager of Papineauville, Quebec, told WND in a telephone interview that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Sûreté du Québec will set up operations in a town community facility that adjoins a local high school.
Papineauville is located about six kilometers from the Montebello resort where the summit meeting will be held, Castonguay told WND, and the Canadian national and state police have evidently decided that our town facility will be their command center.
Castonguay suggested the Canadian police may try to maintain a 25-kilometer protest-free zone around the Montebello summit meeting site.
Castonguay affirmed to WND that a deposit to lease the facility to the Council of Canadians the day before the SPP summit meeting had to be returned at the insistence of the Canadian police, but he denied a report in the Canadian press that the U.S. Army would be part of the security detail at the Papineauville community center facility.
Thats a game the Canadian press likes to play, Castonguay told WND. The RCMP said U.S. and Mexican security forces would be involved, but they did not specifically mention the U.S. Army.
The PGA Bloc Montreal has organized a mock website designed to model Canadas SPP governmental website. The group is calling for Aug. 20 at 3 p.m. to be a Day of Action organized against the SPP.
The PGA Bloc Montreal is a Canadian group affiliated with the Peoples Global Action, a worldwide group organized to protest globalism and war.
We are calling for a convergence on Montebello, or as close to Montebello as possible, on the 20th, in the afternoon, a PGA Bloc Montreal spokesman explained to WND in an e-mail. People are invited to come as close as possible to Montebello to demonstrate against the SPP and its promoters. Mass transportation will be organized from Montreal, but we are not planning a peace march.
If they will not let us demonstrate peacefully in Montebello, as we have the full right to do, the PGA Bloc Montreal spokesman continued, it is imaginable that some outraged people would want to disrupt the summit by various means.
WND previously reported a large number of Canadian activist groups are expected to join the protests.
The meeting, closed to the press, is expected to include the 30 international business leaders who comprise the SPP North American Competitiveness Council.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met July 6 in Washington with Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay and Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa to prepare for the Quebec summit.
The July meeting followed an earlier Feb. 24 meeting of the three ministers in Washington to set the stage for the summit.
#3
That'll be in about 20 years. They are nothing if not patient. Rome wasn't built in a day, the EU and Frankenstein's Monster weren't slapped together behind closed doors in the middle of the night.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(SomaliNet) Warning its residents to guard against outbreaks of disease Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, on Wednesday said it was forced to cut their water supply. City authorities said they had decommissioned one of Bulawayo's three remaining dams because water levels were too low, leaving in operation only two of the five dams that supply the southern city of about one million people. 
The murder of a second Russian dissident on British soil was averted last month when police and intelligence agencies intercepted a suspected killer in London, it was confirmed last night.
From the desk of The Brussels Journal
