APPLETON, Wisconsin (AP) -- When Emily the cat went missing a month ago, her owners looked for their wandering pet where she had ended up before -- the local animal shelter. This week they learned Emily sailed to France. Lesley McElhiney now figures her cat went prowling around a paper warehouse near home and ended up in a cargo container that went by ship across the Atlantic Ocean and was trucked to Nancy, a city in northeastern France near the border with Germany.
I'll be that was one pissed off kitty
Employees at a French lamination company found her in the container, checked her tags and called Emily's veterinarian back in the U.S., John Palarski. "It probably had access to food and water," Palarski said. "I doubt if it went three weeks without it. There must have been a lot of mice on the boat. Even if it was in the cargo department, you would assume there was water down there. She had to have something."
I've heard of cats going a very long time without food, she probably some water, maybe condensation
Palarski faxed the cat's vaccination records to French authorities to help remove her from quarantine, but the family is wondering exactly how they will retrieve the pet. Emily will need a health certificate from France to return home, and she will have to go through quarantine again on entering the United States, Palarski said.
"Papers, please."
"The only thing we can think right now is buying a plane ticket," McElhiney said. "She already cost us some the first time we got her from the humane society. She's getting to be an expensive little thing."
No cost is too much to save her from the French
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2005 14:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under:
A little boy and girl go trick or treating. They knock on the door of this house and the man who answers it says, "Well, you two are awful cute. Who are you supposed to be?"
"We're Jack and Jill" she replied.
The man says, "You can't be Jack and Jill, you're black!"
So, they go off and a while later they come back dressed differently. They ring the doorbell and once again and the man opens the door.
"Well now, that is just darn cute. Who are you this time?"
"We're Hansel and Gretel" says the little boy.
"Well, I hate to disappoint you son, but you can't be Hansel and Gretel because you're black."
Heads hung low, they leave. Not too much later the man hears the bell ring again. This time when he opens the door there stand the two children but this time they are BUCK NAKED.
"Oh my! And just who are you supposed to be now?!" he asks.
Continued on Page 49
At his age, he'll be using an IV...
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Sylvester Stallone is attached to star in "Rambo IV," the first film about the one-man killing machine since 1988. Bring a good supply of body bags...
Stallone, 59, recently announced he would revisit another franchise when he begins filming "Rocky Balboa," the sixth film in the 30-year-old boxing series, in December. Murdoch! I'm coming to get you!
"Rambo IV" centers on former Vietnam vet John Rambo, who is living a reclusive life back home in the U.S. But when a girl goes missing, he is forced to abandon his quiet lifestyle and take justice into his own hands. "What you call hell, he calls home."
No director is attached, and the screenplay is in the early stages. The indepedently produced $50 million film is set to begin shooting in the spring in Mexico and the U.S.
Posted by: Kayne West ||
10/28/2005 11:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under:
#9
More detail -- I hear that Rambo IV has him coming out of retirement from his country home to take on kidnappers who are... you guessed it, white supremacists.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/28/2005 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Dont forget..
...and let by an evangelical (sp?) christian TV preacher...
#17
You know, living in California it's easy to forget that our nation is absolutely crawling with white supremacists lead by charismatic evangelical preachers. Good thing the boys and girls in Hollywood are around to set the record straight.
#19
The neo-nazi conspiracy theorist Carol Valentine is a leading proponent of the claim that the 9-11 attacks were the work of the US government and that the planes were remote-controlled.
The fascist slut uses the name "Snake Plisken" for her super-secret inside source (probably herself).
(The louse-ridden SS field whore has a site but I refuse to link to it.)
#20
Rambo IV is really going to be exciting. We get to see him join AARP and collect social security benefits. Action sequences involve vast amounts of prune juice and bran.
#21
For me Sly is badly underestimated as a filmmaker - I've liked all his films pretty much. He has to achieve despite the whims of the policratic, despotic Hollywood cabals or propaganda Bureaus in addition to satisfying his core fans. I LIKED "ROCKY V", Sly!
#22
Yeah, but I read this am that Clint Eastwood(?) is going to do a movie based on the book "The Flags of our Fathers", the WW II book about the USMC and Navy Corpsman at the (second) flag rasing at Iwo Jima, memorialized at the Marine Corps Memorial in D.C. (Already filming, according to Mrs. Bobby).
Great book; like reading 'Schindler's List' in paperback, except the heroes are kids from American, not a German capitalist.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/28/2005 23:15 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Since when have they officially been maintaining systematic scientific records with any ability to track depressions originating off the African/Atlantic region? My guess since satellite imagry has been available. Prior to that, it was hit or miss as ship records were rolled up to provide information on local conditions. So the real record is rather short to draw 'historical' conclusions.
ABU DHABI â This is one World Bank report that the UAE government may want to have a close look at. Two out of three UAE nationals who leave the shores of the country are skilled workers, a sure indication of brain drain having taken roots in the UAE.
According to the report, the UAE ranks a high fourth in the list of nations losing out skilled workers to other countries, with 67 per cent of the UAE nationals seeking jobs in other countries falling under the educated category. On the flip side, the UAE, however, fares better in retention of nationals, accounting for one of the lowest rates of migration across the globe.
In the rankings for the ratio of skilled migrants to overall migrants in the year 2000, Qatar and Kuwait are ahead of the UAE, occupying the second and third places respectively behind Taiwan. Saudi Arabia is in the seventh place and Oman ninth, meaning that the top 10 are made up of five GCC countries.
Some may point to the results of the survey - which is perhaps the most comprehensive ever done on the international migration of educated workers - as evidence that countries carefully choose the type of workers they admit as immigrants.
The unskilled ones go to France.
The United Kingdom tops the table for the most people quitting their home country, with over 1.4 million graduates working overseas. India is third after the Philippines with over one million skilled workers living elsewhere. India also has one of the lowest migration rates at 4.3 per cent, while Guyana has the worst record, sending out 89 per cent of it's skilled workers.
The findings are likely to create a sense of ambivalence for the UAE Government. On the one hand, the low rate of migration could be read as "all is well," and on the other, it could be a matter of concern that those who do leave overwhelmingly tend to be the most educated workers. Since the report covers workers aged 25 and above, the migrants do not include the bulk of those who temporarily go abroad to school and university.
It is likely that one reason for the high percentage of skilled workers opting to stay out could be the potential mobility of educated UAE nationals who have internationally-recognised qualifications. The Government could also highlight the large influx of skilled labourers who move to the UAE as redressing the loss of homegrown educated people. No one at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs could be reached for comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/28/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm a bit confused by this report: Is Britain a net gainer or a net loser in this flow of trained brains around the world?
Saudi Arabia announced the launch of its first campaign to combat domestic abuse with the inauguration of the first center to protect children, women and the elderly in Mecca on Wednesday. Sheikh Saleh al Turki, chair of the social development committee part of Mecca city council and head of al Bar association in Jeddah, said the move was in response to a June resolution by the council calling an authority to be established to protect children, women, and the elderly from domestic violence. A number of working groups would also be created to oversee medical, judicial and preventive measures, he added.
Cases of domestic abuse and slavery, denounced in international reports, will not be solved, al Turki indicated by denial, but rather, constructively addressing these problems in a transparent way and encouraging every individual feels responsible for their family and society and their countryâs international reputation. The center will welcome victims of domestic abuse for a temporary period whilst their case was being processed or awaiting peaceful resolution. Several government authorities including hospitals, police, social and educational associations were expected to forward cases. Runaway girls will also be admitted and a study will conducted to determine what causes youngsters flee their homes.
Fatima Salih Ghazali, who will head the center which can welcome up to 151 individuals at one time, told Asharq al Awsat the center would not serve as a permanent shelter but principally to provide a comfortable peaceful atmosphere for those suffering from domestic abuse before a suitable solution is found. Individuals will receive psychological and health support from specialists and receive assurances as to their safety.
I dunno why, but I have this vision of some poor woman showing up, battered and bruised and bloody, to be read to from the Koran by some mufti until the old man shows up to collect her and bump her off.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
bet they need the hubs' permission to attend
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2005 0:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Corrective action will consist of Imams showing wayward husbands how to inflict similar beatings without leaving any visible marks.
#3
Al-Reuters: "Center shut down as officials declared the massive number of responses overwhelmed the social workers and their limited budget resources."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States for the first time will base a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan starting in 2008, the U.S. Navy said on Thursday, after the only country ever hit with atomic bombs dropped its long-standing resistance to the move.
The oldest aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy, the USS Kitty Hawk, is based in Japan in order to keep a nonnuclear-powered carrier there, but it is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2008. Keeping an aircraft carrier permanently based in Japan has been an enduring element of U.S. security strategy in the Pacific.
Japan, whose cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by U.S. atomic bombs in 1945 at the end of World War Two, had been reluctant to serve as a base for nuclear-powered warships. Japan has been a staunch opponent of nuclear weapons.
#2
Sounds like the Japanese may have another mission per BMD for their PATRIOT batteries. In any case, a CVN CBG should also be based here in Guam - I doubt the Chicoms will stop only at TAIWAN iff any regional shooting war breaks out, moreso iff Taiwan keeps modernizing and improving its mil capabilities, espec making its AF and Navy nuke-capable. China may choose to attack the Philipines wid out having to control the whole of that country, and then later into WESTPAC-CENTPAC to cutoff the US MLL/MLR to Japan and Asia. The USA is making a serious gamble if it believes one CV can handle worse-case both a simul TAIWAN and NK, etal. crises in Asia.
#5
Kitty's worn out. It might better go to India, like the LPD we're selling them instead of de-commissioning.
This is not part of the Okinawa deal, but a reflection of the anxiety in Japan over thr rise of belligerance in China. The nuclear thing understandably raises lots of hair on the back of Japanese necks. To overcome it means they plenty worried, kemosabe.
#6
Japan has 51 commercial nuclear power reactors that provide one-third of the country's electricity. With few natural resources of its own, Japan imports nearly all its fuel oil.
Since the oil crisis of 1973, successive governments have made concerted efforts to become self-sufficient. By the year 2010, Japan wants to produce 42% of its energy in nuclear plants.
Kind of "Do as we say, not as we do". And if their big beef is with nuclear weapons, I don't think carrier air wings are tasked with delivering them any more.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2005 8:30 Comments ||
Top||
#7
cant Japan make a carrier that can transform into a giant Humaniod fighting robot??
Posted by: Shep UK ||
10/28/2005 8:57 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Japanese attitudes have changed. I guess they consider US nukes the lesser of evils to Chinese domination. I still remember the crowds lined up at the Kadena fenceline each time the B-52s flew in due to Typhoons at other Pacific bases, and the extreme sensitivity to any nuclear powered vessels or weapons at Yokosuka.
Posted by: ed ||
10/28/2005 13:44 Comments ||
Top||
#11
BTW, it well past time for Japan to drop the pretense of not having carriers. They could easily support 2-3 carriers the size of Kitty Hawk and dominate Asian sealanes. Instead they build farcical ships such as 13,500 ton helicopter "destroyers"
Posted by: ed ||
10/28/2005 13:55 Comments ||
Top||
Japan should possess a military not just to defend itself, a role to which it has been restricted for nearly 60 years, but to play a greater role in global security, the main ruling party said on Friday.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party proposed revising the country's pacifist constitution, which has not been changed since it was written by U.S. Occupation authorities just after World War Two.
...
Under the LDP proposal, the 240,000 member Self-Defense Force (Jiei-tai) would be renamed "Jiei-gun." The phrase translates as the same in English, but the word "gun" makes clear it is a military force.
...
A public opinion survey published earlier this month showed that a majority of Japanese favored revising the constitution, but nearly two-thirds opposed changing the pacifist Article Nine.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/28/2005 14:26 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Thanks Pappy, didn't know that. That's a fairly serious force projector. Wonder how the mothballed LPHs are aging.
#14
They'd likely hold out fairly well for 10-15 years in mothballs. Problem is, they have 600 psi steam propulsion systems and the Navy's ditching ships with that as quickly as they can. Loss of corporate knowledge to soon follow.
#15
The Indians will be happy to provide whatever consulting assistance the USN requires in respect of 600 psi systems. It looks like they're going to have a lot of experience with it soon.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Three indicted associates of Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay are being asked to hand over to a Texas prosecutor all their e-mails from 2002 in an investigation into an alleged campaign finance scheme. DeLay, meanwhile, railed against Democrats in a letter Thursday accusing them of engaging in "the politics of personal destruction."
The latest subpoenas issued by District Attorney Ronnie Earle request correspondence to and from e-mail addresses belonging to John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren RoBold. He did not ask DeLay to provide e-mails. Colyandro was executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee founded by DeLay. Ellis runs DeLay's national fund-raising committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, and RoBold is a Republican fund-raiser in Washington.
Prosecutors allege that DeLay and his associates funneled corporate money given to the Texas committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee, which sent it back to seven GOP candidates for the Texas Legislature. Texas law prohibits corporate money from being used directly in a political campaign.
Corporate money is "soft money", can't be used in Texas (although there is some question as to if this happened before that law came into effect). The "soft money was sent to the RNC which sent it to states where it could be used. The RNC then sent "hard money" to Texas, which is legal. The Dems did the same thing.
DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro are charged with conspiracy and money laundering. Colyandro and RoBold are charged with accepting or making restricted corporate donations.
DeLay stepped down as House majority leader after he was indicted Sept. 28. He has launched an aggressive defense, seeking to have the judge removed because of his Democratic political activity and accusing Earle, a Democrat, of pursuing the case for political reasons. In a letter prepared for the Republican Party newsletter in DeLay's home county of Fort Bend, he linked his case to investigations into possible misconduct by White House adviser Karl Rove and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
"What we're fighting is so much larger than a single court case or a single district attorney in Travis County," DeLay wrote. "We are witnessing the criminalization of conservative politics."
The subpoenas seek records from DeLay's political committee in Texas, including billing information and subscriber and recipient details. The prosecutor also has repeated a request for telephone records from DeLay's daughter, Danielle DeLay Ferro, a political consultant who did work for DeLay's Texas committee. "It's interesting that they're trying to find evidence at this late date," said Ellis' attorney J.D. Pauerstein, who on Thursday filed motions to get the charges against Ellis dismissed.
Ronnie is desperately trying to find evidence of a crime which didn't happen. Turns out the list of candidates he said he had doesn't exist.
Earle, who conducts the grand jury, did not comment on the latest subpoenas.
DeLay's legal team, meanwhile, sought subpoenas for three Texas officials - state Democratic party chair Charles Soechting; David Reisman, executive director of the Texas Ethics Commission; and Chris Elliott, chairman of the Travis County Democratic Party in Austin.
The officials may be asked to testify at a hearing Tuesday to decide whether state District Judge Bob Perkins should continue to preside over DeLay's case. DeLay wants the judge removed because of contributions Perkins has made to the Democratic candidates and causes.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2005 15:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
DeLay, meanwhile, railed against Democrats in a letter Thursday accusing them of engaging in "the politics of personal destruction."
That's pretty weak. What's DeLay's angle? I mean he has to know that a term like that isn't going to shame the likes of Ronnie Earle.
#2
Ronnie "Jim Bob Cooter" is making a career out indicting the opposition and try to look non-partisan. Just lookin out for the interests of the American people--give me a break.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, resigned on Friday after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges related to the CIA leak investigation. Libby was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements, court documents show.
The indictments were not directly related to the actual leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's name. (Read the full text of the indictment)
"These are very serious charges," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. "They suggest a senior White House aide put politics ahead of our national security and the rule of law. This case is bigger than the leak of highly classified information. It is about how the Bush administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq," Senate minority leader Harry Reid said in a prepared statement. These indictments are the first in a nearly two-year investigation. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has scheduled a 2 p.m. ET news conference.
A news release by Fitzgerald said Libby allegedly lied "about how and when in 2003 he learned and subsequently disclosed to reporters then-classified information concerning the employment of Valerie Wilson by the Central Intelligence Agency." It said Libby "lied to FBI agents who interviewed him" in October and November 2003; committed perjury "while testifying under oath before the grand jury" in March 2004; and "engaged in obstruction of justice by impeding the grand jury's investigation into the unauthorized disclosure -- or 'leaking' -- of Valerie Wilson's affiliation with the CIA to various reporters in the spring of 2003." "When citizens testify before grand juries they are required to tell the truth," Fitzgerald said in the statement. "Without the truth, our criminal justice system cannot serve our nation or its citizens."
There was no immediate response from Libby to the charges. His attorneys have previously denied that he was guilty of any criminal conduct.
Meanwhile, President Bush's top political strategist Karl Rove will not be indicted Friday by the federal grand jury investigating the leak, sources close to the investigation tell CNN. But, the sources said, Rove is not out of legal jeopardy as the matter is still under investigation. Lawyers involved in the case have told CNN that Fitzgerald is focusing on whether Rove committed perjury. Rove testified four times in front of the grand jury.
'No decision'
Rove's attorney Robert Luskin issued a statement Friday that Fitzgerald "has advised Mr. Rove that he has made no decision about whether or not to bring charges." "Mr. Rove will continue to cooperate fully with the Special Counsel's efforts to complete the investigation," Luskin's statement said. "We are confident that when the Special Counsel finishes his work, he will conclude that Mr. Rove has done nothing wrong." As Rove departed his home in Washington Friday morning, he told reporters, "I am going to have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend and hope you do too."
Libby's indictment came at a time when Bush's approval ratings already are at a low ebb. This week alone the president's embattled Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers, withdrew, and the number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war surpassed 2,000. Bush suggested at the beginning of the investigation that he would fire anyone on his staff who was involved in the leak. He appeared to set a higher standard in July, saying, "If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration."
The event that triggered the legal and political quagmire that has put the White House on edge was a syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak, published on July 14, 2003, about Joe Wilson. A week earlier, Wilson, a retired U.S. diplomat, publicly claimed that Bush administration officials, intent on building a case to depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, hyped unsupported claims that Hussein sought to buy uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger.
Novak, who also is a CNN contributor, was writing about the CIA's decision to send Wilson to the African nation in February 2002 to investigate the claims, which later wound up in Bush's 2003 State of Union address. About midway through his column, Novak noted that Wilson "never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."
An angry Wilson accused administration officials of deliberately leaking his wife's identity as a CIA operative -- thus ending her career as an undercover agent -- to retaliate against him for going public with his criticism. Both Rove and Libby have denied leaking Plame's name. Deliberately disclosing the identity of a CIA operative can be a crime, and Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, was named in September 2003 as a special prosecutor to investigate after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recused his office to avoid any conflict of interest.
#1
Moral of the story: don't lie to a federal prosecutor. I read the indictment. I do not understand what in the world Libby was thinking. You cannot lie to the FBI and a special prosecutor and expect to get away with it.
Prediction: he plea-bargains and does a little jail time. He can't go to trial a) because he'll be convicted on all counts and go away for years and b) it will embarrass the hell out of Cheney, and Libby won't do that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/28/2005 14:34 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I guess only Democratic Presidents are allowed to lie under oath....
#3
Nobody cares about Scooter Libby. Except maybe his Mom. He'll land on his feet in a cushy consultancy, and I will enjoy watching the Left chewing its arms off 'cos they can't have Karl's head on a pike outside the Media Matters HQ.
#5
Whatever. Can we get back now to winning the WOT and preventing the Iranians from acquiring nukes, if they have't already?
Posted by: Matt ||
10/28/2005 14:46 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Scooter, meet Martha. A little needlepoint for the lonely days ahead?
Posted by: john ||
10/28/2005 14:56 Comments ||
Top||
#7
If he lied to the feds and under oath, shame on him and he'll have to pay the price. That's the difference between conservatives and liberals. The liberals thing the rules only apply to someone else, conservatives appy them equally.
#11
In politics, it's almost never the "crime", which has been shown not to be a crime (the"outing"), it's the "cover up" that generates the charges.
Now the howling begins anew.
Will Bush let the ankle-biters and shills and political whores of the Left derail him, or will he do as VDH suggests in the "Crossing the Rubicon" piece:
"He can choose either to be nicked and slowly bled to death in his second term, or to bare his fangs and like some cornered carnivore start slashing back."
Our asses hang in the balance of that question.
As for the Dhimmidonks, who would happily fuck the country into oblivion for petty political gain, I look forward to CWII and their ghastly and excruciatingly painful ends.
#13
Fitzgerald was directly asked if Valerie was a covert agent. This is his response:
"At all relevant times from January 1, 2002 through July 2003, Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilsonâs affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community.
The responsibilities of certain CIA employees required that their association with the CIA be kept secret; as a result, the fact that these individuals were employed by the CIA was classified. Disclosure of the fact that such individuals were employed by the CIA had the potential to damage the national security in ways that ranged from preventing the future use of those individuals in a covert capacity, to compromising intelligence-gathering methods and operations, and endangering the safety of CIA employees and those who dealt with them."
Yes, but was Valerie one of those "certain CIA employees"? He won't answer that because she wasn't. And "classified" does not make you covert.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2005 16:13 Comments ||
Top||
#16
I've been wading through the leftie blogs (don't worry, I've had my shots and took a shower right afterwards). A fair bit of disappointment, tempered with the hope that this is but round 1.
I can't tell based on the press conference and indictment. Seems like Mr. Fitzgerald (we know him in Chicago, he's a top-notch prosecutor, and very professional) labored long and hard to produce this.
Libby: if he's guilty, he goes to jail. As said above, nobody gets a free pass for lying under oath.
Rove: who can say? The term of the present grand jury is over effective today. If Mr. Fitzgerald wants to go after anyone else, he has to empanel a new GJ. He could do that, of course, but that involves re-presenting the evidence. Is that merely an inconvenience or more substantial? My guess is, he goes after Libby and sees what happens before going back to a new GJ.
Hannert / Wurmser: why weren't they indicted? Same office as Libby, etc. Are they innocent, are they cooperating, or does Fitzgerald not have enough evidence?
Joe Wilson: liar, or frickin' liar? Looks like the latter.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/28/2005 17:03 Comments ||
Top||
#17
It seems like Fitz is hoping to scare someone into giving him the goods on the leaker by sending Libby to jail. Else, why would he have waited till the last minute to bring the indictment?
Libby was foolish to have lied. However, as he was the only indictee, whatever he lied about must not have been that important as learning it did not provide Fitz with enough to indict the leaker, if any. Making Libby doubly foolish. I suspect Libby does fall on his sword to help the Pres and get this out of the papers and that is the end of it. Unfortunately it means another round of Wilson on TV.
#18
I listened to part of the press conference this afternoon on NPR. The reporters and the NPR commentators were deperate to find some thin wedge to get Fitzgerald to actually answer anything about which they'd been making a fuss all this time. No bites. As Fitzgerald said, "All of us in this office have full time jobs back home that we want to get back to," or something to that effect. It didn't sound like there was any meat there at all.
#19
There's enough he spent at least a year longer than he wanted to tracking things down. He just can't get enough of a case to prove it to a jury. Otherwise he'd not be making all those hints about a new GJ.
#21
Sorry,you guys can't smear Fitzgerald like you smeared D.A. Earle.Fitz was appointed by a crazy liberal loonie by the name of...John Ashcroft.
Posted by: King ||
10/28/2005 20:43 Comments ||
Top||
#22
Where is all the smear on Fitzgerald King? It looks to me like you came here with a talking point, and sorry if Kos didn't provide you with the proper plan.
#24
Y'all may want to check out Donald Sensing's take on the situation; it's at his weblog.
Posted by: Phil ||
10/28/2005 21:59 Comments ||
Top||
#25
This case is bigger than the leak of highly classified information. It is about how the Bush administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq,"
Harry Reid is spinning himself into the ground. This case is, in fact, about much less than a leak of classified information. No one is charged with leaking anything. Nor does it have anything to do with Iraq. It's about Libby apparently trying to lie his way out of having to describe otherwise defensible behavior. (You can expect lots of Martha Stewart comparisons before this is over).
Reid gives off more than a whiff of desperation.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
10/28/2005 22:09 Comments ||
Top||
EFL:Maybe tomorrow? Or Sunday? Or next week? Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease! The MSM at it's very best...
WASHINGTON - Karl Rove escaped indictment Friday in the CIA leak case but remained under investigation. The embattled White House braced for charges against Vice President Dick Cheney's top adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Trying to put a brave face on one of the darkest days of his presidency, Bush traveled to Norfolk, Va., to deliver a speech on terrorism. "Thanks for the chance to get out of Washington," he said.
Rove's lawyer said he was told by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's office that investigators would continue their probe into the aide's conduct. Fitzgerald's office said Rove would not be indicted Friday, said people close to the Republican strategist, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy. Hey. Isn't that kinda what got these guys in trouble in the first place?
Rove is deputy White House chief of staff and Bush's closest adviser. The news was far less favorable for Cheney's chief of staff. White House colleagues expected an indictment charging Libby with false statements in the probe. Some lawyers have raised the specter of broader conspiracy charges. Any trial would shine a spotlight on the secret deliberations of Bush and his team as they built the case for war against Iraq. Ask him about those blown up levees in New Orleans and the hunter/killer dolphins while you're at it. Bush ordered U.S. troops to war in March 2003, saying Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction program posed a grave and immediate threat to the United States. No such weapons were found. The U.S. military death toll climbed past 2,000 this week.
Fitzgerald and his investigators have been trying to determine whether Rove, Libby or any other administration officials knowingly revealed the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame or lied about their involvement to investigators. Her husband is diplomat Joseph Wilson, an opponent of the Iraq war who challenged Bush's assertion that Saddam was trying to secure nuclear materials. ...and a charter member of the Irrelevant Hall of Fame.
The lack of an indictment against Rove is a mixed outcome for the administration. It keeps in place the president's top adviser, the architect of his political machine whose fingerprints can be found on virtually every policy that emerges from the White House. The evil genius bastard! But leaving Rove in legal jeopardy keeps Bush and his team working on problems like the Iraq war, a Supreme Court vacancy and slumping poll ratings beneath a dark cloud of uncertainty. So what is he supposed to do? Stop working on all that shit?
Libby is considered Cheney's alter ego, a chief architect of the war with Iraq. Any trial of Libby would give the public a rare glimpse into Cheney's influential role in the West Wing and his behind-the-scenes lobbying for war. Though he has worked in relative obscurity, Libby is one of the administration's influential advisers because of his proximity to Cheney, one of the most powerful vice presidents in history. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I learned it all at Halliburton! Bow down before me! After weeks of hand-wringing about possible indictments in the investigation, before he left for the speech on terrorism in Norfolk, the president chatted with Cheney and Rove in the Oval Office along with smiling aides. Hand wringing? I kinda doubt that. Liberals "hand wring". Rove would probably dope slap anybody doing any "hand wringing" around him.
Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, said, "Mr. Rove will continue to cooperate fully with the special counsel's efforts to complete the investigation. We are confident that when the special counsel finishes his work, he will conclude that Mr. Rove has done nothing wrong." Rove's legal problems stem in part from the fact that he failed initially to disclose to prosecutors a conversation in which he told Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper that Plame worked for the CIA. Rove says the conversation slipped his mind. Should've said he drank a lot of ice tea that day and had to hit the bathroom a lot. That worked for Gore. Or that "what's the meaning of "is" thing. We all know who that worked for. Senior Republicans inside and outside the White House have wondered whether the case has been a distraction for Rove. They point to the failed Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers, which was derailed by conservative activists, many of them allies of Rove. He helped build Bush's political career on the strength of ties to the religious conservative movement. Both charming and sharp-tongued, Rove is well liked by his colleagues and respected by his opponents, a take-no-prisoners political operative who is steadfastly loyal to his boss and relentlessly partisan in his approach. He didn't graduate from college, but is one of the most well-read White House advisers. He spent most of his career in Texas, but quickly established himself as a Washington insider. He didn't even graduate from college and he's kicking our asses! How can this be! White House credibility has been on the line from the start. Spokesman Scott McClellan, after checking with Rove and Libby, assured reporters that neither man was involved in the leak. Months later, reports surfaced that suggested they were involved. On July 7, the president told reporters that if anyone in his administration committed a crime in connection with the leak, that person "will no longer work in my administration." Weeks later, he backpedaled from that assertion. See! He lied! See! See!
Columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's name and her CIA status on July 14, 2003. That was five days after Novak talked to Rove and eight days after Plame's husband, former ambassador Wilson, published an opinion article in the Times accusing the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq. Wilson has accused the White House of revealing his wife's identify to undercut his allegations against Bush. Karen Finney, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said Friday, "The American people deserve answers directly from President Bush about what role his advisers played in manipulating intelligence to win support for the war in Iraq, orchestrating efforts to smear opponents of that war and conspiring to cover it up."
Posted by: Some guy in Iowa ||
10/28/2005 13:34 Comments ||
Top||
#2
great highlights. Just like the buggy was on its way to extinction the day the automobile was born, the MSM is already on its way out, just a matter of how long it takes for the new-fangled internet to kill it. The MSM whistles happily as it digs its own grave.
#3
Hey, Karen. How come when Democrats get bagged committing perjury, or lying on national TV, or walking out the door with classified documents down their pants, or drowning women in cars, they don't have to resign?
Just wondering...
#4
I'm confused. Scooter Libby was a complete unknown until his name started popping up in relation to this affair.
Now he is a freakin' king of the White House, the guy behind the president (no, not Rove, cause he is not under indicted). All the donks and MSM are in a feeding frenzy cause Rove is coated with teflon.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/28/2005 18:34 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The EU's H7N1 vaccine is the first to be developed using a technique called ``reverse genetics'' that is simpler, safer and more precise than the traditional production method of injecting the virus into eggs, according to the EU. The bloc contributed 2.1 million euros ($2.6 million) to the project.
Clinical trials on the vaccine are expected to begin next spring
No eggs is good -- it can be made much more quickly, and won't trigger an allergic reaction in those sensitive to feathers or egg proteins. I hope the clinicals go well, as it looks like the H5N1 strain won't have mutated to a pandemic version until at least next year. (Although I still will keep my pantry stocked throughout this flu season, just in case.)
#5
A full pantry is good always TW. But like it has been noted at RantBurg before:
1. Don't pick your noose
2. If you must pick your nose use a towelette
3. Don't pick anyone else's nose.
4. If you must pick a strangers nose, use a Craftsmans tool.
5. Air is a killer, slow down your breathing.
6. Lack of Oxygen is a killer, steal the green tanks.
7. Avoid crowds.
B. Avoid clods. iX. Weird kill the flu
J. Gargel loudly.
#8
Shipman, somewhere your numbering system seemed to get creative. However, I'm four square with all of the items despite the non-standard, working outside the box, creative outlining. I have a Dremel drill for nose-picking.
#9
Great now they have a vaccine our US UK and Aussie govts can spend millions dishing it out to poor starving Indonesians (who have more millionaires than Australia on Java but who don't share it around) , Earthquake hit Islamists in Pakistan (who try to blow us up on a good day), Africans, Tsunami-ravaged Asians and the rest of the world's losers.
But of course they won't provide any for our population. Just enough for 'essential' workers like... oh, police, politicians, health-care workers. You know, the essential ones...
A Texas employment agency was sentenced to five years of probation for hiring illegal immigrants to work at the nation's top producer of military battlefield rations, federal prosecutors said Thursday. The Tollin Group was also fined $20,000 and ordered to pay $414,000 in civil penalties Wednesday. It has been barred from Department of Defense contracts for three years.
The San Antonio-based company, which does business as Remedy Intelligent Staffing, pleaded guilty in January to hiring illegal immigrants and trying to cover it up by falsifying employment eligibility forms. The workers were hired for Wornick Co., which makes MREs â or "meals refused by Ethiopeans ready-to-eat."
The investigation was initiated in February 2003 after an al-Qaida operative was arrested with information pointing to McAllen and Wornick as terrorist targets. Wornick had been awarded a $47 million contract to produce more than 1.1 million MREs for U.S. forces in Iraq. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force ran background checks on Wornick employees and found hundreds of temporary employees with fraudulent documentation. No direct link to terrorism was found.
At least they didn't subcontract out to China or Iran.
#2
Damn stright! What is something 'extra' had been added to the MRE's?
Send the CEO, CFO, and COO of The Tollin Group and Remedy Intelligent Staffing to 10 years in pound-me-in-the-ass prison. Oh and strip their bank accounts, take their homes/cars/property too!
Entire article at link, this is the introdcution. Yale Global Online and a UC-Berkeley professor, so salt to taste.
Every day, countless commentators prophesize the ascendance of the world's next superpowers, China and India, the two "Asian giants" shaking off their ancient slumber and rising to the call of the 21st century. According to popular punditry, their place in the firmament of globalization's success stories is already guaranteed. Yet economist Pranab Bardhan argues that a much more complicated picture belies the rosy visions of optimists. In China, rural and urban inequality grows at alarming rates, stirring unrest amongst those hundreds of millions who remain impoverished. In fact, China, responsible for only 6 percent of world trade, has actually lost manufacturing jobs in the past ten years. Meanwhile, India's much-vaunted hi-tech sector accounts for less than one quarter of one percent of the country's labor force. The nation still boasts the world's highest illiteracy rate, while poverty reduction continues to slow. In short, Bardhan suggests, only patience and struggle â not destiny â can guide India and China to the level of superpowers. â YaleGlobal
#1
I'm not completely up on economics, but even I see some problems with this guy's interpretations:
"India's much-vaunted hi-tech sector accounts for less than one quarter of one percent of the country's labor force."
Yes, but what percent of India's GDP do they account for?
"... while poverty reduction continues to slow."
Implies poverty reduction still continues, despite India's high birth rate.
While I agree that India and China are still not ready for first-world status, Bardhan clearly sees things through a Marxist lens.
Apparently, this doesn't happen in first-world countries.
ISLAMABAD - More than 30 quake survivors have died of deadly tetanus infections in three government-run hospitals in the garrison town of Rawalpindi near Islamabad, a news report said on Thursday.
The Daily News quoted a health official as saying that the deaths took place due to the shortage of the anti-tetanus globulin (ATG), a vaccine that is used to check the infectious disease among the injured. âWe canât do anything as we are getting the supply (of ATG) in limited numbers from the National Institute of Health (NIH),â said Dr. Shahzad Rehan, assistant medical superintendent of Rawalpindi General Hospital.
He said 18 cases of tetanus - an acute infectious disease of the nervous system that occurs when wounds are contaminated - were reported in three hospitals of Rawalpindi where survivors of the earthquake were being treated. Five deaths of killer tetanus that cause severe muscular spasms and contractions have already reported.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed only 22 deaths and 111 patients infected with tetanus. âWe believe that around 3 per cent of total injured are infected with tetanus as wounds of many survivors remained in the dirt of debris for many days,â Sacha Bootsma told DPA. She also expressed concern over the supply of ATG to the affected area, saying âbecause of poor road links, the delivery of vaccine is a big challengeâ.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/28/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Lockjaw is an ugly, ugly way to die. My grandfather took a month to die that way back in the old country after the train he was thrown off of for being an uppity Jew ran over his legs (the story gets worse, but y'all would never believe it anyway -- life was very interesting over there in the bad old days, and I much prefer being here now).
New pledges of aid announced yesterday for survivors of the Kashmir earthquake, which left more than 54,000 dead in Pakistan and India, aren't enough to meet the needs of those facing freezing conditions, Oxfam said.
"How much would be enough?"
"How much you got?"
I'm reminded of the scene at the end of every episode of The Jetsons, when George pulls a $20 out for Jane and she grabs the wallet instead...
Donors promised a further $579 million in Geneva yesterday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an e-mailed statement received today. The meeting was called after the UN received less than a third of its earlier $312 million appeal for recovery from the quake. ``It appears that almost half of the money pledged today is for longer-term reconstruction work which, although vital, won't save a single one of the thousands of lives currently hanging in the balance,'' Oxfam, a U.K.-based charity, said in an e-mailed statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"do you know what it takes to bribe the ISI to feed the people?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2005 0:51 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Let me get this straight. We're supposed to shell out additional hundreds of millions of dollars to a country that diverted unknown billions of dollars into a needless and now well-proliferated nuclear weapons program, instead of civil code enforcement or national disaster preparedness?
#3
Fox News this morning reported the UN Aid helicopters are grounded due to lack of money. I agree with Zenster, we don't need to give them one more penny.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/28/2005 7:35 Comments ||
Top||
This is in addition to a military budget that consumes the lion's share of government resources (more than fifty percent of overall budget).
There is no need for aid. There is a need for reality in Pakistan.
Posted by: john ||
10/28/2005 17:51 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Point, set and match, john. These turds aren't hurting for bucks. They could give a sh!t about the little guy as the pursue their wet dreams of being a regional psycho-hive power.
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.
ABU DHABI â This is one World Bank report that the UAE government may want to have a close look at. Two out of three UAE nationals who leave the shores of the country are skilled workers, a sure indication of brain drain having taken roots in the UAE.
Saudi Arabia announced the launch of its first campaign to combat domestic abuse with the inauguration of the first center to protect children, women and the elderly in Mecca on Wednesday. Sheikh Saleh al Turki, chair of the social development committee part of Mecca city council and head of al Bar association in Jeddah, said the move was in response to a June resolution by the council calling an authority to be established to protect children, women, and the elderly from domestic violence. A number of working groups would also be created to oversee medical, judicial and preventive measures, he added. 
New pledges of aid announced yesterday for survivors of the Kashmir earthquake, which left more than 54,000 dead in Pakistan and India, aren't enough to meet the needs of those facing freezing conditions, Oxfam said. 
