and they still lost the Superbowl to the Giants this year…AP/Philly Inq
Bill Belichick has been illegally taping opponents’ defensive signals since he became the New England Patriots’ coach in 2000, according to Sen. Arlen Specter, who said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told him that during a meeting Wednesday.
“There was confirmation that there has been taping since 2000, when Coach Belichick took over,” Specter said.
Specter said Goodell gave him that information during the 1-hour, 40-minute meeting, which was requested by Specter so the commissioner could explain his reasons for destroying the Spygate tapes and notes.
“There were a great many questions answered by Commissioner Goodell,” Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters after the meeting. “I found a lot of questions unanswerable because of the tapes and notes had been destroyed.”
Now if only Arlen could spend that kind of time and effort investigating the lawbeaking of the Bush administration…
on the potential impact of RU-486 on domestic Christian terrorism: LINK
The answer to the question of who will they bomb instead of clinics and doctors is right hre:
When this kind of defeat and isolation happens, we’re usually wise to expect trouble. They’ll probably never give up on Planned Parenthood as the all-time all-star Personification of Absolute Evil in their perfervid little cosmological drama, but when abortion vanishes behind a wall of privacy, we can expect to see newly focused attempts to breach the wall of doctor-patient confidentiality, using every means at hand.
They’re already at it, as those who’ve been following the exploits of former Kansas attorney general Phill Kline can tell you. (Kline used his office to harass the state’s abortion doctors, requiring them to give up their case records to state review — a step that would have outed tens of thousands of women who’d had abortions). This is a preview of what doctors will be in for: Escalating attempts to use the law (or simple spying) to discover their treatment choices, open their files, and put their patients’ data on public record. We’ll see increased use of medical oversight and disciplinary boards to harass doctors and compile lists of women who’ve had abortions. To the degree this succeeds, it will set terrible precedents that will jeopardize everybody’s right to the confidentiality of their own medical records.
A senior US justice department official has reversed his position and now says using waterboarding while questioning terrorism suspects is not legal anymore, as he prepares to give evidence before a congressional hearing.
Steven Bradbury, acting head of the justice department’s office of legal counsel, said laws and other limits enacted since three detainees were subjected to the process have eliminated waterboarding, which makes an interrogation subject feel he is drowning, from what is legally allowed.
In outlawing simulated drowning during interrogation, Bradbury goes a step beyond the CIA director, Michael Hayden, who said current laws cast a doubt on the legality of the method, which some consider torture.
In preparing for his appearance later today before the House judiciary subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights and civil liberties, Bradbury said: “The set of interrogation methods authorised for current use is narrower than before, and it does not today include waterboarding.
“There has been no determination by the Justice Department that the use of waterboarding, under any circumstances, would be lawful under current law,” he said.
It is the first time the department has expressed such an opinion publicly.
the sudden turnabout might have something to do with this:
Senate votes to ban waterboarding
WASHINGTON – Congress on Wednesday moved to prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects, despite President Bush’s threat to veto any measure that limits the agency’s interrogation techniques.
The prohibition was contained in a bill authorizing intelligence activities for the current year, which the Senate approved on a 51-45 vote. It would restrict the CIA to the 19 interrogation techniques outlined in the Army field manual. That manual prohibits waterboarding, a method that makes an interrogation subject feel he is drowning.
The House had approved the measure in December. Wednesday’s Senate vote set up a confrontation with the White House, where Bush has promised to veto any bill that restricts CIA questioning.
Mr Ahmadinejad is expected to meet Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani and PM Nouri Maliki during his two-day visit, which is scheduled to begin on March 2.
The visit comes as Iran postponed talks with the US on Iraqi security.
Scientists have found a way to boost an organism’s natural anti-virus defences – effectively making its cells immune to flu and other potential killers.
The process cannot be carried out in human cells – but it could potentially aid the development of effective new anti-viral therapies.
It works by stimulating production of the protein interferon, the cell’s first line of defence against viruses.
The study, led by Canada’s McGill University, appears in Nature.
A leading human rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Thursday to stop the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft and performing supernatural acts.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the kingdom’s religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih, and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of “absurd charges that have no basis in law.”
Falih’s case underscores shortcomings in Saudi Arabia’s Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeated his threat to target missiles at neighbouring states if they site parts of the planned US missile shield.
Mr Putin said the US proposal to base interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic “threatens our national security”.
The Russian leader said earlier this week Moscow might target Ukraine if it sited elements of such a system.
WASHINGTON: U.S. fighter planes intercepted two Russian bombers, including one that buzzed an American aircraft carrier in the western Pacific during the weekend, The Associated Press has learned.
A U.S. military official says that one Russian Tupolev 95 flew directly over the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet (610 meters), while another bomber circled about 58 miles (93 kilometers) out. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the reports on the flights were classified as secret.
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Daily Star) – A number of Lebanese leaders and parties denounced Imad Mughniyeh‘s assassination and offered condolences to Hizbullah. Representatives from leftist, Islamist, and pro-Syrian parties paid their condolences to Hizbullah officials, who hosted a mourning service in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri said the killing was another challenge that Lebanon is destined to face since the 2005 assassination of his father, former Premier Rafik Hariri. Hariri said the war with Israel in the summer of 2006 was one of these. “The Lebanese people must unite in the face of such challenges,” he added.
Hariri offered his condolences to Hizbullah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora also offered his condolences to the resistance chief.
Fumes from 519 trailer and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi were — on average — about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In some trailers, the levels were nearly 40 times customary exposure levels, raising fears that residents could contract respiratory problems.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency — which supplied the trailers — should move people out quickly, with priority given to families with children, elderly people or anyone with asthma or other chronic conditions,
they shouldn’t have a problem finding real houses. what with all the empties due to foreclosures. ya think?
“U.S. officials said Thursday that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth’s atmosphere.”
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March.
U.S. officials said Thursday that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth’s atmosphere.
Shooting down a satellite is particularly sensitive because of the controversy surrounding China’s anti-satellite test last year, when Beijing shot down one of its defunct weather satellites, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and other countries.
The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media’s negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.
The Bush administration’s latest move is to simply hide the data. Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its “Best of the Web” awards. As Forbes explains, the government site provides an invaluable service to the public for accessing U.S. economic data:
This site is maintained by the Economics and Statistics Administration and combines data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, like GDP and net imports and exports, and the Census Bureau, like retail sales and durable goods shipments. The site simply links to the relevant department’s Web site. This might not seem like a big deal, but doing it yourself-say, trying to find retail sales data on the Census Bureau’s site-is such an exercise in futility that it will convince you why this portal is necessary.
Yet the Bush administration has decided to shut down this site because of “budgetary constraints,” effective March 1…
now that they’re nearly home free on fisa, the next issue going to be the cyber-space warriors:
Russian Hackers and Chinese Cyberspies
The news is everywhere. When Russian hackers were blamed for a wave of denial-of-service attacks against Estonian websites last spring, President Bush voiced concern that the United States would face the same risk. The national intelligence director, Michael McConnell, recently claimed a computer attack against a single U.S. bank could cause more economic harm than 9/11, and called for more National Security Agency surveillance of the internet. A CIA official followed up with a tale about cyber attackers causing multi-city power failures overseas. Some in the military believe Chinese cyberspies have already penetrated unclassified Pentagon computers.
ZIMBABWE’S annualised inflation rate rose to a record 66,212.3 per cent in December, dealing another blow to President Robert Mugabe’s efforts to pull the once prosperous African nation’s economy out of a deep crisis.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been on a downturn for the past eight years characterised by galloping inflation and shortages of basic foodstuffs such as sugar and cooking oil.
At least 80 percent of the population is living below the poverty threshold, often skipping meals to stretch their income, which frequently fails to cover basic needs.
PORTSMOUTH — Rochester doctor Terry Bennett has finally been paid by the Clinton campaign for rental of a Portsmouth building he owns. Now, he says he will donate the $500 check to Barack Obama’s campaign.
He said he’s doing it because he likes Obama, but also as a statement on the way he feels he was treated by the staff of the Clinton campaign.
`It was the last straw for Hillary Clinton for me,” said Bennett.
Bennett said he believes the only reason the Clinton campaign paid for renting his 236 Union St. storefront is because he became the “squeaky wheel,” contacting the Herald last week in frustration because he had not been paid for more than a month.
[…]
When Bennett’s story came out, other people contacted the Herald about unpaid bills from the Clinton campaign. Iowa resident Richard Reese is the owner of Top Job Services Inc., a cleaning service in Des Moines. His company was hired in November of last year, prior to the Iowa caucuses, to clean the Clinton campaign headquarters on a regular basis.
Reese provided the Herald with invoices and said he had not seen one penny of the $7,561.70 he is owed. As of Wednesday, he still hadn’t.
“I got a call on Sunday from the Clinton campaign who said they were putting the money in a two-day envelope,” said Reese. “Today is Wednesday, and I already got the mail, but there’s no check.”
SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo Inc. hopes media conglomerate News Corp. can rescue it from a Microsoft Corp. takeover — or at least prove the slumping Internet pioneer is worth more money than its unsolicited suitor wants to pay.
A News Corp. partnership could provide Yahoo with the escape hatch that the Sunnyvale-based company has been seeking since Microsoft pounced with its takeover bid two weeks ago.
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.
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The details of the proposed News Corp. alliance were still being worked out Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person didn’t want to be identified because the talks are considered confidential.
and wide stance larry get a wrist slap from the senate ethics <cough> committee:
Ethics panel says Craig acted improperly
WASHINGTON – The Senate Ethics Committee said Wednesday that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig acted improperly in connection with a men’s room sex sting last year and had brought discredit on the Senate.
In a letter to the Republican senator, the ethics panel said Craig’s attempt to withdraw his guilty plea after his arrest at a Minneapolis airport was an effort to evade legal consequences of his own actions.
Craig’s actions constitute “improper conduct which has reflected discreditably on the Senate,” the letter said.
In an e-mailed statement, Craig told The Associated Press he disagreed with the ethics panel’s action.
“While I am disappointed and strongly disagree with the conclusions reached by the Senate Ethics Committee, from the outset I have encouraged the committee to act in a timely fashion and they have done so. I will continue to serve the people of Idaho,” he said.
and they still lost the Superbowl to the Giants this year…AP/Philly Inq
Now if only Arlen could spend that kind of time and effort investigating the lawbeaking of the Bush administration…
on the potential impact of RU-486 on domestic Christian terrorism: LINK
The answer to the question of who will they bomb instead of clinics and doctors is right hre:
They’ll just go straight to the women.
Waterboarding is illegal, says US justice department official
the sudden turnabout might have something to do with this:
chimpster will veto it of course, and they don’t have the votes to override…the kabuki kontinues…just another cynical ploy.
.
Iranean President Ahmadinejad to visit Baghdad on March 2
Mr Ahmadinejad is expected to meet Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani and PM Nouri Maliki during his two-day visit, which is scheduled to begin on March 2.
The visit comes as Iran postponed talks with the US on Iraqi security.
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — The Coming Siege and Destruction of Mosul ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Virus Immunity? Maybe …
Guess who’s still killing witches in the 21st Century? Our good friends (well Bush’s buddies) the Saudis:
LINK
Something Condi might finally understand (or not): Cold War style saber rattling from Russia:
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WASHINGTON: U.S. fighter planes intercepted two Russian bombers, including one that buzzed an American aircraft carrier in the western Pacific during the weekend, The Associated Press has learned.
A U.S. military official says that one Russian Tupolev 95 flew directly over the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet (610 meters), while another bomber circled about 58 miles (93 kilometers) out. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the reports on the flights were classified as secret.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Well, yes, but the “interception” occurred AFTER the Russian planes had already buzzed the US ships.
The plain warning: Russia can send those boats to the bottom of the ocean any time they want.
It certainly looks like the US Navy is quietly panicking.
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (Daily Star) – A number of Lebanese leaders and parties denounced Imad Mughniyeh‘s assassination and offered condolences to Hizbullah. Representatives from leftist, Islamist, and pro-Syrian parties paid their condolences to Hizbullah officials, who hosted a mourning service in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri said the killing was another challenge that Lebanon is destined to face since the 2005 assassination of his father, former Premier Rafik Hariri. Hariri said the war with Israel in the summer of 2006 was one of these. “The Lebanese people must unite in the face of such challenges,” he added.
Hariri offered his condolences to Hizbullah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora also offered his condolences to the resistance chief.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
.
Not if your foe is Israel or the United States .
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
to where will they go?
CDC: Gulf Coast trailers have toxic air
they shouldn’t have a problem finding real houses. what with all the empties due to foreclosures. ya think?
and that broken satellite will be shot down
“U.S. officials said Thursday that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth’s atmosphere.”
.
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March.
U.S. officials said Thursday that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth’s atmosphere.
Shooting down a satellite is particularly sensitive because of the controversy surrounding China’s anti-satellite test last year, when Beijing shot down one of its defunct weather satellites, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and other countries.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
the economy’s in a rough patch according to the chimp…so what’s he do?
…Hides More Data, Shuts Down Website Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators:
for more of the BushCo™ information black holes see Bush Admin: What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt Us, 2007 Version by paul kiel at TPM.
now that they’re nearly home free on fisa, the next issue going to be the cyber-space warriors:
oh boy!…another cold war.
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ZIMBABWE’S annualised inflation rate rose to a record 66,212.3 per cent in December, dealing another blow to President Robert Mugabe’s efforts to pull the once prosperous African nation’s economy out of a deep crisis.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been on a downturn for the past eight years characterised by galloping inflation and shortages of basic foodstuffs such as sugar and cooking oil.
At least 80 percent of the population is living below the poverty threshold, often skipping meals to stretch their income, which frequently fails to cover basic needs.
Rhodesia
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
The consistently classy Clinton campaign:
Clinton camp reimburses; landlord to donate check to Obama campaign
rupurt making eyes at yahoo:
and wide stance larry get a wrist slap from the senate ethics <cough> committee:
l note two things:
IOKIYAR…still holds true, or maybe we should just say, ala Zandar1, IOKIYPolitician.
yahoo now gets to choose which evil empire to sell itself to. stockholders will do fine, but I wouldn’t want to be an employee in either case.
though there are fewer of them to worry about than before, yahoo just laid off 1000.