Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government
29 Aug 2008
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Why was Cheney's guy in Georgia before the war? By James Gerstenzang 26 Aug 2008 Joseph R. Wood, Dick Cheney's deputy assistant for national security affairs, was in Georgia shortly before the war began. But, the vice president's [sic] office says, he was there as part of a team setting up the vice president's just-announced visit to Georgia. The White House disclosed on Monday that Cheney would hurry over to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy next week, almost immediately after addressing the Republican National Convention on Labor Day. And so it was that a team from the vice president's office, U.S. security officials and others were in Georgia several days before the war began.

'NATO ships' funeral, a missile salvo away' 29 Aug 2008 NATO's naval squad is no match for Russia's Black Sea Fleet and would fall to pieces should the fleet launch a 'single missile salvo.' Former Russian commander Admiral Eduard Baltin said "a single missile salvo from the Moskva missile cruiser and two or three missile boats would be enough to annihilate the entire group." The one-time fleet commander was quoted by Ria Novosti as saying that the NATO squad looked better than they fought.

Russia tests stealth missile that could penetrate US shield 29 Aug 2008 Russia has successfully tested a stealth missile able to penetrate the US defence system being built in Poland. Kremlin chiefs fired a Topol RS-12M rocket, which has nuclear capabilities, from their Plesetsk space centre to a target 3,700 miles across the country. The test came a week after Washington and Warsaw formally agreed a deal to host components of a US missile defence shield in Poland.

Russian Navy planning greater presence in Syria [Oh. Better get Sarah Palin on the case.] 28 Aug 2008 The Russian Navy will make more use of Syrian ports as part of increased military presence in the Mediterranean, a Russian diplomat said yesterday. The announcement comes as tensions rise between Moscow and the West over Russia's role in Georgia. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria backed Russia's recent offensive on response to Georgia in support of a separatist province during a visit to Russia last week.

Pentagon brass meet secretly with Pakistanis 28 Aug 2008 With violence worsening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, top U.S. military officers conducted a secret strategy session with commanders from Islamabad on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean. The meeting aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln was the latest of several between Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Ashfaq Kayani, chief of staff of the Pakistani army.

Bombing of Pakistani government bus kills 8 29 Aug 2008 A surge of violence continued unabated in Pakistan's tribal border region, with a car bomb Thursday blasting a bus filled with Pakistani police and government workers off a bridge and killing eight people aboard. That was followed on Friday by an explosion that injured at least 20 people when troops shot at a suicide car bomber speeding toward a checkpoint near the northwestern town of Kohat, police official Afzal Kahn said.

Disclosure of prisoner details would harm national security, says US --Releasing details about a prisoner held in Guantánamo Bay would damage UK relations with America, court told 27 Aug 2008 The US state department today warned that disclosure of secret information in the case of a British resident said to have been tortured before he was sent to Guantánamo Bay would cause "serious and lasting damage" to security relations between the two countries. In a last-minute court intervention, a legal adviser to the US state department also claimed that the "national security of the UK" would be affected by disclosure of the details of the detention and interrogation of Binyam Mohamed, who is being held in Guantánamo Bay accused of conspiring with al-Qaida [al-CIAduh]. In September 2004, he was taken to Guantánamo Bay, where he is still held. He claims that all his confessions were a result of the torture. He faces the death penalty if convicted. Last week, in the initial hearing of the case, the high court found that MI5 had participated in the unlawful interrogation of Mohamed. It emerged that one MI5 officer was so concerned about incriminating himself that he initially declined to answer questions from the judges even in private. Although the judges said that "no adverse conclusions" should be drawn by the plea against self-incrimination, it was disclosed that the officer, Witness B, was questioned about alleged war crimes, including torture, under the international criminal court act. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, has provided the US with documents about the case. Miliband has declined to release further evidence about the case on grounds of national security, arguing that disclosure would harm Britain's intelligence relationship with the US.

Iraqi's arrest stokes Iran suspicions --Official suspected of ties to militias, bombing 29 Aug 2008 A senior official in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government was in custody Thursday, suspected of ties to Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias and plotting a June bombing that killed 10 people, including four Americans, Iraqi authorities said.

Iran confirms nuclear component production 29 Aug 2008 Iran's deputy foreign minister said Friday that almost 4,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges are now operating at the country's Natanz enrichment facility, the national IRNA news agency reported. Ali-Reza Sheikh Attar told Iranian TV that another 3,000 centrifuges are being installed, IRNA said.

CDC Releases 1918 Pandemic Flu Storybook to Prepare for New Outbreak 27 Aug 2008 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released an online storybook containing narratives from survivors, families, and friends about one of the largest scourges ever on human kind - the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed millions of people around the world. The storybook provides valuable insight for public health officials preparing for the possibility of another pandemic sometime in our future [Um... maybe the near future? Say, by November? See: DoD to 'augment civilian law' during pandemic or bioterror attack.]

Pitt Scientists Receive $3.6 Million to Test Vaccine Against Deadliest Strain of Avian Flu 27 Aug 2008 Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research have been awarded $3.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to conduct animal studies of vaccines designed to protect against foment the most common and deadliest strain of avian flu, H5N1.

Flu Antibodies Recovered From 1918 Pandemic Survivors 18 Aug 2008 Scientists in the US recovered antibodies to the 1918 flu virus from elderly survivors of the pandemic, used them to create cell lines of monoclonal antibodies and then showed they were still potent by injecting them into infected mice that survived, whereas the controls did not. The researchers believe the antibodies could help develop effective treatments to use 'in case' a similar virus breaks out again.

John McCain and Sarah Paling In Comparison '08 --John Rectenwald (son of CLG Founder Michael Rectenwald)

'I know Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton.' --Debbie Wasserman Schultz (MSNBC) live interview with Andrea Mitchell. 'This is just an example of colossally bad judgment of John McCain,' Wasserman Schultz added.

Anti-environmentalist and enemy of the polar bear, Sarah Palin, is McCain VP pick: McCain Chooses Alaska Governor Palin as Running Mate --Palin Will Be the First Woman Nominated to the Ticket by the Republican Party 29 Aug 2008 Republican presumptive presidential nominee John McCain has chosen first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, the campaign announced today.

Palin 'unclear on what the VP actually does' --Palin On Ethics Investigation, Unproductive VP Post 29 Aug 2008 Sarah Palin is the subject of an ethics investigation in her home state of Alaska that's connected to her firing of the state's public safety commissioner... In the same interview, Palin pans the vice president's office, saying she's unclear on what the VP actually does and suggests she's too productive for the job.

Investigation dogs Alaska governor --The allegations she abused her office could prove embarrassing for Palin, who got elected in 2006 on an ethics reform platform. 14 Aug 2008 Gov. Sarah Palin, a rising young GOP star mentioned as a possible running mate for John McCain, could see her clean-hands reputation damaged by a growing furor over whether she tried to get her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper. A legislative panel has launched a $100,000 investigation to determine if Palin dismissed Alaska's public safety commissioner because he would not fire the trooper, Mike Wooten. Wooten went through a messy divorce from Palin's sister.

Shocking Choice by John McCain By Rodger Schlickeisen 29 Aug 2008 Senator McCain's choice for a running mate is beyond belief. By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies. Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP, has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska's coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.

Sad News for Alaska's Wolves By Rodger Schlickeisen 27 Aug 2008 I have some sad news. Unfortunately, Alaska voters defeated a ballot initiative yesterday that would have ended the state's brutal aerial hunting program. Thousands of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund supporters gave invaluable support to this important campaign, but in the end, deep-pocketed special interests carried the day. I spoke with Nick Jans, co-chair of Alaskans for Wildlife, our grassroots partners in The Last Frontier who spearheaded the state ballot initiative to end Alaska's brutal aerial hunting program. He [said]: "I want to thank Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund supporters for their help in this hard-fought campaign. "We faced an approximately $750,000 campaign from our opponents -- including [terrorists] Safari Club International and a $400,000 state-funded campaign approved by Governor Sarah Palin and the Alaska legislature. They used deceptive propaganda and the authority of the Alaska government to defeat the ballot initiative.

Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor 23 May 2008 The polar bear should be removed from the endangered species list because its protected status will hamper drilling for oil and gas in Alaska, the state's Republican Governor has demanded. Sarah Palin is suing the Bush Administration over its decision last week to place the animal under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, claiming that climate models predicting the continued loss of sea ice - the main habitat of polar bears - are unreliable.

Governor opposes polar bear protection --Environmentalists say Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is skating on thin ice with her opposition to efforts to protect polar bears. 02 Nov 2007 Palin said last week that listing the bears as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act because of possible global warming would open the floodgates for petitions to protect other species, the Anchorage Daily News said Thursday.

Governor Sarah Palin Has What It Takes to Be the Next Dick Cheney By Chris Kelly 27 May 2008 Over the weekend, the Anchorage Daily News discovered a whole new reason Governor Palin is the perfect person to be the next Dick Cheney: She can look you in eye and tell you black is white. Especially when there's oil involved. Back in January, the secretary of the interior was considering whether or not polar bears should be on the endangered species list... The polar bears weren't drowning. They were hanging themselves in their cells... All I know is, there are lots of polar bears and no scientific reason at all to believe they can't live happily, underwater, eating clean coal. Let's get drilling! It's almost like Republicans say ridiculous twisted half-truths, and the New York Times publishes them as facts.

GOP Considers Delaying Convention --Tropical Storm Gustav Is Forecast to Hit U.S. Next Week as Hurricane [Hurricane Obama Forces GOP Delay!] 29 Aug 2008 Republican officials said yesterday that they are considering delaying the start of the GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul because of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is on track to hit the Gulf Coast, and possibly New Orleans, as a full-force hurricane early next week. The threat is serious enough that White House officials are also debating whether President [sic] Bush should cancel his scheduled convention appearance on Monday [LOL!], the first day of the convention, according to administration officials and others familiar with the discussion.

Obama-Biden campaign to roll into Michigan over holiday 28 Aug 2008 The freshly minted Democratic ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden will launch its national campaign with a bus tour through Michigan this weekend.

Obama Breaks Ratings Records at 38 million with Inspired Speech --Not much on TV can beat American Idol and the Olympics, but Obama did 29 Aug 2008 Barack Obama will our next President if Nielsen ratings are any indicator. 38 million viewers, more people watched Obama speak than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final "American Idol" or the Academy Awards this year, according to Nielsen Media Research. Obama, speaking live to 85,000 supporters at the Denver Bronco’s Mile High Stadium as the fireworks laden finale to the Democratic National Convention, may have reached many more as the overnight rating do not include PBS or C-SPAN. Nor could the overnights count all the folks in the rooms at the 50,000 viewing parties that the Obama campaign reported, based on viewing party kits ordered on their website. Plus there were crowds in New York’s Times Square and sports bars across the nation.

Brokaw Warns Dems to Lay Off McCain --Criticizing Republican candidate 'very tricky,' says NBC host 29 Aug 2008 (FAIR) Longtime NBC anchor [Reichwing troll] Tom Brokaw offered two unusual warnings to Democrats about the supposed limits of criticizing Republican presidential candidate John McCain, suggesting that McCain's military service makes it dangerous for Democrats to aggressively challenge him. ACTION: Ask Tom Brokaw to clarify his warning that Democrats have to be "careful about" criticizing Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Contact: Meet the Press Webform, 202-885-4598.

'Charles Babington, find a new line of work.' MSNBC Host Rips AP Reporter's Analysis of Obama Speech 29 Aug 2008 ...MSNBC's Keith Olbermann laced into the Associated Press's Charles Babington an hour after Barack Obama had concluded his speech in Denver on Thursday night. With rare exception, nearly all of the top commentators and reporters on the three cable news networks had hailed Obama's speech as something new and powerful, and filled with specifics, and predicted it would have a positive effect on his chances vs. John McCain. This hallelujah chorus included conservatives... Buchanan called it the best and most important political convention speech he had ever heard, going back 48 years. So Olbermann was outraged that the AP's Babington had written, in his analysis of the speech that Obama had tried nothing new and that his speech was lacking in specifics.

Obama Takes Aim at Bush and McCain With a Forceful Call to 'Change America' 28 Aug 2008 Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination tonight, declaring that the "American promise has been threatened" by eight years under President [sic] Bush and that John McCain represented a continuation of policies that undermined the nation’s economy and imperiled its standing around the world.

Obama Accepts Nomination, Makes History --Tens of Thousand Pack Stadium 28 Aug 2008 Democratic Sen. Barack Obama became the first black American nominated by a major U.S. political party to run for the presidency on Thursday, before tens of thousands of supporters packed in to a Denver football stadium. "This moment -- this election -- is our chance to keep, in the 21st Century, the American promise alive," Obama told a raucous a crowd estimated at about 75,000. "We meet at one of those defining moments a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more."

Barack Obama's Speech at the Democratic National Convention 28 Aug 2008 Interactive video and transcript of the senator accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver on Aug. 28.

Obama: 'John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives.'

Carter: McCain 'milking' POW time 28 Aug 2008 Former president Jimmy Carter called Republican presidential candidate John McCain a "distinguished naval officer," but he said the Arizona senator has been "milking every possible drop of advantage" from his time served as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Carter spoke Thursday with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service reporters before Barack Obama's acceptance speech to cap off the Democratic National Convention... Carter decried Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's decision to "abandon" the Democrats by speaking at the Republican convention next week.

In St. Paul, civil liberties put to the test By Rubén Rosario 28 Aug 2008 Like a thick, ominous blanket of fog advancing north from the Mississippi, a heightened sense of security has enveloped the Saintly City near the start of the Republican National Convention... Take Guy Flâneur, the pseudonym of a respected Washington, D.C.-based photographer. He has been taking photographs across the globe for more than 45 years -- from massive demonstrations in our nation's capital to buildings, armed guards and people behind the Berlin Wall in former communist East Germany. Yet, he's been stopped and questioned just once about his activities in all those years and in all those places. Guess where. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me anywhere -- just in St. Paul,'' says Flâneur, who requested his real name be withheld because of concerns about corporate clients here. "While I won't pass judgment here on the human-rights record of various governments," Flâneur adds, "I can tell you that I've taken pictures in public places in countries and situations where human rights might not have been of prime concern."

Judges consider whether FBI violated free speech 27 Aug 2008 A panel of federal appeals court judges pushed a U.S. government lawyer on Wednesday to answer why FBI letters sent out to Internet service providers seeking information should remain secret. A panel of three judges from the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on whether a provision of the Patriot Act, which requires people who are formally contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for information to keep it a secret, is constitutional.

Comcast to make monthly Internet use cap official 28 Aug 2008 Comcast Corp., the nation's second-largest Internet service provider, Thursday said it would set an official limit on the amount of data subscribers can download and upload each month.

Baby won't get vaccine 26 Aug 2008 A couple in hiding after they refused to have their newborn baby vaccinated against hepatitis B is now free to return home. The New South Wales Department of Community Services (DoCS) today decided not to pursue further action against the couple after the timeframe for an effective vaccination lapsed. DoCS, with police assisting, was unable to locate the couple. The parents fled their home in Sydney's Croydon Park on Thursday to avoid police and DoCS officials, after refusing to have their three-day-old son vaccinated at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Parents on the run with baby after refusing vaccination 23 Aug 2008 A Sydney couple was on the run with their two-day-old baby last night after the Department of Community Services took out a Supreme Court order to have the boy vaccinated against hepatitis B. The parents, from Croydon Park, fled their home on Thursday to avoid police and DOCS officers after they refused to have their son vaccinated at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. They told the Herald yesterday that they [rightly] believed aluminium in the vaccine could cause him more damage than contracting hepatitis B.

North Pole ice cap melting faster than ever 28 Aug 2008 The Arctic ice cap keeps melting under the effects of global warming and in August saw its second largest summer shrinkage since satellite observations began 30 years ago, US scientists said.

Canada wants more study on polar bear protection --Canada is home to about two-thirds of the world's 25,000 polar bears. 28 Aug 2008 Canada, criticized by environmentalists for not adequately protecting polar bears from the effects of climate change, said on Thursday it will take more time study its next step.

New Katrina death tally: Half of victims 75 and up 28 Aug 2008 As New Orleans residents warily track another threatening storm, a new report presents the clearest picture yet of deaths from Katrina FEMA in Louisiana. Of the nearly 1,000 who died, almost half were 75 or older, according to researchers. Most died on the day of the storm -- August 29, 2005 -- and drowning was the leading cause of death. More than one-third died in homes.

Bush Issues Emergency Declaration for Louisiana, Texas --Gustav Gains Hurricane Strength, Expected to Hit Gulf Coast on Tuesday 29 Aug 2008 President [sic] Bush today declared a state of emergency for Louisiana and Texas, as former tropical storm Gustav strengthened to become a hurricane and continued on a collision course with the U.S. Gulf Coast. The president's declaration came three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi, overwhelming [exploded] levees designed to protect New Orleans and inflicting record damage on the region.

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Previous lead stories: Obama Accepts Nomination, Makes History --Tens of Thousand Pack Stadium 28 Aug 2008 Democratic Sen. Barack Obama became the first black American nominated by a major U.S. political party to run for the presidency on Thursday, before tens of thousands of supporters packed in to a Denver football stadium. "This moment -- this election -- is our chance to keep, in the 21st Century, the American promise alive," Obama told a raucous a crowd estimated at about 75,000. "We meet at one of those defining moments a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more."

Chalabi aide arrested on suspicion of Baghdad bombings 28 Aug 2008 U.S. forces have arrested a deputy of Ahmad Chalabi, who was once the Bush regime's favorite Iraqi politician, and implicated him in bombings that killed Americans and Iraqis, Chalabi and Iraqi government officials said Thursday. The U.S. military alleged that the arrested official [Ali Faisal al Lami] was working with the "highest echelons" of the Iranian "special groups" criminals, referring to what the U.S. military says are Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq. Chalabi once had an enormous following among conservatives in Congress and the Bush administration. Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney and the Pentagon touted him as a potential head of state in Iraq and used intelligence from his exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, to build the case for invading Iraq. However, much of that information [like the Bush regime, itself] was found to be bogus.

US spending 'more money than ever' on contractors in Iraq 28 Aug 2008 The United States is spending more money than ever on private security contractors in Iraq. This year, spending on mercenaries, who protect diplomats, civilian facilities and supply convoys, is projected to exceed $1.2 billion, according to federal contract and budget data obtained by USA TODAY. Most of that bill -- about $1 billion -- is State Department spending, which is up 13% over 2007. The remaining $200 million covers Pentagon contracts.

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