The Navy might try to shoot down a spy satelite the size of a small bus today or tomorrow.
The Pentagon expects to announce the missile firing publicly within an hour of the event. But Morrell said it could take a day or more to determine whether the missile successfully destroys the satellite’s fuel tank, which contains the chemical hydrazine.
The Pentagon revealed last week that President George W. Bush decided to have the Navy try to shoot down the satellite because of the danger that its fuel tank could leak deadly toxic gas if it enters the atmosphere and reaches Earth.
The satellite would be unlikely to strike a populated area but the craft’s hydrazine fuel could pose a threat to life if it did, officials said.
The Navy hopes to strike the missile with a nonexplosive “kinetic kill vehicle” just before the satellite reaches the atmosphere and drive it into ocean waters, about 150 miles (240 km) above the Earth’s surface.
The satellite has been out of touch since shortly after reaching its low-Earth orbit.
Speaking of spying- the Supreme Court brushed aside an appeal from the ACLU that would allow it to pursue a lawsuit against the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
RESPONSE: “It’s very disturbing that the president’s actions will go unremarked upon by the court,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s national security project.
THE CASE: The court’s action underscored the difficulty of mounting a challenge to the eavesdropping, which remains classified and was confirmed by President Bush only after a newspaper article revealed its existence. The ACLU sued on behalf of itself, other lawyers, reporters and scholars, arguing that the program was illegal.
But it’s all okay, because despite it all- Cindy McCain (wife of Presidential hopeful Republican John McCain) is proud of the U.S.
“I’m proud of my country, I don’t know about you, if you heard those words earlier. I’m very proud of my country. I’m proud to be a person who voted in elections and I hope that all of you will do so today,” Cindy McCain said at a Wisconsin rally.
She appeared to be referring to a remark that the wife of Democratic candidate Barack Obama made Monday in Milwaukee.
“Let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change,” Michelle Obama said.
Asked by reporters if Mrs. McCain was referring to the remark by the Illinois Democrat’s wife, McCain said: “I don’t think we have any comment on that.” Then he turned to his wife and asked her if she’d like to respond.
“I just wanted to make the statement that I have, and always will be, proud of my country,” Mrs. McCain said
Well… isn’t that heartwarming. But hey, it can’t all be bad news can it? For example- a corrupt war profiteer who milked the gov’t for $90 million in contract work is going to jail for 12 years.
(Brent R.) Wilkes, 53, was convicted in November of 13 felony crimes including bribery, conspiracy and fraud for giving the gifts to former representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), who is serving an eight-year prison term for accepting millions in bribes from Wilkes and others.
“Wilkes coldly and successfully exploited the simplemindedness of one of this country’s war heroes, now a tortured shadow of his former self,” prosecutors wrote. “Wilkes stands now revealed as a war profiteer, a thug, a bully, a lecherous old man who preyed on his young female staffers and hired prostitutes.”
Wilkes’s attorney, Mark Geragos, did not respond to a telephone message requesting comment yesterday.
Wilkes is a Republican Party “Pioneer” who raised more than $100,000 for President Bush’s reelection in 2004 and donated — in concert with his business colleagues — $656,396 to 64 other Republican lawmakers and the national Republican Party committees in Washington from 1995 through the third quarter of 2005, according to campaign finance records.
Ah the company we keep… doesn’t it usually say something about us? Can we send the whole lot of them to prison? That would be super… just a thought.
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