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Missile Defense Watch: A HIT
USS Lake Erie
A defense official says a missile launched from a Navy ship in the Pacific hit the U.S. spy satellite it was targeting 130 miles above Earth’s surface. Full details are not yet available.
There was a successful intercept.
Update:
Military Says Missile Hit Spy SatelliteA missile launched from a Navy ship struck a dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific on Wednesday, the Pentagon said.
It was not clear whether the operation succeeded in its main goal of destroying a tank aboard the satellite that carried a toxic fuel that U.S. officials said could pose a hazard to humans if it landed in a populated area.
“Confirmation that the fuel tank has been fragmented should be available within 24 hours,” the Pentagon said in a written statement.
The USS Lake Erie, armed with an SM-3 missile designed to knock down incoming missiles—not orbiting satellites—launched the attack at 10:26 p.m. EST, according to the Pentagon. It hit the satellite as the spacecraft traveled at more than 17,000 mph.
Because the satellite was orbiting at a relatively low altitude at the time it was hit by the missile, debris will begin to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere immediately, the Pentagon statement said.
“Nearly all of the debris will burn up on re-entry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days,” it said.
Flap will post video and more details in the morning…..
Kudos to the United States Navy and the Missile Defense Agency.
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John McCain Watch: What Favors Did Senator McCain Provide Vicki Iseman?
Drudge had this piece on December 20, 2007 immediately proceeding John McCain’s surge to defeat Mitt Romney in New Hampshire
Why did the New York Times “SPIKE” this story?
Surely this would NOT have played well with New Hampshire, South Carolina and Super Tuesday voters.
Now, McCain must deny not only a romantic relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman but also must deny hypocritical special interest favors and access to her and her firm.
John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was last night romantically linked to a 40-year-old female political lobbyist and accused of granting her clients political favours.
Mr McCain, 71, fiercely denied a report in the New York Times which stated that eight years ago, during his first run for the White House, his aides were so concerned about his relationship with Vicki Iseman that they blocked her access to him to “protect the candidate from himself”.
Mr McCain and Ms Iseman both denied to the newspaper – which has been sitting on the story for several weeks – that they had ever had a romantic relationship. The story was first alluded to on the Drudge Report website just before the Iowa and New Hampshire nomination contests, but after frantic lobbying by Mr McCain and his aides at the time the New York Times did not publish it then.
If you remember at the time of the Drudge piece and the frantic yet successful lobbying by Team McCain to keep the piece out of the New York Times, Mike Huckabee was surging, Mitt Romney led the polls in New Hampshire and Rudy Giuliani was exiting a hospital in Missouri where he fell ill – yet continued to lead the national GOP polls.
What effect would this story had on the race?
Remember how the New York Times buried their debunking of the Politico hit on Rudy Giuliani and security expenses for his then mistress, Judith Nathan? Yet, they refused to run this story which raises profound questions regarding McCain’s character and public conduct.
Of course, McCain now denies the charges in the piece. But, will there be more revelations?
If so, don’t count on McCain being the GOP nominee – just yet.
Vicki Iseman of Alcalde & Fay
Stay tuned…….
Update:
Team McCain strikes back with denials.
McCain calls New York Times piece a SMEAR.
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain issued a statement Wednesday night saying he “will not allow a smear campaign” to distract from his campaign as published reports questioned his relationship with a lobbyist.
The Washington Post quoted longtime aide John Weaver, who split with McCain last year, as saying he met with Vicki Iseman and urged her to stay away from McCain. The New York Times suggested an inappropriate relationship between the Arizona senator and Iseman, a Washington lobbyist. The New York Times quoted anonymous aides saying they had confronted McCain and Iseman, urging them to stay away from each other, before his failed presidential campaign in 2000.
How the story is being played by NBC:
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Tom McClintock Watch: Congress in McClintock’s Future?
California State Senator Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks and California Representative Elton Gallegly – (R) CA 24th
Will Ventura County be losing a home-grown politician to Congress and Northern California?
The closely watched Republican primary race to replace outgoing Rep. John Doolittle is drawing added intrigue as a leading California conservative says he is “seriously” considering entering the field.
State Sen. Tom McClintock, a former GOP gubernatorial candidate, confirmed in an interview Tuesday that he is eying the race and hopes to make a decision in the coming weeks.
“Obviously, it is a matter I take very seriously,” said McClintock.
Tom who all intents and purposes has lived for more than a decade in the Sacramento area (while representing his hometown of Thousand Oaks in the California Legislature) and who has rented a house in the CA-4 Congressional District would easily win a GOP primary this June. Since the Congressional district is overwhelmingly gerrymandered “RED” whoever wins the GOP primary election will win the seat.
Moreover, there is precedence with Sacramento area (CA-3) Congressman Dan Lungren, formerly California Attorney General and a Member of Congress from Long Beach in Southern California.
What McClintock has to decide is whether he wants a Washington – California bi-coastal lifestyle or would rather remain in California.
Would McClintock challenge CA-24 incumbent GOP Congressman Elton Gallegly as this piece suggests?
No, why bother when polling already shows him up by over 30 points in CA-4.
Flap’s bet is that McClintock goes for the CA-4 Congressional race and is elected a new Member of Congress.
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Teamsters Set To Endorse Obama for President As Hillary Attacks
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., acknowledges cheers as he prepares to speak at a campaign rally in Dallas, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008.
The Teamsters Union which is comprised of 1.4 million members will endorse Barack Obama sometime today. This is the third large union endorsement for Obama this week. Previously, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) endorsed him.
Obama will meet with Teamster President James P. Hoffa in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday. The endorsement is expected to come soon thereafter, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the planned formal announcement.
This is extremely disconcerting news for Hillary Clinton. It appears that three major union players in the Democrat Party have foresaken her candidacy.
Union support will be key in the Democratic primaries in the next few weeks, particularly in Ohio on March 4 and Pennsylvania on April 22. Ohio and Pennsylvania have some of the nation’s largest number of union workers, with more than 15 percent of the workforce unionized in Pennsylvania and just over 14 percent in Ohio.
The endorsement from the Teamsters is Obama’s third from organized labor in a week. The 1.9-million member Service Employees International Union endorsed the Illinois senator last Friday, and the smaller United Food and Commercial Workers endorsed him last Thursday.
In the meantime, Hillary has come out swinging at Obama.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, staggered by 10 voting losses in a row, ridiculed surging rival Barack Obama on Wednesday as all talk and little substance as she tried to slow his momentum.
At a fund-raising event in New York, Clinton belittled Obama as an inexperienced choice for commander-in-chief in a dangerous world, for advocating a health care plan that is not as expansive as hers, and for giving airy speeches.
“It’s about picking a president who relies not just on words but on work, on hard work,” she said. “We need to make a choice between speeches and solutions, because while words matter greatly, the greatest words in the world are not enough unless you match them with action.”
“Now others might be joining a movement,” she said. “Well, I’m joining you on the night shift, and on the day shift.”
Hillary Clinton is behind in actual delegates by a little but in political momentum a great deal. She needs to win on March 4th in Ohio and Texas.
Watch the attacks to increase because it is now overtime and sudden death at that.
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Pursuing a Secret Nuclear Program
Alireza Jafarzadeh, a member of the foreign affairs committee of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), shows a map at a news conference in Brussels, February 20, 2008, of what NCRI says is a clandestine nuclear site in Iran.
An exiled Iranian opposition group today claimed that Iran is accelerating its nuclear weapons program, despite what the United States National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has said.
“The Iran regime entered a new phase in its nuclear project,” said Mohammad Mohaddessin, a representative of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran.
He claimed that, for the first time, Tehran had established a command and control center to work on a nuclear bomb and that southeast of the capital it was also setting up a center to produce warheads.
Iran has steadfastly denied it is working to obtain a nuclear bomb, arguing that its nuclear program is purely civilian. In December, the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate said that Iran halted a nuclear weapons development program in 2003 because of international pressure.
Mohaddessin told a news conference that Iran had closed down one center only to open another later with the same purpose. He called the U.S. report “not accurate.”
In the meantime, on the eve of a new report of the IAEA, Iran President Ahmadinejad ups the rhetoric about its nuclear soverign rights and Israel.
Key graphs from Ahmadinejad:
- On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad defiantly vowed that Iran has no intention of ceding to the main demand of the UN Security Council that it suspends uranium enrichment operations and proclaimed the country had defeated world powers.“With the help of God, the Iranian nation with its unity, faith and determination stood and defeated the world powers and brought them to their knees,” he told cheering crowds in the speech.”World powers should know the Iranian nation considers nuclear energy its undeniable and definite right and will not accept any imposition or any additional cruel rules.”
- “World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region,” Ahmadinejad told a rally in the southern city of Bandar Abbas broadcast on state television.The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, on Monday had predicted Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah would destroy Israel in the near future.
Look for more rhetoric and spin by the Iranians to provide cover for their friends and economic partners China and Russia in the United Nations Security Council. The prospect for ANY meaningful sanctions coming from the UNSC is doubtful.
But, will the United States and EU decide upon their own course of action? Finally?
Previous:
Iran Nuclear Watch: Cancerous Israel to Vanish Soon
Iran Nuclear Watch: U.S. Intel – Iran Directly Engaged in Manufacture of a Nuclear Weapon
Iran Nuclear Watch: Uranium Gas Goes Into Iran’s Centrifuges
Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel – Iran Moving Forward with Nuclear Weapons
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Missile Defense Watch: United States to Target Failed Satellite Tonight?
*****Update*****
The Pentagon says the window of opportunity is now open to shoot down failing spy satellite.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDLcUpD1Fw[/youtube]
Successful intercept of ballistic missile target by Aegis SM-3 missile
Tonight around 7:30 PM Pacific time the United States Navy may attempt to target and shoot down a failed spy satellite using a heat-seeking Aegis SM-3 missile.
A Navy heat-seeking missile is getting its first real-world use in an attempt to demolish a crippled U.S. spy satellite before the orbiting craft falls back to Earth.
The targeting of the satellite – which could come Wednesday night – is not the mission for which this piece of the Pentagon’s missile defense network was intended, however.
The attempted shootdown, already approved by President Bush out of concern about toxic fuel on board the satellite, is seen by some as blurring the lines between defending against a weapon like a long-range missile and targeting satellites in orbit.
The three-stage Navy missile, designated the SM-3, has chalked up a high rate of success in a series of tests since 2002, in each case targeting a short- or medium-range ballistic missile, never a satellite. A hurry-up program to adapt the missile for this anti-satellite mission was completed in a matter of weeks; Navy officials say the changes will be reversed once this satellite is down.
The government issued notices to aviators and mariners to remain clear of a section of the Pacific Ocean beginning at 10:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, indicating the first window of opportunity to launch an SM-3 missile from a Navy cruiser, the USS Lake Erie, in an effort to hit the wayward satellite.
The world will be watching this display of American technological strength. The Atlantis space shuttle has just landed in Florida and now the United States will demonstrate its anti-ballistic missile program.
And, the United States, if successful tonight, will achieve a win-win. One it will silence Democrat Congressional critics of the Missile Defense Agency and send a message to China and Russia that exisiting American anti-ballistic forces can be easily modified to be used as an anti-satellite weapon in times of warfare.
Stay tuned…….
Previous:Missile Defense Watch: Failed Satellite To Be Downed on Wednesday, February 20
Russia Says United States Has Ulterior Motive in Shooting Down Satellite
Missile Defense Watch: Failed Satellite – A Message to China
United States Speeding Up Missile Defense Plans – Russia
Missile Defense Watch: Putin Continues to Say NYET to Eastern Europe Missile Defense
Missile Defense Watch: US Proposes Joint Missile Defense with Russia
Missile Defense Watch: Operational
Missile Defense Watch: Vandenberg AFB Ground-Based Interceptor Missile Test is Successful
Missile Defense Watch: Gates – Missile Defense in Eastern Europe Continues
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Day By Day by Chris Muir February 20, 2008
Obama’s speech in Houston last night after his Wisconsin victory (but before the Hawaii one) was not only painfully long but reminiscent of a evangelical preacher at a revival. If you listen to the Democrat frontrunner he is LONG on rhetoric but short on substance.
Eloquent But Empty will be the GOP’s theme against the first term U. S. Senator.
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links for 2008-02-20
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Is Hillary OUT after today’s election? Nope, she will go onto to March 4th. Then…….
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Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder predicted riots in the streets if the Clinton campaign were to overturn an Obama lead through the use of superdelegates.
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Strategists almost universally said Clinton’s only hope is to bring Obama down through more — and more direct — attacks on his readiness to lead. Same for the GOP – his inexperience…..
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The Supreme Court rejected a challenge Tuesday to the Bush administration’s domestic spying program.
The justices’ decision, issued without comment, is the latest setback to legal efforts to force disclosure of details of the warrantless wiretapping that -
Refurbishing Rosenblatt stadium would be a better idea than starting over.
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Finally…..
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Hillary is just pandering again to Democrat constituencies. But, she will accept contributions from the Hedge Fund managers.
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Why, of course it is the Clinton Cabal……
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Eloquent But Empty Obama will be the theme throughout the Fall campaign for the Presidency.
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