Free Republic

Georgia Judge Michael Malihi’s refusal to accept President Obama’s lawyers’ demand that he be excused from responding to a subpoenato testify in a hearing questioning his eligibility to appear on that state’s presidential ballot was denounced by Edward Toady, lead attorney for the president on this case. “The president is the sovereign ruler of this country,” Toady asserted. “Where he goes and what he does is solely at his discretion. He does not have to answer to the demands of lower ranking authorities. He has what is called ‘sovereign immunity.’” “On top of this, there is the simple lack of...

Link only - Penn State May Seek Immunity After Skirting Public Laws

DURHAM, N.C. - Immune system cells of the brain, which scavenge pathogens and damaged neurons, are also key players in memory and learning, according to new research by Duke neuroscientists. Earlier studies by Staci Bilbo, an assistant professor in psychology & neuroscience, had shown that laboratory rats experiencing an infection at an early age have an aggressive immune response to subsequent infections, which also harms their learning and memory. In a study published in the Oct. 26 Journal of Neuroscience, Bilbo's team identifies the source of the learning difficulties and traces it back to the immune system itself. The researchers...

Here’s a tip for you: Listening to really, really loud sounds over long periods of time can damage your hearing. Perhaps you already knew that. But a few years back, a group of clever trial lawyers decided they could make some serious money by arguing in court that you are too stupid to know it yourself. They filed 26 consumer-fraud lawsuits in multiple states against Motorola and other manufacturers of Bluetooth headsets. They alleged that consumers were not warned sufficiently about the dangers, and that they “would not have purchased their Bluetooth headsets but for defendants’ false advertising.” That led...

State attorneys general are negotiating to give major banks wide immunity over irregularities in handling foreclosures, even as evidence has emerged that banks are continuing to file questionable documents. A coalition of all 50 states' attorneys general has been negotiating settlements with five of the biggest U.S. banks that would include payment of up to $25 billion in penalties and commitments to follow new rules. In exchange, the banks would get immunity from civil lawsuits by the states, as well as similar guarantees by the Justice Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development, which have participated in the talks.

At ARFcom, Nolo Contendere, who does heroic work mirroring all the news reports of the growing Gunwalker Scandal writes: To all the agents that are wrestling with what to do, whether to become a whistle-blower or whatnot.... do it. Come forward. WE NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER. If you want, I can get you in touch with the right people, or you can go straight to Grassley/Issa's committees yourself. Do not wait, do it now. You owe it to Brian Terry. Your higher-ups WILL turn on you, and you do NOT want to be carrying the water for these...

Michelle Bachmann is running for president and she's supported by the Tea Party. You know, the "angry" ... "emotional" ... "ugly" middle Americans with "low-sloping foreheads" who believe in constitutional government, lower spending and the rule of law. Let's join our MSM pals and freak out when Bachmann says something so we can let everyone know about it and she won't be elected in 2012. Is this fun or what? VIDEO

Link only - Atlanta Public School teachers who cooperated in cheating investigation granted immunity

A federal judge in New York has issued an order that could lift the U.N.’s long-recognized diplomatic immunity in the United States involving contract disputes, opening the doors for claims of “hundreds of millions of dollars” against the world body, according to lawyers involved in the case. Following a ruling by Judge P. Kevin Castel, both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times on Wednesday will publish legal notices on behalf of Kahraman Sadikoglu, a Turkish billionaire businessman who is suing the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) for $150 million. The notices are a legal substitute for the process...

According to Richard Holbrooke, Richard Holbrooke is essentially this country's top diplomat -- Hillary Clinton is merely his "pupil. This despite the fact that Holbrooke has hit the trifecta of shady business dealings over the last few years: a member of AIG's board with more than $800,000 in compensation, a managing director at Lehman Brothers, and the recipient of a "Friends of Angelo" loan from Countrywide (that alone was enough to get Jim Johnson thrown under the Obama campaign bus). Now comes another revelation from the New York Times. Despite repeated denials, according to three sources, Holbrooke did offer former...

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to examine once again the Bush administration's aggressive response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,saying it will consider whether former attorney general John D. Ashcroft can be sued by a U.S. citizen who claims he was illegally detained and treated as a terrorist. Lower courts have said that Abdullah al-Kidd can press forward with his suit that attempts to hold Ashcroft personally liable for misusing federal laws to hold him without charging that he had broken any laws. Al-Kidd, a onetime University of Idaho football star named Lavoni T. Kidd who converted to Islam...

... Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, ranking member on the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, said Rangel was given an opportunity to settle charges during the investigative process, and that time has passed. "Let me be clear that Mr. Rangel under these rules was given opportunities to negotiate a settlement during the investigation. Let me be clear that I did not participate in any attempts to cut a back room deal behind closed doors," McCaul said at the start of a hearing on possible corruption charges. McCaul said it's not lost on any member of the panel that the...

WASHINGTON — Veteran New York Rep. Charles Rangel said Thursday there's no deal yet to settle his ethics case and avoid an election-season trial on charges of violating House rules.

Per Foxnews, a local affiliate is reporting Rangel has struck a deal. FNC is working to confirm...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, not all former foreign officials living in the United States can claim immunity from prosecution in U.S. Courts. Its decision could have an immediate impact on Israelis. In recent years there have been two failed attempts to prosecute Israeli officials in the U.S. In 2007, Palestinians filed a lawsuit against former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter, claiming he was responsible for the deaths of their relatives after an Israeli plane dropped a one-ton bomb on their Gaza home. A federal court said Dichter had functioned within...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue points out why HB 5473, a bill in Connecticut that eliminates the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims, is inherently discriminatory: Just as we saw with anti-Catholics in Colorado and New York, the "let's-get-the-Church" gang is in full gear in Connecticut. None of those supporting this legislation is interested in combating child sexual abuse: if they were, they would not give public institutions a pass. As it stands, this bill will do absolutely nothing to bring relief to those who have been previously abused by a public school employee. As is the case...

LONDON (Reuters) – British scientists studying the genetics of aging said on Thursday that experiments on laboratory worms showed that a specific gene is strongly linked to lifespan, immunity and disease resistance. Since the gene, called DAF-16 in worms, is found in many animals and in humans, the finding could open up new ways to affect aging, immunity and resistance in humans, the scientists said. "We wanted to find out how normal aging is being governed by genes and what effect these genes have on other traits, such as immunity," said Robin May of the University of Birmingham, who led...

After nearly 3 weeks of complete silence and stonewalling about the Obama executive order granting immunity from U.S. law to INTERPOL, an explanation of sorts was issued yesterday by the secretary-general of the organization, but not from the Obama White House. And the explanation simply doesn't cut it.

After learning recently that President Barack Obama had, on Dec. 17, quietly amended Executive Order 12425, I decided to find out what impact, if any, it might have on Americans. At first blind to the potential ramifications of the amendment, I was startled at what I found once the pieces of this disturbing political puzzle started falling in place.

EO: AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words "except those provided by Section 2(c), Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and...

November 19, 2009 Brain-eating tribe enriches understanding of mad cow disease Mark Henderson, Science Editor A cannibalistic ritual in which the brains of dead tribespeople were eaten by their relatives has triggered one of the most striking examples of rapid human evolution on record, scientists have discovered. In the middle of the 20th century the Fore tribe of the Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea was devastated by a CJD-like disease called kuru, which was passed on by mortuary feasts in which the brains of the dead were consumed. Although the practice was banned in the 1950s and kuru...

> For those who advocate "natural immunity," is there really a difference between the immunity conferred by getting the flu and that provided by vaccination? They're close, though the nasal-spray type is closer, says Tun-Hou Lee, a professor of virology at the Harvard School of Public Health. There are three "arms" of the immune response, Lee says. The first are antibodies, which are also known as immunoglobulins. Produced by white blood cells, they identify and attack bacteria and viruses. The second are killer T cells, which can tell when a cell has been infected with a virus and then attack...

University of California, Davis, researchers studying the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, formerly referred to as "swine flu," have identified a group of immunologically important sites on the virus that are also present in seasonal flu viruses that have been circulating for years. These molecular sites appear to result in some level of immunity to the new virus in people who were exposed to the earlier influenza viruses. More than a dozen structural sites, or epitopes, in the virus may explain why many people over the age of 60, who were likely exposed to similar viruses earlier in life, carry antibodies...

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius has not only given immunity to the makers of Tamiflu and Relenza for injuries stemming from their use against swine flu, she has granted immunity to future swine flu vaccines and “any associated adjuvants”. The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu, thousands filed claims contending they suffered side effects from the shots. This time around, they will have no recourse. The 2006 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (the PREP Act) allows the DHHS Secretary to invoke almost complete immunity from liability...

When Lauro L. Baja Jr. returned to his native Philippines in 2007, he had just finished a four-year stint as ambassador to the United Nations that included two terms as president of the Security Council... Then a three-month episode from his U.N. days returned to haunt him. He was sued by Marichu Suarez Baoanan, who had worked as a maid in New York City for Baja and his wife, Norma Castro Baja. Baoanan, 40, said the Bajas brought her to the United States in 2006 promising to find her work as a nurse. Instead, Baoanan said, she was forced to...

The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu, thousands filed claims contending they suffered side effects from the shots. This time, the government has already taken steps to head that off. Vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits that result from any new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, government health officials said Friday. Since the 1980s, the government has protected vaccine makers against lawsuits over the use of childhood vaccines. Instead, a federal court handles claims and decides...

(IsraelNN.com) In a letter appearing in the weekend edition of the respected Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga revealed that the government of Italy agreed to allow Arab terrorist groups freedom of movement in the country in exchange for immunity from attacks in Italy. Cossiga wrote that the government of the late Prime Minister Aldo Moro reached a "secret non-belligerence pact between the Italian state and Palestinian resistance organizations, including terrorist groups," in the 1970s. According to the former president, it was Moro himself who designed the terms of the agreement with the foreign Arab terrorists....

Alligator blood could provide a powerful new source of antibiotics for fighting deadly "superbugs" and other infections. Courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Despite their reputation for attacks on humans and pets, alligators are wiggling their way toward a new role as potential lifesavers in medicine. Biochemists in Louisiana are studying how proteins in gator blood may provide a source of powerful new antibiotics to help fight infections associated with diabetic ulcers, severe burns, and superbugs that are resistant to conventional medication. In a study presented at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the researchers presented...

It's official: Thanks to overwhelming grassroots action, and the heroic efforts of Senators Dodd and Feingold, the Senate's vote on whether to grant phone companies immunity from the law for assisting in the President's illegal wiretapping program has been delayed until after July 4th Recess! This is an unexpected reprieve for civil liberties and the rule of law. As recently as last night, the mainstream press was reporting that the immunity bill would see swift and uncontested approval. Senate Leaders emphasized that passing an immunity bill this week was one of their highest priorities. And yet, in the end, the...

(CBS/AP) - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., issued a statement in support of the House's update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but said he would try to strip a provision granting immunity to telecommunication companies when the bill comes to a vote in the Senate next week. The House approved a compromise bill Friday that would set new electronic surveillance rules that would also shield telecoms from lawsuits arising from their participation in the government's warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and computer lines in the United States. The government eavesdropped on American phone and computer lines for almost six years after...

A receptor on infection-fighting cells may be a novel target for drugs that fight autoimmune disease. TURNING ON ITSELFAfter mice were made allergic to a protein, researchers injected the same protein into mouse lungs to cause a disease that mimics asthma. The lung tissue of normal mice (left) shows more severe inflammation than that of mice lacking the gene for the DR3 receptor (right). Because DR3 plays a crucial role in immune cells attacking healthy tissue, the receptor may be a target for drugs that treat autoimmune disorders like asthma or multiple sclerosis.Siegel, Françoise Meylan In people with autoimmune diseases...

The United States dropped demands to give foreign security contractors immunity from Iraqi law in the draft security arrangement with Iraq, officials say. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Wednesday told London newspaper The Independent that U.S. officials accepted requests from Iraqi negotiators to drop the immunity demand. There are roughly 160,000 U.S. security contractors working in Iraq, compared with approximately 145,000 U.S. military forces, the newspaper said. Zebari is a staunch supporter of the arrangement, in contrast to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said negotiations regarding the security deal, formally the status of forces agreement, had "reached a dead...

While vitamin D’s role in strengthening bones is well established, its links to cancer and immune-system malfunctions have only recently emerged. At the Harvard School of Public Health, nutrition experts say large segments of the population don’t get enough vitamin D and are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to raise the daily recommended dose, from 400 international units to 800. For an update on what’s known so far about this important nutrient, the Harvard Public Health Review spoke with HSPH Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology Edward Giovannucci. *** Q: What are the documented benefits of vitamin D? A:...

Potentially deadly staph bacteria may be easily defeated by the body's own immune system once stripped of their golden hue by a drug developed to lower cholesterol, according to new research.The findings offer a promising new direction in the fight against increasingly drug-resistant staph infections, according to the National Institutes of Health, which supported the research. An international team of researchers found that a "squalene synthase inhibitor," originally developed by Bristol Myers Squibb, blocks infections of Staphylococcus aureus, named for its "golden halo," in mice.Staph contains a carotenoid -- like beta carotene in carrots -- that acts like an antioxidant...

A 15-year-old Australian liver transplant patient has defied modern medicine by taking on her donor's immune system. Demi-Lee Brennan had a liver transplant after she suffered liver failure. Nine months later, doctors at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital were amazed to find the teenager's blood group had changed to the donor's blood type. Further tests revealed the stem cells from the donor liver had penetrated her bone marrow. Dr Michael Stormon says he and his colleagues were even more surprised when they found the girl's immune system had almost totally been replaced by that of the donor, meaning she no longer...

The Bush administration won a legislative victory yesterday when the FISA bill that excluded immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the NSA failed spectacularly in the Senate, leaving the path open to the immunity approach endorsed by the White House. The version without telecom immunity only garnered 36 votes in the upper chamber despite the Democrats' endorsement of it. Twelve of their members joined 48 Republicans in voting against it: The Senate signaled in a key vote yesterday that it supports giving some of the nation's largest telephone companies immunity from dozens of privacy lawsuits related to a federal...

You can’t help but feel a little sorry for Amanda Beck. She’s a reporter from Reuters who was among the first to cover a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, which warns about an outbreak of a virulent, drug-resistant, and potentially deadly strain of Staph infection afflicting certain segments of the homosexual community. Although outbreaks of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, have primarily been confined to hospitals in the past, the study determined that, due to “high risk behaviors” beyond hospital walls — such as “anal sex” — men who have sex with men...

WASHINGTON - Attorneys for Jose Rodriguez told Congress the former CIA official won't testify about the destruction of CIA videotapes without a promise of immunity, two people close to the tapes inquiry said Wednesday. Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, ordered that the tapes, which show harsh CIA interrogation of two al-Qaida suspects, be destroyed in 2005. Rodriguez is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Jan. 16. Defense attorney Robert Bennett told lawmakers, however, that he would not let Rodriguez testify because of the criminal investigation into the case. Without a promise of...

I URGENTLY REQUEST THAT YOU PROVIDE INNOCENT AMERICANS THE ABILITY TO REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY WITHOUT THE FEAR OF BEING SUED. Your “NAY” vote Thursday night left me quaking in anger and fearful of what this means to innocent people who will NOW think twice before reporting anything suspicious (or even assisting in state or federal investigations) for fear of a lawsuit. You have a sworn duty to keep America safe!! DO YOUR JOB and give John Does an immunity clause. Don’t let an angry America point fingers at YOU after another terror attack because of your neglect and irresponsibility in...

-- A healthy American chestnut tree discovered on a New Hampshire farm may serve as the "mother tree" to bring back a species nearly wiped out by Asian blight.The tree was found on a 125-acre parcel owned by Bill and Nancy Yates. Bill Yates remembers 60 years ago when American chestnuts lined the road near his home before the tree was all but wiped out on the Eastern seaboard. American Chestnut Foundation officials hope to use the tree as a way to bring the tree back to New Hampshire. Leila Pinchot, the foundation's New England science coordinator, pollinated the 40-foot...

Source: Society of Chemical Industry Date: June 25, 2007 Potato Salad May Help the Immune System Science Daily — It has long been known that eating potatoes is good for bowel health, but new research suggests that they may also have a beneficial effect on the whole immune system. Especially if eaten cold or in a potato salad, Anne Pichon reports in Chemistry & Industry. Spanish researchers found that growing pigs fed large quantities of raw potato starch (RPS) had a healthier bowel. Not a surprise, but they also found that RPS pigs had decreased levels of white blood cells,...

Ottawa, ON (AHN) - A medical journal has reported a case of a one-week-old infant who died from complications after being circumcised in an unidentified hospital in Ontario, Canada. In its April 2007 edition, Paediatrics and Child Health reported a case in which an infant, whose parents did not want him identified, was brought back to his family doctor by his parents 5 hours after he had been circumcised. At that time, his parents said he was "very irritable and had blue discoloration below the umbilicus when he cried." The baby's physicians sent the child home. The baby's parents took...

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations said Friday it has immunity from a lawsuit by survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia but remains committed to assisting those affected and bringing the perpetrators to justice. Thousands of survivors of Europe's worst massacre since World War II sued the United Nations and the Dutch government Monday for their failure to protect civilians in Srebrenica when Bosnian Serb forces overran the U.N. safe haven in 1995 and slaughtered up to 8,000 men and boys. U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Friday that the United Nation had just received the legal documents relating...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., May 9 (Reuters) - Angered that a beloved member of his squad had been killed in an explosion, a U.S. Marine urinated on one of the 24 dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit in Haditha, the Marine testified on Wednesday. Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who has immunity from prosecution after murder charges against him were dismissed, also said he watched his squad leader shoot down five Iraqi civilians who were trying to surrender. In dramatic testimony in a pretrial hearing for one of the seven Marines charged in the Nov. 2005 Haditha killings and alleged cover-up,...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. She had refused to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the two-thirds majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote. The House panel's action was part of a rapid-fire schedule Democrats have set to compel Bush administration officials, among them Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to...

The parents of a young boy hospitalized by illness they think was caused by raw milk experience provide a diary-like account of their experience with the healthcare system. This is Part 1 of a two-part item.

Source: Public Library of Science Date: February 28, 2007 Are Some People Immune To Avian Flu? Science Daily — New results from Richard Webby at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and colleagues published in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine suggest that the answer might be yes. Neuraminidase ribbon diagram. (Image courtesy of PLoS Medicine)The H5N1 avian flu virus is quite different from the seasonal H1N1 and H3N2 flu viruses most humans have been exposed to, which is why many scientists believe that H5N1 could start a new pandemic. (The H and N refer to two virus components, the...

The Mexican national shot by two Border Patrol agents in a drug-related incident in February 2005 brought a second van load of drugs into the U.S. while he waited to testify against the agents, according to Drug Enforcement Administration reports obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila - who was given immunity by U.S. prosecutors in exchange for testifying against former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean - is the focus of a November 2005 DEA report that identifies him as the person responsible for stashing more than 750 pounds of marijuana in a van parked at a house...

WASHINGTON – Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, the Mexican drug smuggler given immunity to return to the United States and testify against two Border Patrol agents, was involved in smuggling a second load of marijuana into the United States after he was given court protection, records have confirmed. Newly released transcripts of the trial for Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos have corroborated WND reports that the Mexican illegal alien was involved in the second drug case, this one involving a load of marijuana brought into the U.S. in October 2005. That followed his grant of immunity by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in return...

French police the target in urban guerrilla war By Jon Boyle Mon Nov 27, 11:29 AM ET PARIS (Reuters) - Stoned, beaten and insulted, their vehicles torched by crowds of hostile youths, French police say they face an urban guerrilla war when they enter the run-down neighborhoods that ring the major cities. "Our role is to guarantee the safety of people and property but the great difficulty today is that police are having problems ensuring their own safety," said Jerome Hanarte of the Alliance-Police Nationale union. Bedside television interviews with officers hospitalized after beatings in "les banlieues," or suburbs, support...