Another blogger breaks a big news story ahead of traditional media. Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo blog reports that “Ben Barnes, the guy from Texas who got President Bush into the Guard way-back-when … has already taped a lengthy interview slated to appear in the not-too-distant future on a major national news show in which he’ll describe the strings he pulled to keep Bush out of Vietnam and apparently more.”
Marshall says its Dan Rather for 60 Minutes. This despite threats from the Bush camp that they’ll put him out of business if he spills the beans after all these years. Yeeeehaw!
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YEEEHAW, Indeed. All I can say is, IT’S ABOUT TIME this comes to the forefront.
And BL, now that you’ve taken on Bush perhaps you can take on this woman:
From the NY Times —
September 2, 2004
Owners in a Bitter Dispute Over Dog Attacks
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
The first victim was Murphy, a statuesque standard poodle, who suffered a life-threatening puncture to her throat. This was in January 2003.
Then came Bentley, a 130-pound sheepdog, two months later. He needed surgery and an 18-inch drainage tube for his wounds.
Two more attacks occurred in next year, but none hinted at the approaching horror for Frank, an 8-pound, 14-year-old Chihuahua. Frank never stood a chance. On Aug. 20, his head was severed.
In each case, the culprits were said to be a pair of pit bulls who live in Manhattan’s Turtle Bay neighborhood. They belong to Rita Buium, a clothing boutique owner, whose female pit bull, Blush, gave birth to the two males a few years ago. Since then, those in the quiet neighborhood of brownstones and expensive apartment buildings say, Blush’s offspring – Tiger and Bimby – have terrorized their dogs.
The story of the residents’ failure to have the dogs taken off the streets, or at least muzzled, reads like a classic New York City tale of people trying to do what they believe is right, and discovering that gray areas in the law give them little recourse.
They have gone to court and won. They have contacted the city and the A.S.P.C.A. and learned that because the incidents involved only dog-on-dog violence, there is little officials can do. They have packed, roughly 60 strong, into a Starbucks after Frank’s untimely end – he struggled in one of the pit bull’s jaws for nearly seven minutes, and only pried free as his tiny head was severed from his spine – to plan strategy. Yet they have gotten nowhere. Tiger and Bimby remain on the streets. Ms. Buium proclaims their innocence; she said Frank brought it on himself.
“I was shocked to learn what little can be done to prevent and report dog-on-dog attacks in New York City,” said Amy Apfelbaum, Murphy’s owner. “I even sued the owner of the dogs in small-claims court and won, but this is not about money. Our neighborhood remains unsafe; and Frank’s death could have been prevented.”
Now they have attracted the attention of at least one local politician, Councilwoman Eva S. Moskowitz. “There is a giant loophole in the law,” said Ms. Moskowitz. “If dogs attacks humans there is a lot the police can do, but it is not expressly stated what the police can do when a dog attacks another dog.”
Ms. Moskowitz said she planned to introduce legislation this fall to make it a crime when a dog hurts another dog and it is not a case of self-defense. It all began at dawn nearly two years ago when Ms. Apfelbaum took Murphy to the dog run at Peter Detmold Park, a shaded enclave along the East River. Unprovoked, Ms. Apfelbaum says, Tiger and Bimby approached Murphy and went for the jugular. As Ms. Apfelbaum screamed and tried to rescue him, she said, Ms. Buium stood by impassively and did nothing. The veterinary bills topped $700. Ms. Buium refused to pay.
In an interview yesterday, Ms. Buium called Ms Apfelbaum “my first enemy.” She said the dogs were playing gently when Ms. Apfelbaum suddenly grabbed her dog’s collar to separate them. The jerk, Ms. Buium speculated, had inadvertently driven the buckle on the collar into Murphy’s throat. But in April 2003 a small-claims court found Ms. Apfelbaum’s version of events more credible and made Ms. Buium reimburse her for the bills.
Six dog owners who have organized to try to get the pit bulls off their streets said that what they called Ms. Buium’s odd indifference to the violence as it occurred and afterward was especially troubling. They said she was violating an unspoken code of honor among canine owners that makes it possible to live with an animal in the crowded city.
Mike Marino, the owner of Bentley the sheepdog, recalls that as he was punching Tiger and Bimby to get them to stop, Ms. Buium did not command her dogs to stop. “Anyone else would have done something,” he said. Ms. Buium did pay Bentley’s $900 dollar veterinary bills without protest, but yesterday she said that she had been overcharged. “It was really just one little tooth bite,” she said.
After the incident with Bentley, Ms. Buium stopped going to Detmold and began to walk her dogs from 4 to 6 a.m. and after 11 p.m. But even that did not keep them out of trouble. Neighbors from her apartment building on East 55th Street say Bimby and Tiger even attacked other dogs in the elevator.
But dog owners who tangled with the pit bulls soon found city authorities could do little about dogs that had not attacked humans.
Owners say they called the 17th Precinct after their bouts with Tiger and Bimby and they were all told dog on dog violence was not a crime. Ms. Apfelbaum said the police would not even take her complaint. Joe Long, whose golden retriever Ruggles was attacked outside the 55th Street building last September, said he was told it was too bad he wasn’t bitten. Detective Debra Winski, a community relations officer for the 17th Precinct, confirmed that they had received numerous phone calls about Ms. Buium’s dogs. She said that although the police were trying to help, not all of the dog owners had made formal complaints. “We are encouraging them to develop a paper trail,” she said.
The city’s Department of Health, which is responsible for protecting the public from menacing dogs, was equally unhelpful, the dog owners say. Several owners say they talked to a supervisor named Ed Boyce, who told them dog injuries were a property crime and that they needed to sue in civil court. Mr. Long said Mr. Boyce told him that even though his girlfriend was bruised trying to protect Ruggles, his department still could not bring charges because she had put herself in danger by interfering in a dogfight. Sid Dinsey, a spokesman for the department, said, “The Health Department’s primary responsibility is to protect people from being attacked.” Nevertheless, Mr. Dinsey said, they could investigate incidents in which dogs posed a threat to other animals, and would investigate the incidents involving the pit bulls.
Mr. Boyce referred calls to the Department of Health’s public relations office. Numerous calls to the public relations office were not returned.
Mr. Long had a little more luck with his landlord, who got a court order against Ms. Buium to force her to muzzle the dogs and only take two at a time for a walk. Still, Mr. Long says, Ms. Buium flouts such restrictions. Kelly Hertzfeld, a spokesman for the building’s management company, confirmed the account and said she was “very concerned” about the dogs and that the company would be taking Ms. Buium back to court soon.
In the meantime, Ms. Buium, who described herself as a 65-year-old refugee from Romania, called herself the victim of a “witch hunt.” She says all the incidents described by neighbors are exaggerated, and that in all cases her dogs were provoked.
She said she even warned Frank’s owner to take the Chihuahua away from her dogs, who were eating dinner at 4:30 a.m. at the United Nations Plaza when the Frank and his owner strolled by. Instead, she said, the owner allowed the Chihuahua to approach and even to crawl under Tiger and sniff, which precipitated the beheading.
“I cried my head off,” Ms. Buium said. “That little dog has caused me so much trouble.”
But Mr. Marino, the owner of the sheepdog, said that Ms. Buium knows that she is in big enough trouble, in that she sent a representative to the Starbucks gathering. The representative, he said, promised to give money to an animal shelter if the group would leave Tiger and Bimby alone. Mr. Marino told her to go away. Ms. Buium confirmed that she had sent someone to the meeting.
“At this point the only solution is to put those dogs down,” he said, “I am really afraid that if they are not stopped soon, they will hurt a child.”