Day: August 26, 2008

Was Obama A Target?

Federal authorities are looking into reports that a man arrested with rifles, ammunition and drugs in his truck may have made threats against Barack Obama, officials said Monday.

FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright confirmed the FBI was investigating the reports but declined to elaborate. The Joint Information Center – a command set up by Denver, state and federal authorities to field media inquiries during the Democratic convention – said it had no immediate comment.

Tharin Gartrell, 28, was arrested during a traffic stop early Sunday by police in the eastern Denver suburb of Aurora. In his truck, officers found two rifles, including one with a scope; a bulletproof vest; boxes of ammunition; walkie-talkies; and suspected narcotics, said Aurora police Detective Marcus Dudley.

Police alerted federal authorities, who soon arrested Nathan Johnson, 32, at a hotel in Denver, Dudley said. A third man, Shawn Robert Adolf, 33, was arrested at a suburban Glendale hotel, Dudley said.

Law enforcers in Denver are trying to find out whether the reported threats to Obama were valid. “It could also turn out that these were nothing but a bunch of knuckleheads, meth-heads,” the U.S. government official said.

Today In Labor History

26 August

Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski are murdered by coal company guards on a picket line in Brackenridge, Penn. Sellins was a United Mine Workers of America organizer and Starzeleski was a miner – 1919

Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, the first since 1875. The bill establishes a Civil Rights Commission & a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice – 1957

Incense Causes Cancer

Watch out, stoners!  You cover up may be causing cancer.

Burning incense may create a sweet scent, but regularly inhaling the smoke could put people at risk of cancers of the respiratory tract, researchers reported Monday.

In a study of more than 61,000 ethnic Chinese living in Singapore who were followed for up to 12 years, the investigators found a link between heavy incense use and various respiratory cancers.

Incense is usually derived from fragrant plant materials, like tree bark, resins, roots, flowers and essential oils. Past research has found that burning these materials can produce potentially cancer-causing substances, including benzene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

However, no studies until now had linked the practice of burning incense to an increased cancer risk over time, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Jeppe T. Friborg of the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen.

Russia Backs Georgian Rebels

Russia’s parliament has backed a motion urging the president to recognise the independence of Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Both houses voted unanimously in favour of the non-binding motion, which analysts say could help President Dmitry Medvedev in talks with the West.

The US said any move to recognise independence of the two regions would be contrary to international law.

Responding to the parliamentary vote, the US state department said recognition of the two provinces’ independence would be “a violation of Georgian territorial integrity” and “inconsistent with international law”.

President George W Bush said he was deeply concerned, adding: “I call on Russia’s leadership to meet its commitments and not recognise these separatist regions.”

In an interview in his office that stretched until nearly 2 a.m., Mr. Saakashvili said that Georgia had gained allies in the world and would embark upon a campaign of rebuilding.

He predicted continued American support and said that he spoke by phone with the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Senator John McCain, as often as twice a day, and that he was in regular contact with Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has been picked to run for vice president on the Democratic ticket.

He also said that the Bush administration had not communicated disappointment or signaled a decline in its support for him since he gave the order on Aug. 7 to attack Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital.

And now Cindy McCain has been dispatched by the McCain campaign to Georgia for the media coverage….that is wrong…she is going on a humanitarian mission…wink…wink.

Obama-Clinton Tensions Continue

As Democrats arrived here Sunday for a convention intended to promote party unity, mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates of presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The former president is disappointed, associates said, because he is eager to speak about the economy and more broadly about Democratic ideas — emphasizing the contrast between the Bush years and his own record in the 1990s.

This is an especially sore point for Bill Clinton, people close to him say, because among many grievances he has about the campaign Obama waged against his wife is a belief that the candidate poor-mouthed the political and policy successes of his two terms.

While Bill Clinton remains angry about how he and his wife were treated by both Obama backers and the news media — and he is particularly resentful at what he sees as unfair allegations that he tried to exploit racial divisions for political advantage — he has made the decision that he will put forward a positive face for Obama’s benefit at Denver.

Damn!  How long will this pouting by Bill and Hillary’s supporters continue?  I still do not understand the supporters that say they will vote for McCain before they would Obama.  Why would a Dem vote Repub, a partythat has nothing in common with their beliefs?  The only answer I have is that it is about personality and not the country.

OMG! How Long Can The Same Excuse Be Used?

We all remember the gaff that McCain had about how many homes he owns.  He could not give an accurate count.  And on the Tonite Show he used is stand by excuse for the gaff.  McCain tried to recover by citing his heroic service in the Navy during Vietnam and his more than five years as a POW, mostly in the jail called the “Hanoi Hilton.”

Ok I get it!  He was a POW but at some point that has got to become a real gaff in itself, using it as a stand by excuse for not knowing the answer to tough questions.  Pretty soon that sympathy path is gonna end and he will have to give real answers to tough questions.

Dems In Denver–Day 1

Well the convention is off with a bang.  As usual there was a seemingly endless steam of party loyals, telling everyone what they already knew.  Obama is the nominee and they all are gonna work together to help him win the election.

There were a few highlights of the day.  The first was the tribute and the appearance of Ted Kennedy.  He was his usual democratic lion that he has been for years and at times his speech was very emotional.  Next was the days keynote speech of Michelle Obama.  She had to address the convewntion and the country on who she is and who Obama is.  Sad that an American has to be pushed to this point, but she was and may I say she was Spot On!  She gave an excellent and insightful speech.

The finally highlight of the night was the 7 year old daughter of Obama, she stole the show at the close of the speech.  She grab the mic from her mom and basically went about interviewing her father.  A great convention moment.

I have one last thing to add about the first day of the convention.  Is it the Dem convention or a bipartisan convention?  I ask this because there were as many Repubs interviewed in the media as Dems.  I think the the Dem convention should be for Dems.  And I will be watching next week and the Repub convention to see how many Dems are interviewed by the media.

ON to day 2.