Thread: Help needed collecting article and sources for the show

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081024/ap_ ... sticker_18

PITTSBURGH – A McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack, police said Friday.

Ashley Todd, 20-year-old college student from College Station, Texas, admitted Friday that the story was false and was being charged with making a false report to police, said Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department's investigations division. Police doubted her story from the start, Bryant said.

Continued at link

Dead bear story

Obama signs left on shot bear cub

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/article ... 25382.html


CULLOWHEE, North Carolina - Police are investigating the discovery of a bear cub, shot dead and draped with Barack Obama campaign signs, at a US university.

Maintenance workers at the Western Carolina University found the 34kg cub in front of an administration building yesterday.

Campaign signs for Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, were draped over the carcass, said Leila Tvedt, associate vice chancellor for public relations at the university

The cub had been shot in the head, Tvedt said.

"Western Carolina University deplores the inappropriate behaviour that has led to this troubling incident," she said.

"We cannot speculate on the motives of the people involved nor who those people might be. Campus police are cooperating fully with authorities to investigate this matter."

University police called in wildlife officers to remove the body and help in the investigation.

Bear hunting season is under way in western North Carolina.

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http://www.wtov9.com/politics/17765868/detail.html

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Authorities: Dead bear under Obama signs a prank
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 2:10 PM

http://www.salisburypost.com/Area/10220 ... a-DeadBear


CULLOWHEE (AP) — Authorities now say a dead bear cub draped with Barack Obama campaign yard signs and left on the Western Carolina University campus was the result of a prank.

Campus Police Chief Tom Johnson said Tuesday afternoon that seven students were identified as being involved in the incident, and it was determined that it was not a political statement.

A statement from the school said the students found the bear during a weekend camping trip, drove it to school in the back of a pickup truck and dumped it at the main entrance to campus. Maintenance workers found the 75-pound bear cub Monday morning.

The students told authorities they used the campaign signs to cover up the animal's head wound and to keep blood from spilling onto the truck.

2 Charged With Assaulting GOP Campaign Workers

POSTED: 4:40 pm EDT October 27, 2008
UPDATED: 8:29 am EDT October 28, 2008

GALAX, Va. -- Two people were arrested and charged Monday afternoon with assaulting several GOP campaign workers at the campaign headquarters in Galax, Va.

2 Charged With Assaulting GOP Campaign Workers

The individuals identified by Galax police as Daniel Cason Meinecke, 29, and Cara Annice Hindman, 26, came to the headquarters requesting Obama-Biden bumper stickers, according Billy Bryant, who told WXII12 News that he was picking up campaign signs when the incident happened.

Bryant said that Meinecke told the GOP workers that someone had stolen all of the signs from his neighborhood and alleged that the GOP workers were responsible for the theft.

Bryant said that chairman Mike Stevens referred the two to the Obama-Biden headquarters down the street, then asked them to leave the building after they become verbally abusive and agitated.

Galax police said Hindman then sprayed Mace on five of the workers and Meinecke assaulted Stevens as he attempted to escort Meinecke from the building.

"They came in for the purpose of starting trouble," Bryant said. "You could tell that they planned it. I thought he might have something else, like a gun"

Bryant said police caught up with the two as they attempted to drive away.

Meinecke was charged with one count of misdemeanor assault. Hindman was charged with five counts of misdemeanor assault.

Both were released on a secured bond.

http://www.wxii12.com/news/17815574/detail.html

in the Hostility towards obama file.............

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/ ... KJ20081028

Skinheads held over plot to kill Obama
Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:23am EDT
By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two white supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee over plans to go on a killing spree and eventually shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, court documents showed on Monday.

Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman were charged in a criminal complaint with making threats against a presidential candidate, illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun and conspiracy to rob a gun dealer.

The plot did not appear to be very advanced or sophisticated, the court documents showed.

"We're unsure of their ability or if they have the wherewithal to carry out any of their threats," said a source close to the investigation.

Obama would be the first black president in U.S. history if he defeats Republican John McCain in the November 4 election. Concerns about Obama's safety led the Secret Service to provide round-the-clock protection from early in his campaign.

The suspects met over the Internet about a month ago, said an affidavit filed by Brian Weaks, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"The individuals began discussing going on a 'killing spree' that included killing 88 people and beheading 14 African Americans," Weaks said in the affidavit.

The men stole guns from family members and also had a sawed-off shotgun. They planned to target a predominately black school, going state to state while robbing individuals and continuing to kill people, Weaks said in the affidavit.

"They further stated that their final act of violence would be to attempt to kill/assassinate presidential candidate Barack Obama," he said.

TOP HATS AND SWASTIKA

The men planned to wear white tuxedos and top hats during the assassination attempt, which would have involved driving as fast as they could toward Obama and shooting him from the windows of the car.

They planned their first house robbery for last Wednesday but ended up leaving without breaking in. Instead they bought ski masks, food and rope to use in their robbery attempts.

Cowart and Schlesselman were arrested later that day in Crockett County in western Tennessee and made initial appearances in federal court in Memphis on Monday.

They remain in custody and are scheduled to return to court on Thursday for a detention hearing, the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper reported on its website.

They wrote racially motivated words and symbols on the exterior of Cowart's vehicle, including a swastika and the numbers "14" and "88" on the hood of the car.

ATF special agent in charge James Cavanaugh said "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet and 88 stood for "Heil Hitler."

"The U.S. Secret Service takes all threats against presidential candidates seriously and is actively investigating the allegations," said Richard Harlow, special agent in charge of the Secret Service-Memphis Field Office. "The Secret Service does not comment on this type of investigation."



ABC NEWS on story
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Vote2008/s ... 962&page=1

even made New Zealand media

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/world/29281/s ... lot-foiled

Foxnews
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/27 ... ate-obama/

MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27405681/

Thank you James and Populist. Excellent work! Your posts will be easy for me to read through during the show.

If you find any other related articles, please post them here before 3:30pm EST which is when I plan to start in on this material in the show.

W

this is crazy

http://www.lufkindailynews.com/search/c ... rvice.html


Secret Service visits Lufkin woman after 'death threat' allegation from an Obama campaign volunteer

By JESSICA SAVAGE
The Lufkin Daily News

Monday, October 06, 2008

A Lufkin woman received a surprise visit from the Secret Service last week because of a "death threat" comment she reportedly made about Sen. Barack Obama to a campaign volunteer asking for her support of the presidential candidate.

Two federal agents arrived at Jessica Hughes' home Thursday to ask her if she said, "I will never support Obama and he will wind up dead on a hospital floor."

Jessica and Micah Hughes say two Secret Service agents showed up on their doorstep Thursday after a campaign volunteer for Sen. Barack Obama accused her of making a 'death threat' during a phone conversation a day earlier.

Hughes said her words were deliberately twisted by a volunteer who was apparently unhappy Hughes was rude during a phone conversation the two had. The Lufkin mother, a Republican, said she received a call on her cell phone Wednesday from a woman with the Obama Volunteers of Texarkana.

"She asked if I was an Obama supporter, to which I replied, 'No, I don't support him. Your guy is a socialist who voted four times in the state Senate to let little babies die in hospital closets; I think you should find something better to do with your time.' (And then) I hung up."

(Hughes is referring to a "born alive" Illinois bill that did not pass in the Illinois state Senate in 2005 and had previously been opposed by Obama because he said it undermined Roe v. Wade, according to FactCheck.org, a non-partisan organization. A federal version of the bill, which Obama said he would have supported, passed by unanimous consent and was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002.)

Obama Campaign Communications for Texas director Josh Taylor declined to comment Monday, refusing to answer any questions and referring the matter to the Secret Service, which he said is conducting an investigation. A message left with a Secret Service agent in Houston was not immediately returned.

Hughes said she was surprised to see two Secret Service agents at her door, and upset to learn that the conversation she had with the volunteer apparently had not been recorded.

"I find it hard to believe that (campaign volunteers) don't tape these calls. They call people unsolicited and they aren't monitoring the calls or recording them? I think that is absolutely ridiculous," she said.

"I mean, how often must this happen — that someone is rude to a volunteer that they don't want to talk to?"

Hughes said she wants to file a countercomplaint against the volunteer.

"She has made a charge that will follow me the rest of my life," she said.

"I find that repugnant and violating — that some person got her undies in a bundle because she didn't like what I had to say."

Two other things if you can find them.

1. What is the full official name of the brigade now assigned to NorthCom to deal with riots or disasters inside the US?

2. There is this quote about the fall of Rome that I read once and Ive never been able to relocate it for use. The quote talks about how Rome was destroyed from within and not by an invading army. To paraphrase, the historic quote says that the enemy was already within the gates as servants rised up agaiinst masters and burned rome from within and there was naught the Roman senate could do once that started.

Sorry that is all I remember, but it was a very powerful quote and i wish i could locate it to use it today.

W

is this what you mean

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/a ... d_090708w/

Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1

3rd Infantry’s 1st BCT trains for a new dwell-time mission. Helping ‘people at home’ may become a permanent part of the active Army
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 30, 2008 16:16:12 EDT

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.

“Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the [Defense Department] chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NorthCom, that could change in the future,â€

Is this it?

Published on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 by The Progressive
Leahy Concerned About NorthCom’s New Army Unit
by Matthew Rothschild

Senator Patrick Leahy is concerned about the Pentagon's decision to designate an Army unit to Northern Command.

On October 1, the Pentagon, for the first time ever, dedicated an Army force specifically to NorthCom, which is in charge of securing not some foreign region but the United States of America.

The unit it assigned is the 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team, which has spent three of the last five years in Iraq. It was one of the first units to get to Baghdad, and it was active in retaking and patrolling Fallujah. One of its specialties is counterinsurgency.

This marks a change for NorthCom, which was established on October 1, 2002. Its website still says it "has few permanently assigned forces," and that "the command is assigned forces whenever necessary to execute missions, as ordered by the President and the Secretary of Defense."

Leahy "asked for a briefing from his staff" on this development and "wants to monitor the situation," an aide to Leahy said.

Leahy was instrumental in getting Congress to repeal the "Insurrection Act Rider" in the 2006 defense appropriations bill. That rider had given the President sweeping power to use military troops in ways contrary to the Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act. The rider authorized the President to have troops patrol our streets in response to disasters, epidemics, and any "condition" he might cite.

Leahy said last December that this rider "made it easier for the President to take over the Guard and to declare martial law." In a Senate statement on April 24, 2007, he cautioned against inserting the military "into domestic situations." As he put it: "One of the distinguishing characteristics of the United States is that we do not use the military to patrol our communities and neighborhoods." A few months before that, he warned that we must ensure that "the military is not used in a way that offends and endangers some of our most cherished values and liberties."

The repeal of the rider was signed by Bush on January 28, though Amy Goodman reports that "Bush attached a signing statement that he did not feel bound by the repeal."

The roles the 1st Brigade Combat Team will take on at NorthCom are a bit unclear.

"They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control," said the Army Times when it first reported on it. These duties would be in addition to dealing with "potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack."

Soldiers in the unit "also will learn how to use ‘the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has field,' 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them," the article noted.

Cloutier even bragged to the Army Times: "I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered."

The Army Times has since issued a correction, stating that the "non-lethal crowd control package" is "intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in the U.S."

NorthCom's own press release of September 30 says, "This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance, or crowd control."

The unit will have its regular weapons, however. It will store other weapons in "containers," and will have access to tanks, as Amy Goodman has reported and the Pentagon has confirmed.

The Army is taking a strong interest in this deployment.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey personally observed the combat team's training exercise, entitled "Vibrant Response," which was held at Fort Stewart, Georgia, last month. According to NorthCom's public affairs department, Gen. Casey "pointed out that being part of the new force requires a shift in thinking for soldiers who are accustomed to taking charge."

One soldier in the exercise said he learned that the troops should "preposition containers and equipment."

NorthCom's website, in a section on frequently asked questions about Joint Task Forces-Civil Support, cites "DoD Directive 3025.1" as laying out the criteria for how the Pentagon will respond in domestic situations.

That directive talks about "military support in dealing with the actual or anticipated consequences of civil emergencies." Those civil emergencies could be "arising during peace, war, or transition to war."

While it states that such support "does not include military support to local law enforcement," there is a provision in the directive for the military to take over functions of the civilian government.

Military personnel "shall not perform any function of civil government unless absolutely necessary on a temporary basis under conditions of Immediate Response. Any commander who is directed, or undertakes, to perform such functions shall facilitate the reestablishment of civil responsibility at the earliest possible time," the document states.

Under this "Immediate Response" exception, local military commanders can even act without prior approval from their superiors. "Imminently serious conditions resulting from any civil emergency or attack may require immediate action by military commanders, or by responsible officials of other DoD agencies, to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate great property damage," it says. "When such conditions exist and time does not permit prior approval from higher headquarters, local military commanders and responsible officials of other DoD Components are authorized by this Directive, subject to any supplemental direction that may be provide by their DoD Component, to take necessary action to respond to requests of civil authorities."

The Pentagon's decision to dedicate the First Brigade Combat Team to NorthCom has raised alarms, especially in the context of the current economic crisis. In Bush's National Security Presidential Directive 51, he lays out his authority in the event of a catastrophic emergency. In such an emergency, "the President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government" and will coordinate with state, local, and tribal governments, along with private sector owners of infrastructure.

NSPD 51 defines a catastrophic emergency as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function."

Notice the use of the word "or" above. In our current circumstances, it might be more relevant to read the definition this way: "any incident . . . that results in extraordinary levels of . . . disruption severely affecting the U.S. . . . economy."

President Bush could declare a catastrophic emergency today. And he'd have the 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team, well trained from its years patrolling Iraq, at his disposal here at home.

Copyright 2008 The Progressive Magazine
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/08-1

Rome.

Could be the writings of Tacitus

or

The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
by Edward Gibbon
"Barbarians at the gate".

This is not the direct quote but it sounds close to what you are looking for.

In his work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the historian Edward Gibbon describes how a vacillating Roman Senate, with the army of the Barbarian Goths at its city gate, debated fretfully about the Roman Empire’s future. Apparently unknown to them, a civil rebellion, led by slaves and domestics, had erupted within the city walls, leading to anarchy. Days after the appearance of the enemy, the gates were opened from within and the Barbarians poured in to pillage Rome. Within a week, 1100 years of empire building had come to a close.

Dixie