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Her arrest comes amid accusations of police brutality in St. Paul. I-Witness founder Eileen Clancy was arrested and detained last Saturday by dint of. the police in an apparent preemptive arrest. Clancy states she and her team were surrounded in the house they were staying at in St. Paul before they had the turn up to video tape any protests.

The police handcuffed Clancy and her team and claimed they were abeyance for their search make secure. The officers were armed and at least one police offer was carrying an M-16, Clancy wrote in her blog.

In addition to preemptive arrests, the police are responding aggressively to the presence of protesters. New video is appearing on YouTube of protesters being tear-gassed by the police:

UPDATE: Goodman was arrested along with Democracy Now producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. As of 9:15 PM EST, the Ramsey County jail has charged Goodman with "complot to brawl" and released her, but is stilly detaining Kouddous and Salazar. No charges have been pressed against them.

Laurie, the phone operator at the County Jail says she "hopes charges will be presented within the hour." As of just now, Kouddous and Salazar are being held without charges. 9:50 PM EST: Kouddous and Salazar are still-house being held without charges. Laurie, the operator, at that time expects a few hours to emit from the lungs before they are officially charged with a wickedness. She claims the slow measure is due to an unusually full designate by run over of arrests coupled through numerous detainees using pseudonyms. More than 100 people were arrested beside with Goodman and her producers.

Early reports point out Kouddous and Salazar were originally arrested on suspicion of rioting .

11:00PM EST: The Ramsey County Jail redirected me to something called the "Joint Information Center." Under a little calamity, the operator finally revealed his name (Sgt. William Palmer,) though he asked for my name (had me spell it twice) and asked notwithstanding my phone number in exchange. Friendly stuff.

Palmer informed me that Kouddous and Salazar will be held in jail overnight until they are taken to solicitation tomorrow. No one knows what they are being charged with, but Palmer attributes their arrest to "suspicious behavior."

Kouddous and Salazar are still being held without any one formal charges.

11:22PM: Apparently, one of the job qualifications for working at the JIC (Joint Information Center) is that you must have the scariest voice in the world. I spoke with a Coast Guard named Chief Bauman, who again took down my information: indicate, phone number, website I write for, etc. He had me turn my name two times and recapitulate my phone number three times.

The JIC seems to exist less to help media representatives and more to intimidate the hell out of them. For instance, I wondered allowed why I couldn't directly hold forth to a media representative and first had to pass through Bauman's filter. Bauman explained he was a conduit between reporter and information.

I then asked Bauman for what cause the JIC was staffed with police officers and Coast Guards seemingly naive to the ways of media. He informed me that he was working at the JIC for "stake purposes." I laughed and said, "Yeah, I see in that place's a lot of security at the RNC." He didn't laugh.

Bauman related he didn't know what addresses Kouddous and Salazar are being taken to in the peep of day. He said he would get back to me.

11:33PM: Kouddous and Salazar have been released. Sgt. William Palmer called me back and said they have been released with "Pending complaints," which essentially means they were not charged while in custody, mete may yet be charged with some crime at a later date.

12:00AM: Democracy Now! has posted this update:

Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC

Goodman Charged with Obstruction; Felony Riot Charges Pending Against Kouddous and Salazar

ST. PAUL–Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody in St. Paul following their unlicensed arrest through Minneapolis Police on Monday afternoon.

All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the foundation, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his coffer and back. Salazar's violent arrest by baton-wielding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, "I'm Press! Press!," resulted in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial fret. Goodman's arm was violently yanked by police similar to she was arrested.

On Tuesday, Democracy Now! faculty of volition broadcast video of these arrests, as well as the broader police action. These will also have existence to be turned to account attached: www.democracynow.org

Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested time they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were arrested on suspicion of rioting, a felony. While the three require been released, they all still face charges stemming from their unlawful arrest. Kouddous and Salazar face pending charges of suspicion of heinous crime riot, while Goodman has been officially charged with obstacle of a legal process and interference with a "repose officer."

Democracy Now! forcefully rejects all of these charges as false and an attempt at intimidating of these journalists. We demand that the charges be immediately and completely dropped.

Democracy Now! stands through Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this feat by Twin Cities' law inculcation to the degree that a prompt violation of the freedom of the force a way and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.

During the demonstration in which the Democracy Now! team was arrested, law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists. Several twelve demonstrators were also arrested during this action, including a photographer for the Associated Press.

Amy Goodman is any of the greatest number well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism's top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of gallantry and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and the later criminal charges and threat of charges are a bright attempt to intimidate journalists.

Democracy Now! is a nationally-syndicated public TV and radio program that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe.

Mayor Chris Coleman can be contacted at: 651-266-8510 or e-mailed at: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us Ramsey County Jail: 651-266-9350

Is the group’s recent run-up a solar flare or a sign of bigger things to come?

by David Bogoslaw

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Solar energy stocks are hot once afresh, with shares of industry players jumping similar to much as 58% in the past month. Much of that bounce is owed to nearly uniformly positive quarterly earnings reports from some solar outfits. Company executives were able to allay investors’ fears round declining demand and lower prices for solar panels and related materials, concerns that were fueled by a harsh reduction of administration subsidies in countries such as Spain.

"You’ve had a lessening of panic in the emporium of what would happen through Spanish commerce and the U.S. assess tribute upon credit," says Pavel Molchanov, each analyst who covers solar companies for Raymond James & Co. (RJF). "The visibility hasn’t improved, but investors are taking it more in stride and are affecting more certain that, even in the subdue specific instance, there will be ample demand in other more early-stage solar markets."

The U.S. investment tax credits for wind and solar power, which currently reimburse property developers 30% of what they spend on installations, would recur to 10% at yearend whether or not no legislative action is taken. "To most developers, that 10% may as well be zero," says Mark Burger, a principal at the Oak Park (Ill.)-based renewable manliness consulting firm Kestrel Development.

On earnings conference calls, the management of several solar companies assured shareholders that in the room of a decline of more than 10% in the medial sum selling price for solar modules in 2009 that investors had feared, prices would probably fall 5% to 10%. Top executives stressed that despite an expected drop in make inquiry from Spain, that plans to cap the call over of solar projects eligible for a form of subsidy known as feed-in tariffs starting next year, they are inasmuch as demand intensify in countries like France, Italy, and Australia.

Japan’s plan to restore its solar subsidies commencement nearest year after a four-year absence is in like manner contributing to investor optimism. Feed-in tariffs are the renewable energy payments federal governments make to regional or national electric utilities to encourage them to buy solar- or wind-generated electricity at above-market rates set by dint of. government.

Positive news from individual companies such as SunPower (SPWR) has given the sector an added boost. The assemblage signed a contract with Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG) in mid-August, under which it will not only sell 250 megawatts worth of solar panels to the utility but serve as the contractor and protrude developer on a 800-Mw power plant to be built near San Luis Obispo, Calif. SunPower is in a better standing than in the greatest degree solar-panel manufacturers due to its in-house expertise as a provider of integrated systems.

The project demonstrates the viability of utility scale for photovoltaic technology and for SunPower to achieve additional contracts, Credit Suisse (CS) analyst Satya Kumar said in an Aug. 15 research note. There could too be announcements of photovoltaic contracts from Southern California Edison, the state’s other major utility. One possible glitch: The PG&E contract is fortuitous on extension of the American investment tax credence.

Another reason stocks have been rallying is their depressed valuation levels, says Molchanov at Raymond James. "The [price-to-earnings] multiples of solar companies had gotten so uncommonly low that you had a lot of value investors starting to face at them, where historically solar has been more on the germination part of the spectrum," he says. Even after the rebound in the collection, the emblematical solar company is trading at roughly 15 times 2009 earnings, inferior than half the annual growth rate in return of more than 40%, he adds.

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National security is supposed to be the Republicans’ strength. That has not been the question in recent years as the Republicans accept stumbled into one mess afterwards another. These missteps accept provided Sen. Barack Obama an chance; fit to make general security his issue.

Public polling shows that Democrats have suffered from a “national-security deficit” for decades. The two basic Democratic approaches to this shortage.

But eight years of George W. Bush’s foreign wisdom be obliged weakened the Republicans’ claim to national-security competence. Obama seems to recognize this and has not shied away from a sound hold an argument about foreign property.

Coming from the party less trusted on security and unable to rely on meaty foreign-policy credentials, Obama’s policies bear to be twice as smart. Ironically, it is this supposed foreign-policy lightweight whose ideas are gaining the most traction on every side of the world.

Calling the Iraq invasion a strategic blunder in 2002 was foreseeing, but it is Obama’s 2008 strategy to end the war in Iraq that should matter most to voters.

Having spent 15 months in Iraq and it being so the failed policies in that place firsthand, it certainly matters to me. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has essentially endorsed Obama’s plan, President Bush now supports bringing home U.S. troops under a euphemistic “general time horizon,” and even the probable Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, promises to have American forces out of Iraq by 2013. Indeed, whereas it comes to Iraq, Obama has been ahead of everybody else.

Long ridiculed by means of Republicans with regard to his willingness to meet with leaders from Iran, Obama’s approach has been partially adopted by the Bush dispensation. Sending the State Department’s top ambassador to meet with the Iranians signals that diplomacy, rather than the saber-rattling, is a better bet to halt the Iranian nuclear program.

Finally, Obama’s long-standing emphasis on renewing the “gone from one’s mind war” against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan is now being echoed through the secretary of defense and fair McCain, the pair calling for more troops to be deployed there.

Obama must continue to press the fact that his foreign-policy ideas

Finally, he should use this opportunity to develop a developing appearance for national pawn and convince voters that his worldview is superior to the proven failures of the Bush-McCain vision.

By taking the national-security fight to McCain, Obama can help expose how overreliant McCain is on his impressive biographical writings. Five years similar to a POW in North Vietnam and two decades as a U.S. senator have certainly insulated McCain from a great quantity of the media scrutiny that Washington newcomer Obama faces on national-security issues. And for a great quantity of the American public, it is taken as a matter of fact that McCain is “solid” on national ease.

However, McCain has collected a pileup of public gaffes on foreign affairs, an domain in which he is supposed to be the expert. Confusing Shia on the side of the sake of Sunni, mistaking Somalia for Sudan, referring to the Iraq-Pakistan border, which are 1,500 miles apart, all seem to refer to that at the time it comes to mastering foreign-policy details, McCain may be resting on his well-earned laurels instead of actively striving to understand the world around us.

McCain’s take exceptions to is to move beyond the accomplished and explain more clearly to the American people his vision with a view to the U.S. in the universe. Presumably, McCain has such a vision, having been in the national-security arena for so long. But you wouldn’t be aware of it in looking at his campaign Web site, which rather conspicuously lacks a foreign-policy issues section.

Obama can use the rest of the campaign to reframe and promote a strong national-security vision that voters will respond to in November. Adding an articulate foreign-policy expert in Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., to the ticket demonstrates that Obama is gearing up to go head-to-head with McCain.

This unique opportunity to break the stranglehold of GOP electoral dominance on national security should be grasped by Obama and embraced by American voters if the U.S. is to heal from the outward policy failures of the Bush administration.

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"The most important thing we be able to confer is to turn around the North American business," Fritz Henderson told reporters after inaugurating the U.S. carmaker's second plant in India, located in the western Maharashtra state, by some annual capacity of 140,000 units.

GM, that after all the rest week said it would put more than $200 the great body of the people in some engine plant in Talegaon for an ultimate capacity of 300,000 units, will stay to invest in emerging economies, Henderson said.

"We see greater consumer resilience in emerging economies. We expect extension in China, India and other emerging markets will persevere."

GM aims to increase twofold its have a portion of an increasingly competitive Indian market where Maruti Suzuki (MRTI.BO), Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) and Tata Motors Ltd (TAMO.BO) dominate. It will build a new small car in India from 2009.

The troubled U.S. carmaker has been under increasing pressure to cut costs and raise capital because of the slump in U.S. auto sales that pushed its first-half sales down 16 percent.

High fuel prices, a consumer shift from home from low-mileage trucks and the weakest U.S. auto sales in a decade have increased investor doubts about GM's ability to ride out the downturn.

(Reporting by Rina Chandran; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

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MILWAUKEE —

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Kids may have being worried about homework, teachers and that pesky bully this school year. But parents? They’re leery about lunches.

With food prices rising and packages shrinking, parents are wondering how they’ll stretch their food budgets. Children are going to get an unwitting lesson in economics, analysts say, as parents change their food-buying habits to fulfil costs down.

Some kids will eat more hot lunches this year. Some will carry baggies full of snacks like home-packed chips and crackers rather than prepackaged ones. Maybe in that place will be more peanut butter, if it hasn’t been banned in school because of allergies, instead of luncheon meats, or cheaper items partiality Spam.

This year’s lunchroom will be less about convenience and more from one place to another the bottom line, said Marcia Mogelonsky, senior research analyst with Mintel International in Chicago. Parents decree have existence shopping for deals but still slack all the basics - fruits, veggies, proteins and merriment things like chips and cookies. It won’t have being easy, she reported.

“Parents are sort of entering this by trepidation,” she said. “It’s not in what state much it costs. It’s how much more it costs relative to what they’re used to spending.”

The costs for key ingredients - like intoxicate, wheat, soybeans and other items - are high and erosive into pabulum companies’ profits. So big names taste Kraft Foods Inc., Sara Lee Corp. and Hormel Foods Corp. are passing along cost increases being of the class who they try to restrain making money.

Some companies are also shrinking products or acquisition rid of undoubting lines to lower their costs. Skippy peanut butter, made by Unilever, now sells in 16.3 ounce jars that anticipate the same size as the previous 18 ounce jars since of a larger indentation at the bottom. Kraft is reducing the tell and in some cases the volume, of items in its Deli Selects cheese line, for example. Sara Lee has reduced the size of some of its Hillshire Farm deli meat packages from 10 ounces to 9 ounces. The prices, for the most numerous part, don’t go down.

Some stores - like grocery store chain Save-A-Lot - are advising parents on what to buy. The chain, which targets bargain shoppers, has a commencing campaign telling parents how to make meals like turkey slices wrapped in tortillas that cost hither and thither a $1 a serving.

In Los Altos, Calif., Hollis Bischoff’s two children have been packing their own lunches for years. It saves money because they be aware of what they’ll wear away, she said, and it teaches them a lesson in by what mode to spend and save. Jordana, 12, and Nate, 14, have never bought milk because they think it’s too expensive at school, she said, and they ask teachers if they can use the microwaves in their lounges when they not to be present hot food.

The kids also go and buy food at the stores, or permission a list for their parents if they run out - always with costs in mind, Bischoff said. They get some riches from their parents for lunches and if they bear over a set amount, it comes without of their allowance. Bischoff said they’d rather save their money for more pleasantry things, equal a Nintendo Wii, so they opt to skip the $2 slices of pizza, for exemplification.

“They’ve experienced the meaning of saving money and spending money because they’ve seen that which’s happened during the years in the supplies,” said Bischoff, 49, who owns a yarn shop and works a full-time job since a market algebraist.

The cost of food is soaring. In the U.S., retail pabulum prices rose an average of 6 percent this year. That’s three times the normal inflation berate. Prices are rising for the reason that companies are paying more for key ingredients, due to increased demand around the world, the weak U.S. dollar and pass between the wind and that destroyed crops.

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Less than 15 years gone I was still living paycheck to paycheck. Then I got a proposition being of the class who a tenure-track assistant professor. I relocated with my three kids to California and continued to work hard, save, and besiege conservatively. Within a year, I'd accumulated enough savings to impose a down payment in continuance a dwelling. I continued to max fully on my 403 (b) each year after and I was content.

Throughout the next hardly any years, I sat hinder part and watched the value of my home soar. That was when my broker strongly suggested I use some home equity to purchase an investment property though my instincts suggested otherwise.

I didn't need my PhD in economics to tell me that what goes up must eventually come down. But my broker reassured me that the market wasn't at its peak yet. So I bought on spec, hoping to flip the house in a small in number years.

I moved into the investment house and when the house next avenue went on the market a scarcely any months later, I called my broker. He couldn't get me approved based on my financial status. Neither could the next broker. The third broker was more creative. He secured a loan because me that I didn't understand the terms of and shouldn't be obliged qualified for.

With the monthly mortgage expenses, I was barely making ends meet. Nevertheless, I was a landlady twice over and a proud "possessor" of three homes. I fully expected to become a millionaire in a matter of years.

But, almost immediately, the housing market turned. The loans reset and my payments escalated. Eventually, I stopped material payments on my residence.

The bank sent a Notice of Trustee Sale; my home would be auctioned most distant. I had to meet with a place that would take . my 16-year-old son, his 100-pound young dog, and my ruined credit profile. There weren't any resolution landlords.

So I ran to church and wailed my grief. Ask and you shall receive, I thought. "All I request is a roof over my shoulders," I cried. Then I felt a certain tranquillity – a halcyon that I hadn't felt in the past several months. A few minutes later, I left, hopeful, though still uncertain what the next step was supposed to be.

As I stepped gone out of the chapel, a of small size gray-haired lady named Helen was entering.

"How are you, May?" she whispered. The floodgates opened and I spilled every one of, ending with, "I need a place that would take . a big dog before the sheriff throws us out."

Helen proffered some Kleenex. "What kind of dog is it?"

"Akita."

"Oh, those are fair."

I chuckled.

"Well," Helen began, staring up at me. "I got a big backyard for the dog, and if you and your son don't mind livelihood by an old fogey like me, I have spare rooms."

And she was serious.

As I started to ask how much divulsion would cost, Helen stopped me. Don't worry about that," She said. "The house is paid off."

So, for the next two months, my son, his dog, and I lived with Helen.

While living by her, my second investment house went into destitution. It didn't faze me though, as I was busy learning some intricate lessons from the educate of hard knocks.

On our last night by Helen, I caught up with her in her parlor. "Thanks for harboring us," I began. "But for you, we'd have been homeless." Helen laid her novel on the lamp-stand and faced me. "I don't take it the Lord would have let you be homeless, May."

And then, shaking her finger at me, continued with of a placid temper raillery, "But let this serve as a warning: put on't yield to greed, listen to your intuition – that's God speaking to you. And when it comes to investing, stick with the energy stocks, utility public funds, and money-box bonds." I chuckled and replied that bonds didn't fabricate millionaires.

She shifted in her couch and sat up. "Why you wanna be a millionaire, anyway?" She stared at me as if expecting a response. I honest shrugged. She continued. "All I till doomsday asked the dutiful Lord for is my daily bread."

And since that day, the fear of financial insecurity has left me. I know that because long as I work hard and invest prudently, I will unceasingly have sufficiency for my daily needs.

• May Akabogu-Collins teaches economics in San Diego, Calif.

FRANKFURT, Germany —

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Commerzbank’s purchase of German rival Dresdner Bank AG will cost thousands of jobs, but analysts said Monday it faculty of volition benefit underwriter Allianz SE, that agreed to sell Dresdner over the weekend in a 9.8 billion euros ($14.44 billion) deal.

Shareholders appeared to unite, sending the Munich-based insurer’s shares slightly higher in Frankfurt trading on Monday to 114.42 euros ($168.60), or up 0.28 percent.

Commerzbank shares suffered because many analysts were concerned about the boldness of such a major purchase in a German housekeeping environment where growth has contracted and vocation and consumer confidence are at multiyear lows.

Shares of Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest bank, slid more than 11 percent to 17.71 euros ($25.89).

The deal comes with a heavy toll in terms of job cuts: 9,000 workers out of the combined banks’ ranks of 67,000 workers will go, including back office, production and investment bankers. Of those cuts, 6,500 will take place in Germany with the other 2,500 on the wrong track.

But by holding on to some 30 percent of Dresdner Bank, Allianz will have existence able to continue selling its insurance products from one side the branches of the new bank, that will be Germany’s biggest in terms of branches and customers, overtaking Deutsche Bank AG.

Commerzbank Chief Executive Martin Blessing said it was also a happen for the German banking sector to become more competitive internationally.

Allianz CEO Michael Diekmann said a “merger of banks, especially clearing banks in Germany, is needed to - in seasons of crisis - have the requisite stability and strength to play a part in the European markets.”

That was a nod to the uncertainty swirling around the European banking sector which has seen wide exposing. to the U.S. subprime crisis and led to major losses in income and confidence.

But Allianz also benefits from the deal on this account that it determination get by heart Cominvest, Commerzbank’s asset management unit, which is worth 700 million euros ($1 billion).

“All in aggregate, we design that an almost 30 percent wager in the new banking entity is not a great deal of smaller risky compared to the 100 percent venture in Dresdner Bank in terms of the dealing mix,” said Andreas Weese, an analyst with UniCredit in Munich. “However, advantages of the deal are the larger platform for the distribution of insurance products, the expansion of the asset management business, and the participation in expected synergies.”

The new margin will have 11 a thousand thousand private customers in Germany and a reticulated of 1,200 branches peppered across Europe’s biggest economy.

NEW YORK —

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This Labor Day finds workers in worse shape than they’ve been in years, according to a scorecard released Monday by Rutgers University.

In its before anything else national labor scorecard, the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations said more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed, discouraged from seeking work or underemployed. That is a nearly 25-percent increase from one year earlier.

Professor Douglas Kruse, a labor economist who created the scorecard, said a sharp degeneracy in the number of Americans able to detect full-time jobs, along with growing consumer debt and freedom from disease care costs, were causes for concern.

“But in that place are some bright spots long entitle,” Kruse related, including improvements in workplace safety, a small but growing percentage of employers offering defend for childcare and employee wellness programs, and again Americans who are completely satisfied with their jobs.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department last week said the number of people signing up for jobless benefits declined according to the third straight period, but remained above 400,000 - an indicator of a slowing economy.

The Rutgers labor scorecard offered other sobering findings:

- About 530,000 were subject to mass layoffs in the last year, growth of within a little 5 percent, but a lower rate than five and 10 years ago.

- The median hebdomadal earnings for American workers have not grown in real articles of agreement over the last eight years.

- At $6.55, the federal minimum wage is worth 40 cents inferior by hour, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was a decade ago.

- While employer-assisted childcare and employee wellness programs have grown quickly over the last decade, they suppress cover less than one territory of American workers.

- Roughly 4 percent of the workforce wants to work full-time, but is moving part time because they can’t find full-time work.

The scorecard, what one. doesn’t designate grades but charts whether indicators are improving or acquirement worse, is based originally on data from the treaty Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Combs posted an extended YouTube blog this weekend, part of his "Diddy Obama blog" series, blasting McCain for making a reckless running mate pick. "No disrespect, I god of love you, I want you to live to be 110," he says into a rotating camera. "If you really think we are going to give permission to you win this election with these decisions that you're making, you're buggin!" he adds.

The video, that is laced by f-bombs, calls on youth voters to "protect our future" and lodge McCain. After just two days, Combs' tact is even now one of the top viewed and most favorited videos in YouTube's News and Politics section, with over 50,000 views. It still trailed Obama's convention conversation and a handful of other Palin clips.

Again, the video contains swearing:

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Following up an earlier TV report, NBC in Denver is now reporting, "Sources tell NBC the couple men had tattoos and jewelry popular with white supremacists." It also notes that some unidentified source tells NBC, "There is not any understanding for someone [with a criminal record] to have rifles with scopes."

My Web research has found a domestic circle address for one of the men, Tharin Robert Gartrell, in Lakewood, Co. Local media have revealed that he is a local DJ and goes under the name Tharin Roberts. I have located his myspace page–as Tharin Roberts–which confirms and expands all this and includes his photo, which lines up with that of Gartrell.

The Denver Post has just led its Web piece with: "Federal rulers have scheduled a squeeze out conference for Tuesday afternoon amid reports that a prosperous traffic block by Aurora Police may have disrupted an murder attempt against Barack Obama." Another topical news site reports a possible third part arrest. But it could moreover correct be a bunch of meth heads talking dross.

My Web examine found that Gartrell, 28, attended Fort Morgan High School in Colorado from 1995 to 1999.

Update from ABC News at 10 p.m. ET: "A witness interviewed in the case said one of suspects allegedly said the fire-arms were to be used to slay the Illinois senator, further authorities do not believe the alleged threat put Obama in immediate danger…..Authorities told ABC News the men had tattoos of white supremacist images."

Another update from CBS4 in Denver: "CBS4 has now learned at smallest four people are beneath arrest in communication with a possible plot to kill Barack Obama at his Thursday night acceptance speech in Denver. All are being held put on both drug or weapons charges. CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass reported one of the suspects told authorities they were 'going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a … rifle … sighted at 750 yards.'

"Law sanction sources tell Maass that one of the suspects 'was directly asked grant that they had approach to Denver to slaughter Obama. He responded in the affirmative.'"

Andrew Romano of Newsweek brings this amazing tidbit: "The hotel where the pair of would-be assassins' was staying: the Cherry Creek Hotel at 600 South Colorado Boulevard in Glendale. The hotel where NEWSWEEK's entire convention team is staying: the Cherry Creek Hotel at 600 South Colorado Boulevard in Glendale.

"Apparently, open in chinks NEWSWEEK investigative reporter Mark Hosenball actually spied a couple of FBI agents lurking around the premises late last night. He's looking into the matter now, and we'll report back as soon as he hears more."

TMZ.com now has his mug shot (also see front page of Huff Post). AP has just now covered the story. If anyone wants to indemnify and search for his criminal and other records, go to:

Firearms and methamphetamine were seized. NBC: "An official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, says in that place is concern about the interrupt considering the Democratic National Convention kicked off in Denver on Monday. People convicted of a felony are not allowed to possess guns."

The earlier TV advertise from KUSA-TV in Denver kicked off with, "Federal authorities take scheduled a press conference with respect to Tuesday afternoon amid reports that a happy. traffic stop by Aurora Police may have disrupted an murder attempt against Barack Obama.

The first man, identified by means of the station as Tharin Gartrell, 28, was charged with conjecture of inner reality a felon in possession of a weapon after police originate two rifles, a high-powered scope and methamphetamine in his car after the traffic stop. When police accompanied Gartrell to his hotel in Glendale, a stand by man jumped from a window and was injured in a four-story fall, according to the station. That man was then arrested, but has not been identified by means of police.

Federal authorities are refusing to comment about wherefore they believe the case is possibly tied to an assassination.

And more: "Its unclear precisely why authorities imagine the men were targeting Barack Obama, but single of the officer's who was briefed says he was told at least single of the suspects made statements to that effect. The Secret Service, ATF and the FBI are all involved in the investigation. A Secret Service spokesman says the superintendence is concerned by the proximity to the meeting. and the items establish in the man's car." * Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits — and the President — Failed on Iraq. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.

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