100 protesters taken to temporary center
By The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 08/26/2008 01:51:13 AM MDT

Denver police shoot pepper spray at a group gathered in downtown Denver Monday night. Police say they ordered the group to disperse before firing the spray. About 100 protesters were being processed early today at Denver's temporary processing center in a former warehouse.
Depending on their charges, they should be processed by 4 a.m. or 5 a.m., said Capt. Frank Gale of the Denver Sheriff's Office.
"It's working exactly the way it is supposed to do," Gale said of the facility.
If the detainees have the resources, they could post bond, Gale said. Others could end up being taken back to the main jail.
About 7 p.m. Monday, riot police using pepper spray forced a couple of hundred protesters out of Civic Center and then blocked them before they could reach the 16th Street Mall.
Police surrounded the protesters along 15th Street between Court Street and Cleveland Place and then
LIVE FOOTAGE
Watch LIVE VIDEO from the standoff between protesters and police. moved up reinforcements, including at least two armored vehicles.
Lynn Kimbrough, a spokeswoman for the convention's Joint Information Center, said one officer fired pepper spray during the initial confrontation near the City and County Building and one officer fire pepper spray on 15th Street. She also said one officer fired pepper balls in once instance, but wasn't sure of the timing.
She said an officer fired the first spray when several of the protesters charged toward the police line, which had been set up to protect the roadway and prevent any movement toward the pedestrian mall.
Police processed detainees until nearly 11 p.m. using tables set up along Cleveland and loading the detainees onto sheriff's buses for transport to the center.
Larry Hales with the activist group Recreate 68 said his group did nothing wrong Monday and had a permit for the Civic Center gathering when police closed in and created havoc.
Hales said that if they are not released by the morning, the activists will protest outside the police headquarters.
"I'm a little in shock," said Joey-Kenzie, 21, of Denver, after spending about 90 minutes in the crowd of people pinned in by officers in SWAT gear.
Kenzie said she wanted to

Police subdue and arrest a protester near the City and County Building. Approximately 100 protesters were involved in the demonstration, which was an attempt by Unconventional Denver to disrupt what it called a capitalist fundraising orgy. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)leave but police had surrounded the group and there was no way out.
"At one point we didn't know what we were going to do, we were going to get arrested or maced," said the recent Community College of Denver graduate.
Kenzie said police never asked for her identification.
"I haven't been able to vote for a president yet, but this was an epiphany," she said. "My freedom of speech was suppressed."
Protesters and police had originally lined up across from one another in front of City and County Building about 7 p.m., the police wearing their full riot gear and holding batons, chanting "move back, move back."
Police used pepper spray before the mass of marchers moved back across the park and were cut off by police behind the

Police in riot gear surround protesters on 15th Street near Civic Center park in downtown Denver on Monday night. This is not America. This is what a police state looks like. You re worried about Beijing? This is repression, one activist shouted. (Jason Halley, Special to The Denver Post)Sheraton Hotel.
One protester said police had used the spray "like a supersoaker" in front of the City and County Building. Pepper spray was used again on 15th Street.
A police spokesman said that they had massed their forces in the park based on intelligence about the protesters' actions.
One demonstrator, who would not give his name, said the confrontation began when "a bunch of us were supposed to have a direct action march."
Paralyzed anti-war activist Ron Kovic, who was not part of the march, had talked to protesters on the mall outside of the police parimeter."I came out here for my concern for you," Kovic told them. "We're not going to let them stop you. We're not going to let them intimidate you. But we are emphasizing

At right, Amanda Hubbard rinses out her eyes after being hit with pepper spray. (Jeff Gritchen, Special to The Denver Post)peace and nonviolence. We don't want trouble in Denver tonight."
Curiousity seekers stood outside the police cordon, outnumbering the marchers.
Protestors told reporters they were a mix of Tent State participants and those identifying themselves as anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-war individuals.
The group split, with officers surrounding and detaining the group on 15th Street, while others were pushed back by police toward Civic Center. Once the police organized their lines, the distance widened.
Police officials asked RTD to shut the 16th Street Mall bus shuttle service shortly after 7 p.m., said RTD spokesman Scott Reed. The mall service resumed around 9:30 p.m.
Sam Harper, 36, of Eufaula, Okla., said he was here to protest the war, but he wasn't prepared to be injured.
"When I saw the tear gas, I split. I don't need to get beat down," Harper said.
The detained grouped chanted in unison: "Who screams? We scream."
Some in the crowd outside the police lines, which included onlookers and media, chanted: "Cops here. Bombs there. U.S. out of everywhere."
"Speech is free. Let them be."
"Show me what the First Amendment looks like."
"Let them go."
"Watch out! They're gearing up," some in the crowd shouted, as officers donned gas masks and other protective equipment.
A girl warned anyone with contact lenses to get out of the area.
"The spray will fuse your contact lenses to your eyeballs," she said.
A protester named Timmy said he had slipped out of his all-black outfit and then slipped outside the police cordon.
"We want freedom from oppression," he said. "We want direct democracy where communities are allowed to make decisions based on our own abilities. It takes bottom-up organizing to make change; it doesn't take a leader. We want cooperations, not capitalism."
Meanwhile, in Skyline Park near 18th and Arapahoe, about a dozen people sat surrounded by police, apparently in custody.
http://www.denverpost.com/politicswestnews/ci_10301186 (at link you can view pictures)

Another step in the battle of words over the Georgia area. Russia is not messing around i hope our government understands this.
Russian general criticizes US Black Sea presence
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 25, 7:19 AM ET
ABOARD THE U.S.S. MCFAUL - A Russian general suggested that U.S. ships in the Black Sea loaded with humanitarian aid would worsen tensions already driven to a post-Cold War high by a short but intense war between Russia and Georgia.
The U.S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. McFaul reached Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday, bringing baby food, bottled water and a message of support for an embattled ally.
The deputy chief of Russia's general staff suggested the arrival of the McFaul and other U.S. and NATO ships would increase tensions: Russia shares the sea with NATO members Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria as well as Georgia and Ukraine, whose pro-Western presidents are leading drives for NATO membership.
"I don't think such a buildup will foster the stabilization of the atmosphere in the region," Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn as saying Saturday.
Georgian Defense Minister David Kezerashvili told The Associated Press on the aft missile deck of the McFaul after greeting U.S. Navy officers that the population of Georgia would feel "more safe" from the "Russian aggression" as a result of the ship's arrival.
"They will feel safe not because the destroyer is here but because they will feel they are not alone facing the Russian aggression," he said.
Local children offered the Americans wine and flowers.
In Europe, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would convene a special meeting of European Union leaders over the crisis as Russia ignored Western accusations it has fallen short of its commitment to withdraw forces from its smaller neighbor.
The war erupted Aug. 7 as Georgia launched a massive artillery barrage targeting the Russian-backed separatist province of South Ossetia. Russian forces repelled the offensive and drove deep into Georgia, taking crucial positions across the small former Soviet republic.
Russia pulled the bulk of its troops and tanks out Friday under a cease-fire brokered by Sarkozy, but built up its forces in and around South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region. They also left other military posts at locations inside Georgia proper.
The U.S. and EU say both those moves violated Russia's commitments.
NATO halted the operations of its vehicle for interaction with Russia, demanding a fuller withdrawal, and Moscow responded by freezing military contacts with the alliance — its Cold War foe whose eastward expansion has angered a resurgent Russia.
The guided missile cruiser USS McFaul, carrying about 55 tons of humanitarian aid, is the first of three American ships scheduled to arrive this week. It brought baby food, diapers, bottled water, milk and hygiene products.
Sailors in a chain on deck passed the supplies up from the hold to be lifted by a crane for transport to shore.
The commander of the U.S. task force carrying aid to Georgia by ship, Navy Capt. John Moore, downplayed the significance of a destroyer bringing aid.
"We really are here on a humanitarian mission," he said.
The McFaul, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, is outfitted with an array of weaponry, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads, and a sophisticated radar system. For security reasons the Navy does not say whether ships are carrying nuclear weapons, but they usually do not.
A U.S. official said the American ship anchored in Batumi, Georgia's main oil port on the Black Sea, because of concerns about damage to the Georgian port of Poti — not because Poti is closer to Russian forces in Abkhazia and Georgia proper.
Russian troops still hold positions near Poti, and Georgian port officials say radar, Coast Guard ships and other port facilities were extensively damaged by Russian forces. AP journalists there have reported on Russians looting the area.
An AP television cameraman and his Georgian driver were treated roughly and briefly detained Sunday by Russian troops outside Poti as he shot video of Russian positions.
Adding to the tension, South Ossetian officials claimed that Georgia was building up military forces in an area along the edge of the battered region and had fired sporadically at villages overnight.
As Moscow's military moved to redraw de facto borders on the ground, Russia's parliament on Monday was planning to consider renewed requests from South Ossetia and Abkhazia for recognition of their claims of independence from Georgia.
Georgia claims Russia wants to annex the regions.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080825/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_russia;_ylt=Amh_ag0G09.7_gGQYW7z53F0bBAF

Russian parliament urges recognition of rebels
By JIM HEINTZ and MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writers 29 minutes ago
TBILISI, Georgia - Russian lawmakers on Monday urged the Kremlin to recognize the independence of two separatist Georgian regions, heightening tensions with Georgia where the government said hundreds of Russian soldiers remained at checkpoints.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev did not immediately respond to the unanimous votes in both houses of Russia's parliament, but he has said Moscow would support whatever choice the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia make about their future status.
Western countries warned Moscow that recognizing the breakaway regions of Georgia, an allied nation pressing for NATO membership, would prompt international denunciation. The U.S. said Russian recognition "would be unacceptable."
"Russia needs to respect the territorial integrity of Georgia," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.
But Medvedev signaled the criticism was of little concern to the Kremlin.
NATO needs Russia more than Russia needs NATO, Medvedev said, and it would be "nothing frightening" if the Western alliance were to sever all ties. NATO has suspended operations of the NATO-Russia Council over the Georgia crisis, which has broadened Europe's post-Cold War fault lines.
"We don't need an illusion of partnership, when they surround us by bases from all sides, they drag more and more states into the North Atlantic bloc and they tell us, 'Don't worry, everything's fine' — of course we don't like that,' " Medvedev said.
Russian tanks and troops poured into South Ossetia on Aug. 8 after Georgia launched a barrage against the breakaway region's capital then drove deep into Georgia proper.
The Russian forces pulled back Friday in what Moscow claims is fulfillment of a European Union-brokered cease-fire. However, Georgia and its Western allies say Russia has violated the cease-fire's call to pull back to prewar positions because it has set up posts adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Georgian Security Council head Alexander Lomaia told The Associated Press on Monday that Russia has set up at least 14 positions in the security zones, apparently manned by hundreds of troops. "It's difficult to count them, but they say they are deploying at least 20 at each checkpoint and two or three heavy armored vehicles," he said.
Although Georgia bitterly opposes the security zones, the country's small military is unlikely to be able to push out the Russian soldiers. Russia's huge armed forces quickly overwhelmed Georgia's, and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has been accused of starting a war that Georgia had no hope of winning.
Lomaia said Georgia will seek to force the Russians out by using "the force of law, not the law of force."
"We will focus on a concentrated international effort to help Georgia to get rid of the Russian forces," he said.
U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Russia is "still failing to live up to and honor" the cease-fire accord. "There continues to be a large presence of Russian forces in Georgia," he said.
But how much the U.S. and western Europe, which depends on Russia for oil and natural gas, are willing to force the issue remains unclear.
The European Union declared that South Ossetia and Abkhazia must remain in Georgia, and Germany said the Russian parliament votes were "in no way appropriate to either calming or defusing" tensions.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called a meeting of EU leaders Sept. 1 to discuss aid to Georgia and relations with Russia. The French foreign minister said the EU was not considering sanctions against Moscow.
The White House announced it was dispatching Vice President Dick Cheney to the region Sept. 2, for stops in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy. In Tbilisi, Cheney will hold talks with Saakashvili.
In Washington, the State Department said senior diplomats from the Group of Seven major industrialized nations talked by phone and agreed the group is "alarmed by reports of Russian plans to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia."
The group reaffirmed support for Georgia's territorial integrity and discussed the possibility of issuing a joint G-7 statement about Russian action, the State Department said. Russia is linked with those seven nations in the Group of Eight, so a statement from just the G-7 would underline the exclusion of Russia.
In another sign of worsening relations with the West, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin backed proposals for Moscow to renege on some commitments it has made during talks on gaining membership in the World Trade Organization, state media reported.
Russia is the largest economy outside the WTO and has been trying to join since 1995.
Western officials, including President Bush, say Russia's entry could be jeopardized by its military actions in Georgia. Analysts said Russia's toughened stance was a response to those warnings.
In Georgia, Russian soldiers remained dug in at two checkpoints near the Black Sea port city of Poti, their most controversial and potentially damaging position. Poti itself lies outside the security zones that Russia claims it has the right to occupy, but the Russian military says it will continue to try to control the city.
Georgian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Nana Intskirveli said Russia has not released 12 of the 22 servicemen it seized last week in Poti. The men were blindfolded and driven away in the presence of photographers; 10 were later released and Russia reportedly promised to free the others.
"Their fate is unknown," Intskirveli said.
South Ossetia, meanwhile, accused Georgian forces of taking control of three villages on the edge of the region Monday after Russian troops withdrew. The province's premier, Boris Chochiyev said a delegation was dispatched for negotiations.
"We are hoping to resolve this situation peacefully. And if that doesn't work out, there are other methods," he said.
Georgian Interior Ministry official Shota Utiashvili said Georgian police were in the villages, not soldiers. He said the villages were under Georgian control before the fighting and that under the cease-fire Georgia has the right to station police there.
"We haven't seized anything," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080825/ap_on_re_eu/russia_georgia_11;_ylt=AucSCOca1ggCD6Bb4n2ZXtJbbBAF

Nice to see at least they compromised Update of my August 6th post
Creeping Shar'ia Turned Back-Tyson Reinstates Labor Day
August 8, 2008
Creeping Shari'a Turned Back - Tyson Reinstates Labor Day
By WILLIAM MAYER and BEILA RABINOWITZ
August 8, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Tyson Foods, Inc., today announced that it has reinstated Labor Day as a paid holiday as part of a renegotiated contract with the Retail, Wholesale and Dept. Store Union, applicable at the Shelbyville, Tennessee plant only.
Initial local reaction is overwhelmingly positive with high ranking local government officials greeting the decision with approval.
The previous agreement, in effect since last November, substituted the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Fitr for Labor Day, in recognition of the substantial number of Somali Muslims working at the plant. That holiday will remain however, bringing the total number of paid holidays to nine - for 2008 only - for the Shelbyville workforce.
Starting in 2009, the number of holidays will revert back to eight, one of which will be a personal holiday, possibly the employee's birthday, Eid, or another day, as the company press release states, "requested and approved by their supervisor."
The move was clearly an effort to quell the firestorm which erupted upon the revelation of the terms of the original contract, recognizing the Muslim holiday.
The implications of the original contract, essentially a concession to creeping Shari'a, was noted by these authors, who wrote in Shari'a Comes To Shelbyville Tennessee concluding:
"…If the United States is not to become a Balkanized agglomeration of little Mogadishus, Islamabads or Rawalpindis, American citizens must become aware of the grander struggle which is occurring, often under the radar, which threatens our existence in a manner which we have never had to face before and that is why seemingly harmless concessions to Shari'a - such as occurred in the Tyson labor agreement - are potentially so devastating."
Tyson is to be commended for its quick and appropriate action in this matter; perhaps this case will set an example to other employers and unions before they too find themselves in such an untenable situation. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=shelbyvilleid=8.8.08%2Ehtm
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3563

Cows seem to know which way is north August 25, 2008 - 4:59pm
In this April 17, 2008 file photo, cows are seen grazing on the farm near Rio, Wis. Do cows have a compass? Somehow, cattle seem to know how to find north and south, say researchers who studied satellite photos of thousands of cows around the world. Cattle that were grazing or resting tended to align their bodies in a north-south direction, a team of German and Czech researchers reports in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Talk about animal magnetism, cows seem to have a built-in compass. No bull: Somehow, cattle seem to know how to find north and south, say researchers who studied satellite photos of thousands of cows around the world.
Most cattle that were grazing or resting tended to align their bodies in a north-south direction, a team of German and Czech researchers reports in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And the finding held true regardless of what continent the cattle were on, according to the study led by Hynek Burda and Sabine Begall of the faculty of biology at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.
"The magnetic field of the Earth has to be considered as a factor," the scientists said.
This challenges scientists to find out why and how these animals align to the magnetic field, Begall said in an interview via e-mail.
"Of course, the question arises whether humans show also such a spontaneous behavior," she said, adding, what "consequences does it have for their health."
The study sent Tina Hinchley, who with her husband Duane operates a dairy farm in Cambridge, Wis., to take a new look at an aerial photo taken of their farm a few years ago.
"The cows that were in the pasture were all over the place ... about two-thirds were north-south," Hinchley said.
Two-thirds is close to what the researchers found in their look at 8,510 cattle in 308 pastures. In the study, 60 percent to 70 percent of cattle were oriented north-south, which Begall termed a "highly significant deviation from random distribution."
Hinchley stressed that one factor that must be considered is cow comfort.
"They don't like to get hot. Their body temperature is 102, and they are wearing black leather jackets, literally! If turning north-south would keep them cooler, they would stand that way."
The research team noted that in very windy conditions cattle tend to face the wind, and have been known to seek out the sun on cold days. But they said they were able to discount weather effects in the study by analyzing clues such as the position of the sun based on shadows.
"This is a surprising discovery," said Kenneth J. Lohmann of the biology department at the University of North Carolina. "Nothing like this has been observed before in cattle or in any large animal."
However Lohmann, who was not part of the research team, cautioned that "the study is based entirely on correlations. To demonstrate conclusively that cattle have a magnetic sense, some kind of experimental manipulation will eventually be needed."
Joseph L. Kirschvink of the California Institute of Technology said he wondered if fences around the pastures could affect cattle orientation.
Passive alignment of animals to magnetic fields has been reported in honeybees and termites, he noted. It requires some type of special sensory organ to detect the magnetic field.
"If they have evidence suggesting that mammals are using magnetic fields to orient their movements, this is very cool," said Mark A. Willis, an associate professor of biomedical sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Willis, who was not part of the research team, added, "We have only in the last few years begun to understand the mechanisms underlying magnetic field orientation in birds and other smaller animals."
Indeed, it's small animals that led to this study, Begall explained. They were researching the magnetic field effect on African mole-rats.
"At one point last year the question came up whether large animals could also sense the Earth's magnetic field or not. But of course, it is difficult, or maybe impossible, to do these studies in the lab," she said. "So, the idea arose to look for other large mammals like cattle, and Hynek Burda was fascinated when he recognized that cattle could be found on Google Earth satellite images."
With satellite images they could tell the north-south orientation of the animals, but not whether an individual cow was facing north or south. You have to get closer to tell which end is which.
Now the researchers are moving on to study sheep, goats, horses, wild boar and some further deer species, Begall added.
The current study said red and roe deer also were found to orient in a north-south direction when grazing and resting, but unlike the worldwide cattle study, the deer portion was limited to the Czech Republic.
___
On the Net:
PNAS: http://www.pnas.org/

Hate to always be a doom and gloomer person here is more information on the Economy
BankUnited might have status downgraded Posted on Tue, Aug. 26, BankUnited Financial ( BKUNY), Florida's largest bank, may lose its ''well-capitalized'' status under federal rules for financial strength unless it attracts at least $400 million of new capital.
The Office of Thrift Supervision will reclassify BankUnited to ''adequately capitalized'' if the company fails to raise more capital, according to a regulatory filing. More restrictions could be placed on the bank, affecting its financial position and operations, BankUnited said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/657813.html