Jim Abdnor Died
Jim Abdnor Died, Former U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor gained fame nationally as the South Dakota Republican who ousted George McGovern from the Senate, but he was known in his home state as the farmer-turned-astute-politician who loved talking with people and never let the trappings of office get to him.
Abdnor, who was also a teacher, coach and World War II veteran before jumping into politics, died Wednesday, his family said in a statement. He was 89.
Abdnor was proud of his roots on a central South Dakota farm, even as he worked his way to the state Legislature, the lieutenant govenor’s office and Congress. He said his years of riding a tractor helped him represent farmers in Washington.
“I’m a farmer,” Abdnor said in 1986. “I’ve dug more dirt out of my ears than anyone in Congress. I treasure that heritage.”
Vance Goldammer, Abdnor’s attorney and long-time friend, said Abdnor died of natural causes after being in hospice care since May 6.
Despite three decades in public service, Abdnor wasn’t known as a great public speaker and even joked about it in campaign ads. But he served on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and earned a reputation for working hard to help farmers and ranchers and promote South Dakota water projects, including the WEB Rural Water System.
Abdnor was a four-term congressman when he defeated the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee as McGovern tried to win his fourth Senate term in 1980. Abdnor claimed that the liberal McGovern was out of touch with South Dakota – saying he couldn’t even produce a state driver’s license when he applied for a hunting permit.
Abdnor wound up receiving nearly 60 percent of the vote, part of the Republican wave that swept Ronald Reagan into the White House.
The highlight of his career, Abdnor said, was serving on the Senate Appropriations Committee because it helped South Dakota get attention even though the state had only one House member to help its two senators.
“You’d be surprised how these agencies like to talk to people that handle money that might affect them,” Abdnor told The Associated Press in 1993. “When you’re a small state like South Dakota, it’s the only committee as far as I’m concerned when you only have two or three people representing you.” (AP)
Obama Clinton Beef
Obama Clinton Beef, Des Moines, IA–Mitt Romney seems to have found a constant companion on the campaign trail these days. It’s not his wife. And it’s not any of the revolving cast of veep wannabees who have hit the hustings with the presumptive nominee over these last weeks.
Speaking at the Fort Des Moines hotel here Tuesday to about 200 people under a “Cut the Spending” banner, Romney name-dropped Clinton, as if he was a Friend of Bill.
“Almost a generation ago, Bill Clinton announced that the era of big government was over, even a former George McGovern campaign worker, like President Clinton, was signaling to his own party that Democrats should no longer try to govern by proposing a new program for every problem,” Romney said. “President Obama tucked away the Clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded ideas, along with transparency and bipartisanship.”
Romney has invoked Clinton in previous speeches, but this time he went a bit further, suggesting that there is something more under the surface between Clinton and Obama.
“It’s enough to make you wonder if maybe it was a personal beef with the Clintons,” Romney said. “Probably, it runs much deeper than that.”
In some ways, Romney has taken a page from Newt Gingrich’s playbook—the former GOP candidate also waxed nostalgic about the good ole days back when Clinton was in the White House and Gingrich was House speaker.
The strategy, of course, is obvious, if a little heavy handed—paint Obama as more like Jimmy Carter, rather than as a New Democrat in the mold of Clinton.
Clinton has already emerged as one of Obama’s most visible surrogates, appearing in a video marking the death of Osama bin Laden, and will likely be used to gin up support among so-called Reagan Democrats—white, blue collar workers, particularly—and Romney can perhaps mute some of Clinton’s power by suggesting that Clinton isn’t all in with Obama.
But by invoking Clinton, Romney risks poking the bear in some ways, and perhaps even casting himself as a version of Clinton. Praising Clinton, even in a backhanded way, isn’t exactly a way to solidify support among the religious right.
Florida Mother Kills Children
Florida Mother Kills Children, A Florida mom went on a murderous rampage, killing her four children early today before turning the gun on herself.
The murders happened around 4:30 a.m. in Port St. John, Fla. According to Lt. Tod Goodyear of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office identified the mother as Tonya Thomas, 33.
The children were identified as Joel Johnson, 12, Jazzlyn Johnson, 13, Jaxs Johnson, 15, and Pebbles Johnson, 17.
“This is a little bit different because they were older kids,” Goodyear said. “To kill all four, I can’t remember the last time a mom killed this many of her children.”
The shootings are the worst homicides to take place in Brevard County since 1987.
Goodyear says Thomas sent a text message around 3 a.m. to a male coworker that Goodyear said, “Tell my mom what happened, I want to be cremated with my children.”
The text is an indication that it was premeditated, Goodyear said. “A bad part of the investigation is that we may not get the why. Unless she left a note somewhere or told somebody, she may have taken it to the grave.”
According to Goodyear, a neighbor heard gun shots. Minutes later two of the children arrived on his doorstep. One of the boys, police believe it was Joel, was covered in blood and told the neighbor his mom had shot them. The oldest child, Pebbles, could be seen walking back towards the family home, Goodyear said.
The children’s mother came outside and lured the kids back into the house.
“She was very calm, called them in,” Goodyear said. “She didn’t seem to be stressed or mad, just stepped out. She walked out and said ‘come home.’”
The neighbors say that they called out to the children, begging them not to go back to the house. That was the last time they saw the children.
The neighbors called police immediately who heard gunshots upon arrival.
‘Suspected Terrorists’ Swamp U.S. Airports
‘Suspected Terrorists’ Swamp U.S. Airports, Officials each day encounter an average of 55 such individuals, but make few arrests.Law enforcement and homeland security personnel face an average of 55 daily encounters with “known or suspected terrorists” named on government watchlists, officials told Reuters.
The figure – which equals more than 20,000 contacts per year – underscores the growing sweep of the watchlists, which have expanded significantly since a failed Christmas Day 2009 bombing attempt of a U.S. airliner. But officials note that very few of those daily contacts lead to arrests.
Civil liberties groups question the use of watchlists, and they have been ridiculed for ensnaring innocent citizens.
U.S. officials said the encounters, which involve airport and border security personnel as well as federal and local law enforcement officers, are reported to the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), an interagency unit led by an FBI official based in a tightly guarded building in northern Virginia.
At its headquarters, the TSC operates a 24-hour command center, resembling something from a Hollywood thriller, complete with giant wall-screen projections and signs flashing “SECRET.”
Officials said that when a law enforcement or homeland security officer in the field stops a person whose name matches a name in the TSC’s databases, the officer is supposed to phone the TSC command center for instructions. Based on information in the databases, the TSC then will advise the officer in the field how to proceed, which could range from releasing the suspect to calling in federal officers as backup.
The command center gets between 100 and 150 inquiries a day, of which an average of 55 involve individuals who turn out to be listed on one of the federal watch lists, officials said. Of those calls, about 60 percent come from federal officers at border or airport security posts; the rest come from local police.
Portrait Emerges Of America’s Only POW
Portrait Emerges Of America’s Only POW, Bowe Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban has been an emotional roller coaster for his hometown.Afghanistan and America merge where Hailey, Idaho, begins to disappear into the woods, two blocks off Main Street, where Zaney’s River Street Coffee House sits behind a yard of bright yellow flowers. The one-story red wooden building is the heart of the Support Bowe Bergdahl movement. Bergdahl, 26, is a native son, having grown up by a dirt road that winds through a narrow river valley a few miles outside of town. He is one of the proud contributions of Hailey (pop. 8,000) to the U.S. military. The soldier has also been a captive of the Taliban in Afghanistan since late June 2009. He is America’s only current prisoner of war. He is the emotional vacuum in the heart of Hailey, with Zaney’s as ground zero for meetings, rallies and yellow ribbons for Bergdahl. Says Lee Ann Ferris, a local interior decorator: “The whole town has been affected. He’s like our kid too.” She says she imagines what must be going through his mind in faraway Afghanistan. “Every day he must be thinking about this little canyon, dreaming about it … probably what keeps him going,” she says.
Bergdahl’s father Bob has driven the local UPS route, which includes the ski resort of Sun Valley, for 28 years. “Long enough to know everyone,” says Sue Martin, the family friend who owns Zaney’s. A lean, athletic man in his early 50s, he has piercing blue eyes staring out of a head of sandy brown hair and the beard that he has been growing since he got news of his son’s capture. He could pass for a Taliban — in more ways than meet the eye. He says he is trying to learn Pashto and Urdu, the predominant languages along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier.
Bob Bergdahl was on his route on July 1, 2009, when he received word over UPS radio that he needed to return immediately to local headquarters. He arrived about 7 p.m. to see his wife Jani and uniformed Army officers standing in the company’s gravel lot. That’s when he received the devastating news. Jani Bergdahl would later tell her friend Sue Martin that it was going to take a lot of strength to get through the ordeal. As for Bob, says Martin, it was clear that “he was not going to succumb to the emotions of it as much as he’s going to participate in the resolution.”
Solar Eclipse Will Be Viewable In U.S.
Solar Eclipse Will Be Viewable In U.S., Many national parks are in an ideal position for the sun’s spectacular show this weekend.When the sun vanishes behind the moon for the first time over the United States in this century, what better place to enjoy the view than from one of the 154 national parks that stand in its path?
Astronomy lovers in the United States will be treated to a partial disappearance of the sun behind the moon this Sunday (May 20). Only the Eastern Seaboard will be totally exempt. The eclipse will occur in the late afternoon or early evening of May 20 throughout North America, and May 21 for observers in Asia.
Over the course of the solar eclipse, the sun won’t vanish completely, but will remain as a ring around the moon for what is known as an annular eclipse. When the eclipse occurs, the moon will be near its most distant point from Earth, making it appear smaller in the sky and thus unable to block the entire sun. But it will still be a stunning sight.
Thirty-three national parks will see the full effect of the moon’s interference. Many western parks will be offering an array of events for their guests, ranging from placing telescopes out for viewing up to a full-scale astronomy festival.
“We’re lucky that so many parks happen to lie within the path of the annular eclipse,” Grand Canyon park ranger Marker Marshall told OurAmazingPlanet.
The Grand Canyon park staff, along with the help of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, will be setting up solar telescopes and helping people safely view the eclipse. NASA scientists will be present to talk about the eclipse, as well as recent lunar findings. They will also have eclipse glasses for sale and will demonstrate how to use binoculars to safely set up a projection of the eclipse on a piece of paper. After the eclipse, the park will host a star party.