Only in Coltons Point - Plant a Rose, Find a Bomb

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Wednesday evening Coltons Point got more than it's total annual share of emergency vehicles as multiple volunteer fire departments, the County Sheriff's Office, a Hazmat Hazardous Waste Team, eventually the Office of the State Fire Marshall, and even the US department of Defense converged in a blaze of flashing red, white and blue lights on the Point.





That's what happened when young Willie Ashby started digging a hole to plant a rose bush for his mother and wound up digging up a bomb. At first he thought it was old trash buried beside the home long ago and he threw the strange cylinder onto the sidewalk. Then he realized it was a bomb and a quick call to emergency services brought a traffic jam of emergency vehicles to the Point just after dusk.





The Coltons Point Times was the first and only media on the scene when field reporters Hillbilly Joe and Duke Deere came tearing up to the house on their John Deere's saying all hell had broken loose down by the St. Clements Museum.





I immediately raced to the scene stopping at the Potomac Gardens on the way, our only store and bar, where a huge crowd of at least a dozen people had gathered to see if the house next door was going to blow up. Fireworks are big in Coltons Point and this promised to be one of the best shows ever.

I interviewed Willie who said how was he to know the junk was a bomb? I visited his mother who wanted to know when the emergency teams would let her back in her house because she left chili cooking on the stove when they evacuated the area.

As I made my way to the police blockade there were emergency vehicles parked everywhere with lights flashing and emergency flood lights illuminated the area of town as if it was daylight. Working my way closer and closer to the location of the bomb I interviewed a number of emergency workers who said this kind of thing happens 5-10 times a year in St. Mary's County.





Seemed like a lot of bombings for a bunch of miniscule towns, villages really, until they explained it to me. Way back in 1919 the US Navy acquired St. Clements Island just offshore for defensive purposes. Now St. Clements is the most sacred site in America being the birthplace of religious freedom in America and with Coltons Point being the oldest continuously settled charter community in the original thirteen colonies. Things go way back down here in Southern Maryland, all the way to the St. Clement's Island landing in 1634.





From 1919 until 1956 the Navy had little regard for sacred sites, religious freedom and the site of the first landing by the colonists in the area between Virginia and Massachusetts so before and after World War II they used the Island for target practice by huge guns at the Dahlgren Proving Grounds about 20 miles up the river. During the War they used the Island to prevent German submarines from attacking our nation's capitol.





The bomb discovered while planting roses at the Ashby home was quite possibly the result of a very bad day by some Navy gunner trying to blow away the Island about 50 years ago. Not surprising I guess since the Navy bombed the Island for 37 years and never even hit the abandoned lighthouse sitting on it. When the Hazmat team realized what type of bomb was there they called in the State Fire Marshall's Office to identify it and make a determination on how to destroy it.





Here modern technology took over as Duane K. Svites, Deputy Chief State Fire Marshall and Commander of the Southern Region notified the Department of Defense of the bomb, then used his cell phone to send photos of the bomb to Andrew's Air Force Base up by Washington, DC for identification purposes. They were to determine if it was a practice round or the real thing and either way because it did not explode arrangements had to be made to move it and blow it up.





While this was going on crews started searching the rest of the rose bed and lo and behold found two more bombs which had not exploded. This was becoming a most volatile rose patch. One might have suspected someone in the Navy 50 years ago might not have liked the people living in the house and declared war on it.

At this point the entire yard was cordoned off as a potentially dangerous site, there was no telling how many more bombs might be there. If metal detectors find more stuff in the yard Mrs. Ashby might need to get a lot more roses to fill the holes.





On a slightly more serious note, the all volunteer fire departments did an exceptional job in responding and maintaining crowd control over the dozen people trying to find out the cause of such extraordinary excitement in the sleepy little village. The communication and coordination between the County Public Safety, County Sheriff, volunteer fire departments, State Fire Marshall and the Department of Defense was an exemplary example of first responders at work.

Way down here in the infamous 7th District of Maryland it is reassuring to know that no matter how you get bombed the local authorities are always prepared to take care of you. Now we certainly hope we have finally seen the last of World War II.




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Clinton Returns with Gore Girl Journalists - at what price to Foreign Relations?

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Bill Clinton did what Bill Clinton does best and that is make a mad dash around the globe to share his popularity with foreign heads of state desperately in need of character rehabilitation. This time it was North Korea, the nuclear saber rattler of Asia and most radical Communist country on earth.

While the White House tried to play coy denying involvement in the "private mission" to bring about the release of the arrant journalists who just happened to accidentally wander across the most secure border in existence, North Korea reported a far more active role for President Obama and his gang.

Reports from North Korea say Clinton and North Korean leader Kim Jong il spent three hours discussing Korean and US relations, the nuclear issue and other concerns of the Communists. It also said Clinton delivered a message from Obama and that Clinton also apologized profusely for the illegal acts and the intent of the two journalists to smear the Communists. Stay tuned to see if the White House or North Koreans are lying.





From the outset of the capture of the journalists it was obvious Obama was going to have to pay a lot to secure their release. For years all contact with North Korea has been through third parties and any meetings with them has been with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea present.

North Korea has demanded one-on-one discussions with the USA for a long time to increase their credibility with the world and to increase their propaganda at home by showing that the superpower America had to come to them for concessions. The involvement of the other Asian countries was a way to avoid being used for propaganda gain.

With the United States dependent on the other Asian countries for our financial survival and having already done some pretty stupid things to increase friction with Russia and China in particular, the end run by North Korea to achieve direct negotiations with the USA, and for the first time a visit by an American President, was a propaganda windfall.





If Obama was acting behind the scenes and his actions cut our allies in Asia out of the process of controlling relations with North Korea we are going to pay a price far beyond belief for violating the honor and trust with our partners.

Obama's historic deficit spending machine is dependent on selling bonds to advance the liberal agenda and the largest bond buyers in the world are China, Russia and Japan. When the record becomes clear on how this trip came about and what Clinton actually said to the North Koreans we may have further strained relations with our most powerful trading partners.

Obama Press Secretary Gibbs denied any involvement by the White House and even said Obama had not talked to Clinton since last March. Of course the media forgot to ask him if Obama talked to Gore since then but since Gore has been DC pushing for the Obama "cap and trade" legislation that will make Gore and his Goldman Sachs partner billionaires one can assume they have talked.

Since his election Obama has been a failure on all his international efforts from joint economic stimulus to sanctions against Iran and North Korea. His promise of a new era of world cooperation has fallen on deaf ears around the world and his rapidly plunging poll numbers on domestic issues means the Obama gang is in desperate need of some positive news. The Gore girls in Korea provided a dramatic platform to divert media and public attention from the massive stimulus failure, deficit rise and empty promises that will result in a middle class tax increase.

While we congratulate Clinton on his success, and you can bet the success was guaranteed before he ever got on a plane to go to North Korea, we hope our liberal media will uncover all the background on the trip and the role of Obama and most important on whether this political stunt might damage our foreign relations. Oh yes, and what might have been promised to North Korea concerning the nuclear issues.

Obama's 3rd 100 Days - Now What?

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Will the next 100 days finally reveal the real Obama so America can get on with evaluating the new occupant in the White House? Don't count on it as what we have seen so far has been such a contrast in styles, a reversal in policies and a world class spending spree that the Harvard fraternity-like mood in our nation's capitol is unlikely to change.





Is there anything we have learned so far? More of the usual when it comes to politics. While Obama may have a far left leaning agenda his actions are no different than the Republicans. All the crooks on Wall Street remain on Wall Street and not in jail, except for the token self-admitted crook Madoff.

Obama's pledge to stop politics as usual stopped nothing and in fact resulted in record shattering spending, deficits and false hopes that will be paid for generations to come. Pork barrel is alive and well. Foreign enemies he was going to engage with his Ivy League charm get bolder by the day and now we have to resort to coddling them and allowing them to get away with stealing elections and kidnapping Americans as a pre-condition to talking to them.





Not only has the Obama administration ignored the Republicans and Independents in Washington even though he was elected to be the president of "all the people," but he has moved partisan politics to new levels of blatant discrimination by threatening to get even with those who do not support his freight train to socialism.

His $2 trillion first year deficit put more money in the pockets of his friends and campaign contributors than the special interest groups he so casually took for granted as a Democrat. The auto unions lost tens of thousands of jobs under his policies. Educators still work in lousy schools and student achievement standards continue to flounder.

His assault on Catholics and Christians seem as if he single-handedly intends to wipe God out of the foundation of America and leave issues of morality a shambles as he promises one thing to the faithful and Pope while doing just the opposite in his actions.

All those local government unions that supported him have suffered furloughs, layoffs and reductions in force while those rich bankers that backed him have received billion dollar bailouts, billion dollar bonuses and get out of jail cards for life I guess.





To demonstrate his fiscal restraint he allowed billions and billions of dollars in outrageous private sector bonuses while bailing out the companies, instead of prosecuting those getting the bonuses for destroying the national and world economies by manipulating the housing, oil and alternative energy stock and commodity markets. Speculation that leads to the destruction of national economies hardly seems like grounds for a $100 million bonus for one person.

His answer to a health care system that is out of control is to create another layer of greed with a public socialized system to compete with the greed mongers already there. The health care crisis is a matter of cost pure and simple.

the cost of health facilities
the cost of treatment versus cure
the cost of doctors intent on making millions rather than helping people
the cost of insurance companies with no incentive to reduce costs when all they have to do it raise premiums
the cost of pharmaceutical companies trying to squeeze every last cent out of our health insurance and government aid programs before they lose their patent rights
the cost of frivolous lawsuits by lawyers that continue to force up the price of malpractice insurance paid by the policy holders, not the insurance companies, lawyers or doctors
even the cost of regulators to keep track of the cost of health care.





Mr. Obama, you Harvard people make things too difficult. If you really want to fix a system out of control from greed, then get rid of the greed and stop pampering the greedy. The problem with health care is no different than Wall Street. You leave the door open and greed will dominate because your administration has shown nothing to indicate you can or will stop it any more than any previous Democratic or Republican president.

You coddle the rich while slamming those whose support you took for granted. Is that a legacy you want to leave behind? You refuse to reform political campaigns because in truth you bent the rules to spend the most in history to get elected. Nothing has happened to reform campaigns, clean up Wall Street, get corruption out of politics or help people. Your legislative agenda has been a boondoggle for the rich, protecting the haves while continuing to penalize the have nots.

If you are Christian like you claim though your actions certainly are no example, then find a church and go to it and stop trying to drive God out of the constitution and foundation of our nation. We came here to found a nation under God, not against God and not one that ignores the role Divine Providence plays in our lives.





Americans are not stupid. The collapse of your poll numbers should tell you that. We know you are using the office we elected you to for your own self-serving purposes. We know those closest to you are being helped while many more are paying the price. Maybe you will help all the people in the end but America will survive whether you are honest with us or not, whether you are honest with yourself, whether you become the king of socialism, or whether you dedicate yourself to helping all the people all the time rather than the chosen few that are your faithful and blind followers.

We don't care if you join Bill Clinton and Al Gore and go make a few hundred million dollars after you are president, just don't make it while you are president at our expense. Try vacationing where normal people go, not just $40,000 a week vacation homes for the elite and rich. Tell Michelle $400 sneakers are not a good example to set in the White House when greed and materialism got us here in the first place.





You made history getting elected, not for what you might do once you were elected. So far your record in office and your shot gun approach to governing has diminished your reputation. Perhaps it is time you take a courageous step and declare that in spite of your ability to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for political campaigns you will not run for re-election in 2012, and you might very well regain some of the credibility you have lost. For the first time you will prove you are not intoxicated by power and money but by what is best for all Americans.

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Obama's Bad Boys and How to Punish Them in Style - Bank of America and North Korea

Okay, today's lesson is how to punish the bad guys and look good to the public while really not hurting the bad guys too much in the process.

Bank of America

First we have Bank of America, the giant bank that teetered on the brink of bankruptcy because of a series of stupid and possibly illegal actions. This was the bank Bush and Obama virtually forced to absorb the investment firm of Lehman during the financial meltdown. So in return for doing the government's dirty work with Lehman, the Bank of America gets a $25 billion bank bail out from the US taxpayer. It then says it must pay $5.8 billion in bonuses to the very employees that nearly bankrupted Lehman, bonus payments which the Obama administration allows to happen.




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To punish them, however, the Security and Exchange Commission under Obama charges the Bank with lying to their stockholders about the Lehman bonuses and negotiates a fine of $31 million for the action. So, the Bank violates the law and gets fined $31 million while also being given $25 billion in taxpayer money. In addition the $5.8 billion in bonuses get paid. So we the people nailed the bad guys for $31 million while letting them get away with $31.8 billion. It seems to me we just lost $31.49 billion with the Obama settlement.

Gored Again by Gore in North Korea

Speaking of good friends of the president, there is the case of former Vice President Al Gore who we have already shown made about $100 million off the environment while telling the US Senate every cent he gets from his environmental work goes to non-profit groups. He stands to make over a billion more if Congress would pass the Obama "Cap and trade" scam which was devised by Gore and his partner Goldman Sachs. Yes, the same silent partner serving Obama.





Now Gore has two of his staff captured by the North Koreans, staff who call themselves journalists, who supposedly "accidently" wandered into the most secure Communist country left on earth. They were sentenced to 12 years in prison, rather harsh except North Korea has made it a practice to bully the Obama boys ever since the president promised to sit down and talk with them. Until now Obama said he would only talk to them if Russia, China and Japan among others were involved.





Today the White House sent in former president Bill Clinton on a private jet to negotiate for their release. I don't suppose there is any connection between Bill and Hillary, his wife and the Secretary of State, who has been getting run over by Obama's legion of foreign policy advisors. And it is also probably just coincidence that the journalists are Al Gore employees, his former VP.

So the White House pulls an end run on our allies cutting China, Russia and Japan out of the negotiations with North Korea with this sham all for political expediency to make Barack and Hillary look like they are actually accomplishing something in foreign policy which they are not. Al Gore, who has already made tens of millions off the administration, gets his employees saved at taxpayer expense and it will not be cheap.





Congress should investigate the circumstances of this action and at a minimum demand Gore pay the cost. Why in the world were his employees wandering into North Korea in the first place? Does this incredible action of sending a former US president into a hostile country to save a couple of people who violated the law of Korea in the first place have anything to do with the fact Iran has now captured three more stupid Americans who supposedly wandered into Iran last week and now it looks like both the bad boys, Iran and North Korea, have the Obama administration right where they want them.





Look for us to pay millions if not billions to these former enemies to get them to sit down and talk about all the wonderful ways we can work with and help countries dedicated to destroying our government. If this is the future direction of the Obama foreign policy then I think we need to re-examine our role in the world. Policeman or patsy, which are we?

Holly is Gone 1993-2009

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Guardian and Peacemaker of Coltons Point





Last night, July 28, Holly passed away. Abandoned as a child, spending the next decade relying on a handful of kind people around Coltons Point for an occasional meal but otherwise living outside and alone through summer and winter, rain and snow, Holly became the sort of dog movies are made about.





An Irish Setter, Holly took a long time before she came to trust humans again and she was always prepared to take care of herself. But she did so much more by becoming friends with families and elderly people in need of companionship, taking walks with people, and gradually becoming the Guardian and Peacemaker of Coltons Point.





On occasion she would adopt a family spending nights in their yard guarding the place in exchange for food and kindness. Then she would move on. Nancy and Judy were a couple of the adopted friends and were devoted to Holly and her well being.





I first met Holly about seven years ago when she would be lying on the St. Clements Museum grounds looking as if she ruled Coltons Point. Everyone that passed seemed to know her. Then I would see her and another older dog taking walks to the small island at the end of Coltons Point almost every day. Later I found out Holly would open the fence where the old dog stayed and get her and take her for a walk.





One day her old friend died and she began appearing in the yard outside our house. Soon she befriended our puppy Coolin who was to grow into a giant Irish Wolfhound. Holly could barely walk from having injured hips and lying out in the cold rain and snow year round.





After some time I was able to coax her into the house and as I nursed her back to health she became Coolin's teacher and Guardian keeping all other dogs and animals away from him until she taught him the ways of survival. But the playful pup had a few things to teach Holly in return, mostly how to live like royalty as the Irish Wolfhound in ancient days could only be owned by the kings and their court.





Holly learned early how to find food and she was always perfectly groomed because she went swimming in the river every day in the morning. But Coolin convinced her to accept the royal lifestyle he enjoyed with beds indoors, fresh cooked food, pampering and lots of love.





She taught him how to herd skunks without getting sprayed. She single-handedly nearly wiped out the muskrat population of Coltons Point when she was viciously attacked and slashed by one with half of her jaw bone exposed. She never lost a fight with another dog no matter the size or age but she never hurt the dogs she conquered, just knocking them down and holding their heads down with her paws until they came to their senses.





Sometimes she and Coolin would arch their heads to the sky and howl in harmony. Other times they would join forces chasing rabbits and walking the beach. She liked to lie in the yard in front of our house and many a night drove away burglars and stray animals like skunks and foxes. When she heard people arguing she tried to distract and stop them.





Mostly she loved nature, and Coltons Point. She was the only dog I know that was given the right to roam freely because so many people had called the Animal Control and told them she belonged to all the people. For most of the past four years she has been our house guest and constant companion and her many adventures and kind deeds would fill a book.





Holly loved life. For that she was loved. We will be collecting stories on Holly from the people of Coltons Point and we are planning a memorial and other things to guarantee that what she taught us will be passed on from generation to generation.





Always a prankster, she had a trick where she would lie on her back and act dead for hours at a time. People would stop by and ask if she was alive.





Just a couple of days before her passing she made her way with great difficulty across the street and helped a neighbor's grand daughter get over her fear of dogs. It was just like Holly to be helping children as she was fighting for her life.






At her final moments of life after she let me know she was ready to go and she could barely lift her head off the pillow I went to the door to let in her devoted Vet-A-Pet Candace Guyther and we turned and Holly was sitting up on her hind legs, her head looking up to the heavens, proud and poised as she always had been to remind us just how she wanted to be remembered, the Guardian, the Peacemaker.





Then she was gone. Farewell my dear friend.


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Polls - Palin Drops 14% and gets Impaled - Obama Drops 16% Media Ignore It

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If ever there was evidence of the bias of the nation's elite media it is in the reporting of the latest polls on our politicians. A poll by the Washington Post and ABC News showing a Palin favorable rating of 40%, was hailed as evidence by the nation's liberal media that Palin is falling off the cliff in terms of public support.

Of course no one mentioned that the poll included all people not even limiting it to registered voters as all reliable polls do. This is a sham and a deception and the media should be ashamed for even suggesting it was scientific.

At her peak of popularity last September Palin had a 54% favorable rating which means she has now dropped 14% in the polls. She stills commands a 70% favorable rating from Republicans which is as good as it ever was.





In the Rasmussen Reports, a legitimate independent polling service relied upon for political purposes, his latest poll shows Obama has now dropped 16% in his favorable rating, from a high of 65% last January to 49% today. It is the first time he has fallen below 50%. Did you notice any articles showing Obama had fallen more than Palin in the ratings? Oh yes, the Rasmussen Report only polls registered voters so it does have meaning for the next elections.





Media bias is running rampant in support of Obama even though the public has seen through the illusion created by the media. In two current Rasmussen polls the reason for not reporting them is clear. When Obama is polled head to head with Mitch Romney for president they are tied. When he is opposed by Sarah Palin, the one the Washington Post and ABC News say is falling off the cliff and out of favor with the public, all voters give Obama just a 48-42% lead.





Palin didn't even run for president last election yet she has closed to within 6% of the President with all the resources of the White House and liberal media helping him while the same resources are trying to smear Palin. You will never get the truth from the liberal media.





These latest polls were also before Obama shot off his mouth on the Cambridge Police fiasco and then had to reverse himself when he inflamed racism in America, and before his embarrassing failure to get a Health Care Reform bill before the Congressional recess.





In truth these are the latest poll results of registered voters on the issues.

54% oppose the Obama health care reform
25% favor the Obama stimulus
31% say the Obama stimulus hurts us
31% say the country is moving in the right direction
20% say health care is our greatest priority
37% say the deficit is our highest priority
46% say network news is more reliable than the internet
35% say the internet is more reliable than network news
50% of Republicans and Independents say both news sources are equally reliable
66% of Democrats believe network news is more reliable

Mr. President - What have you accomplished?

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Has anyone noticed that time seems to be speeding up while nothing seems to be changing in this world? We have a new president but all the same problems are still here. The economy is built on a foundation of quicksand. Troops remain in Iraq. More troops have been sent to Afghanistan. North Korea and Iran both have spit in the face of our new president and his policy of engagement in dialogue with our enemies.





Nancy Pelosi continues to lead the Democratic party down the black hole of intellectual constipation and permanent inertia with her broken promises, her running from responsibility and blaming everyone else for the lack of action and leadership. Pelosi continues to slam defective bills through Congress which will have no chance of getting into law.

Thanks to the Democrats control of the universe we have the highest budget deficit in history, the highest national debt in history, two wars still underway and two more hot spots moving closer to conflict in North Korea and Iran.





Fat cats on Wall Street that backed Obama have gotten richer while those that caused the economic chaos have not been prosecuted. Green politicians like Al Gore have made a hundred million dollars off the environment and stand to make billions more while the Administration continues to fund them and ignore the oil and gas assets we do control.

Social programs have grown adding millions more to the future deficits while Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while we do rely on and have paid for are on a fast track to destruction. Oh yes, and what happened to your 401K that was supposed to be protected by the government?





If I had all these things going wrong I think I would rent a resort home for $40,000 like Obama and go on vacation as well. Too bad he can't find a church to go to as easy as spending tens of thousands of dollars visiting resorts, going to Broadway shows, hosting million dollar Hawaiian parties for cronies, and whatever else he does for diversion. Maybe keeping him out of Washington along with the Congress is what America needs most to heal.

Obama Calibrates Racist Remarks in Cameo Appearance???

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So Obama has inflamed racism in America by not speaking from a teleprompter, you might say he pulled a Joe Biden foot-in-the-mouth act, and then tried to soften the criticism with an impromptu news briefing he called a "cameo" appearance at a White House Press briefing.

Only a Harvard educated elitist would describe an apology as he did, "And I could've calibrated those words differently." Calibrated those words differently? Calibrate is a scientific technique to validate test results in scientific instruments. What in the world does that have to do with a personal apology for saying stupid things? Now this is from a highly educated Ivy L:eague president never at a loss for words.

One can only assume he was thinking of scientific polls when he mentioned calibrate and that the polls showed his remarks of accusing the Police of "acting stupidly" might just have been a little more stupid than the Police action. Here is what an Associated Press reporter had to say about the fiasco.

By NANCY BENAC, Associated Press Writer Nancy Benac, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama concedes his words — that a white police officer "acted stupidly" when he arrested a black university scholar in his own home — were ill-chosen. But, while he invited both men to visit him at the White House, Obama stopped short of publicly apologizing for his remark.

The president personally telephoned the two men, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley, in an effort to end the rancorous back-and-forth over what had transpired and what Obama had said about it. Trying to lighten the situation, he even commiserated with Crowley about reporters on his lawn.

Hours earlier, a multiracial group of police officers had stood with Crowley in Massachusetts and called on Obama to say he's sorry.

It was a measure of the nation's keen sensitivities on matters of race that the fallout from a disorderly conduct charge in Massachusetts — and the remarks of America's first black president about it — had mushroomed to such an extent that he felt compelled to make a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room to try to put the matter to rest. The blowup had dominated national attention just as Obama was trying to marshal public pressure to get Congress to push through health care overhaul legislation — and as polls showed growing doubts about his performance.

"This has been ratcheting up, and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up," Obama said of the racial controversy. "I want to make clear that in my choice of words, I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department and Sgt. Crowley specifically. And I could've calibrated those words differently."

The president did not back down from his contention that police had overreacted by arresting the Harvard professor for disorderly conduct after coming to his home to investigate a possible break-in. He added, though, that he thought Gates, too, had overreacted to the police who questioned him. The charge has been dropped.

Obama stirred up a hornet's nest when he said at a prime-time news conference this week that Cambridge police had "acted stupidly" by arresting Gates, a friend of the president's. Still, Obama said Friday he didn't regret stepping into the controversy and hoped the matter would end up being a "teachable moment" for the nation.

"The fact that this has garnered so much attention, I think, is testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America," Obama said.
Obama, who has come under intense criticism from police organizations, said he had called Crowley to clear the air, and said the conversation confirmed his belief that the sergeant is an "outstanding police officer and a good man."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs refused to say whether Obama had apologized to Crowley.

Asked repeatedly about that, Gibbs said if Obama "doesn't want to characterize" his remarks to Crowley, "I'm not going to get ahead of him."

The story had taken on a life of its own, and the White House scrambled to keep up.
Gibbs said just Friday morning that the president had probably said most of what he was going to say, and that the only problem was media "obsession."

Hours later, Obama showed up to try to put the issue to rest.

There were signs both that Obama's statement had helped to ease tensions and that his critics were not about to let that be the end of it: A trio of Massachusetts police organizations issued a statement thanking the president for his "willingness to reconsider his remarks." The statement said Crowley was "profoundly grateful" Obama was trying to resolve the situation. But a Republican congressman from Michigan, Thaddeus McCotter, said he would introduce a House resolution calling on Obama to apologize to Crowley.

Obama tried to lighten his tone in his public remarks about his phone conversation with Crowley.
He said the police officer "wanted to find out if there was a way of getting the press off his lawn."
"I informed him that I can't get the press off my lawn," Obama joked.

In his conversation with Gates, aides said, Obama and the professor had spoken about the president's statement to the press and his conversation with Crowley.

The case began on Monday, when word broke that Gates, 58, had been arrested five days earlier at the two-story home he rents from Harvard.

Supporters including Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson called the arrest an outrageous act of racial profiling. Public interest increased when a photograph surfaced of the handcuffed Gates being escorted off his porch amid three officers, two white and one black.

Cambridge police moved to drop the disorderly conduct charge on Tuesday — without apology, but calling the case "regrettable."

That didn't end the national debate: Some said Gates was responsible for his own arrest because of his response to Crowley, while others said Gates was justified to yell at the officer.
Obama's criticism of the police only added fuel to the racial debate.

Meanwhile, the police union and fellow officers, black and white, rallied around Crowley, a decorated officer who in 1993 tried to give lifesaving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Reggie Lewis, a black Boston Celtics player who collapsed at practice. Lewis could not be revived.
Crowley, 42, had been selected to be a police academy instructor on how to avoid racial profiling.

A multiracial group of officers and union officials stood with Crowley on Friday at a news conference to show support and to ask Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who is black, to apologize for their comments. Patrick had called Gates' arrest "every black man's nightmare."

Obama's take on the situation: "My sense is you've got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in a way that it should have been resolved."

Democratic activists around the country were hopeful the president's latest remarks would quell the uproar.
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Associated Press writers Bob Salsberg in Cambridge, Mass., Charles Babington, Ben Feller and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Fla., and Tim Martin in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.