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Transcript Barack Obama’s Acceptance Speech Published: August 28, 2008 The following is the transcript of Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, as recorded by CQ Transcriptions.

.......John Edwards was having sex with the daughter of the guy who taught Tommy (the Sandman) Burns how to kill horses by electrocuting them! ......in 1982..James Druck, an Ocala, attorney who represented insurance companies, paid [Burns] to kill the brilliant show-jumper Henry the Hawk, on whose life Druck had taken out a $150,000 life insurance policy. The horse was owned and shown by Druck's daughter, Lisa who had competed on his back in shows all over Florida. Her father, a criminally minded lawyer and conniver started Tommy Burns on his grisly career as a horse killer. --snip-- Henry the Hawk...

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

The exact date when the Greeks used the Trojan horse to raze the city of Troy has been pinpointed for the first time using an eclipse mentioned in the stories of Homer, it was claimed today. # The truth about an epic tale of love, war and greed Scientists have calculated that the horse was used in 1188 BC, ten years before Homer in his Odyssey describes the return of a warrior to his wife on the day the "sun is blotted out of the sky". The legend of the fall of Troy is mentioned in Virgil and Homer's poems...

Memo to NBC’s Bob Costas and everyone else covering today’s 133rd running of the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore:  The name of the race is pronounced “prake-ness” — not the commonly repeated “preek-ness — and if you don’t believe it, talk to old-timers in Wayne, where a famous racehorse of long ago still is remembered as a hometown hero.  “I cringe every time I hear them say the name ‘Preakness’ on television,” said Dr. Robert Brubaker, the 84-year-old chairman emeritus of the Wayne Township Historical Commission. “They always pronounce it wrong. The word rhymes with ‘break.’Costas, a sports announcer with...

May 4, 5:53 AM ET NEW YORK - Police say a patrol horse found his own way back through Manhattan streets to his stable after throwing his rider.

LOUISVILLE --Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby by 4 3/4 lengths, a race marred with tragedy after the only filly in the race, Eight Belles, lost her life. The filly was euthanized on the track after breaking both front ankles.

snip ...Frodo Baggins hit fence 5, the Flower Basket, at high speed and had a rotational fall. The course was held for an hour and a half while Ashker was stabilized, and she was airlifted to the University of Kentucky Hospital. She has sustained injuries but is conscious and able to move her extremities. She is being cared for by the emergency and trauma services at UK. Vets attended to Frodo Baggins for some time, and he was transported off the course to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute just across Ironworks Pike from the Kentucky Horse Park [later euthanized] snip Heidi...

A failed jump by one of the world’s finest riders and a spate of deaths have unnerved the equestrian community....Top competitors and coaches argue that the sport’s growing popularity has attracted inexperienced riders who take too many risks, and amateur riders complain that courses are being designed beyond their skill level in order to challenge elite riders. There is also frustration that the governing bodies for eventing have not mandated the safety improvements they identified after another cluster of deaths nine years ago. A target of criticism is the former husband of England’s Princess Anne, Mark Phillips, who is coach...

TAMPA, Fla. -- A Lakeland man has been arrested after he punched a police horse in the rear end, police said. A Tampa Police Department report said Carl Coward, 24, balled his fist and punched the horse in the right rear hip area as the officer and horse were clearing an area in Ybor City at 3:15 a.m. Sunday. A jail official said Coward was charged with offenses against police animals and has been released from jail on $500 bond. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

This is an interesting interview on many levels. Even if one cares nothing for horse racing, just watching Wallace do the opening promo for his Philip Morris cigarette is amusing at least. (There are several of these later on too.) Wallace's focus on the money aspects of racing probably says more about Wallace than about Racing or Arcaro. It's interesting to me that here Wallace was interviewing the best jockey of that era and he never once asked about the horses Arcaro rode, the races Arcaro won (or lost), or the places where the races were contested. ML/NJ

Domestication Of The Donkey May Have Taken A Long TimeAn international group of researchers has found evidence for the earliest transport use of the donkey and the early phases of donkey domestication, suggesting the process of domestication may have been slower and less linear than previously thought. (Credit: iStockphoto/Andrea Laurita) ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2008) — An international group of researchers has found evidence for the earliest transport use of the donkey and the early phases of donkey domestication, suggesting the process of domestication may have been slower and less linear than previously thought. Based on a study of 10 donkey...

Looking a gift horse in the mouthLarge number of MarketWatch readers say rebate plan is off base By Jennifer Waters, MarketWatch Last Update: 3:33 PM ET Jan 27, 2008 CHICAGO (Menafn - MarketWatch) -- MarketWatch readers have no shortage of opinions when it comes to the stimulus package put forth last week by the White House and the House of Representatives to pump some oomph back into the U.S. economy. But a surprising theme emerged from the more than 700 responses to a story that asked you to respond to the proposal: Even though the plan would put hundreds of...

Last fall, Joseph White from St. David chose to help build a facility, Care for the Horses, for his Eagle Scout project. The Scouts arrived early in the morning and worked hard all day. Numerous dump trucks of brush were taken to the landfill. In all, two parking areas were created, making it easier for visitors to park and for moving of trucks and horse trailers. Two rattlesnakes also were found and killed. The Boy Scouts who participated, as pictured above, are Daniel Elliason, Paul Kartchner, Phillip Kartchner, Michael Grapp, Joseph White, Joel Kartchner, Joshua White, Jared White and Jared...

NEW YORK (AFP) - A New York City tourist attraction, the carriage horses lined up at Central Park may soon become a thing of the past if the City Council adopts a proposal to ban it as a tradition cruel to animals. Council member Tony Avella, a Democrat, introduced the bill in mid-December and Council President Christine Quinn has yet to include it on the board's agenda on an unspecified date, said Avella's press office. The Horse and Carriage Association of New York representing carriage horse owners has the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who considers the quaint transport an...

NEW YORK (AP) - The horse-drawn carriages that clip clop around Central Park could be banned under City Council legislation to be introduced at the urging of animal advocates who say the horses are treated inhumanely. Councilman Tony Avella, who plans to introduce the bill next Wednesday, said the horses that have entertained tourists and New Yorkers for decades are exposed to cruel conditions and are at risk of injury or death as they weave through city traffic. In September, a horse died after it was spooked by street musicians with drums and bolted down Central Park South. It was...

China To Start Excavation Of Horse-And-Chariot Burial www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-29 10:09:14 JINGZHOU, Hubei Province, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archaeologists will soon start excavations at the horse-and-chariot chamber of a tomb dating back 2,300 to 2,400 years, more than 100 years older than the tomb containing the terracotta army. "Excavation will start on the 131-meter-long horse-chariot sector of the Xiongjiazhong Tomb before February, 2008," said Yan Pin, director of the Archaeology Bureau of Jingzhou, central China's Hubei Province, where the tomb is. The tomb is the largest and best preserved yet found in China from the State of Chu in the...

Patty Cooper's landlord normally welcomes tenants who use animals to help them get around, such as guide dogs for the blind. So after the disabled woman bought a 32-inch-tall miniature horse to pull her wheelchair, she asked to keep the animal in her home. When her landlord rejected the request, she filed a human rights complaint. Cooper, 50, paid $1,000 for the 1-year-old gelding named Earl, expecting to use it for trips to the bus stop and into town. The agency that owns the apartment complex in Waitsfield denied her proposal, citing concern about horse droppings, hay storage and lack...

Please ping all the prayer lists. I got a call from a good friend who told me one of my 10th grade students, Melinda G. is in the hospital. She was bucked off her horse last night. She was airlifted to Christiana Hospital. So far, they think she may have a spinal injury. Both lungs collapsed. They are still running tests. I don't know if she is awake or not.

A Saratoga County judge on Sept. 17 dismissed all charges against two former New York Racing Association clerks of scales, Braulio Baeza and Mario Sclafani, who were indicted by a grand jury on charges of allowing several jockeys to ride above their published weight in 2004. Judge Jerry Scarano tossed the 291-count indictment, initiated by former State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (now Governor Spitzer), because he wasn't satisfied with the evidence produced by the prosecution, according to Paul DerOhannesian II, the attorney for Baeza. "The scales were not properly calibrated; they were only calibrated to 115 pounds and never tested...

Near the end of the x-country phase at Rolex, Amy Tryon's horse Le Samurai took a misstep and came up lame. She pressed on and jumped the last fence and crossed the finish line before attempting to pull the horse up. The horse was later humanely destroyed. He did lose all supporting ligaments. Here it is from FEI Press News: The FEI Tribunal has taken its decision in the case of alleged horse abuse committed by Mrs. Amy Tryon on her horse Le Samurai while participating in the cross-country phase of the 2007 Rolex Lexington Kentucky 4-Star Event on 28...

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Las Vegas pro ______ ____ won $2.3 million early Friday morning, beating out a field of 148 players in what is considered one of the most coveted bracelets in the World Series of Poker. ____ won the $50,000 buy-in HORSE event after a grueling 15-hour final table match that began play at 2 p.m. Thursday. Joking throughout the match, ____ kept up the humor until the 5 a.m. finish. "You know what did it? The lucky shirt," he said. The winner's purse was the fifth biggest in World Series history, falling just short of the $2.5...

CULPEPER, Va. (AP) - Two people police say were hoping to avoid drinking and driving chose instead to head home on horseback, and ended up under arrest anyway. Culpeper police officers Lonnie Myers and Tim Chilton heard a disturbance last Thursday around midnight and found Culpeper residents Eric Kyff and Lauren Allen arguing, Sgt. Scott Jenkins said. Kyff and Allen, who appeared to be intoxicated, wanted to "travel home several miles by horseback to avoid drinking and driving," Jenkins said. Kyff, 39, took off along a nearby set of railroad tracks but was stopped shortly after by Chilton, police said....

A Worldwide Push To Bring back chariot Racing THE WALL STREET JOURNAL May 24, 2007 SAO SIMAO, Brazil – On a drowsy May day in the country, tractors and combines were lumbering down dirt roads when, suddenly, a cloud of dust rose up on the horizon. Birds scattered. Rumbling across the green landscape came seven racing chariots, each pulled by four horses. Riding in the chariot decorated with an engraving of Alexander the Great was Luiz Augusto Alves de Oliveira, a 50-year-old sugar-cane farmer who has an epic plan: returning chariot racing to its ancient glory. In this May Day...

See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqUPoQj5hV8 Tryon Under FEI Investigation Following Rolex Kentucky Le Samurai’s injury before the last fence at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event left spectators at the event and around the globe, who were watching on the Internet, shocked and upset. He jumped the last fence almost on three legs, and Amy Tryon, who had been in the lead after dressage, dismounted immediately upon crossing the finish line. Members of the ground jury met later on April 28 to investigate the incident for alleged abuse. They reviewed written statements from the fence judges, watched the videotape and interviewed FEI...

A drunk German horse rider rode into a bank foyer to sleep for the night, after having one too many for the road during a stopover at his local beergarden. Wolfgang Heinrich, 40, from the German town Wiesenburg, had been riding with his Haflinger horse Sammy when he stopped to have a drink with friends. But when he left the pub he realised he was too drunk to ride all the way home - and because it was cold, he decided to use his bank card to open up a nearby bank foyer and take himself and Sammy inside to...

BERLIN (AP) - An early-morning German bank customer had a bit of a shock when he found a horse already in line at the automatic teller machine in front of him. It seems the horse's owner, identified only as Wolfgang H., had a bit too much to drink the night before and decided to sleep it off inside the bank's heated foyer, police said Tuesday.

If you like horses, you will love this Youtube clip, you'll even forget it's a horse! Even if you don't, this is amazing stuff.

La Ville Rouge, the dam of Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) winner Barbaro, foaled a full brother to the late Classic-winning colt April 19. According to a release from Dr. John and Alice Chandler's Mill Ridge Farm near Lexington, where the mare is kept, La Ville Rouge produced the bay son of Dynaformer at 2:08 a.m. Both mare and foal are healthy and doing well, according to the farm. The colt was bred by Roy and Gretchen Jackson, who also bred and owned Barbaro.

With all the idiot reporters asking Virginia Tech students the question "Your friends were just massacred in horrible, bloody fashion...HOW DO YOU FEEL?", I felt the need to suggest to them this most appropriate response from the Ren and Stimpy show: No sir! I didn't like it! Then the student should just walk away.

Preparations to sedate as many as 300 horses stabled at Belgrade's racecourse to keep them calm during a Rolling Stones concert have enraged Serb animal lovers who are lobbying to have the gig moved to another venue. The horses will be only a few metres from the stage. "Horses differ, the same as people. Some are more nervous, more skittish," said hostler Jovanka Prelic. "If they get too nervous or start to panic during the concert, they'll get sedatives." The dozen equestrian clubs at the course were hoping concert organizers would allow a sufficient number of personnel to be at...

Tempe man was arrested Sunday after slapping a police horse on the rear while officers were trying to control a crowd. David Cross, 28, was booked on suspicion of interfering with a working or service animal, a misdemeanor, said Tempe police spokesman Sgt. Mike Horn. Horn said the arrest came at 2:14 a.m. as officers were in a crowd of about 200 people at 411 S. Mill Ave. Several people were under arrest and others were fighting. Horn said the arresting officer wrote that Cross slapped the horse “in a manner likely to cause the animal to panic.” He said...

HONG KONG: It was a device worthy of Rube Goldberg or Wile E. Coyote: a dozen remote-controlled launching tubes secretly buried in the turf at Hong Kong's most famous horse race track last week, armed with compressed air to fire tiny, liquid-filled darts into the bellies of horses at the starting gate. No horses were hurt, because the track supervisor noticed something underfoot before racing started, discovered the elaborate mechanism concealed by grass-colored tape and called in a police bomb squad to remove it. But the discovery of the device, equipped with elaborate electronic controls, has raised concerns about security...

VENICE, Fla. -- A 13-year-old Venice girl died after being thrown from a horse. Mary Angela Jaquith was practicing for a jumping competition at her family farm on Saturday when another member of her riding club had a problem with a horse. Jaquith saddled up to see if she could help. But the horse reared back, threw Jaquith to the ground and rolled over her. Jaquith's mother, Debra is a former nurse. She rushed to the girl's side and found her unconscious and bleeding heavily. Jaquith was airlifted to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. Despite her riding helmet, Jaquith...

As anyone who’s ever injured a knee or elbow will tell you, recovery can be a long and painful process. Cartilage is an exceptionally slow-healing tissue, and, until now, the missing or damaged tissue is often irreplaceable. Researchers at the University of Guelph are hoping stem cells might provide the needed tissue replacements. Biomedical sciences professor Dean Betts and doctoral candidate Thomas Koch are hoping to use stem cells to improve cartilage healing after joint injuries. They’re working with horses, where joint injuries are both common and costly, and say the research could be a model for helping human joint...

Why should we feel so much grief at the loss of one horse? After all, this is a world in which horses are sacrificed again and again for the sport of humans. Barbaro was euthanized yesterday, eight months after he shattered his right hind leg at the start of the Preakness Stakes. After an injury like that, most racehorses would have been put down minutes later. But every race is a complex equation — a balance of economics, athleticism, equine grace and conscience. Conscience often comes in last, but not in this case. Barbaro’s owners gave that horse exactly what...

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized Monday morning after complications from his breakdown at the Preakness last May. "We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain," co-owner Roy Jackson said. "It was the right decision, it was the right thing to do. We said all along if there was a situation where it would become more difficult for him then it would be time."

A WOMAN has been charged with bestiality after she was allegedly caught naked in a paddock having sex with a horse. Officers allegedly found the 35-year-old woman commiting an indecent act with the horse when they were called to a field in Lismore, north of Sydney. "The woman was arrested and charged with bestiality and behaving in an offensive manner,'' a New South Wales police spokesman said.

Just occasionally along comes a racehorse who makes his jockey appear like mere freight, an animal far more famous – to the non-racing fraternity at least – than the man riding on his back. Arkle was like that, and Red Rum. And Dessie – Desert Orchid, the superlative steeplechaser – who died yesterday at the age of 27. Weeping over the death of a racehorse is probably going too far, even for the anthropomorphic British. There was, however, genuine sadness at the news that a great character had passed away. The winner of the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup, one of...

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - Who's Who *pics* This is a horse chat thread where we share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories. I always have a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts…...

THAT he is still causing a fuss more than 74 years after his death shows what a legend Phar Lap was. In the past few days, newspapers in Australia and elsewhere have reported on the extraordinary findings by scientists, who examined tiny hairs from the preserved remains of the antipodes' most famous racehorse, that was allegedly killed by American gangsters in April of 1932. I use the word antipodes advisedly: for all that he was a great Australian hero, Phar Lap was born in New Zealand. Using the latest technology, scientists have found that Phar Lap ingested huge amounts of...

A pair of college students have been arrested in connection with the brutal slaying of a young horse. Blinn student Kenneth Peterson, 21, is charged with cruelty to animals and criminal mischief. Those same charges have been filed against Texas A&M student Walter Williams Jr., 20. According to police, Peterson and Williams went for a walk in the woods near Wellborn Rd. armed with a polo mallet and golf club. A witness told police the two men climbed a couple of fences before chasing the horse out of view. He said Williams later returned and announced that Peterson had killed...

House Votes To Ban Horse Slaughter WASHINGTON -- The House voted on Thursday to ban the slaughter of horses for meat, a practice that lawmakers thought they already had ended. Instead of banning it outright, Congress last year yanked the salaries and expenses of federal inspectors. But the Bush administration simply started charging plants for inspections, and the slaughter has continued. The House vote was 263-146 to outlaw the killing of horses for human consumption. Opponents of the practice showed photographs of horses with bloodied and lacerated faces, the result of being crammed into trailers that would carry the animals...

What's believed to be Canada's first stem-cell treatment for horses has been conducted in southern Alberta. Veterinarians at the Alberta Equine Hospital in Stavely, 80 km south of Calgary, have implanted stem cells into five horses suffering from leg joint problems last Thursday. It came after a long battle with federal officials to allow passage of the stem-cell material -- donated from the patient horses themselves -- back over the border after it's sent for processing in a San Diego lab, said Dr. Andy Guccione. "Just being able to bring this therapy into Canada is a huge thing," said Guccione....

Little Sorrel rides to his newly renovated home Little Sorrel, the former mount of Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, died in 1886 at the age of 35. By Neil Harvey 981-3340 For a horse that gave up the ghost 120 years ago, Little Sorrel certainly gets around. In fact, onlookers in Lexington on Thursday afternoon might have seen the legendary steed and his entourage heading down Main Street on a rollback, then up Engineering Drive. "The journey was a short but historical one," said Col. Keith Gibson, executive director of museum programs at Virginia Military Institute. Sorrel, the former...

LANCASTER - Pirate's life still hasn't returned to normal, not even close, his owner lamented. Nearly two weeks have passed since Pirate, a 12-year-old gelding, fell prey to two neighboring pit bulls that escaped from their yard in the 3000 block of Avenue L-8 the night of July 23 and tore apart the horse's flesh, practically killing him, had it not been for the intervention of some bystanders. "We're still struggling," Karen Picard, the horse's owner, said. Her horse refuses to eat and continues to lose weight. "I'm sitting for hours next to his feeder, talking to him, petting him....

WASHINGTON - The head of a processing plant that slaughters horses for overseas consumption defended his industry in an emotion-packed congressional hearing Tuesday and urged lawmakers to reject legislation that would outlaw the practice. But proponents of the bill assailed the $60 million-a-year horse-slaughter industry - composed of two plants in Texas and one in Illinois - as inhumane and socially deplorable, citing the death of 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand in an overseas slaughterhouse several years ago. "Hopefully it will not take the slaughter of another Derby winner to put the spotlight on this important issue and shut down...

Ferdinand, 'Death Of A Derby Champ'A push to end horse slaughter in the U.S. continues to be fueled by a former Kentucky Derby winner whose life came to an end four years ago in a Japanese slaughterhouse. Ferdinand won the 1986 Kentucky Derby as a 17-1 longshot. He was slaughtered after being deemed worthless as a stud by the farm in Japan (Arrow Stud Farm) that had owned him for the final years of his life. Ferdinand was originally owned by the Howard Keck family, but was sold to Arrow Stud in 1994. Kentucky Congressman Ed Whitfield has taken the...

parody: International journalistic standards took a perilous turn today as the Daily Mail (UK) published an online article decrying the headbutting of a horse in Great Britain. Unfortunately for the publication, they also provided a link to video of the incident - a video that clearly calls into question the reporter more so than the offending jockey. Posters on the news site blogged breathlessly about how cruel the jockey must be, and begged for his ejection from the sport.

There is an Associated Press article from yesterday that highlights the unprecedented investment that is being put together to mobilize Republican volunteers to turn out voters for the GOP ticket this November, headed up by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This operation represents a significant financial commitment by Team Schwarzenegger to a ground game. He has hired top notch operatives to head up the effort, and has assembled a field staff many-dozens strong that is deployed throughout the Golden State. The Governor should be applauded for his financial commitment to turning out Republican voters. This level of resource-commitment is truly unprecidented! However,...