Obama: Gay troops should have support

Obama: Gay troops should have support

WASHINGTON

In a sharp rebuke of his Republican rivals, President Barack Obama said anyone who wants to be commander in chief must support the entire U.S. military, including gay service members.

A combative Obama criticized GOP presidential candidates for staying silent when the crowd at a recent debate booed a gay soldier who asked a question of the contenders via videotape.

“You want to be commander in chief? Start with standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform,” Obama said during remarks at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Council, the nation’s largest gay-rights organization.

Referencing the boos at the Sept. 22 Republican debate, he said: “We don’t believe in standing silent when that happens.”

Protest shuts half of Brooklyn Bridge

NEW YORK

The Brooklyn Bridge has been shut down in one direction after protesters camped out near Wall Street spilled onto the roadway.

Police have made dozens of arrests and were continuing to stop people illegally blocking the roadway Saturday evening.

Demonstrators are railing against corporate greed, global warming and social inequality, among other grievances.

The group has been camped near the Financial District for two weeks and clashed with police on earlier occasions. A Friday march to police headquarters was peaceful.

Earlier Saturday, two other marches went over the bridge without problems. One was from Brooklyn to Manhattan by a group opposed to genetically modified food. Another in the opposite direction marched against poverty.

Davis mourned as a martyr by 1,000

SAVANNAH, Ga.

Sent to death row 20 years ago as a convicted cop killer, Troy Davis was celebrated as “martyr and foot soldier” Saturday by more than 1,000 people who packed the pews at his funeral and pledged to keep fighting the death penalty.

Family, activists and supporters who spent years trying to persuade judges and Georgia prison officials that Davis was innocent were unable to prevent his execution Sept. 21. But the crowd that filled Savannah’s Jonesville Baptist Church on Saturday seemed less interested in pausing in remorse than showing a resolve to capitalize on the worldwide attention Davis’ case brought to capital punishment in the U.S.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, national president of the NAACP, brought the crowd to its feet in a chant of “I am Troy Davis” — the slogan supporters used to paint Davis as an everyman forced to face the executioner by a faulty justice system.

Associated Press