Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC murdered 

From DaveyD.com

If you ever met Jay, you knew he was a cool cat.. He didn’t bring a gangsta persona to the table. He wasn’t the type of cat who needed a bunch of body guards when he walked down the street.

And, Yo, I gotta be honest, I’m still recovering from the emotional upheaval of the sniper killings which just ended last week… I’m still asking questions with regards to Kenneth Bridges-co-founder of Matah. Why did this community activist and community leader have to be killed? Why was it another brother to be the one to take him out?

I’m still trying to get over the haunting images of the distraught mother of the 35 year bus driver who was the last sniper victim. I’m still trying to process those heart breaking images….I’m still asking why?

I’m still asking why there are 94 murders in Oakland? And I’m really bothered by the fact that damn near everyone I know knows someone who has been killed in the past few years..

I keep thinking about a song that poet D-Knowledge did a couple of years ago where he asks ‘Does Anyone Still Die of Old Age’?

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Enron ex-CFO Fastow indicted on 78 counts

Former Enron executive Andrew Fastow was indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston on 78 counts of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice over the energy giant’s multibillion-dollar collapse.

I’m guessing Fastow will have serious problems adjusting to life in the Yard.

And where is the Ken Lay indictment…???

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 Fight Dubya’s agenda from the comfort of your own home!

Want to help the Democrats keep control of the Senate? Want an easy way you can do it without leaving the chair you’re sitting in right now? Got a couple of hours you can spare this weekend, or anytime before election day?

Check out MoveOn.org’s page on volunteering for Bill Bradbury. Bradbury is running for the Senate; he’s not as left as I am, but he’s pretty good. He even opposed invading Iraq while in a tight Senate race. He’s pro-woman, pro-queer, pro-veteran, and pro-environment. He’s miles and miles better than the Republican he’s running against.

Don’t wait. Visit MoveOn’s page. Sign up today, right away.

More <Via Amptoons>

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 NY Times learns to count!

The day after the Oct 26 protests, the NY Times said the DC turnout was poor, with only 10,000 or so. After FAIR organized a truth in reporting campaign against the Times, three days later the Times says, uh, it appears at least 100,000 were present.

What pathetic reporting. How could this not be deliberate? What other explanation can there for the most august newspaper in the US to so badly distort the news?

Three days after its first report on the D.C. antiwar protests, readers of the New York Times were treated to a much different account of the same event. On October 30, the Times reported that the October 26 protests “drew 100,000 by police estimates and 200,000 by organizers’, forming a two-mile wall of marchers around the White House. The turnout startled even organizers, who had taken out permits for 20,000 marchers.”

This directly contradicted the Times’ October 27 report, which noted that the “thousands” of demonstrators were “fewer people… than organizers had said they hoped for.” The October 30 Times report also included much more information about similar protests around the country, and featured quotes from various antiwar activists.

The second Times story may have been a reaction to the overwhelming response to FAIR’s October 28 Action Alert critical of the paper’s downplaying of the protest. FAIR has received more than 1,100 copies of individual letters sent to the Times or to NPR, whose coverage was also cited in the action alert– one of the largest volumes of mail ever generated by a FAIR action alert. The newspaper trade magazine Editor & Publisher (10/30/02) suggested that the October 30 piece was a “make-up article” that may have been written “in response to many organized protest letters sent to the Times since the paper’s weak, and inaccurate, initial article about the march on Sunday.”

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Bill Simon shoots self in foot twice.

GOP ad for Simon critical of gays.

Says he’ll attack Gray Davis, then doesn’t.

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EU sues RJR over cigarette smuggling, money laundering

The European Union accused tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds in a lawsuit Wednesday of selling black-market cigarettes to drug traffickers and mobsters, helping them launder profits from their illegal activities.

The 149-page complaint describes in detail Reynolds’ allegedly corrupt business dealings in Europe and Latin America, including with members of the Italian Mafia and Russian organized crime, Colombian drug cartels and high government officials in the Balkans.

RJR executives “at the highest corporate level” made it “part of their operating business plan to sell cigarettes to and through criminal organizations and to accept criminal proceeds in payments for cigarettes by secret and surreptitious means,” the suit alleges.

In May, The Nation published a long detailed investigation on the links between corporate sponsored cigarette smuggling and terrorist funding in Latin America.

A six-month investigation by The Nation, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and the PBS newsmagazine show NOW With Bill Moyers (which airs its investigative report on April 19), has unpeeled the many layers of a complex distribution system of a multibillion-dollar trade in smuggled cigarettes.

Lawsuits filed by European and Canadian governments and Colombian state governments against Philip Morris and British American Tobacco (BAT, Brown & Williamson’s British-based parent company) have highlighted the companies’ alleged links to smugglers and money launderers.

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Ventura may appoint nonpolitician after “blatant politicking” at Wellstone memorial

Gov. Jesse Ventura, angered by what he considered blatant politicking at U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone’s memorial ceremony Tuesday night, said Wednesday he may take it out on the Democrats by appointing a nonpolitician unaffiliated with any political party to complete the late senator’s term.

“To me, it was despicable,” Ventura said of political speechifying at the Wellstone event at Williams Arena Tuesday night. He said he and his wife, Terry, walked out in the middle of the first speech with very political overtones, given by Wellstone friend Rick Kahn.

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Tanzania: Herbal experts invent traditional ‘Viagra’.

What is locally known as “Bees milk” could be a potential cure for low libido in males and reproductive maladies in women. An Arumeru based herbal group of Dawa Kikatiti (DAKIKA), revealed recently that sap derived from bees larvae when dried, pounded and developed into syrup or tablet form drug, can do what Viagra does and in most cases even better.

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Protesters try to storm McDonald’s ahead of free trade talks in Ecuador

Indian activists and university students tried to storm a McDonald’s restaurant Wednesday in growing protests ahead of free trade talks scheduled for Friday.

The trade agreement would create a free trade zone in 2005 throughout the Americas. Proponents herald it as a way out of poverty in the hemisphere, but detractors say American and Canadian companies will use market access to crush Latin American competition.

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White extremists set off bombs in Soweto

President Thabo Mbeki blamed white extremists for bombs in South Africa’s sprawling Soweto township yesterday which killed one person, damaged a mosque and an Islamic school and destroyed railway connections with Johannesburg. Officials said they were trying to determine if a tenth blast at a Buddhist temple 70 miles away was linked to the others.

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Stand Down

Wow, what a great idea.  Stand Down is a collaborative weblog of blogs opposed to an Iraq War. Blogs from the right as well as from left will be posting to it.  It just launched today, and PoliZeros will be posting to it.

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The Borg gets sneaky (again)

New Office shuts out old Windows.

The newest version of Microsoft’s Office Suite, code named Office 11, will only work on Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 and Windows XP. This has upset many businesses, who say they may turn to StarOffice or OpenOffice. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next year.

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Lawyers told Harken that Bush’s sale could be illegal.

This storyclaims that Bush was informed that his dealings could be considered insider trading: The memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe, does not say directly whether Bush would face legal problems if he sold his stock. But it does lay out the potential for insider-trading violations…

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My war with Britain is over: IRA leader

 Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein deputy leader said to be one of the IRA’s most senior figures, has announced that he has abandoned his campaign of violence against the British state.

In a statement likely to be seen as a message to republicans and a reply to a call from the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, for the IRA to disband, he told a documentary broadcast only in Northern Ireland: “My war is over.”

 Mr McGuinness is a pivotal figure in the republican movement. His statements are said to carry the full weight of the IRA’s ruling Army Council, of which he is allegedly a member. By announcing he is no longer personally at war he will be seen to have given allies in the IRA, of which he claims to no longer be a member, approval to emulate him.

 Mr McGuinness, who joined the Londonderry IRA at the age of 19, said in the documentary: “My war is over. My job as a political leader is to prevent war. My job is to continue to ensure a political set of circumstances which will never again see British soldiers or members of the IRA lose their lives as a result of political conflict.”

Wow…

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Israeli coalition government collapses

Israel’s national unity coalition government collapsed tonight after Labour party ministers handed in resignation letters en masse following a budget row.

The resignations are a hammer blow to the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, but will not immediately put him out of office, instead forcing him to rely on rightwing minority parties in a shaky coalition. 

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Serious LA County hospital closings planned

The LA County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to close Rancho Los Amigos, a large specialized clinic, and to cut beds at County-USC. They tabled voting on closing of Olive View and Harbor until after the Nov 5 election. If Prop B passes, these major hospitals will probably stay open. If it doesn’t pass, they will close.

Olive View and Harbor are large hospitals. Harbor has the only Level 1 trauma center in LA County. If it closes, people will die because there is no Level 1 treatment available. This is not hyperbole.

Why the closures? The County says it is going broke. In fact bankruptcy is not inconceivable.

From the LA Times

Rancho Los Amigos, built in 1888, offers highly specialized services that are not available at other county facilities. The hospital has 207 beds and a staff of more than 1,400. It treated 2,600 inpatients and 8,700 outpatients last year — stroke and diabetes patients as well as those with spinal cord and head injuries.

 Dr. Dan Lammertse, president of the American Spinal Injury Assn., said county officials are wrong if they believe they will save money by closing a rehabilitation center. The cost will merely shift to acute-care hospitals and emergency rooms.

“The public,” he said, “has the wool pulled over its eyes.”
…
Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill said Harbor is important to the 2.2 million residents in the South Bay. Because of the hospital’s proximity to Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Los Angeles, it must be available in case of a major disaster.

“As the need is increasing, it is ludicrous to think that cutting back on a life-or-death facility is an answer,” O’Neill said. “To close this would be absolutely having blood on our hands.”  
…
 Most supervisors said Tuesday that they are prepared to vote Nov. 19 to close Harbor and Olive View –two of the county’s four full-service public hospitals — if more money is not forthcoming.

“I question whether or not we can avoid bankruptcy of the county if we keep going” without making changes,” said Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

If you live in L.A., vote YES on Proposition B - it provides some funding for our hospitals.

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Leftist agenda invades LA Times front page

Well this is different. On the front page of the LA Times this morning

To some countries, the real threat is the U.S.

Medical Pot Use Given a Boost

Jury nullification on ballot in South Dakota

And on the front page of the California section

Fewer Latinos Back Davis This Time

At this point in the 1998 governor’s race, 72% of Latino voters said they were backing Davis. He ultimately won 71% of the Latino vote, according to Los Angeles Times exit polls of voters. According to a Times poll published Tuesday, however, Davis is currently supported by 57% of likely Latino voters.

They were forced to mention Peter Camejo by paragraph 5.

Linda De Los Reyes, a student and mother of four in Sacramento, said she has many friends who are contemplating a vote for Green Party candidate Peter Camejo because of their frustration with Davis. <Uh if Latinos are backing away from Davis and are not interested is Simon, and since Camejo is Latino, should this be a surprise?>

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Democrats will gain in Senate

That’s the opinion of most pro pollsters. 53-47 could be the final result.

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Create your own Tele-Zapper!

Junk mail can be tossed and spam can be filtered, but telemarketing has always had a technological edge. At least until the TeleZapper. The device — AS SEEN ON TV! — promises to erase you from telemarketers’ lists and stop the unsolicited solicitations. And it works, at least until the industry devises a workaround.

But why spend $50 for uninterrupted evenings? The fledgling Telemarketing Resistance has banded together online to help you do it for free. Just follow the steps below.

< We’ve done #1 and #2 for you. See end >

1. Get the Audio
The TeleZapper fools telemarketers’ autodialing equipment by emitting the ascending three-note special-information tone you hear before, “We’re sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected.” You can download this tone from the Web. Do a Google search for “sit.wav” to find one of these audiofiles.

2. Chop It Down
Open sit.wav in an audio-editing program like Microsoft Sound Recorder. Edit out the second and third notes. (You don’t actually need those, and they’re sure to annoy family and friends.) Save the WAV file.

3. Press Record
Play that one note on your computer and record it as the first sound on your answering machine’s outgoing message. Follow with an oh-so-witty greeting.

4. Enjoy the Silence
Now sit back and screen those calls. Over time, telemarketers will get the “zapping” tone and take you off their lists.

PoliZeros has made it easy for you. Here’s the appropriately named one note audio file.

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Town may change name to “Got Milk?”

Seriously!

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“Bowling for Columbine” #2 in nation for ALL films

Another incredible weekend for “Bowling for Columbine” — of ALL films in release, it was #2 in box office per screen average this week (and #1 in Canada!) <Via MichaelMoore.com>

If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss it!

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US Press not that free?

Reporters Without Borders press freedom index

The first worldwide index of press freedom has some surprises for Western democracies. The United States ranks below Costa Rica.

Right at the top of the list four countries share first place - Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands.

The poor ranking of the United States (17th) is mainly because of the number of journalists arrested or imprisoned there. Arrests are often because they refuse to reveal their sources in court. Also, since the 11 September attacks, several journalists have been arrested for crossing security lines at some official buildings

The five countries with least press freedom are North Korea, China, Burma, Turkmenistan and Bhutan.

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John Muhammad & Gulf War syndrome

The alleged Washington sniper, John Allen Muhammad, may have been exposed to chemical weapons that have been linked to Gulf War Syndrome, an illness which experts said can result in unexplained bouts of intense violence.

“Once it came out that he had a military background, I said this must be a Gulf War veteran,” said Dr. William E. Baumzweiger, a Los Angeles neurologist and psychiatrist who specializes in treating Gulf War Syndrome patients. “There is no doubt that a small but significant number of Gulf War veterans become homicidal” because of Gulf War Syndrome, said Baumzweiger.

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More proof the 60’s have returned…

100,000 Communists march On DC (!) to give aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein, babbles David Horowitz

In politics it is important to call things by their right names. Otherwise you are fooling yourself with other people’s propaganda. The press is reporting Saturday’s “Stop the War” demonstration in Washington as though it was a peace march. Of course it was no such thing. It was a regrouping of the Communist left.

<Comrades! The running dog lackey Horowitz has discovered our plan!! How could he have known that the mothers pushing strollers at the peace march were in reality our undercover Stalinist agents??? He is a fiend!>

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