Rifle in suspect’s car matches sniper bullets

And the car had been modified so a shooter could lie prone and shoot out through a hole in the trunk. Good God… It’s no wonder that no one saw anything.

A homegrown terrorist, who happens to be Black and is a converted Muslim. Is this some weird kind of blowback with an unhinged individual latching onto radical ideology to justify slaughter?

Meanwhile, Russia continues with their blowback, the Chechens holding 400 hostages in a movie theatre. A suicide squad of Chechens with explosives strapped to themselves. Quite willing to die.

The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War, by Robert D. Kaplan 2001, clearly, if gloomily posits a world quite a lot like the one starting to emerge. Regional conflicts acerbated by religious and ethnic conflicts. A growing poor population at odds with the wealthy nations. A view, I think, that helps explain (not excuse) terrorism.

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California politicians ignore health crisis

The financial squeeze on health care in California, which threatens the viability of public hospitals, trauma care and emergency rooms, is largely being ignored in the state’s top political race. But health experts and political scientists said the next governor is in for a rude awakening next year.

Check this appalling quote

Los Angeles County Supervisor <they run LA County> Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a Democrat, agreed that no one wants to be blamed. “I think everyone is just embarrassed by the whole thing and doesn’t want to talk about it,” she said.

Embarrassed? Major hospitals in LA are threatened with being closed and she’s “embarrassed” by it? How about DOING something about it?

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Major demonstrations this Sat in DC and SF

It’s looking like protests will be huge. Many many groups have signed on and caravans of buses will be going to DC and SF. Several dozen other cities, both US and overseas will have demonstrations too.

Be there! Full details at International Answer.

I’ll be at the SF protest and will post what’s happening (using the way cool remote login features of this weblog).

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L.A. has a serious health care crisis

2.5 million people in Los Angles County do not have health insurance. 80% of them work. That’s right, they work, and still can not afford insurance.

In 1985 LA County’s trauma network had 22 hospitals. Today, only thirteen remain. Several are in serious danger of being closed. This includes emergency rooms. In addition, well over one hundred public clinics have shut in the past seven years. Many private clinics that receive some public funding have closed too.

Now, some major -hospitals- may close.

Why the closings? The County says they literally can’t afford to keep them open. This is no doubt true. Many culprits here. Federal funding being cut. Inept attempts to get that same funding. Inefficiencies in the hospitals. Other reasons too.

Harbor-UCLA hospital is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in LA County, and it may be closed! Put it this way, remember the man the sniper shot at the Ponderosa? He lived because there was a Level 1 Trauma Center nearby staffed by superbly skilled MD’s.

If you live in LA, vote Yes on Measure B on Nov. 5. It will provide some but by no means all of the needed funds. It has to pass by 2/3’s - a high bar indeed. If it does pass, we still have a health crisis - and a bit of breathing room. If it doesn’t pass, well, no Level 1 Trauma Center in a County of 10 million people will just be the start of the slide down.

Harbor-UCLA Alliance

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U.S. Sees Possible Failure at U.N. over Iraq

The United States acknowledged on Wednesday it might fail to win Security Council backing for action to disarm Iraq, but Baghdad said the effort was a waste of time because Washington was determined to find any pretext for war.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw echoed growing signs of U.S. impatience. “The international community can’t wait forever,” he told reporters in London. <Um, the ‘international community’ the Secretary speaks so pompously of consists of two countries - the US and UK>

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the outcome would be “either an agreement or a failure to reach agreement, and it could be either one right now.” <Your tax dollars at work! He actually gets PAID to say stuff like this>

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Blowback, Russian style

Chechens Seize Moscow Theater, Taking as Many as 600 Hostages

Witnesses who escaped the music hall said the attackers had beaten some members of the audience and called themselves a Chechen suicide squad.

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Hey Democrats!

Smile! You may take the House

It’s looking like Democrats will hold the Senate and take the House. This from several solid political news feed/blogs. Political Wire, Mydd.com, and DailyKos.

Political Wire just started Blogscan, a news feed of the “best of the political blogs”. I’m honored to be asked to join, and will - once I figure out how to do trackback pings in Radio 8. Any gurus out there who can help with this?

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Sign of the times

I logged onto Google News a few hours back. The two Top Stories were the UN debating Iraq and, of course The Sniper.

The Iraq story had 919 related links, the sniper story had 2129 - more than twice as many. When a sole sniper gets more press than a coming war, well, I’m thinking our priorities are a wee bit skewed.

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