] LONDON, England (CNN) -- Rock singer Robert Palmer has
] died in Paris of a heart attack at the age of 54, his
] manager said.
]
] The British star, whose chart hits in the 1980s included
] Addicted to Love, suffered the attack in the early hours
] of this morning, Mick Cater said.
]
] Palmer, who lived in Switzerland, was staying in the
] French capital with his partner, Mary Ambrose, after
] recording a TV appearance in the UK.
]
] "I can't say anything else at this point, I'm just in
] shock," Cater of What Management in England told CNN.

Bob Hope, Jonny Cash, John Ritter, Charles Bronson, now Robert. Its been a rough summer for the entertainment industry - and I don't mean from illegal downloads.

LB

Singer Robert Palmer dies at 54

Laughing Boy wrote:
] ] A federal judge in Oklahoma has ruled that the Federal
] ] Trade Commission overstepped its authority in creating a
] ] national do-not-call list against telemarketers.
] ]
] ] The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by telemarketers who
] ] challenged the list, comprised of names of people who do
] ] not want to receive business solicitation calls. The
] ] immediate impact of Tuesday's ruling was not clear.
] ]
] ] U.S. District Judge Lee West sided in favor of the
] ] plaintiffs, U.S. Security, Chartered Benefit Services
] ] Inc., Global Contact Services Inc., InfoCision Management
] ] Corp. and Direct Marketing Association Inc.
] ]
] ] The telemarketing industry estimates that the do-not-call
] ] list could cut its business in half, costing it up to $50
] ] billion in sales each year.
]

I heard on NPR a few minutes ago that congress is already acting to explicitly give the FTC the needed authority. The system works, occasionally.

RE: Court blocks 'do not call' list

Dementia wrote:
] ] NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S.-led invasion and occupation
] ] of Iraq was "a perfect example" of military domination
] ] while failing to achieve victory, retired general and
] ] Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark wrote in a
] ] new book.
] ]
] ] Clark, who joined the 2004 race last week, also said he
] ] learned in November 2001 that the Bush administration's
] ] plan for invading Iraq and ousting President Saddam
] ] Hussein had been part of a broader five-year military
] ] campaign in seven countries that Washington accused of
] ] supporting terrorism.
] ]
] ] He believed that would be a mistake, Clark wrote in
] ] "Winning Modern Wars. Iraq, Terrorism and the American
] ] Empire" to be published by Public Affairs next month.
] ]
] ] Clark wrote that a senior military officer told him on a
] ] visit to the Pentagon in November 2001 that the U.S. was
] ] planning to go against Iraq but there was more to it.
] ] After Iraq, the plan called for targeting Syria, Lebanon,
] ] Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.
]
] I have realized from being out in the 'working' world for a
] few years that it's very easy to create a mandate if the
] creator isn't the one who has to go do the work.
]
] Something tells me that after a couple years in Iraq the
] morale of the armed forces is going to be low enough that any
] further invasions will inevitably fail.

RE: Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

SNIP
] When the pair reunited Wednesday, the cat "rubbed his
] face on my hand, climbed right up and started purring,"
] Inglis said. "It's pretty monumental. It's almost
] surreal."

Chip helps reunite cat with Calif. man after 10-year separation

] A federal judge in Oklahoma has ruled that the Federal
] Trade Commission overstepped its authority in creating a
] national do-not-call list against telemarketers.
]
] The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by telemarketers who
] challenged the list, comprised of names of people who do
] not want to receive business solicitation calls. The
] immediate impact of Tuesday's ruling was not clear.
]
] U.S. District Judge Lee West sided in favor of the
] plaintiffs, U.S. Security, Chartered Benefit Services
] Inc., Global Contact Services Inc., InfoCision Management
] Corp. and Direct Marketing Association Inc.
]
] The telemarketing industry estimates that the do-not-call
] list could cut its business in half, costing it up to $50
] billion in sales each year.

Tough shit if they lose money. Its an iffy business model anyway - call huge volumes of phone numbers until you find a sucker who will buy your crap? Ummm... doesn't that sound an awful lot like SPAMMING? And I'd think this list would actually HELP their business - weeds out the people who do not want these calls.

I wonder how much this judge was paid off by the telemarketing industry?

LB

Court blocks 'do not call' list

] Researchers at Sonoma State meticulously combed through
] news reports from 2002 and the first quarter of 2003 to
] find stories that didn't get the media attention they
] deserved. This year's big stories include the attack on
] civil liberties at home, Donald Rumsfeld's plan to
] provoke terrorists, and treaty-busting by the United
] States.
]
] In many cases, these stories got little or no play %u2013
] or else were presented piecemeal, without any attempt to
] put the information in context.
]
] "The stories this year reflect a clear danger to
] democracy and governmental transparency in the U.S.
] %u2013 and the corporate media's failure to alert the
] public to these important issues," Project Censored
] director Peter Phillips told the Bay Guardian. "The
] magnitude of total global domination has to be the most
] important story we've uncovered in a quarter century."
]
] What follows is the Bay Guardian's rundown of Project
] Censored's top 10 censored or underreported stories for
] last year:

If you feel like being seriously ill and overwhelemed, read this.

sfbg.com | news

] Tempting the judge presiding over the Zacarias Moussaoui
] trial to dismiss the case, federal prosecutors said
] Wednesday they will not cooperate with her latest order
] to permit two top al Qaeda captives to testify on
] Moussaoui's behalf.
]
] "The government cannot, consistent with the interests of
] national security, comply with the court's order,"
] prosecutors said in papers filed with U.S. District Judge
] Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia.
]
] Moussaoui, 35, a French citizen of Moroccan descent and
] the lone U.S. defendant in connection with the September
] 11 terror plot, maintains that he had no role in the
] attacks, but admits belonging to al Qaeda, the Islamic
] terrorist group behind them.

Nice... Yea I know - Moussaoui is a self-professed piece-of-shit al Qaeda, but "innocent until proven guilty". And he should be allowed to call ANYONE as a witness. "interests of national security" my ass - the Bush administration is gonna play that card any time they don't want to cooperate or are feeling "holier that thou".

This judge deserves a medal for trying to be fair and unbiassed.

LB

U.S. refuses judge's order in Moussaoui trial

] Tampa police have scrapped their controversial security
] camera system that scanned city streets for criminals,
] citing its failure over two years to recognize anyone
] wanted by authorities.
]
] The system was intended to recognize the facial
] characteristics of felons, sexual predators and runaway
] children by matching passers-by in Ybor City with a
] database of 30,000 mug shots.
]
] "It's just proven not to have any benefit to us," Capt.
] Bob Guidara, a department spokesman, said Tuesday. The
] cameras have led only to arrests for such crimes as drug
] deals.
]
] Tampa was the first city in the United States to install
] the permanent camera surveillance system along public
] streets and the technology was used during the 2001 Super
] Bowl.
]
] Critics welcomed the end of the program.
]
] "It's a relief," said Darlene Williams, chairwoman of the
] Greater Tampa Chapter of the ACLU. "Any time you have
] this sort of technology on public streets, you are
] subjecting people who come to Ybor to an electronic
] police lineup, without any kind of probable cause."

YAY!! Chalk up a win for civil liberties... at least for now. If in say 5 to 10 years the facial recogition biometrics have improved substantially, expect us to face this beast all over again.

LB

Tampa police eliminate controversial facial-recognition system

Dusk shot of the big apple with the lights off, from the New York Times Website.

Everyone in the world shares the same reference point to this moment in time.

Picture of New York City with no power

] The remains of as many as 1,000 people lost in the World
] Trade Center attack might never be identified, according
] to the forensic biologist leading the monumental DNA
] identification project.
]
] The city medical examiner's office has identified
] slightly more than half of the 2,792 people killed in the
] attack -- only about 100 of those in the last year, as
] technicians struggled with DNA degraded and damaged by
] fire and the elements.
]
] Robert Shaler, chief of forensic biology, had once hoped
] to reach 2,000 identifications, but he told The
] Associated Press he no longer considers that a realistic
] goal.
]
] Now, Shaler said he hopes for about 1,700 identifications
] -- 1,800 at the outside -- by the time the office
] exhausts available DNA matching methods within a year.
] City officials recently notified victims' families of the
] outlook.
]
] "I think once we've done all of the testing on all of the
] remains using the technology we have, I think we're
] finished," Shaler said.
]
] He cautioned that he doesn't mean the trade center DNA
] effort would be closed forever, but said it couldn't
] continue until new DNA processes were developed.
]
] "If three years from now somebody comes up with something
] ... that really looks like it's going to work, then we're
] going to be poised to go after it," he said.

This is sad news for the families looking for closure.

LB

Remains of up to 1,000 victims of WTC attack might never be identified