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Winner of 2004 Election is **Mon$anto**/Marin Approves Ban/Reverend Billy (3/11/2004)

1.Winner of 2004 Election is **Mon$anto**
2.Marin Approves Ban Of Genetically Modified Crops
3.Reverend Billy and Starbucks Go to Trial November
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1.Winner of 2004 Election is **Mon$anto**

There is an election today, and on the surface, we Americans seem to have defied all odds and made it to this moment free of any acts of domestic terrorism.

Or have we?

There is a company that wins with either candidate, and that company is Monsanto. Monsanto has brought many gifts to mankind, including agent orange, dioxins, Nutrapoison, illegally used antibiotics that show up in our food chain, the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, plus dozens of other ticking time bombs in the form of genetically modified organisms, which the majority of the world's nations have rejected for their potential destructive damage.

Before the 2000 presidential election, Monsanto donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in PAC money and soft money to political candidates. Both democrats and republicans were on the receiving end of these legal bribes. Monsanto covered every base.

Today, the inner sanctum of the George Bush administration reads like a Who's Who of ex-Monsanto employees.

Current polls guarantee that America will be hearing four more years of "God Bless Monsantoland..."

The names have not been changed to protect the not-so innocent:

http://www.notmilk.com/pelican.html

If elected, will John Kerry's relationship with Monsanto be any different? No way!

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/notmilk/message/1549

Having greased appropriate palms, and thereby set the stage for future Supreme Court appointments and presidential Cabinet positions, Monsanto is guaranteed to be today's big winner.

Exit polls will confirm that for most Americans, there will be no exit from Monsanto's influence.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
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2.Marin Approves Ban Of Genetically Modified Crops
http://www.foxreno.com/news/3885959/detail.html

SAN FRANCISCO -- Agriculture biotechnology made a comeback in California on Tuesday, months after Mendocino County voters passed the nation's first ban of genetically modified crops.

Voters in Humboldt and San Luis Obispo counties rejected similar ballot measures Tuesday while a third measure trailed in Butte County.

Meanwhile, voters in Marin County, a mostly suburban region just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, did enact their own ban of genetically modified crops. With 94 percent of the precincts reporting, the ban led 61 percent to 39 percent.

The Humboldt County loss was expected because supporters dropped their campaign after complaints that the ballot language contained inaccurate scientific descriptions and also called for the jailing of farmers growing genetically modified crops. With all precincts reporting, the Humboldt measure lost 65 percent to 35 percent.

With 64 percent of San Luis Obispo County precincts reporting, that measure lost 59-41 percent.

"Farmers can't be handcuffed with something that is available everywhere but here," said Tom Ikeda, president of the San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau.

With 30 percent of the precincts reporting in Butte County, its biotech ban was losing 63-37.

"This is simply being outspent by agribusiness," said Renata Brillinger, director of the Californians for GE-Free Agriculture. "People around the state are still mobilizing. It's just going to give them more fuel."
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3.Reverend Billy and Starbucks Go to Trial November
Publish Date : 11/3/2004 1:01:00 PM
Source : Culture and Community News
http://www.onlypunjab.com/fullstory1004-insight-Reverend+Billy+and+Starbucks+Go+%20to-status-24-newsID-12787.html

On November 2nd the Los Angeles State Court will hear "The People vs Talen," but the battle is more accurately described as Reverend Billy vs Starbucks. For years, Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping have staged high-profile "retail interventions" inside Starbucks chain stores. These interventions use guerrilla theater to tell Starbucks patrons how their coffee provider profits from poor labor conditions abroad while spiking lattes with genetically engineered milk.

These subversive spectacles must have finally struck a nerve, because the coffee giant has banned Reverend Billy, aka Bill Talen, from every Starbucks on the planet, and a California judge enjoined Talen from coming within 250 yards of any Starbucks property in that state. After dozens of such happenings all over the world, Starbucks took Talen to court after a cash register spill-guard was inadvertently ripped during an April 19th intervention in Northern Los Angeles.

Reverend Billy placed his hand on the cash register while attempting to exorcise the appliance, but a patron tackled him in the middle of the ritual. The Reverend, Stop Shopping Gospel Choir and Los Angeles area activists finished their performance and left the Reseda Blvd. shop, unaware that Starbucks would target Talen with criminal charges.

Though Starbucks Headquarters has noticed Talen's work in the past, issuing memos to Manhattan franchises outlining "what to do" if he entered their stores, this is the first time they have involved the law. In addition to the November 2nd proceedings, Los Angeles police recently urged a Cal-State Northridge program to cancel a Reverend Billy teaching residency. It is thought that Talen's recent assistance to a barista's union at a New York City Starbucks triggered the escalation.

For Reverend Billy, the real issues are detailed by US LEAP, Global Exchange, and the Organic Consumers Association, who report on the miserable pay for families bringing coffee beans to market. Billy and other social justice advocates find it inexcusable that Guatemalan children work in the fields without health care instead of going to school while Starbucks executives make millions. "The People vs Talen" will commence November 2nd in Los Angeles.

http://www.revbilly.com for more information.

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