LARRY ROIBAL

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AJ Burnett was masterful last night outlasting a very sharp Pedro Martinez to tie the Series at one game a piece. Hideki Matsui caught up with Martinez in the sixth with a go-ahead solo home run.

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CC made two bad pitched and Chase Utley parked them both in the right field seats. Yanks bats were impotent as Cliff Lee captured the opening game of the World Series for the Phillies.

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The brother of the Afghan president and suspected player in Afghanistan’s illegal opium trade, Ahmed Wali Karzai is also on the CIA payroll for the past eight years. Are we sacrificing lives and treasure in order to prop up an illegitimate government and drug lords?

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Is Health Care back from the dead? Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s bill has both a state opt out and a trigger for a public option, but the prognosis is still bleak that there is 60 votes.

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Alex proved he belongs, CC won the most valuable player, but last night it was Andy Pettitte that brought his big game resolve to the mound and nailed down the sixth game of the ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series to face the Phillies.

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Obama’s top economic adviser and one time Chairman of the Federal Reserve, believes the main purpose for banks should be to serve the public and they should be prohibited from owning and trading risky securities. The Obama administration however refuses to separate the banks from their investment operations.

NOTE: I’m going on a short sabbatical, I will be back with an all new doodle on Monday, Oct 26th. Until then the comment feature will be turned due to spam issues.

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An international audit found widespread fraud in Afghanistan’s August 20th election. The U.N. backed investigators have thrown out nearly one third of the ballots and after considerable pressure, President Hamid Karzai conceded that he did not receive the majority needed and has agreed to a run-off election with his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

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Billionaire hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam was arrested Friday on charges of insider trading. Federal investigators have been building a case against a network of Wall Street insiders for two years. Additional arrests are expected to include hedge-fund managers, lawyers and other Wall Street players.

Read how the insiders steal honest investor’s money.

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In his capacity as New York City’s housing development commissioner, Shaun Donovan once worked in close partnership with Acorn to turn troubled properties into assets for the city. Now as Obama’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Mr Donovan is unwilling to discuss the subject of the troubled community organizing group, even as the congress is pushing legislation that would order him to cut off all Acorn-related grants.

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While the Ed Sullivan Theater has been the epicenter of a real-life drama played out on late night television, nine blocks south, art imitates life at the Golden Theater. Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles star in Oleanna, David Mamet’s he said/she said drama which opened Sunday. I did get a chance to see it, and while the performances and the subject-matter were riveting, everyone in my party agreed, Pullman’s portrayal of John was so sympathetic and his transgressions so ambiguous that it seemed to trivialize the real issue of sexual harassment.

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The Senate Health Care Bill made it out of the finance committee yesterday. Both conservatives and liberals have major concerns. Does that mean it’s a watered-down do-nothing bill, or a carefully crafted compromise that aims to serve the majority of moderates in the center?

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Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences, a prize she shares with fellow American, Oliver E. Williamson of the University of California at Berkeley for their separate work on economic governance, organization, cooperation, relationships and nonmarket institutions.

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A-Rod broke out of his post season slump with a great series against the Minnesota Twins. Last night he hit a game tying home run in the seventh inning to help the Yanks sweep the Twins 3 games to none. In the series Rodriguez contributed in each of the three games, hitting .455 (5 for 11) with three runs, two homers, six RBIs, and set a personal record for most runs knocked in during a post season series.

The Yankees will play the Los Angeles Angels (who swept Boston) in the A.L.C.S for the right to go to the World Series.

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An interesting exhibit opens today at the New York Historical Society, “Lincoln and New York”. It seems that New Yorkers had a chilly relationship with the revered leader. In a city with 174 daily and weekly publications, New York was a place of strong opinions and Lincoln was a polarizing force that didn’t mince words. Walt Whitman commented on the “ominous silence” that greeted Lincoln when he visited New York in 1861. No overt hostility but Whitman wrote, the “silence of the crowd was very significant,” compared with the “wild, tumultuous hurrahs” that typically greeted distinguished personages. In 1864 New York was on the wrong side of history when Lincoln received only 33 percent of the city’s vote.

Lincoln and New York opens today at The New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at 77th Street.

Any excuse to draw Lincoln…What a face!

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Democrats elected to keep Charlie Rangal as Chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives, even though he has admitted to underreporting his own income and assets.

The republican campaign ads are writing themselves….the rumors of the their demise have been greatly exaggerated.

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Attorney General Eric Holder traveled to Chicago where close to 70 students have been murdered since the start of the 2007 school year. Together with Education Secretary Arne Duncan they hope to spark a sustained national conversation on youth violence.

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I hate the idea of reading on a Kindle. putting aside the complex issues surrounding the death of print…. What about the fact that you can’t doodle on it?! The doodler’s demographic slighted again. Amazon’s CEO Jeffery Bezos announced it’s device is going global with wireless downloads available in more than a hundred countries….ugh.

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Not all debate is across party lines. John D. Rockefeller wants the public option in the health care bill. With a thirteen member majority within the finance committee, democrats can spare Rockeller’s vote, but on the floor of the Senate, democrats need all 60 votes to pass legislation. He wants to protect existing health care for children and is concerned about offering another huge payday for insurance companies while not doing enough to protect existing benefits for average Americans.

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The lower profile General David Patraeus is keeping within the new administration has led some to speculate whether he has political ambitions of his own. Might he run for president in 2012? I doubt it.

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The French have a long history of defending heinous acts, not on the basis of guilt or innocence, but the intellectual or artistic merits of the perpetrator. I have a hard time understanding this cultural anomaly.

Welcome back you brilliant asshole!

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An international group of scientists have unveiled our oldest known human ancestor. Ardi or Ardipithecus was a four foot, 110 pound female that lived 4.4 million years ago in the once forested area of north eastern Ethiopia. Ardi predates Lucy by a million years. but she’s not the missing link between chimpanzees and humans that many have hypothesized about. She had an unexpected mix of advanced characteristics and primitive traits.

Have a look

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Kenneth Lewis is stepping down as CEO of Bank of America, after presiding over the paying a premium for the failing Merrill Lynch, the ill advised bonuses, two government bailouts and the evaporation of fortunes when shares of Bank of America (BAC) slipped from a high of 54.85 in 2006 to 3.14. For said stewardship he was compensated handsomely. In 2007 his compensation was valued at more than $20.4 million, 10% less for 2006. He will collect a pension worth 53.2 million dollars.

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