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1. I have pretty much abandoned reading my local printed newspaper, in favor of the online edition (and I'm sure I'm not alone).
2. When reading the local (printed) paper I read both local as well as national and international stories
3. Everyone (CNN, The New York Times, MSNBC, Yahoo!, you name it) carries stories from the wire services (AP, Reuters etc) and since there are all the same stuff, does it matter that you are reading that story on CNN.com vs, for example The Des Moines Register?
4. My goal is to get my news and not spend all day looking for it. I can start with my local paper's site and then move on to other sources for more in depth coverage and/or different news.
5. The goal of most businesses is to make money and newspapers are no exception. If they keep a reader on their web site longer they get more page views and therefore, generate more ad revenue. I want my local paper to do well. Newspapers are not the profit centers the once were and many have scaled back operations over the years. I don't want to see this happen any more.
   

Iraq owes Russia between $7 billion and $12 billion. ( http://www.globalpolicy.org )

France is one of Iraq's biggest business partners, with $3 billion in trade since the "oil for food" program started in 1996. ( http://www.arizonarepublic.com )

The most significant oil company in Iraq is a french firm.

All of the above will lose big time if Saddam loses control of Iraq' oil. Nuff said.

Sometimes the occasional John McCain-type shows a glimmer of #3 but I'm sure some special interest groups are working hard to change that.

BBBBBWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA
You can't be serious.
Could it be you've never heard of the Keating Five.
John McCain is a lot of things, but Libertarian is not one of them, champ. He's a one. And a strange 'one' at that.

There was this story 1 1/2 month ago about the bank robbers who killed five people and got tracked down by the satellite navigation system installed in the car they stole.

If you live in the Phoenix Metro area, this is your big chance to make a great impression, show interest in your local government, and learn something too -- I mean, this is great-- the people who make important decisions about the county's technology are going to be LISTENING to you-- aside from the inevitable rips on Microsoft (easy to do), be sure to play up the cost-benefits and reliability of Linux and *bsd as viable alternatives. Have some printed materials (or CD-ROMs?) to give out.

If you seem too fanatical or "out there", you may scare them off-- it's easy to dismiss a lunatic, even when they're right. So please don't dress like Obiwan ;) A well-thought out, reasoned discussion about the benefits of open source software may make a tremendous difference if you can reach the right people and they are truly open to change.

Good luck everyone! Let us know how it works out Monday! Someone call the Arizona Republic and New Times. (And be on the lookout for a counter-offensive from Microsoft).

W

From "Hoagan's Heros" to numerous "Star Trek" episodes, America has had a love affair with NAZIS . And who wouldn't, with their advanced technology and friends in high places.

Make no mistake about it, those NAZIS didn't pussyfoot around -- they got things done. But if you were on the side of right, you too could take a place in the NAZI technilogical utopia.


(And don't even get me started on the gay SM scene's infatuation with the NAZI dream!)

From "Hoagan's Heros" to numerous "Star Trek" episodes, America has had a love affair with NAZIS . And who wouldn't, with their advanced technology and friends in high places.

Make no mistake about it, those NAZIS didn't pussyfoot around -- they got things done. But if you were on the side of right, you too could take a place in the NAZI technilogical utopia.


(And don't even get me started on the gay SM scene's infatuation with the NAZI dream!)

Here is my report on Qwest/MSN-you know what they are doing in my area, Phoenix. It is all truthfull, please read. Be sure to check the end of this post for an article on more information.

I am currently a Qwest customer in Phoenix, and have more details on the current situation.

Back in March, I signed up for Qwest DSL Select, which is a $20 per month DSL line at 640 Kbps, 272 Kbps guarenteed. Once connected, you are "always on". You are not guarenteed to connect but once your on you can remain on no matter how long it is. I also pay $20 for the Qwest DSL ISP which is now owned by MSN.

Over the summer I was charged for the DSL modem which was supposed to be free as a promotional gift. Additional charges were also added for services I did not pay for. It took two months to get the charges off and many long phone calls with people saying like "I don't know how to do this," or "I don't think my supervisor will allow."

A week and a half ago, Qwest started disconnecting my "always on" connection after each two hours of connectivity. Then there was a five minute (I call it a penalty) to wait until I could connect again. I downloaded a connection manager, and set it up to disconnect me automatically after every 1 hr 50 mins, and then immediately reconnect. It cuts out the stupid 5 minute wait. I do this for two reasons, downloading and gaming, those are very sensitive to 5 minute lags of course. 10 second reconnects are a miniscule problem in comparison. However I found that I am still getting disconnected every half-hour (with out the 5 minute penalty) and its still annoyed the heck outta me

After the first 5 days of this, I call in asking whats going on, this is not the service I originally agreed to. They say it is part of the plan, but if I didn't like it, I could switch to MSN ($20 a month, which I know still disconnects my uncle tells by the way) and the "regular" DSL for 32.50 a month. HUH? Its the same 640 Kbps line an MSN? what kind of switch is that?

So as you can see they're trying to harrass us into paying more. This was not happening a week ago. To fix this problem I was very smart. I ordered on the day after I called the COX INTERNET and DIGITAL TELEPHONE for $40 dollars a month (you have to buy your own cable modem). In comparison you pay $72 a month with qwest for broadband DSL and phone. They were advertising that on the radio today like it was something great and I know it isn't YOU'RE PAYING about $15 dollars a month more than I have been. IT'S A SCAM. THANKFULLY, I'm getting COX in exactly one week, yes I'm counting those days. I urge every switch to COX now to show them how bad they are.

Now that I told you that, check out the Arizona Republic article. It tells about the scams Qwest is involved in here and Microsoft is also to blame now seeing the new information on SlashDot. They're like about the worst companies around. I know six other people have switched in the the phoenix area to COX because of the same reasons! Share this information because it's true.