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• as much as you might joke that spammers should be lined up and shot, that gets a lot less funny when you're dealing with the Chinese government

In case anyone thinks you're being cute, it's entirely possible that spammers might be executed in China. A brief overview of the crimes that people have been executed for are:

• Political activism
• Murder
• Rape
• Manslaughter through drink driving
• Pimping and forcible prostitution
• Stealing cultural relics
• Taking bribes
• Tax evasion
• Credit card fraud

Surprised by any of the last ones? In 1979, there were 28 types of crime that carried the death penalty in China. By 1995, that had risen to 74, mostly by the addition of "economic offences". They admit to executing well over a thousand people a year (often after a public show trial or displaying the convicts in public places), and it's suspected that a lot more get a bullet in the head without even a record being made.

Unfortunately, the USA has a policy of not criticizing China's execution policy (or that of any other state), as we have some cleaning up of our own to do. Engaging cynicism mode, you might ponder that the only part of it that our partially hereditary, 90% incumbent political class really object to is the crackdown on corruption and bribe taking, but of course, rank retains its priviledges in China, and the biggest criminals get jail time while their minions are executed.

On the other hand, there is a certain horridly attractive efficiency to show trials and summary execution. Compare and contrast with the US system of interminable legal wrangling over minor technicalities, occasionally leading to fines that are either trivially small or unrealistically big, neither of which typically get paid.

When you read the very occasional article that "Spammer X is fined Y dollars", remember that's just the first step in actually making them responsible for their actions. Even if you can get the fine to stick to them and not their shell company, if they don't pay to a third party or collection agency, they have to be brought back to court again, and it has to be proven that they haven't paid, at which they generally plead poverty and agree to pay off their $5 million debt at $10 a month. And if they don't pay that... you see where this goes? Judges are loathe to jail people over non payment of fines unless they're taking a political stand against them. It's only nice, police, law abiding folks that pay fines. If you want to keep pursuing a third party to make them pay, you have to keep paying up front to do so. The only winners are, as usual, the lawyers.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0215-06.htm

In any case, the wal-mart culture of middle-america is definitely not something I'm interested in aligning with. Makes microsoft look warm and cuddly.

It's already heading our way. Check out:

Disposable cell phone Disposable cell phone

But, we should always consider the other side of our use and toss society:

Disposable cell phone and the toxic price

Hmmm. In theory you are correct. In practice however, unarmed civilians are often slaughtered by US military (and that of other countries). The Geneva convention is disregarded by the USA. The USA is found guilty of war crimes but carries on as if nothing has happened.

Your country is slaugtering thousands and thousands of innocent civilians. Where are all the soldiers "reporting the incident to a superior officer". Of course they are not. It goes against the team spirit of the Army, and would be a career limiting move.

The average grunt has a low IQ (or he would not put himself in the firing line in the first place) and only follows orders. Basic training is designed to produce someone programmed to follow orders. There's no point pretending otherwise.

That's not to say that I disapprove of the USA's actions in the war against militant Islam, just that the hypocracy is a bit hard to stomach. War is a nasty business. It's hard to see why anyone would voulanteer for it, unless they truly had no alternative, or had been brainwashed.

I know this is off-topic, but I figured you'd like to hear about it. Here's a good article.

Ignorance is Not Bliss
Lack of Reporting Civilian Casualties from the War in Afghanistan is Keeping Americans in the Dark -- And Endangering Their Future
by Roberto J. Gonzalez

Upshot of it all is that somebody did an independant study cultivated from multiple sources, and determined a low estimate for the number of non-military civilians who were killed by US bombing, either purposely or indirectly (ie, "smart" bombs going astray).

Here's what former President Clinton had to say about Globalization and how it relates to the September 11 tragedy, more specifically, how he thinks it can be used to "win the war":

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1030-05.ht m

• The article mentioned on the FTAA
• Information on why the World Bank is the target of so much debate
• Aristide, Jean-Bertrand. Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization. www.commoncouragepress.com, 2000.
• Danaher, Kevin. Democratizing the Global Economy. www.commoncouragepress.com, 2001.
• Murcland, Bernard. Voices of Democracy. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000.

You are correct in that the media is made up of humans, and prone to make mistakes. But I think you misrepresent the entire situation with this statement, in implying that human error is the most significant factor in misreported news.

If you are not already aware, virtually all major news sources are intimitely tied in with large corporations that have major interests in slanting the media. Bias is a much larger problem than error.

If you check the CNN web page, you most likely see that the anthrax stories overshadow what is happening in Afghanistan. They are taking advantage of the current local scare to distract people from more important events happening elsewhere.

I suggest that you look into independent sources of media as well. They are error prone as well, but at least have a different bias than the conglomerates (unbiased media is a myth):

Independent Media

DMOZ: News -> Alternative Media
ZMag: Left Wing media resources
Indymedia: Non-Corporate news coverage
Guerrilla News Network
Project Censored: Censored news stories
Alternet: Alternative news, opinion, and investigative journalism
MediaChannel: "MediaChannel exists to provide information and diverse perspectives and inspire debate, collaboration, action and citizen engagement"
Common Dreams: "Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community
The Public i: An Investigative Report of the Center for Public Integrity
Pacifica Network News
The Onion: Media Satire

Media Analysis

"Propaganda" at the University of Washington School of Communication
PROMO: Project on Media Ownership
Military school article on Psychological Operations (PSYOPs)
Media Access Project: "A Non-Profit Public Interest Telecommunications Law Firm
Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press
FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
The Poynter Institute: What journalists read
Columbia Journalism Review
Who Owns What
People for Better TV: "69 percent of Americans say TV is the most trusted source of information"

LS

Happy New Year: It's 1984

With technical people, the argument should be towards the ineffectiveness of the USA bill

CRYPTO-GRAM special issue

And in general

EFF alerts

ACLU site

Interesting that you mention 1984.

Or weren't you aware that CNN and NPR both had (ex?) members of the PsyOps team working for them? Sort of interesting.

Does the fact that I require more than a few unsubstantiated articles from rags of unknown (at least to me) biases to rattle my believe in minimal government make me a religious zealot?

"Rags", eh? You still haven't read the articles, have you? Here, let me help: one of them ran in the Observer (London), a highly respected mainstream British weekly, and was written by an author who has also appeared several times in the hardly-liberal Washington Post; the other ran in Canada's conservative National Post. Does that set your mind at ease about their "biases"?

There is far too much historical data showing economies [...] blossoming with minimal government for these articles to "threaten my faith", as you call it.

Except that the "evidence" presented in support of this position usually is Chile and New Zealand -- and as the articles demonstrate, the belief that those countries' experiences support that position is a matter of faith.

Perhaps you are confusing the scientific method with religion?

The scientific method is not generally taken to include dismissing a priori evidence that does not fit with one's desired result. That's more like the creationists' "scientific" method.

In any case, scratching them off my list merely indicates that I would not consider moving to them because of the direction of their government policies, no more no less.

Ah, a misunderstanding. I had interpreted "them" in "scratching them off my list" as referring to the articles (and/or the authors thereof) rather than the countries. We Apologize for the Confusion.(TM)

Please, these urban legends are not even funny anymore. With this kind of strong Black representation one would expect to see at least sort of proof or something come out of this "terrible injustice". So much noise, so much "fighting words" and at the end ... nothing. It is not that J. Jackson is afraid to blackmail or sue people but even he recognizes the fact that there is nothing to be won out of bogus claims.

Black representation is entirely the problem here, Einstein. If they can't vote, they got no representation. It's no urban legend. If you wanted to know the truth, rather than what you wish to believe, you could be in contact with disenfranchised black Florida voters in less than 24 hours. I don't think any of them will tell you a doberman yakked up a robber's hand. Jesse Jackson is not the issue, and plenty can be won out of bogus claims, given a court stacked in your favor. Plenty can be won out of legitimate claims, given a fair and impartial hearing. He should be afraid to blackmail people, as that's against the law, and thanks to the incessant yammering of people like yourself, we all know that only one party really obeys the law in this country, right? Here's a link. I have no doubt you'll label it as "liberal media" because you don't agree with what it says. That's your problem, not mine; refute, but don't just deny. To get you started, here's a short quote or two:

Florida is the only state to hire an outside firm to suggest who should lose citizenship
rights. That may change. 'Given a new President, and what we accomplished in Florida, we expect to roll across the nation,' ChoicePoint told me ...

Until Florida privatised its Big Brother powers, laws kept the process out in the open. This year, when one county asked to see ChoicePoint's formulas and back-up for blacklisting voters, they refused - these were commercial secrets.

I tried but could find no articles there on alligators in the sewers or babysitters who took PCP then tried to fly. Also, nothing about friends of friends who had kidneys stolen after picking up hot women near airports in major cities and waking up in ice-packed bathtubs. Those are urban legends. Fucking over black folks is not an urban legend, but an urban (and rural) reality. If you had even a scintilla of concern for the rights of your fellow citizens, this would disturb you deeply. Obviously, it doesn't.

"Microsoft, before their anti-trust case, had almost no presence in Washington," Arizona Sen. John McCain told The Chronicle editorial board earlier this year. "Now, I almost don't know a lobbyist who's not on their payroll."

During the last election campaign, Microsoft employees gave more than $50, 000 to the Bush campaign, while the company and its workers gave $500,000 in unlimited, soft money donations to the Republican National Committee for use in Bush's battle against Democrat Al Gore. Gore did not receive any money from Microsoft, according to election commission records.

According to data supplied by the Center for Responsive Politics, Microsoft employees also donated $22,500 to Bush's recount effort, and a Microsoft executive gave $100,000 to the Bush-Cheney Inauguration Committee.

Quoted from the SF Chronicle

Very nice revisionist histories.

The petitioner is, of course, employing the libertarian definition of "revisionist": "at odds with my world view". Can you actually refute anything in these articles? For that matter, did you even read them?

Neither Chile nor New Zealand "neo-liberals" as you call them, got very far before their policies were reversed.

They got far enough to double the poverty rate, quadruple the unemployment rate, and drive the GDP down 19 percent and 30 percent, respectively. And that was after ten years of trying in Chile and fifteen in New Zealand; these could hardly be called short-term experiments interrupted early.

Just goes to prove the point of one of the articles, though:

But the myth of the free-market miracle persists because it serves a quasi-religious function. Within the faith of the Reaganauts and Thatcherites, Chile provides the necessary Genesis fable, the ersatz Eden from which laissez-faire dogma sprang, successful and shining.

In any case, I'll scratch them off of my short list.

A very Watchtower-esque reaction -- must protect oneself from anything that might threaten one's faith, after all.

Very nice revisionist histories.

The petitioner is, of course, employing the libertarian definition of "revisionist": "at odds with my world view". Can you actually refute anything in these articles? For that matter, did you even read them?

Neither Chile nor New Zealand "neo-liberals" as you call them, got very far before their policies were reversed.

They got far enough to double the poverty rate, quadruple the unemployment rate, and drive the GDP down 19 percent and 30 percent, respectively. And that was after ten years of trying in Chile and fifteen in New Zealand; these could hardly be called short-term experiments interrupted early.

Just goes to prove the point of one of the articles, though:

But the myth of the free-market miracle persists because it serves a quasi-religious function. Within the faith of the Reaganauts and Thatcherites, Chile provides the necessary Genesis fable, the ersatz Eden from which laissez-faire dogma sprang, successful and shining.

In any case, I'll scratch them off of my short list.

A very Watchtower-esque reaction -- must protect oneself from anything that might threaten one's faith, after all.

Well we can't leave the planet (yet), so what are the alternatives? New Zealand? Chile? I've heard they are just improved from their socialist past, but not quite the libertarian utopia or even close.

Oh, Arturo, prince of irony. The economies of Chile and New Zealand were both devastated by the application of neo-liberal economic policies; they both eventually had to resort to more "socialist" policies to drag their economies back from the brink of collapse.

Sorry, that was a myth perpetuated by the "Green Party USA", a group which named itself that to create confusion with Nader's party. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/081700-02.ht m

I take it you grant me my point on police brutality in Los Angeles and NYC.

Hmm, are you suggesting that all these broken windows, destroyed property and burned out cars were provided to us by our "dark corner" police?

Actually, yes, according to many reports from eyewitnesses (and here , and here ) the police were responsible for a great deal of the violence in Genoa. It is undisputed that the vast majority of the protestors in Genoa were non-violent, yet they were especially targeted, while the small number of black-block anarchists were left unopposed to destroy property. Many protestors believe that the police actually infiltrated the black block and took part in some of the worst property destruction. Quite a propaganda coup for the proto-fascist Italian government - do you see the logic behind it?

Personally, I would rather see a few broken windows than have a young women get her face beaten to an unrecognizable pulp, or a young man wielding a fire extinguisher get fatally shot in the head.

Of course, if you only get your information from Fox News and the like, these events were either unreported or trivialized .

Are there any fusion protest groups yet?

Against the National Ignition Facility

"Friends of the Earth" Europe say: "The commercial use of nuclear fusion is pure fantasy. Already 25 years ago the same people had predicted that in 50 years fusion would be a viable energy resource, but it seems like we are always 50 years away from fusion becoming economic. The European Council has to stop this waste of millions of taxpayers money."

Green groups say Fusion is a Scam

"Friends" of the Earth wants to "Terminate existing tokamak reactors, cancel construction of the similar spherical torus reactor, and adhere to a withdrawal from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program."

Sierra Club The dangers posed by the probable releases of tritium used by fusion plants, the problems with decommissioning these plants, and their high costs lead the Sierra Club to believe that the development of fusion reactors to generate electricity should not be pursued at this time.

You are thinking of "Golden Rice", which has been modified to produce beta-carotene which the body can use to make Vitamin A. Of course, it takes literally 27 bowls a day of this rice to provide the minimum daily allowance to offset blindness, but don't let that affect the publicity value.

A similar bit of propoganda demonstrating the safety GMO products did involve corn. For years, Monsanto bragged about their study showing the no detectable level of pollen was found more than five feet from the perimeter of the GMO field of corn. Sounded pretty good until one of the researchers rolled over and admitted that no measurements were taken beyond five feet.

This is a dangerous genie. I am not opposed to GMO on principal, I am however opposed to making a stupid mistake by rushing to make a profit.

You were convinced of the safety of genetically modifying food crops and putting them into the environment by someone you care about who has good reason to be blind to the potential dangers. I do not mean that she is being purposefully dishonest, but I do mean that most of us have an innate ability to ignore those things that make us uncomfortable.

Try reading some of the literature from other geneticists, who are screaming at the top of their lungs that companies are acting dangerously. I really am not meaning to be personal, but consider if someone came into this forum and said that their girlfriend was a core developer at Microsoft and she was certain that Microsoft was acting in all of our best interest.

Dave

Also, is there such a thing as "the Corporate Republic"? When you use loaded expressions like that, you sound just as paranoid as Oliver Stone, ranting away about "the Military-Industrual Complex" which he blames for all his little conspiracy theories.

Actually, the term "Military Industrial Complex" was not the invention of Oliver Stone, whose loose theories are well-known and generally regarded in accordance to how well substantiated they are.

Rather, it was a Republican icon from the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower, that warned of the "Military Industrial Complex" in his farewell address to the nation. Because his position permitted him a great deal more familiarity with such matters, I attribute greater credence to Ike's warning than, say, Katz on the Corporate Republic.

That's not to say that Corporate Republic is a total distortion of the facts, but only that a spokesperson, from a position of authority, knowledge and either recognized neutrality or, better, former advocacy, has yet to utter this expression.

The term coporate republic gained some currency with James K Galbraith in this article, so it gets more credence and respectability than if Katz coined the term.

Nonetheless, its usage is primarily confined to advocates pushing a particular view or position, much like the self-serving code words employed by the government of the PRC (eg, imperialists == America, hegemonists == Russia), or the many colorful appellations that Rush Limbaugh uses to ridicule opponents of his views.

Sadly, I have to agree. This is just one step towards the deregulation of 'Corporate America' out of many. In terms of radio and TV, it dates back to at least 1996, with the Telecommunications Act.

Sadly, I have to agree. This is just one step towards the deregulation of 'Corporate America' out of many. In terms of radio and TV, it dates back to at least 1996, with the Telecommunications Act.

• If bills like SB114 are successful, they may force us to make a Faustian bargain. They may accelerate the commercialization of products from bioengineering discoveries while requiring us to cede any claim to the roots of our own individuality.

  The very basis for our uniqueness and complexity will no longer belong to us, but instead will become raw material which can be extracted and exploited for corporate gain.

The author proposes that what makes me an individual is my DNA. So if I were to have an identical twin with identical DNA, neither of us are individuals. Yeah, right. Likewise any corporate research that results in "bioengineering discoveries" from my/our DNA that is turned into a product by the big mean (mean=profitable) corporation isn't really a product that can be differentiated from myself/ourselves. So the company is really selling me/us without my/our consent. Yeah, right ;)

• If we are going to begin to commercialize our living genetic material, should not all parties be able to partake in the gold rush?

--Chuck

Aaa-hAHAHahaHAhAHAHHAaaa!! (tenticals waving wildly) Always twirling, twirling, twiirrling!

The St. Louis polls are now officially closed. The reason the judge here upheld the decision to keep them open until 10, because the elections were so screwed up! There were countless people who have put in a change 6 month-6 YEARS ago, that weren't able to vote due to state screw-ups!!! And the REPUBLICAN(t's) are calling the very idea of bending the rules (because of gov't screw-up) an evil Democratic plot to try to get more votes! Boy, are they afraid of what the people think! I bet they're also really afraid of having an idea like the IRV system established... The Muppets explain IRV!

I was voting with my girlfriend at 3945 Flad in St. Louis, MO, finishing up around 5 minutes to 7 when I heard workers in the gymnasium aruguing loudly "They ain't making us stay open 'till 10!" and so forth from a few of them (but not all). Two African-American males were turned away at 6:59! They mentioned to us that Bush had better not win, and I hope they're right. On TV, I'm now watching two head Republicans (Senator & Ms. Chairman) and they are really worked up in a frenzy yelling how great it is that the 3 federal judges overturned the local (and more in tune with the cirmumstances) judge's motion to keep the faulty polls open late. I can't believe the "lady" is so arrogant to not see another side of the story - it's clear she doesn't feel sorry for the polls not operated properly, giving good reason to allow everyone to make an important choice. How many votes have been killed?

http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.fair.org/
http://www.nader2000.org/

http://www.billionairesforbushorgore.com/

Voting for the "least worst choice" is still going downhill. Make your vote actually count. Vote Nader

Here are some other links to inform all you Slashdotters of the way the world works these days: advertising

Corporate use of DNA

Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States

Corporate control of democracy

These are of course just the beginning of the debate. Recently, Ralph Nader and Phyllis Schafly (a pairing that boggles the mind) have united in an attempt to raise awareness regarding the commercial exploitation of children. There is advertising in this country that is targeted at children age 2!! The idea is to develop brand preferences to insure future profits. This makes me want to vomit.

All the Slashdot posts in the world will NOT CHANGE A THING. Go out and GET ORGANIZED.

The Italian state under Mussolini was the first to be called "facist". This government supported rich people and capitalism and crushed labor unions and any independent political activity. They put all citizens to work for the noble task of making wealthy tycoons richer. I believe they used torture chambers to do this.
Why do I bring this up now? Because another common name for this facist governmental system was "estato corporativo" ... in English, "corporate state"!
If you think that corporate capitalism since WWII history has been less violent than during facist Italy or Germany, just look at the histories of U.S.-backed governments in Indonesia, Chile, El Salvador, S. Korea, Haiti, Iran, etc....
For daily news from a progressive viewpoint Common Dreams
For a huge amount of good political and activist info (I especially recommend the Noam Chomsky archive, which you can find from the main page, and which another poster linked to above) Z-Net.

The fact is, the government and corporations have LONG been stepping and crushing people, but it's always been the poor. No one cares about the poor! Now they're invading your space. The middle and upper middle class. Crushing your rights and freedoms. Recently large numbers of people have been protesting things like the G8, and in November, the WTO in Seattle. University students protesting against sweatshop labor. Thousands and thousands of people. And they're all involved in these things DESPITE the fact the corporate media never mentions them at all. Somehow, people are fed up and have discovered ways on their own, to try to fight back. Right now the largest community run microradio station, KPFA, is protesting against Pacifica because Pacifica wants to sell KPFA because of it's large audience! People have been outraged and massive protests have been going on there.

Our government hasn't just now decided to become corrupt, it has long been so. it is just now invading the "freedoms" of the middle/upper class of the country, where as before it was only hurting the voiceless poor and people of other countries (and still is I might add).

From killing off native americans in the past and now, to using slave labor in the country, and now using slave labor in third world countries, raping the earth's resources for profits and to feed our addictive consumption rates, suppressing the rights of women, and long promoting right-wing Christian fundamentalism...how can it not be clear the US isn't perfect like they lie and make you believe? The US is f-cking evil...and if you don't believe me now, you will soon enough...when they limit your freedom, or put you away.

http://www.savepacifica.net
http://www.infoshop.org
http://www.protest.net
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.zmag.org
http://www.fair.org
http://www.foodnotbombs.org/
http://jya.com/crypto.htm
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointel.htm
http://www.urban75.com
http://www.oneworld.org
http://www.mediafilter.org


There you go. Arm yourself with information. Don't believe the world is perfectly all right. Now apparently the short-sighted people are beginning to see they were wrong. Don't think you're alone for thinking something is wrong, there are millions out there who know it already. From those educated on the subjects, to those experiencing the abuses caused by this horrible corporate owned world, and their servant governments.

This one is for lefties ... Common Dreams