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One way to drastically cut down on fatalities is to make the automakers put stronger roofs in their vehicles. Detroit News Special Report about 7,000 people killed and injured annually by roof cave-ins.

This became a rubber stamp court, with only one request out of over 7,500 since its inception being rejected by the judges. Of course, the people are unaware of it because the proceedings of the court are secret, and the defendents are usually unaware of the evidence being used against them.

The existence of the court is not secret though, as it was created by a law passed in the 80s, and the quantity of searches granted by the court is public. Indeed, the US government was accused of abusing this court recently to broaden its purpose, before the Patriot Act was "clarified" to permit such abuse by the US prosecutors, FBI and intelligence agencies. One of the judges on the panel scolded the US government for being deceptive in the types of cases it was bringing, indicating that the US government does try to bring people before FISA that are not spies, but instead ordinary criminals. The US appealed a decision to legally obtain a broading of the courts purpose, originally without legislation.

If I remember correctly, congress passed a law to "clarify" that the Patriot Act extended this to cover those suspects of "terrorism". Hasn't it occurred to anyone that none of the trials of suspected terrorists are public?

This is such a sad demise of the US Constitution and American liberty. To me, I'd be willing to die like our forefathers did to preserve American freedom and create the Bill of Rights. I just wish we weren't so willing to discard it today under the illusion that our life-spans will be longer. When I was a child, being willing to die to perserve American freedom was a common notion. Now, being willing to give up freedom to avoid the remotest chance of dying, no matter how statistically improbable, has become a de facto notion. To suggest otherwise, well, that would be unpatriotic! Or would it be terrorist?

Unfortunately, without the ability for the press or the people to attend trials of suspected terrorists, it's unlikely that this will ever be overturned. We'd have to prove that the system as used unjustly, but the Patriot Act has removed all accountability, so that it is nearly impossible to prove the injustice.

The question is, if it was "spies" yesterday, and now includes those labeled as "terrorist" or "threats to national security" by the investigators and prosecutors today, then what label is next? Or, are the current labels broad enough to permit US prosecutors to throw anyone in prison for life that they see fit? It's hard to discern when our government is no longer accountable to the people it's supposed to represent.

Is there anyway to determine what cases the government has filed to prevent public accountability under the Patriot Act? I'd like to follow up on this to at least try to estimate how many cases there are today. If at all possible, I'd like to know if it even remotely possible to discover any injustices occurring. Justice is, after all, the purpose of all this. Right?

Links:

THE SECRET FISA COURT: RUBBER STAMPING ON RIGHTS
Secret court meets to consider Justice Department appeal
Secret court gives U.S. gov't wiretap powers
Secret Court Rebuffs Ashcroft
Secret court may limit government power to spy on domestic terror

These links aren't in chronological order, and I obtained them using a simple

Unfortunately, while Hubbert was right about a peak, he was wrong in all the ways that matter.

The major problem with these dire predictions is that they can't take into account revolutionary changes in technology/lifestyles. They also don't take into account that known reservoirs may refill from yet-undiscovered sources.

Back in the late 1880 horses were the main form of transportation. If anyone extrapolated the growth of, say, New York City for the next 50 years they would conclude that horse feed and horse crap would be a huge problem by 1930!

Yes, oil is a finite resource. What is often overlooked is that there are billions of barrels in forms/reservoirs that are not economical to extract at current prices and with the current techniques. As the price rises it will become economical to develop these resources and the price will stablilize.

My personal prediction is that we will never run out. At some point renewable energy will become cost competitive with petroleum (getting close even now) and we will stop using it for energy. Thereafter petroleum will probably be used as feedstock for chemicals/lubricants but will eventually be replaced by bio-synthetic products.

Tin-foil hats are fashionable in certain circles - if you haven't already "married the idea" of catastrophic oil depletion check out the facts here.

Tell that to Volkswagen ....

And don't think I haven't paid my share of taxes.

But who said anything about "the US auto industry?" Others might, so perhaps you're responding to them - I simply mentioned the auto industry. And in what world are Chevvy and Ford "US Auto companies?" Ford may have its headquarters in Dearborn and its earliest roots in Detroit, but it's an international corporation every bit as much as Wal-Mart, Nike, NEC and Nissan: there are ford and chevvy plants all over the world, and have been for decades. You haven't been able to buy a Falcon in the US since the 60's, but new ones are running all over Australia. Where are those Falcons made? They damn sure aren't made in the US.

There are auto plants in Mississippi and Alabama and Tennessee and Ohio and more locales are looking to bring them in. No, they're not all "US names" - so what? They're good paying jobs. Ford closed a plant in Flat Rock, Mi (just around the corner from my home town) when I was a kid and by the time I was old enough to work there was a shiny new Mazda (er, Ford/Mazda) plant there.

And BTW, those aren't Japanese cars I was talking about with the 400hp, either. 400hp is the oft touted number for the new Ford Mustang... that is, unless you get the Cobra. Buzz is that one will come with a 24 valve, 500HP, supercharged SOHC V8. (Yeesh, what a sickly american car!)

So, is that car American or Australian? Or is it British? Or German? Oh, wait, they're being assembled by 1,400 UAW workers in Flat Rock, Michigan... so I guess it must be a Japanese car after all.

Yeah, dat's da ticket.

It is nice to see laws being applied as if they were real laws. Here in the US being found guilty of being a monopoly seems to be an academic exercise. That still scared Microsoft enough to put their own man on the Bar Association's Antitrust group that decides how Antitrust lawsuits should be handled.

I wonder if it's just easier for the EU to do this type of thing to an outsider to Europe as opposed to an already entrenched monopoly that started in Europe. Is this just protectionism, or will the EU actually stand up to all Monopolies, foreign and domestic?

With the fall-off in TV ratings, it seems that ads will soon be creeping into computer games. This will include product placements in traditional games and free games that market products. I notice that EA already has a director of advertising sales.

With no "fast forward" in games, players will have little choice but to be exposed to these product placements (other than avoiding/abandoning the game). I wonder if game makers will offer dual-versions of games -- an ad-free version for $99 and an add-supported version for $29? Given people's tendency to by the cheaper option, wonder which version will have the highest sales?

Glenn has alread said he doesn't think he should be sent back into space.

He participated in 83 science experiments over 9 days while up in the shuttle. (That's an average of 9.2 experiments per day, for those having trouble with the math as well as with history).

Apparently you don't want to live nearby (see the bottom of the story).

This sounds like it's worse than living next to an airport.

There's no proof, of course.

Neither was there proof in the recent "Tony Blair's administration cooked the books on Iraqi intelligence" BBC creative writing assignment. The fallout over the BBC's fictional journalism led to several top BBC officials resigning (one before he was canned).

The BBC, NPR in the US, NYTimes and many other forth estate entities have long given up on objective journalism, instead being acquired by leftist politicians (just as numerous political offices such as this one, this one and that one are nothing more than hired hands for wealthy elites).

Progressive/left-leaning slashdotters are going to have to open their eyes a bit on the back-stabbing of their peers in the media. It's ok when they're stabbing other victims, but when they're selling the Linux world out through their relativist journalism, it gets personal.

Opposed to intellectual property theft? Don't support the Trial Attorney Racket Protection Association of America
Disagree with patent giveways? Don't support the Country Club Empowerment Association of America
Support your own liberty!

"OK. I'm not trying to belittle you; I'm trying to help you. Keep that in mind as you read this." ...
"As for the claims you make in another post . . . Those numbers were invented out of whole cloth as pure Iraqi propaganda, meant to convince gullible suckers who will believe anything that casts the U.S. in a bad light. Sound familiar?"

You have a funny way of not trying to "belittle" someone. *cough*

"No, they began interfering with inspections from day one. Ken Pollack's book, "The Threatening Storm," contains a good, readable chronology of all of Saddam's many, many, many efforts to delay, confuse and/or obstruct the inspection process. You really ought to read it."

I'll keep it in mind if I spot it. But, since I can't read it on the spot, I can't argue for, agains, or just agree.

"Let's ignore your stupidly patronizing "like most Americans" comment for a moment."

What, you think people in the US magically get the news? Few people know the names of politicians outside of the President, much less pay attention to news abroad. The media here is slow and extremely cautious in reporting anything negative of our current government because it is a great way to get figuratively lynched job wise. For instance, in the US it is reported that "we" captured Hussien, while the rest of the world reports that he was handed over by an unnamed iraqi group.

"I notice that somehow, despite the fact that half the administration was saying something, you somehow managed to avoid including a *single example*." etc...

Well, since I can't find info discrediting all links, I'll back off and say a link to Al-Qaida.

NYT reprint: Colon Powel covering his rear.
Didn't O'Neill mention something about the Al-Quida-Iraq thing? I'm too tired to hunt for that one. From what I have read so far tonight, looks like a hint at it. But, nothing direct.
Dick Cheney is still holding strong to his original assertions, though.
"Bush has since conceded there was no link between Saddam and the Sept. 11 attacks and there has been no proven ties between the deposed Iraqi leader and the Al Qaeda terrorist network." ...and thats all I can dig up at the moment.

"See here for a comprehensive overview of the "threat" surrounding depleted uranium."

Ok, despite the link initially not working and the fact this is from someone's personal blog ie: internet diary instead of a fact source, I did eventually get to reading it. The fact he starts up with accusations that these are scare tactics and lies dreamed up by the "anti-war left" without documentation doesn't help his or your cause.

Ok, first the claim that DU is not harmfully radioactive. Yes, it's primary decay is alpha. In fact, I looked it up and found a nice table and graph. Now, I'm not an expert in thermonuclear physics, but I do realize when something radioactive decays it turns into another isotope and/or another element. Potentially the new atoms can be much more radioactive and have different decays. Please note the different half lifes of the varying steps on the table. And because of the pricipal of half life, DU doesn't magically decay at 4.5 billion years, that is a measurement of rate. Some of it decays much faster than the rate, some slower. This passes down through the decay process. Notice on the graph how around 9th and tenth decays it lets off ~.2 MeV w/ a halflife of 26.8 minutes and ~1.5MeV of Gamma radiation respectively, with halflives of 26.8 minutes and 19.9 minutes respectively. Whereas, U-235 AKA

Subscribers will be able to watch "Trading Spaces," for example, but won't be able to see past episodes of network shows like "Friends" or "Everybody Loves Raymond."

The service lets users rewind, fast forward and pause the programs they choose as well as store them for up to 24 hours to watch them at their convenience. It also lets viewers rent newly released movies for $3.95 each and other select programs for $2.95 each.

"It's there at the touch of button, when you want it," Cleland said. "It also has the full functionality of a VCR."

The company will roll the service out in Detroit next year.

Lets talk about censorship shall we ?, can you handle the truth ?, from where i sit China's is looking good at the moment compared to some places

The are only selling 1/3 of the interest in the company... a hostile takeover is not possible !

See Also (Jan 6): "About a third of Mountain View, Calif.-based Google may be sold in the IPO, giving the company a market value of about $12 billion, the bankers said. The company will probably register the shares for sale with the Securities and Exchange Commission this month and sell them by April, the bankers said. "

News Flash: most of our space science comes from unmanned machines such as the Space Telescope, the Mars Spirit Rover, the Stardust comet explorer, and others. Did I mention the Mars Global Explorer, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite, GALEX, the Cassini mission to Saturn, Genesis solar wind sampler, the New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission (planned for 2006), etc, etc. Voyagers 1 and 2 have been operating since 1977 (are they older than you?) and are approaching the heliopause. Now that's what I call space exploration. The truth is, in space, robots rule!

Folks, I'm sorry to inform you; but unless there's serious funding, this is at best a publicity stunt, and at worst a president micro-managing NASA in a way that will get rid of the few remaining actual science programs.

News Flash: most of our space science comes from unmanned machines such as the Space Telescope, the Mars Spirit Rover, the Stardust comet explorer, and others. Did I mention the Mars Global Explorer, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite, GALEX, the Cassini mission to Saturn, Genesis solar wind sampler, the New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission (planned for 2006), etc, etc. Voyagers 1 and 2 have been operating since 1977 (are they older than you?) and are approaching the heliopause. Now that's what I call space exploration. The truth is, in space, robots rule!

Folks, I'm sorry to inform you; but unless there's serious funding, this is at best a publicity stunt, and at worst a president micro-managing NASA in a way that will get rid of the few remaining actual science programs.

How could one possibly even detect phone calls?

Vonage typically pays the Bells or Bell rivals sharply reduced fees to carry data traffic at the other end of a call. Some of its calls are handed to long-distance companies, which pay traditional access fees. Similarly, AT&T has started carrying some long-distance calls over Internetlike VOIP networks and paying cut-rate fees to connect at the other end. In this case, the customer has no idea VOIP is involved.

That still leaves open the possibility of pure voip to voip calls being undetectable (e.g. between different Vonage customers), but in the near term those sorts of calls are likely to still be in the minority.

Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Comcast to Offer Online Music

2003-11-11 13:10:14 Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Comcast to Offer Online Music (articles,music) (rejected)

Wal-Mart will launch its own digital music download service through its Web site later this month. Not to be outdone, Best Buy will also launch an iTunes-type online music store - with the ability to buy through in-store kiosks - based on the MusicNow service (formerly FullAudio). And today Comcast announced music downloads via Real Rhapsody for its 5 million broadband Internet subscribers. The Washington Post's Cynthia L. Webb writes about the online music frenzy and the resultant advertising onslaught due to the sheer number of entrants into the music download market, while Bloomberg's Holly M. Sanders offers an analysis of Walmart's imminent entry into online music, which is significant since Wal-Mart already controls 14 percent of global CD music sales. More at the New York Times (via SeattlePI).

In case anyone else wants to read some of the other coverage....

MIT Develops Legal Music-Sharing Via Cable TV

MIT students have developed a music on demand file-sharing system that uses the analog campus cable TV system to bypass the Internet and digital distribution (Google link). This takes advantage of the relatively less-restrictive licensing that the recording industry makes available to radio stations and others for analog transmission. The system, called the Libraries Access to Music Project and dubbed miTunes, is backed by MIT, funded by Microsoft iCampus and will give campus access to 3,500 CDs. More at USA Today, Boston.com and AP / Detroit News.

I agree. Cast off the shackles.

Now -- seriously -- how many MPG does your vehicle get? Mine gets damned near infinite. I walk most places, and I take the T (subway) to other places. Feet don't require much oil (perhaps a drop or two for the plastics) and the subways run on electricity I believe -- so some oil power plants, but not much.

It's OK if you drive. I just ask that you do the following to help free the shackles.
* Make sure your tires are at proper air pressure. This can gain 2 MPG.
* Don't drive over 75mph -- 65 if you can help it. Nearly all engines reduce their efficiency above 60 mph.
* Make sure the next car you buy gets 3 mpg more than the one you have now.
* Carpool.

If all car owners did this, we'd reduce our consumption of oil due to cars by something like 10% a year. Since the US currently imports about 25% of its oil from OPEC Middle East Nations*, it would only take a few years to eliminate the Middle East from America's oil equations.

Don't drive a car? Here are some other things everybody can do to reduce your energy consumption:
* Turn your hot water heater down to 120 degrees. Anything hotter is almost always wasted, anything colder could result in harmful bacteria.
* Get a hot water blanket for your hot water heater. Insulating your hot water heater and pipes will result in less energy consumption.
* When your hot water heater craps out on you, replace it with at tankless hot water heater -- which doesn't require energy to heat a 40 gallon barrel of water 24 hours/day. Much cheaper in the long run.
* Make sure your doors and windows are sealed; this keeps heat in in the winter, and cold in in the summer.
* Replace your incadescent light bulbs with compact fluerescent bulbs. They use between 1/3 and 1/4 of the energy.
* In the summer, raise the thermostat to 72 or 73. In the winter, lower it to 68. Wear appropriate clothes to stay warm.
* Plant an open branched deciduous tree on the south or east side of your house to provide shade in summer and let the sun come through in winter. Plant evergreens north and west of your house to cut down on harsh winter winds.
* Remind your congresscritter about your feelings about energy conservation. He could help by raising gas taxes, encouraging high occupancy vehicle lanes, giving tax breaks for fuel efficient cars and lighting, eliminating the SUV loophole on MPG, increasing (and inforcing) CAFE standards, eliminating the enormous tax break given to small business owners who buy an unnecessary and enormous SUV.

The transition away from oil will take time, and will come from folks doing it for enviro-political reasons, as well as economic reasons. Governments will use taxes and rebates to help with this transition, but only if the elected congresscritters feel secure that these policies won't get them thrown out of office. So -- make personal changes. Encourage others to do the same. Encourage your elected officials to help.

* Yes, I've done this math correctly. OPEC oil is a bit more; I've thrown out Venezuela et al.
** If you live in Canada, Europe, or some other industrialized nation with a representative democracy, than just change the appropriate words and take action.

From detnews.com

Michigan's Computer Giveaway Is Questionable Use of Tax Dollars

New technology doesn't guarantee better student achievement; kids could use devices to play games

For the first time, Apple can use the lack of games for mac as a sales point!

Oakland County [detnews.com] [detnews.com]

Mount Vernon [komotv.com] [komotv.com]

English garden, (possible). [thisislincolnshire.co.uk] [thisislincolnshire.co.uk]

New Orleans [nola.com] [nola.com]

And of course, India [abc.net.au] [abc.net.au] two days ago.

Fireball.

-FL

Oakland County [detnews.com]

Mount Vernon [komotv.com]

English garden, (possible). [thisislincolnshire.co.uk]

New Orleans [nola.com]

And of course, India [abc.net.au] two days ago.

-FL

Oakland County
Mount Vernon
English garden, (possible).
New Orleans
And of course, India two days ago.

-FL

Ah yes, somehow raising taxes is always the left wing response to a "problem" (in this case, the only problem is that not everybody likes the same gutless matchbox cars that you do).

people would have to consider the fact that we will run out of oil some day and wasting it just makes that day arrive sooner.

We are no where near running out of oil. If oil supplies started to run out causing prices to rise, then it would suddenly be economically feasable to access huge known oil reserves (such as oil shale) that are too expensive to tap right now. Conservative estimates show that would be enough to supply the world for the next 250 years.

But who knows if that will even be necessary. In the past few years, it has been discovered that some old dorment oil fields were somehow getting refilled with oil. That could mean that there are even larger oil reserves deeper in the earth than we ever thought possible. There is probably more oil in this planet than humans could ever use.

Just more FUD. Considering Crown Vics are over 80% of the vehicles in Law Enforcement, and considering the number of vehichles that could survive an 80MPH rear end crash (M1A2 tank comes to mind). Police do a dangerous job. People should just slow the fuck down

Actually a lot of the homeless are just like you and me

Let's all thank Globalization for this.

-FL

You can read lots more about this by choosing from the links in the rejected post below. Also, it's important to note that EAL2 is NOT the highest Common Criteria certification level. The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation v2.1 describes the security assurance requirements and EALs in detail. For a look at the details read about the Evaluation Assurance Levels at NIST.

IBM, SuSE Linux Get Common Criteria Security Certification

Linux has reached a new milestone: IBM and SuSE Linux have received the Common Criteria Security Certification from the U.S. government (mirror), specifically from the Defense Information Security Agency (DISA) arm of the Pentagon. 'Right now it is the only Linux distribution available that has this. This certification is used as a standard by 14 countries including the U.S. and Canada,' says the SuSE U.S. general manager. Linux Enterprise Server 8 is certified at Evaluation Assurance Level 2+ EAL2 with the companies jointly pursuing a Controlled Access Protection Profile EAL3 certification by year-end, then on to EAL4. More details at CNet, AP via Detnews/CNN and Reuters/Forbes. It looks like they beat Red Hat to the punch.

Nikki Hemming, CEO of KaZaA, says, "Sharman Networks would like to formally extend its offer to the entertainment industry to assist in the capture and conviction of suspected music pirates. We will be cooperating in every way with the proper authorities, so long as we become the official content distributor for the entertainment industry." Our contact at the RIAA did not wish to comment at this time.

Here's a 2-year old article on kids being taught to use palm devices to measure smog and air pollution levels.

It is clear from MTU President Curt Tompkins' past that his real motive in this affair is his job security. His objection is to RIAA putting out a press release naming institutions, not individuals, and being caught unawares before he could relay the bad news to his superiors, the Board of Control, and more importantly the state legislature, before they read about it in the MoTown rags.

Just two weeks ago Curt was flailing arms before the state legislative appropriation committees about shrinking state support for his institution (10% cut this year). He told legislators MTU would have to go private or close its doors if cuts continued. The chairmen of those committees probably melt Curt's phone when they heard what tax dollars were going toward up in HoTown while the rest of the state faces a tough rescession. And before you mention it - it does not matter the computer lab networks are completely paid for thro' student fees. Legislators are also going to be ticked off engineering students are garnering publicity thro' their leisure-time activities instead of helping the state build hydrogen-powered cars and increase employment. Curt is going to catch holy heck the next time he comes before the committees - if he's still president by then - and cannot show Michigan Tech students are working hard like their bretheren: UofM and noble Diversity or the Roman aspirations of Michigan State University students. (Now there's something our half-in-the-bag politicians can truly admire!)

Here are a couple more articles about this:

• The Chronicle
• The Detroit News

The part of this that I find most disturbing is that the RIAA didn't even bother contacting the university to take action (i.e. taking disciplinary action, turning off his network port) before they filed the lawsuit. In several previous cases, MTU has cooperated with the RIAA to limit "piracy".

When discussing tax breaks for SUVs...one need look no farther than here:

SUV tax break may reach $75,000

Read more about the loop-hole that NEEDS to get plugged

But the SUV loophole won't be plugged. In fact, it will be expanded.

* Handing out laptops to everyone is not the answer -- most of those countries that beat US schools don't have access to current books, let alone laptops.

* The internet will not teach your children -- while it's true there is a fountain of knowledge at your fingertips, there's a ocean full of crap to sift though.

* Stop focussing so much money on organized sports when your school is graduating illiterates.

* Kids using Powerpoint is not the answer. Unless the question is -- How do we raise a nation of Marketing drones!

HERE . He's not looking so good.

He has been sued before. I don't think it has stoped him at all.

This is like Delphi's TruckSecure (Detroit News), a product that expands on LoJack and OnStar technologies.

It can be used to track hazardous materials shipments, plus provide access and security controls to the vehicles.

Pretty cool actually.
----

this article shows clearly linux is grown up and has nothing to fear from M$ other than lawsuits

You see, the Boston College IT department, under strict orders from the Administration*, has for the past two years had to back up their transparent proxy logs, and keep a record of every last packet of information travelling from the Internet to the dormitory ethernets.

The cost of DLT tapes the wear and tear on their StorageTek robot was breaking the bank. After raising tuition from $27,000 USD to $31,000 USD in just three years, they still couldn't afford to keep a permanent record of every CD and DVD pirated by their students.

At some point, the IT department made an offer to all faculty: "Come up with a way for us to back up our logs and we'll service your department first for the next ten years."

Of course it was the oft-neglected chemistry department that so needed support for their purple Silly-Gs and ancient AlphaStations. They kicked into gear with a trip to Economy Hardware on Beacon Street and the rest, as they say, is history.

*who were themselves were under strict orders from their Lawyers, who happen to be owned by RIAA

Which car will Americans choose? Well, I guess it actually all depends on who's marketing their car more agressively. :(

Uhm... actually I think in the long run they might choose the car that doesn't fall apart within the first year. Isn't reliability one of the main reasons Japanese cars are so popular?

There are dozens of articles out there on how easy it is to beat some of the copy-protection schemes attempted by the record industry. Here's a sample from the Detroit News:

Armed with just a felt tip marker, music fans and technology tinkerers figured out a way to beat Sony's copy-protection scheme for CDs released in Europe.

Low quality, inept, weak designs should not be protected by any law, but should be made to serve only as a potential foundation for future ideas. It is human nature to take apart, inspect, turn over, disect then discuss and compare anything from an insect, to a rock; from a drop of water to a drop of blood, and most especially all things technological, in an effort to explore,learn, and possibly improve. It should not be against the law to do this just because it's "digital".

Have you ever heard of public transports? Well what i call public transports does not exits in the US. I've been there 3 times and know what i talk of.
But actually i was talking about this

There was surely no war which didnt involve civilian casualties. Is this a justifying for killing 10thousands of ppl. These fleeing Afghanistanis, did they really get help from you? Getting yellow foodpackages from you (which look pretty much like cluster bombs) is not what they are happy for...

Apart from this it's highly possible that the war was not only to get 'Al Qaeda' out of it's holes. Maybe it's one time more only business related...
"The real motives for the bombing of the Taliban has been questioned. There is clear historical evidence that the big U.S oil corporations have been pushing for the construction of oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea region through Afghanistan to Pakistani harbors on the Indian Ocean. The Caspian Sea region has oil and gas reserves worth trillions. Dick Cheney was a principal working with US oil and gas interests to construct the pipelines prior to his election to Vice President."
Was Afghanistan was asking for to much money for the build rights?

"If you are not an ally then you are an enemy, and enemies get BOMBED!"
Who justifys who's an enemy? Did you really study the facts about all the things that happenend in Afghanistan in the last 50 years? Or did YOU just saw some US documentations about what was happening?

The Chinese goverment has build a 2nd Great Wall, a firewall. They want to prevent theyr ppl from getting informations from abroad. US has something similar, but with much lower upkeep costs. They build it into theyr ppl's heads...

My question is... why did you have that link so handy? Both in memory, and in url?

Why do you want to know? Are you french, or something?

Yeah, but looking at the prior convictions for fraud on many spammers' rap sheets...

• Thomas Cowles - Burglary, fraud, theft
• Thomas Cowles - passing bad checks

...you really think they declare all that income?

If I were an IRS auditor, I'd consider spammers as prime candidates for shakedown.

But I'm not an IRS auditor. Does anyone reading this know any IRS auditors?

On Sunday the Detroit News featured three articles about spammers, including a front page story. Take a look here: http://detnews.com/2002/technology/0208/04/index.h tm for the stories. (Scroll down a little past the headlines)

Last Sunday, the Detroit News ran an article about local spammer (and convicted felon) Alan Ralsky.

Ok, so google is once again my friend
http://detnews.com/2001/editorial/0112/04/a13-3566 44.htm