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Nixon and reagan were allowed free walks due to the succeeding presidents being republicans.

Hey, your point of view is fine, and I'm not trying to take it away from you. Sure, it certainly could be racism. I wasn't there and I'll never know. All I'm saying is that there are always multiple ways to read the signs, and based on the story the way you told it, I can read that as possible jury nullification. I'm just reading your words and interpreting, which is all I can do anyway. And as I'm in a verbal mood, let me tell you why I think so.

Have you ever seen Rashomon ? What you saw in the courtroom differs from what your fellow jurors saw. Each one's view is refracted by the lenses of our upbringing, social context, desires, and so on. This distorts our perceptions of reality; it affects our observations and opinions. So it's easy for me to imagine hypothetical fellow jurors wearing lenses such that they would literally see the trial differently, say the words you quoted, and argue for acquittal, yet without being too motivated by racism -- even if they could not spell ``nullification.''

For one, a lot of people know that the war on drugs is a hypocritical monstrosity. Why does the CIA get to deal cocaine in Los Angeles, and produce opium in Central Asia, but that right is not extended to the citizens themselves? And seriously, how does the Commerce Clause apply to homegrown, home-smoked pot? Common sense revolts. If you ask me, the war on drugs is a perverse load of vile unconstitutional bunkum. No, I do not want to live near a crackhouse, but also I won't complicitly abet this absurd ``war.'' I don't have to accept one or the other: I want constitutional justice and social justice. I don't believe I have to give up one to get the other.

I could write a screed about the three-strikes rule also, but I'm less passionate about that one (I agree with SCOTUS, it's within states' rights). I think it's unjust too. If I had friends and relatives locked up for decades under three-strikes I would probably be hot under the collar about it as well.

There are a lot of people, even among the poorly educated and underclass, who are aware of the injustices of the present system. The idea of nullification is very simple: give the verdict that you think is right, regardless. When you report that one juror said, ``This is his third strike and I don't want to put him away for a long time,'' then nullification is one way to explain that statement (and so is racism). A juror doesn't have to know the term ``nullification'' to do it.

Drugs (you know what I mean. Illegal Drugs) are NOT legal.

Agreed, illegal things are not legal. But who makes the laws? As a slashdot reader I'm sure you are aware that not everyone gets equal representation in legislatures. Why does minor-league crack possession get you an average sentence of 10.5 years, whereas after $400M of fraud, Dennis Kozlowski might be free after less than 9 years of prison? There's a gap between what's lawful and what's right. How big is the gap? Depends on your lenses.

Drugs are illegal. And so, their sale and use causes problems. Society has a Right, no- a Duty- to try to eliminate these problems.

I agree crack and heroin cause problems. I even think those drugs should be illegal. But everyone is gaming the system, and the people with power game the system the most. Disney extends the copyright term. The RIAA games the judicial system.* Enron and Worldcom cooked their books, till finally they went too far. The FBI abuses USAPATRIOT. Libby gets pardoned, and Rove doesn't even get charged. The President games Article II and the Attorney General denies the existen

After I became a member, I felt like I was constantly being harassed for money. Every single piece of mail I got from them was begging me for money. Not only that, they sold my name and address to all sorts of environmental and special interest groups. I was bombarded with all sorts of crap - "Protect us! We're Oppressed!" I'm in college... I HAVE NO FUCKING MONEY TO GIVE! I cut my expenses for a little while so I could help contribute to my country, and I feel like they sold me out. This, more than anything, made me decide not to continue my membership with them.

Another thing which made me angry was when Anthony D. Romero (ACLU's Executive Director) allowed private companies to research and collect data from its donors. He did this behind the ACLU boards' back, and it goes completely against what they stand for. I believe Romero should have resigned for this.

Now with all that said, please understand that I am not criticizing the hard-working unpaid attorneys of the ACLU or its volunteers. What you are doing is wonderful. What I am complaining about is the poor leadership qualities and the bureaucracy the ACLU has become. When I'm told the government is out to get me with every piss ant bill congress passes because it "undermines liberty", "erodes personal freedom" and goes against the "fundamental principles" of the United States, it makes it no better when the government tells me they're protecting freedom. Somebody's sig used to say something like "The extreme left and extreme right are both equally dangerous." Anyone with power is dangerous.

Actually, you'd do better to find and link Gary Webb's original 1996 story from the San Jose Mercury News, Dark Alliance.

Once the boat started rocking uncontrollably after the SJMN published it, they backpedalled furiously and effectively destroyed Webb's career. Webb interviewed after Mercury pulls series from web site.

The book Dark Alliance was pretty powerful stuff. Webb committed suicide in December.

And of course none of this has anything to do with the space shuttle.

So the guy hacks in to the network, steals personal information, downloads private pictures, sells all this stuff... and then he's able to get away with just one felony, no jail time, and even a work offer for the Secret Service?

Nothing new here. Ever hear of the Nicaraguan drug trafficker Oscar Danilo Blandon Reyes? He was a major operator who had smuggled tons of cocaine into the United States. He was busted in 1992, but instead of receiving a life sentence and a US$ 4 million fine, he was in prison for only 48 months, received no fine, and has been working for the DEA as a confidential informant since 1994. He was described as having "almost unlimited potential to assist the United States." The fact that he was connected to the CIA-sponsored Nicaraguan Contras may have something to do with it...

I especially disagree with their position on drug patents which (given how much of the actual research is paid for with tax dollars) is down right hypocritical.

-- MarkusQ

Unlike the current system, which is run like Enron, if you can afford it that is.

Whatever inflated insurance premiums people pay now will translate directly into mandatory payroll deductions or corporate taxes under a federal system. There will be no competition among insurance companies to provide any cost controls whatsoever, and rigid policies will cause people who fall through the cracks in regulation to go without treatment and die. The government will put even more of its tendrils in to personal bank accounts far beyond what happens with social security. The intelligence gathered into the central government medical database will be used to fufill political agendas causing a highly unnatural and skewed system as has happened with the federal income tax.

Simply, how can people trust politicians with their personal health?!? It is absurd.

It would be much better to let doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies to work against eachother in building a sustainable cost structure without the extreme government intervention we have now. Also, allowing independent certification companies instead of the FDA to provide affirmations about treatments would allow a great deal of safety (not unlike Underwriter's Laboratories) without delaying medical products by years.

Doctors and drug companies cannot make treatment more expensive than patients and insurance companies are willing to pay. Doctors can limit liability by using independently certified products and treatment methods. Patients should be free to choose any doctor on the basis of cost and reputation. Patients should be able to choose any insurance on the basis of cost and reputation. Those who cannot afford insurance go to charity-based hospitals and missions. If we let the market set the prices for health care, my bet is prices will go down (the last thirty years of out-of-control health care has followed increasing government involvement).

Whiny tax-dodging bitch.

I'm more concerned about the road to tyranny these "social justice" programs lead the USA down. People who think this new found government power and system of taxation won't be used against them are naive. It will very likely be worse than the federal income tax. Much worse.

If we have congresspeople who really care about the Constitution and the reasons for which it exists, national healthcare will get thrown out with little debate.

I recently found this with Google. More elaboration of the same I said above.

Neglecting air resistance (hah!) .50 BMG bullets are about 700 grains or 0.045 kg. Muzzle velocity is around 1000 m/s, for kinetic energy of 22500 J. This implies a .50 BMG bullet could reach an altitude of 51,000 m maximum (at which point it would have zero velocity). But of course, you can't neglect air resistance, especially with fast-moving objects as it increases faster than linearly with velocity.

I've seen a study looking at the maximum trajectory of .50 BMG for surface-to-surface use, which is generally around 25,000 feet surface range and maximum height of around 8000 feet. At maximum height, horitzontal velocity is down to 100 m/s.

Another study has shown that rifle bullets tend to reach a maximum altitude of about 9000 feet.

Finally, here there is a quote about an Army firing table for the Browning M2 with .50 BMG for anti-aircraft use, which tops out at 7500 feet altitude (but within 400 yards horizontal distance).

So extrapolating, I think it is safe to say that .50 BMG will generally not reach higher than 10,000 feet, and will probably be fairly useless in engaging targets much more than 7500 feet high.

I'm certain that whatever motives ROC government had in requesting Windows source code from MSFT are far from pure. However, given the NSA_KEY episode and the existance of things like ECHELON, I have to believe that any foreign government has to suspect US government spyware might be in Windows.

If the government of ROC doesn't at least think about the possibility of TLA agency spyware or trojans in such a massive closed-source OS, they aren't being paranoid enough.

While working as a consultant with multinational microchip manufacturer Intel Corporation, Schwartz set up two ways of checking his Intel email via the Internet, and in an attempt to verify the security of one of Intel's computers, he ran the "crack" password-guessing program on an Intel password file. Intel considered the Internet access a security breach, and the password crack to be theft of sensitive information.

In March 1994, Schwartz was indicted on three felony counts of computer crime under Oregon state law. He was convicted in July 1995, and sentenced in September 1995 to 5 years probation, 480 hours of community service, and 90 days jailtime (which may be dismissed for excellent behavior). Intel is also seeking $72,000 restitution. Schwartz has spent over $130,000 on his legal defense, most of it his own money, with additional contributions from individuals and organizations on the Internet.

Up to 50% of the legally registered guns in the US are not properly entered in the Federal database, due to incompetence, illegal procedures, and the outright destruction of thousands of legally submitted, but unprocessed records by BATF employees to 'reduce backlog'.

Under the current system, the NFRTR return "No record found" if a registration inquiry is made for one of these guns, which is considered proof of illegal possession, and grounds for prosecution. Dealers and private owners who submitted legal paperwork have gone to jail because the BATF denied knowledge of them.

In other words, any legal gun owner has a 50-50 chance of facing a costly legal case, and possible jail time, because the NFRTR records have been in shambles all along. This is confirmed by the 1995 Congressional of Thomas A. Busey, then Chief of the National Firearms Act Branch of the BATF (see below) "...when I first came in a year ago, our error rate was between 49 and 50 percent"

The BATF has stonewalled and denied for years, but have been forced to admit detail after painful detail (only to deny them all again the following year) A Google search for "Gary Schaible" (no quotes) will turn up dozens of documents and links to further information. (Special Agent Schaible was a BATF spokesman whose testimony to courts and Congress has been full of inaccuracies and outright purjury.)

Anyone who owns legal guns, or believes that registration can ever work should read "Institutional Perjury", an article by Col (ret.) James H. Jeffries, III USMC, Reserve (a retired DOJ lawyer, practicing firearms law in Greensboro, N.C) outlining some of the BATF abuses. (This includes the Busey quote above, but does not cover the famous "Gestapo tactics" incidents)

Reform from within hasn't worked either. Here's as affadavit by Eric Martin Larson of the GAO (Government Accounting Office) regarding systematic errors in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) and his efforts to have them corrected. This is just one of his many reports and letters to Congress, but after his initial failure, his later reports are painstaking line by line and word by word responses to BATF tetimony and documents, and are very diffficult to read without the originals in front of you

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"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."

[roughly: "...swords don't kill people; people kill people."]

-- (Lucius Annaeus) Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD),
_____________

Up to 50% of the legally registered guns in the US are not properly entered in the Federal database, due to incompetence, illegal procedures, and the outright destruction of thousands of legally submitted, but unprocessed records by BATF employees to 'reduce backlog'.

Under the current system, the NFRTR return "No record found" if a registration inquiry is made for one of these guns, which is considered proof of illegal possession, and grounds for prosecution. Dealers and private owners who submitted legal paperwork have gone to jail because the BATF denied knowledge of them.

In other words, any legal gun owner has a 50-50 chance of facing a costly legal case, and possible jail time, because the NFRTR records have been in shambles all along. This is confirmed by the 1995 Congressional of Thomas A. Busey, then Chief of the National Firearms Act Branch of the BATF (see below) "...when I first came in a year ago, our error rate was between 49 and 50 percent"

The BATF has stonewalled and denied for years, but have been forced to admit detail after painful detail (only to deny them all again the following year) A Google search for "Gary Schaible" (no quotes) will turn up dozens of documents and links to further information. (Special Agent Schaible was a BATF spokesman whose testimony to courts and Congress has been full of inaccuracies and outright purjury.)

Anyone who owns legal guns, or believes that registration can ever work should read "Institutional Perjury", an article by Col (ret.) James H. Jeffries, III USMC, Reserve (a retired DOJ lawyer, practicing firearms law in Greensboro, N.C) outlining some of the BATF abuses. (This includes the Busey quote above, but does not cover the famous "Gestapo tactics" incidents)

Reform from within hasn't worked either. Here's as affadavit by Eric Martin Larson of the GAO (Government Accounting Office) regarding systematic errors in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) and his efforts to have them corrected. This is just one of his many reports and letters to Congress, but after his initial failure, his later reports are painstaking line by line and word by word responses to BATF tetimony and documents, and are very diffficult to read without the originals in front of you

---------------------------------------------
"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."

[roughly: "...swords don't kill people; people kill people."]

-- (Lucius Annaeus) Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD),
_____________