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Arrested for a political T-shirt

Arrested and prosecuted for a political sign

Three years in prison for a political cartoon

Grounds for concern, I hope you'll agreee, even if you don't consider it Fascism.

Those people jailed at Guantanamo Bay are also there for their ties to terrorism, not because they were simply anti-American

Don't twist the truth here by pointing out protesters who've been jailed. They were jailed for breaking specific reasons,

American citizens have a right, in fact a responsibility to always be aware and in fact question what the US government is doing.

What, you mean like this?

2 days before 9/11 the building's security systems were shut down - never happened before - including calling off the bomb dogs

Verifiably a lie. They'd been on heightened alert for two weeks due to telephone threats. That alert was lifted, and with it the need for the dogs. The hysterical version of this is, of course, "WTC bomb dogs removed", which ignores the fact that bomb dogs apparently weren't standard there prior to the temporary alert.

What are your sources for the "special groups went through" and "the building's security systems were shut down"?

Sorry, but what was the motivation for taking down WTC7 again?

"Oh, the American people won't be angry with just the two WTC towers - we need to demolish another tower most people haven't heard of a couple hours later to get them really pissed off."

<sarc>
"yes we know we don't have any newspaper anymore, either"
</sarc>

Don't count on it. .. more... more... more...

That article is horrible, and the posting is also not so good. Here's a link to the press release from the Field Museum in Chicago, where one of the co-authors of the Nature article works:
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/museum_info/press/press _sinovenator.htm

And here's a link to a non-subscription site that's carrying the Chicago Tribune's article, which a lot of outlets seem to be carrying because it compares the dinosaur to Sesame Street's Big Bird:
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/chi-0510130118o ct13,0,1942769.story?coll=ny-leadhealthnews-headli nes

Both articles said that buitreraptor probably could not fly.

Putting panties on head is torture? A naked pyramid is torture? (I've known people who have paid for more) Where are the American rape rooms? How many hands of "dissidents" has GWB cut off.

Or beating him a uniformed officer for days, then smothering him to death: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/08/02/AR2005080201941_pf.html

Or the stuff listed in Maj. Gen. Taguba's report:

• Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;
• Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol;
• Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;
• Threatening male detainees with rape;
• Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell;
• Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.
• Using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

All under the supervision of unamed government agencies and "private" contractors. What kind of lunatic Army outsources military intelligence? Answer -- they don't. It's all just a dodge to get the dirty deeds out from under the military code, or CIA rules.

Dammit! Smug bastards like you drive me mad. You're so tough, signing off on the rough things that need to be done, without ever facing up to reality. Just google 'US' and 'torture' -- unless you believe the entire world and internet is involved in a conspiracy to smear the good name of Uncle Sam. http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050925/w092528.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/26/10934 56748705.html http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-ophar234437 651sep23,0,6341987.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headli nes http://www.nwherald.com/MainSection/other/29837079 9741982.php We don't even need to go into the torture training in Paraguay, Uraguay, and at the School of the Americas.

Okay! We all know that the MPAA ( The group of people hired by the Mafia who represent their wholly owned industry of Hollywood) whines that online piracy is causing them huge loses, but as Newsday stated so well, Shed no tears for the motion picture industry

The facts are that no matter how many press releases they shove down the throats of their news subsidiaries they are not losing money on any measurable scale because of people downloading video camera captures of movies online. If they ever cleared the system of book keeping they use so that stars, writers, producers etc did not have to sue to collect actual profits Excerpt from How the Movie Wars Were Won by John W. Cones and even going so far as to try to tell Stan Lee that the movie "Spiderman" made no money forcing him to sue for revenue, then MAYBE I might have some sympathy for them. Were you aware that based on Hollywood bookkeeping four of the top ten movies of all time...LOST MONEY!!! So they have no idea what their actual revenues are versus costs, so at this point no one can say if they are losing money. I think the entire problem is that the massive amounts of money generated by this industry have resulted in one overwhelming problem. Greed.

So, lets talk about why there is a decline in movie attendance, based on the assumption of it NOT being piracy. Well, first lets examine the fact that,

"In 2004, domestic box office sales were $9.2 billion (with three-quarters going to the major distributors, who must share the box office gross with the theaters), up slightly from 2003. DVD sales and rentals came in at $21.2 billion, up almost a third from the previous year." -Newsday

Hmm so they made MORE money in 2004 than 2003, okay well what about the current 2005 movie year?

"Blase adds that 2005's gross reflects that 10 fewer films have been released by the studios so far this year. And, she says, if you eliminate 2004 anomalies like "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" - the highest-grossing religious and documentary films ever - 2005's box office is actually up by 2 percent" -Newsday

So in 2005 the box office is lagging and they have released fewer films, and have not produced any automatic sellouts like those based on a religion held by a majority of the nation or those based on propaganda that would make Leni Riefenstahl happy. It is easy to see the real truth is that the evil online pirates sharing second rate views of movies are the problem here, isn't it? The problem is the MPAA and their watchword. Greed.


So aside from those numbers, let's talk about a trip to the movies. I have a rather 50'sesque Nuclear Family with a Y2K twist, my wife and I have two children half the week and they spend the other half with their father, but we have them weekends. So for the sake of argument I will assume a Saturday evening viewing of a movie and at regular price. Before someone asks why not go to a matinee and save money, locally the regular versus matinee pricing is not really that different, $9.50 evening, and $7.00 matinee. But in the interest of fairness, when I hit my totals cost for the evening subtract 10 bucks if you want matinee pricing. Why have mostly empty daytime showings and not reduce the price to attract more customers? Greed.

So lets go step by step through what it runs my family to see a movie, and I will pick something harmless that we all attended as a base. Charlie and the Shreking Nemo is about as white bread as they come in the movie field, we look it up to find out times, and we pack up the car. Now nearest Gigantagoogplex of screens is in the suburbs because Showcase/AMC etc fear urban areas so much that Magic Johnson is making a mint setting up theatres in cities. My city has 105k people and not a single screen in the city limits but immediately outside of them we have 30 plus screens.

This article is a crock. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wir e/sns-ap-subway-searches-poll,0,5333035.story?coll =sns-ap-nation-headlines It's not even a representative sample at all. Obligatory URL http://www.nyclu.org/mta_searches_suit_pr_081805.h tml

What privacy do you have on a subway? Just curious.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Well, it's certainly true that Bush recently promoted teaching of ID, and shortly thereafter, so did another key member of his administration, Senate majority leader Bill First.

I agree that blaming a past decline on one of these recent actions is not valid. However, there is reason for concern when proposals like the above are being put forward.

Christianity, has in fact, been quite hostile to science when science conflicts with established dogma, Galileo being the prime example, and Darwin the most recent. In fact, as recently as 1968, it was illegal to teach evolution in some states. Those laws were declared unconstituional by the Supreme Court, but the fundamentalist right is attempting to roll back the clock, and have had recent sucess in Kansas.

The world isn't running out of oil, its running out of cheap, easy to extract oil. It doesn't help that Iraq's oil production is now in a shambles thanks to George W.

I should take that at face value; that is, as pure uninformed flamebait. Instead, I'll take a moment to correct you on two points:

First, Oil production is not in shambles. Production was at 2.5 million bpd "Before U.S.-led forces defeated Saddam Hussein".

The latest figures show that oil production is now at 2.75 - 2.85 million bpd . This is up from about 2.3 million bpd last month.

Not "in shambles".

Second, I assume you're being semantically dense when you blame the temporary damage to Iraq's oil production on George W.

In spite of the fact that little damage was done to Iraq's oil fields during the war itself, looting and sabotage after the war ended was highly destructive, accounting for perhaps 80 percent of total damage. Starting in mid-May 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- which had the lead in restoring Iraq's oil output to pre-war levels -- began a major effort to ramp up production in the country. On April 22, 2003, the first oil production since the start of the war began at the Rumaila field, with the restart of an important gas/oil separation plant (GOSP). In May 2004, Iraq's Qarmat Ali water injection facility reportedly was 75 percent operational again, helping boost production from Rumaila and other southern oil fields. (Taken from the DOE factbook.)

Contrary to common misbelief, the US did not invade Iraq to steal their oil. The US currently purchases about 25% of Iraq's exports, or about 600,000 bpd. This puts Iraq at number six as a supplier to the US, behind Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, each over 1.5 million bpd. Iraq is a bit player in this game.

But I'm happy to see that they're finally free of Saddam.

An understanding of consciousness is necessary to really have a meaningful debate on this topic. Do you honestly believe that consciousness is created miraculously at the instant of conception? No, it is created over time. Hence, an embryo has no more consciousness than your tonsils, although an infinitely higher potential.

We also need to recognize our own fears and the root of our feelings to question the ethical implications of stem cell research. Most people naturally fear situations where they have no control of the outcome. Especially when we are younger, we are afraid of things happening to us in our sleep, afraid of the dark, afraid of water...basically, afraid of being vulnerable. What could be more vulnerable than an unborn baby? Nothing, of course, hence the resistance to abortion - despite the fact that responsible abortions are an overall benefit to society.

Here's my ultimate problem with the whole debate: it is callously abstract. While we argue about the fate of single cells that might, potentially, become people some day, 20,000 people die every day from poverty. Our neglect of the poor is criminal, and some day our age will be looked down on, like the dark ages. Because while we marvel in our own ingenuity in technology and science, we ignore the suffering of 1/6th of the world that lives in extreme poverty. We know they're there. We know their suffering. We can even now predict when a country will be hit by a drought and resulting famine ahead of time - http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/chi- 0508100129aug10,0,6732993.story?coll=ny-leadworldn ews-headlines/ yet they are still not averted.

When there aren't millions of kids waiting for adoption or food, and we our overpopulation concerns are gone, then perhaps, it might be appropirate to restrict the use of stem cells.

This would be the polar opposite of what happened to the Ten Commandments set which Cecil B. DeMille had intentionally buried- so no one else could use them.

If anyone doesn't think the US government has a role in ensuring American markets and American corporations are controlled to protect consumers, look into how China's CNOOC dropped its attempt to take over American Unocal. The Congressional opposition was, of course, only due to its unacceptability to so many Americans. Chinese money is just as green as American - and since so much of that CNOOC money is American dollars bought up by China as American debt (mostly real estate), it's all really Chinese money. But we get to keep Unocal, for now.

To falsify Intelligent Design:

Hypothesis: If organisms were Created, they would not have unused genes, especially not unused genes that strongly fit with the competing Evolutionary Theory.

Null Hypothesis: Organisms will have unused or disabled genes that a Creator would have no reason to include.

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hscat2643586 93jul26,0,6600641.story?coll=ny-health-headlines

As just one of an enormous bank of examples, Cats have the same "sweet tooth" gene as every other mammal, except that it's disabled and "broken" (filled with errors). You might try comparing this to a Programmer who includes a function in many different programs, but only uses it in a few. However this would lead us to expect a perfect gene that is disabled, not a gene that is broken and riddled with errors.

Results: Null hypothesis accepted, hypothesis rejected. There are many examples of genes that make no sense in the context of Creation, but make perfect sense, even to the extent of being traceable through genetic lines, in the context of the competing Evolutionary theory.

There ya go, ID is not only falsifiable, it is also false.

I'm sure you could swap the hypothesis and null hypothesis to make a similar experiment that could falsify evolutionary theory. In fact that's what ID people try to do, except their argument comes down to "we dont understand how this works yet so evolution must be wrong". Not a very compelling argument, is it?

"Police have said they shot a man dead at Stockwell Tube station in south London after he was challenged and refused to obey an order."

... traditional British bobby swinging a baton and carrying a pepper spray-like substance for self-defense gave way Friday to police with guns.... How many British police are trained in the use of guns, and the decision to shoot?

I've got that nerve deafness that makes it hard to understand speech when there's background noise. My right ear works at about 10% of normal, the left maybe 70%. In the quiet surroundings I work and live in, I get by without using my hearing aid, since it's just like being deaf only louder.

I have, on occasion, approached a transit boarding gate in a hurry. I could easily miss a plainclothes officer speaking to me, not notice or think that someone shouting in a crowded area meant to get my attention. I could get shot for being deaf!

See this link:

IMO, second year students are already so tired of keeping their systems spyware and virus clean, they get burnt out on it. No more!!! arrrrrhhhhhhh!!

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that developers of software violate federal copyright law when they provide computer users with the means to share music and movie files downloaded from the internet.

From the AP wire: The unanimous decision sends the case back to lower court, which had ruled in favor of file-sharing services Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. on the grounds that the companies couldn't be sued. The justices said there was enough evidence of unlawful intent for the case to go to trial.

"We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by the clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties ... [t]here is substantial evidence in MGM's favor on all elements of inducement," Justice David H. Souter wrote for the court.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-a p-unesco-iraq-museums,0,1589516.story?coll=sns-ap- nationworld-headlines
Looted art, DVD-/+R/RW, CD's etc., bullshit.
Blame people not objects and get the fuck out of Ireland. You've no fuckin business there and never had any. You've been raping, looting, torturing the world since time began. Every Euro that passes through your hand is blood money. India, Africa, South America, Asia etc. not one continent on this earth has managed to remain free of some european tyrany at some point in history. You'all still have your grubby paws clutched around nearly every island nation in the world as they're to puny to put up much of a fight. If it weren't for you stupid fucks the FBI would have Whoreand Vaneder Slut's Nut's in a vice right now in Aruba.

With a big check in your hand? These people were offered on average $1.7 million for (again, on average) .1 acres of land.

For a total of 15 homes, the city alotted $1.6 million. SOURCE

First, I agree with the above responses that ultimately the price doesn't matter; it's the principle.

But...

Second, I call BS on your $1.7 million average. I don't know where you get your data, but this says they "budgeted $1.6 million to pay for the 15 homes."

When was the last time a politician was arrested for taking a bribe in the US?

AP New Jersey

Former Marlboro planning board member admits aking bribes

June 20, 2005, 3:54 PM EDT

TRENTON, N.J. -- A longtime Marlboro Township Planning Board member admitted Monday that he took bribes totaling $7,700 from two developers who did business in the township.

In pleading guilty to one count of accepting corrupt payments, Stanley Young also admitted that he took $20,000 from a developer and passed it to another member of Planning Board to be distributed to township officials.

The developers and member were not named in court, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case.

Young, 71, who resigned from the board in March after serving since 1976, is the latest official to be snared in the ongoing federal investigation into corruption in Monmouth County.

In May, developer Anthony Spalliero was arrested and accused of passing bribes to a former county freeholder director, Harry Larrison Jr., and to former Marlboro Mayor Matthew V. Scannapieco.

Scannapieco pleaded guilty April 12 to taking $245,000 in bribes from a developer working in the Monmouth County township. Mayor from 1992 to 2003, Scannapieco said he took the cash on numerous occasions from 1997 to 2003 in return for supporting the developer's projects as mayor and as a voting member of the township Planning Board.

Larrison, 78, who was charged in April with taking $8,500 in bribes from developers in Marlboro, died May 29. He had retired in December after 39 years as a county freeholder, which made him the longest-serving freeholder in state history.

In February, federal prosecutors charged 11 officials in the county with corruption, including the mayors of Hazlet, Keyport and West Long Branch.

Young remains free on bond pending sentencing Sept. 28 by U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

but his brain was smaller than average size overall, just a couple of regions were larger. Also while women's brains are smaller than men's on average they are no less intelligent than men. This is most likely due women's brains being more tightly packed.

Take a look at this article called Deep, Dark Secrets of His and Her Brains.

And I quote:

" Cablevision has already spent more than $1 billion on Voom. It's hard to envision that Dolan and even the incredibly wealthy Malone could spend more than that. And, even if they did, why would the results be any different? As Cablevision's chairman, Dolan has already been, in effect, the head of the satellite service. Voom won't suddenly generate more subscribers just because he starts a new company to run it. It's the irrational thinking of someone who just won't let go.

In the Reuters interview, Malone appears to be telling his old friend that it's time to pack up and call it a day.

"It seemed like I might be helpful in terms of settling things down for him," Malone said when asked why he agreed to Dolan's request to sit on Cablevision's board."

From: http://www.tvpredictions.com/voomreality031405.htm l

Also...

" Last week, Cablevision's new 15-member board, including six independent directors and three Dolan sons, gave Charles Dolan until the end of this month to find a way to take Voom off Cablevision's hands. At the board's insistence, he has put up $10 million of his own cash and stock to help fund Voom this month."

"The Voom story

October 2003: Cablevision launches Voom satellite TV service; plans to split it off.

May 2004: Problems emerge in attracting customers as Voom losses mount.

September 2004: Cablevision says it will delay Voom's spin-off.

November 2004: Voom reveals it lost more customers than it attracted in the summer amid operational and marketing problems.

December 2004: Board, backed by chief executive James Dolan, abandons spin-off and defies chairman Charles Dolan by deciding to sell or shut Voom.

January 2005: After a face-off pitting Charles Dolan against his son and a majority of Cablevision's board, the company agrees to ditch Voom and sell its sole satellite to EchoStar Communications for $200 million.

Feb. 10: Cablevision signs letter of intent to give rest of Voom to Charles Dolan and son Thomas Dolan if they arrange financing.

Feb. 28: Cablevision says it has no definitive agreement with the Dolans and will shut Voom by the end of March. The Dolans say they have financing and want a deal.

March 2: Voom.com Web site says service ends at the end of month, but VoomLLC.com site, established by Charles Dolan and son Tom Dolan, proclaims "Voom Still Delivers."

March 3: Charles Dolan ousts three directors and picks five new ones, giving him a theoretical 8-7 edge.

March 8: New board gives Charles and Tom Dolan to month's end to come up with an "alternative transaction" that prevents Voom's shutdown.

March 10: Charles Dolan puts up $10 million of his own fortune to help keep Voom running."

From: http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzvoom4177303ma r16,0,193027.story?coll=ny-business-headlines

10 million dollars is like pissing into a supertanker of debt that once held 1.4 BILLION dollars.

VOOM is dead or is dying. I don't care WHO is backing it or believes in it right now. The market for it simply is not mature enough right now. Sure its a great idea but its too early to market.

Sure Govmt is mandating stations to push HD to consumers but that is when? In 2007! It's 2005 right now. I will buy an HDTV when its cost effective and USEFUL. Today it is neither. Perhaps by 2007 market forces will have prevailed on the price point at least. Once that happens then the market can start to grow.

When do they ditch the muddy, dull and visually abhorrant icons? Look at the dialog for Keyboard Preferences. The red/white "Help" next to the Avacado/Harvest Gold horror that is "Accessibility". The moldy folders...

It doesn't have to look "flash". Garrett LeSage did a half-decent job with the Bluecurve icons.

No? Can you say elitism? I knew you could.

I used the pro-per example, specifically because such a person might have been arrested for a gun crime. When the person is both criminal defendant and legal counsel, which standard applies?

Does that apply to all lawyers with less than perfect records? Ex-convicts that earned their law degree in prison?

Looks like a slippery slope that slides to favored litigants getting preferential treatment, and schlubs being late for court because the screening line was too long. Making one side show up early, only to wait, while letting the other breeze through is unfair financially, too.

To me, it would be fair if there were no favors handed out. Lawyers (and court personnel) ought to have to stand in line like the rest of us.

And if they don't, because the court thinks that they are better than us, I think it is fair that they should overhear ridicule in the form of lawyer jokes as they pass through the members-only door into the country club, er, public courthouse.

From a different article: "Kash said he and Lanzisera were merely saying out loud that the public was being treated like peons or peasants while attorneys, who wave their security passes to court officers and don't have to stand on line, are treated like kings."

The whole incident is about elitism, and mockery thereof. And due to the arrest, it appears elitism won....

Actually it just came out that they are preparing a standby shuttle for future missions. NASA Resume Story Of course if you go up in your private rocket, they may expect you to foot the bill for the rescue.

Sounds like a thorough brainwashing to me

"It is the government that has given me a second life," Wang said. "I have totally woken up and I think I should persuade people still addicted to Falun Gong to wake up, too.

It was a joint development process between the Army and Foster-Miller, a robotics firm bought in November by QinetiQ Group PLC, which is a partnership between the British Ministry of Defence and the Washington holding company The Carlyle Group.

I think it would be great for checkpoints where you could kill innocent people from afar! The more efficient killing becomes, the easier it is to do. Fuck turning the other cheek.
http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2005-01/1590599 3.jpg

The above post is false. They were there on court business. Specifically, to answer a DWI charge.

It depends on whether or not they were actually outside the courthouse. It's not clear from the article posted if that's the case or not.

From the article, it says both "The line leading into..." and "...as the queue wound into the court..." I would agree the first makes it seem like they were outside, but the second clouds the issue a little. I know it's semantics, but in the context of the law they were charged under, the semantics (ironically, as we're talking about lawyers here) are vital.

What I find more interesting is what's not mentioned in this version of the article. If you read here, it goes and mentions that one of the guys was going to court to answer a drunken driver charge from his past. As others have mentioned, they often use "confrontational" tactics.

The bottom line is virtually every county/state/federal court has laws on the books to prevent disorderly/loud/disruptive conduct from disturbing the business of the courts. I'd guess that what we don't know is these guys were making more of a ruckus than the articles state (as it's far more newsworthy and entertaining to make it sound like they're getting busted for telling lawyer jokes - makes it more Leno or Letterman worthy of reporting), and they're getting busted for it. If that's the case, there's nothing outrageous about it.

Of course, this version of apparently the same story by Newsday adds a comment from one of the guys that they were standing outside the court. So who knows? :-)

Given that these guys have already picked up a popular talk radio host (Ron Kuby) as their own lawyer, I smell publicity stunt....

Who said it hasn't already happened?

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/nytwa 96-crash1227.story

Planes crash, no real explanation, flight
recorders allegedly have no data (like they'd
tell us if this happened).

Or calling the cops to your house to teach your kid a lesson when you've got illegal substances and weapons strewn about the place.

CIA plans to purge its agency

BY KNUT ROYCE
WASHINGTON BUREAU

November 14, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.

"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."

One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful division. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Kappes had tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Goss' chief of staff, Patrick Murray, but at the behest of the White House had agreed to delay his decision till tomorrow.

But the former senior CIA official said that the White House "doesn't want Steve Kappes to reconsider his resignation. That might be the spin they put on it, but they want him out." He said the job had already been offered to the former chief of the European Division who retired after a spat with then-CIA Director George Tenet.

Another recently retired top CIA official said he was unsure Kappes had "officially resigned, but I do know he was unhappy."

Without confirming or denying that the job offer had been made, a CIA spokesman asked Newsday to withhold naming the former officer because of his undercover role over the years. He said he had no comment about Goss' personnel plans, but he added that changes at the top are not unusual when new directors come in.

On Friday John E. McLaughlin, a 32-year veteran of the intelligence division who served as acting CIA director before Goss took over, announced that he was retiring. The spokesman said that the retirement had been planned and was unrelated to the Kappes resignation or to other morale problems inside the CIA.

It could not be learned yesterday if the White House had identified Kappes, a respected operations officer, as one of the officials "disloyal" to Bush.

"The president understands and appreciates the sacrifices made by the members of the intelligence community in the war against terrorism," said a White House official of the report that he was purging the CIA of "disloyal" officials. " . . . The suggestion [that he ordered a purge] is inaccurate."

But another former CIA official who retains good contacts within the agency said that Goss and his top aides, who served on his staff when Goss was chairman of the House intelligence committee, believe the agency had relied too much over the years on liaison work with foreign intelligence agencies and had not done enough to develop its own intelligence collection system.

"Goss is not a believer in liaison work," said this retired official. But, he said, the CIA's "best intelligence really comes from liaison work. The CIA is simply not going to develop the assets [agents and case officers] that would meet the intelligence requirements."

Tensions between the White House and the CIA have been the talk of the town for at least a year, especially as leaks about the mishandling of the Iraq war have dominated front pages.

Some of the most damaging leaks came from Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, who wrote a book anonymously called "Imperial Hubris" that criticized what he said was the administration's lack of resolve in tracking down the al-Qaida chieftain and the reallocation of intelligence and military manpower from the war on terrorism to the war in Iraq. Scheuer announced Thursday that he was resigning from the agency.

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. [newsday.com]

from the stuff-to-think-about dept.

More like "from the get over it and try again in 4 years."

We've heard every single excuse possible already, for all of the weak consperacy theories about Republicans, the democrats were the ones out slashing tires the night before the election, and assaulting people in line during the election.

I hope you are happy too. With all of the propaganda you fed the American people about this election, you managed to kill one of the weak willed people over the weekend who really believed all the BS you spout about Bush being "evil". Your party really needs to tune down the "Bush is the Anti-Christ" retoric. You would be a lot better off taking a moderate position. In case you haven't noticed, the Republican party ignores/kicks out it's extremists (ie Pat Buchanan) while the democrats embrace theirs.

We can't accept the fact that Kerry lost... by 3.5 million votes.

You know why Bush did so well in Florida? The hurricanes. He was able to travel down there and be the hero with the federal aid.

If you read Slashdot, it should be pretty clear that not all the l33t crackers out there are Republicans. If there was so much hacking going on, why were all these liberal crackers out there working to give Kerry votes? Or maybe they were! Maybe they just didn't give him enough. I'd also expect the Libertarian to pick up a huge number of votes if cracking was involved.

Oh, and I notice he forgot to make mention of the Pennsylvania voting problems, but I guess since those were in Kerry's favor, they don't count.

I don't know! Is George Bush proud to have the endorsement of the Iranian mullahs?

While I am not a proponent for privatization, I am not ignorant enough to believe that one way is right and the other is wrong. Also, while privitization debates concerning particular services might share similar pro's and con's with each other, it is simply ludacris to believe privatization of one government service is even remotely relevant or comparable to the privitization of another.

Your beliefs are your own and the conviction to them that you hold is creditable. In part, I agree. However, your particular mention of social security irks me. While I admit, I haven't been privy to any feasible or indepth privitization plans for ss, but concidering the actual condition our social security system is in, would it be so bad? You do know the condition we face don't you? You've heard of the Baby Boomers, hell you might be one. Welp, they don't call them Baby Boomers for nothing, there was a hell of a lot of them, the greatest (legal) population increases of modern america, and probably the most hardest working (percentage and sex wise) group since any generation before them. Guess how long ago that was? People nowadays live longer, die harder, and expect more. In the next 10-20 years, SS will get hit hard and continuously. The numbers are scary. At 23 I doubt I will ever see a penny of it, and god-willing and plumbing working, if I have kids, they'll probably be studying the collapse of ss in macro class. Perhaps even a privitzed macro-class, which brings me to the next topic. Privitized education. While this already exists in numerous ways, i imagine you are referring to the whole system. I would never preach that privitization would completely solve any problem, hell we're human, thats all we do is make problems and either:

A)solve them

B)try to fix them

C)blame them on anyone besides the group we feel most akin too

D)ignore them

E)exploit them for our best interests

F)pretend they don't exist or its not a problem

G)and sweep them under the rug hoping someone else will take care of them.

There are problems with the Educational system. I won't even get started on salaries (though I am envious of their summers off), but problems that reach far past the realms of teachers or students. When things like this are common and frequent across the country, somethings not right. When 6 nypd officers are on duty walking the halls and grounds of middle schools, and most teachers are strapped, there's something wrong. I've been in more than 30 middle schools, in every burough of nyc metro area for certain psychological and technological analysis and could go on and on, so as not to beat a dead horse, I will leave it at these last three things:

1)Not only are teachers caught in the same bureaucratic quagmire as any average government worker, which in effect makes them just as hard to fire, they are also scared, underpaid, and understaffed. However, there are also ones who are incompetent, uncaring, and flat out criminal. These few (if we're lucky) not only give teachers a bad name, but add insult to injury to our country as a whole and the future generations to come. The worst part is, from the most caring to the most dispicable, many teachers have preconceived misconceptions about intelligence and learning that have been installed through years of faulty and counter-activ

Liner notes please!

Especially for jazz albums, where the personel and circumstances surrounding the album help understand the music. Others have written on the importance of keeping this part of musical history.

Not to mention the cover art which is often a casulty of being squashed into 200x200 pixels, if you're lucky.

By ERIN McCLAM

Associated Press Writer

September 24, 2004, 8:27 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- A federal judge Friday struck down a 1994 law banning the sale of bootleg recordings of live music, ruling the law unfairly grants "seemingly perpetual protection" to the original performances.

U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. dismissed a federal indictment of Jean Martignon, who runs a Manhattan mail-order and Internet business that sells bootleg recordings.

Baer found the bootleg law was written by Congress in the spirit of federal copyright law, which protects writing for a fixed period of time _ typically for the life of the author and 70 years after the author's death.

But the judge said the bootleg law, which was passed "primarily to cloak artists with copyright protection," could not stand because it places no time limit on the ban.

Baer also noted that copyright law protects "fixed" works _ such as books or recorded music releases _ while bootlegs, by definition, are of live performances.

A federal grand jury indicted Martignon in October 2003 for selling "unauthorized recordings of live performances by certain musical artists through his business."

The business, Midnight Records, once had a store in Manhattan but now operates solely by mail and Internet. It sells hundreds of recordings, specializing in rock artists, from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin.

An e-mail message to Martignon from The Associated Press was not immediately returned Friday, and a phone number could not immediately be located.

Megan Gaffney, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney, said federal prosecutors were "reviewing the decision and will evaluate what steps ought to be taken going forward."

The Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group that fights piracy and bootlegging, also disagreed with the ruling.

The decision "stands in marked contrast to existing law and prior decisions that have determined that Congress was well within its constitutional authority to adopt legislation that prevented trafficking in copies of unauthorized recordings of live performances," said Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the RIAA.

The bootleg law calls for prison terms of up to five years for first offenders and 10 years for second offenders, plus fines. It requires courts to order the destruction of any bootlegs created in violation of the law.

The law did not apply to piracy, which is the unauthorized copying or sale of recorded music, such as albums.

On the Net:

Midnight Records: http://www.midnightrecords.com

Bootleg law: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/2319A.html

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

I think the billions of dollars for Iraq are already in the works, being dished out as we speak.

This apparently isn't true - as of a month ago, only 3% of the $18 billion allocated last year had been spent on reconstruction. The ongoing security problems (i.e., the part where we haven't won the war yet) have put the actual dishing out process on hold. See, e.g.,
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/chi- 0408170344aug17,0,2861780.story?coll=ny-top-headli nes/

Kerry's harping is over the incompetence of the war spending, not the nonexistent rebuilding.

It's true that the Bush administration talks a good game, though...

OK troll boy:
a credible source.

This guy was commanding a boat alongside Kerry during the incident for which Kerry was awarded his Silver Star.

John Kerry == teh homophobe

"Both John and I believe firmly and absolutely that marriage is between a man and a woman." -- US Senator John Kerry

To those never entering the shitlist, what made a difference was the constant pounding of head against the beaurocratic [sic] brickwall, the humiliation of "sorry, you're not allowed to enter that flight", "you're not authorized by proper authorities", always have to submit to some greater authority. Always hearing "you have nothing to fear if you have done nothing wrong". To most, that's something they could live with. And what it would take to change it had very little to do with leadership, it had to do with people getting off their asses.

Yours is one of the most informative comments I've read on Slashdot.

To anyone who doubts just how much we've become like the totalitarian societies we once despised, just compare what Dovregubbens Hall (583591) writes to your last visit to an airport or a Federal building.

We've learned to fear the screener for the Transportation Security agency, because if he doesn't like your attitude, he can keep you off your flight -- or from flying ever again. A year ago that screener was a janitor or a Microsoft Certification dropout. Today he can seriously disrupt your life if he wants to -- and for the first time in his life, he know he holds that kind of power.

We've got the government "training" long-haul truck drivers -- guys who routinely drive twelve or eighteen hours straight to meet deadlines --, and bus drivers, and rest stop workers to identify "suspicious" people and report them to a secret toll-free phone number. To think that this volunteer force can't be used to suppress dissent -- "Just keep a count of pro-choice bumper stickers" --is to be willfully blind to a century or more of police misconduct.

Even guys with cameras aren't safe from being scrutinized and added to government databases, because cops today wave the bloody shirt of 9-11 and invoke "patriotism" as a fig-leaf to justify anything they care do to -- reasonable or not, legal or not.

Protesters, exercising their First Amendment rights, are already being arrested solely because of the content of their speech. Whether they are eventually convicted or just harassed by cops and city inspectors, the message is clear: dissent will cost you at least a day in jail, enough money to hire a lawyer (or rely on a possibly incompetent court-appointed lawyer), and maybe a little roughing up by the cops.

Every war attracts a few war profiteers along with the honest, self-sacrificing patriots. Every increase in police powers gives police new tools to fight crime, but at the same time gives that minority of cops who are bullies, busybodies, and braggarts interested in throwing their weight around more occasion to lord that power over the innocent citizens.

The thing to fear is not another 9-11. It's not even Stalinist knocks on the door at midnight. What we need to fear is more subtle: a steady erosion of American liberties, of what it means to be an American.

I always believed that, as an American, I had a right to protest my government. It said so right in the Constitution. But now I'm reluctant not only to protest, but to even view protests, giving that several nurses at a conference in Washington D.C. were arrested along with protesters, just for being nearby.

I always believed that, as a citizen in a democracy, the police were not to be feared -- and weren't any "better" than me. Now we have the Hiibel decisi

Michael Moore's career as a rabble-rousing populist has been marked by a frequent pattern of dissembling and factual inaccuracy. He distorted the chronology of his first movie, "Roger & Me"; repeatedly peddled the myth that the Bush administration gave $43 million to the Taliban; published two books, Stupid White Men and Dude, Where's My Country? , that were riddled with factual errors and distortions; and won an Academy Award for "Bowling for Columbine," a documentary based on a confused and often contradictory argument that features altered footage of a Bush-Quayle campaign ad, a misleading presentation of a speech by National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston, and other factual distortions.

With his new documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the prestigious Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was #1 at the US box office last week, Moore has surged to new prominence -- and come under increasing scrutiny. His staff has made much of elaborate fact-checking that was reportedly conducted on the film. And fortunately, it appears to be free of the silly and obvious errors that have plagued Moore's past work, such as the claim in Stupid White Men that the Pentagon planned to spend $250 billion on the Joint Strike Fighter in 2001, a sum that represented over 80 percent of the total defense budget request for the year.

However, "Fahrenheit 9/11" is filled with a series of deceptive half-truths and carefully phrased insinuations that Moore does not adequately back up. As Washington Monthly blogger Kevin Drum and others have noted, the irony is that these are the same tactics frequently used by the target of the film, George W. Bush. Moore and his chief antagonist have more in common than viewers might think.

The 2000 Florida recount

Reviewing the 2000 election during the opening of the film, Moore uses a quote from CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin to make a deeply misleading suggestion about the results of the media recounts conducted in Florida:

Moore: And even if numerous independent investigations prove that Gore got the most votes --

Toobin: If there was a statewide recount, under every scenario, Gore won the election.

Moore: -- it won't matter just as long as all your daddy's friends on the Supreme Court vote the right way.

But the recount conducted by a consortium of media organizations found something quite different, as Newsday recently pointed out. If the statewide recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court had gone ahead, the consortium found that Bush would have won the election under two different scenarios: counting only "undervotes," or taking into account the reported intentions of some county electoral officials to include "overvotes" as well. During the CNN appearance from which Moore

"and if the arrest or evidence is later thrown out for constitutional privacy reasons so be it"

I'm sorry.. you're assuming that they won't be kept in detention indefinitely.

You're assuming that the evidence will be made available to the defendant. Or that the means of obtaining that evidence will be available to their lawyer.

And, if for some reason there is a trial, you're assuming that the trial will be fair.

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
-Thomas Jefferson

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
-Thomas Jefferson

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-Thomas Jefferson

i can feel a draft!

Can you?

TOO TRUE! Corruption & theft is too common in our Long Island schools.

High-tech purchases are questioned. Invoices show computer store items, bought with district funds, used at officials' homes
BY KARLA SCHUSTER AND EDEN LAIKIN
STAFF WRITERS
June 15, 2004
The Roslyn public schools spent tens of thousands of dollars at a computer store for equipment, electronic games and movies that ended up in the homes of consultants, former district officials and their families, records show.

District opens 2 probes of finances
Uniondale School officials have launched investigations into alleged overtime abuses by custodial staff and are examining financial records concerning a $4.8 million telecommunications project.

Maybe they would not have to consider cutting budgets if there was less theft from the taxpayers.

School districts resubmitting budgets for vote whether submitting same plan or one with cuts, districts face losing backing of key groups or protest vote
More than a quarter of the 45 Long Island districts that lost budget votes last month are submitting identical spending plans to voters starting this week, even as other districts absorb painful cuts in art, music and summer classes.