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On the one hand, I really don't like how the record companies treat customers

I agree, but I also don't like how a lot of record companies treat their bands (see below).

On the other hand, I also see the value in having a record company which can front money to new and old bands to keep music fresh and flowing to the audience ears

You should read this article by Courtney Love. It's a bit dated, but still interesting nonetheless. She gives insight into how much money new bands really get with their contracts. A lot of the money that the record companies spend on artists is charged back to them in the end. I'm not justifying or criticizing P2P... I'm only saying that artists are mostly treated as commodities (which I'm sure a lot of people already knew).

If any Florida Slashdotters are reading this, do me a favor: get a girl you know (yourself, if applicable) to go each of these guys' offices with a copy of the U.S. Consitution (including the Bill of Rights, #1 being highlighted), a (legal) copy of an "infamous violent video game" (say, Quake 2... something that will work on the likely outdated and underpowered computers of conservative lawyers), and printouts of the following articles: This one and this one.

Also be sure to get the local television crews, and newspaper writers and photographers to follow (and make sure that they're informed of the one lawyer's bikini vendor stunt)... because the whole idea here is to embarass these two ugly fellows using their own tactics, except bolstered by evidence.

The downside is that this will get these two the attention they crave; the upside is that it won't get them positive attention and might just make a laughingstock out of them.

Or just hit them both with a pie in the face at a press conference. (Hey, it worked with Bill Gates for the French!)

~UP

I hate the SUV.

Actually, if the current administration was serious about making space more accessible, while not build a space elevator. According to one study the cost is $10 billion and it takes 15 years to build it. More economical than a traditional trip to the moon, which cost was estimated to be closer to $400 billion by the previous Bush'es administration.

I believe potential criminals should be treated like customers too.

While your line sounds funny, it's actually true, since a potential criminal is not a criminal, ie. innocent until proven guilty.

However, while the label deserves credit for not blindly following the myopic behaviour of the big labels and not supporting the police-state behaviour of the RIAA, the system they operate is at heart still wrong. Artists have no business passing ownership of their work to a third party for all eternity, as this just feeds that greed machine and is the real root of all this evil.

There once was a need for placing oneself into perpetual slavery in some circumstances, but that no longer holds in these days of inexpensive small-batch pressing and easy online presence and distribution. Studios and labels nowadays need be no more than technical and promotional subcontractors, not feudal barons squeezing their serfs dry as in previous decades.

The arithmetic of musical serfdom is just plain scary.

If this means that the artists/sharecroppers get more money, and the studios get screwed, all I can say is,

YEAH!

When President Bush inspires us onward and upward to Mars this week, his political calculations may be more earthly. Expanding space exploration is a wonderful aspiration for America and humanity -- and also quite promising for the Houston economy, the national aerospace industry, and one company in particular that has long pondered exploration of the red planet: Halliburton.

Hey, at least no one will shoot at us up there.

Don't be fooled. That photo is of a 1 meter tall man standing beside Steve Mann

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds [microsoft.com] is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman [geocities.com], spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox [microsoft.com] is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual [goatse.cx] propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail [microsoft.com], which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted [salon.com] on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo [comp-u-geek.net] slut [rotten.com]!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual [goatse.cx] perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children [slashdot.org]. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis [rotten.com] in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual [goatse.cx] terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds [microsoft.com] is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman [geocities.com], spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox [microsoft.com] is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual [goatse.cx] propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail [microsoft.com], which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted [salon.com] on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo [comp-u-geek.net] slut [rotten.com]!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual [goatse.cx] perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children [slashdot.org]. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis [rotten.com] in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual [goatse.cx] terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds [microsoft.com] is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman [geocities.com], spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox [microsoft.com] is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual [goatse.cx] propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail [microsoft.com], which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted [salon.com] on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo [comp-u-geek.net] slut [rotten.com]!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual [goatse.cx] perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children [slashdot.org]. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis [rotten.com] in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual [goatse.cx] terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his

Another widely reported exploration into post-modernist literature was "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" by Sokal. Sokal says, in order to "test the prevailing intellectual standards, I decided to try a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment: Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies -- whose editorial collective includes such luminaries as Fredric Jameson and Andrew Ross -- publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions? The answer, unfortunately, is yes."

To be even more Kafkaesque, they've seen to it that these appeals can't be further appealed to the Supreme Court, as no one but the Justice Department itself is actually a party to the appealed case and no one else has legal standing to appeal.

Salon did a piece on this secret court system a while back; it's truly a scary concept.

Tom Tomorrow joke for the unintiated.

Linkage

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/03/18/bunte n/

At least erase Jar Jar.
Didn't they already do this with The Phantom Edit?

Ooh? Examples, or has that been discussed/reported with examples anywhere?
A quick search for articles, 9-11, deleted did not reveal anything, but if you have a link or two....

Please, check out "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War", a movie by Robert Greenwald. He interviews "(...) Joseph Wilson, the retired diplomat who investigated claims that Iraq was shopping for uranium in Niger and found them baseless; Patrick Lang, former chief Middle East analyst for the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency; Chas Freeman, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia; CIA veteran Robert Baer; and more than a dozen others." (Salon Quote. It also shows clips from speeches made (by Bush, Rumsfeld, etc) before the Iraq "incident" (liberation, invation, you pick one). Seeing them today really is a strange feeling, as the tune has changed so much, and few of the mainstream media has asked critical questions about the claims that were put forward in those speeches.

I would like to believe it was not picked up again because of the load of NEW news, but if someone is deleting... (Picking up the hat of you-know-what.)

The movie can legally by download with Bittorrent. Check out the documentary section of suprnova.org and look for "UNCOVERED (Hi-Q) Why Bush REALLY (...)".
Note: Most of the other downloads there are not so legal.

I, personally, don't pull my opinions from Slashdot. It might influence my opinion by giving or taking away examples for or against it, but I would like to think that my opinions are my own.

However, the reason I read sites like slashdot or Salon.com or a few others is because I like to hear my own opinion repeated back to me. I find it comforting that someone, somewhere, also believes the same things I do. We may disagree on details, but the gist of whatever thought is the same.

How about the rest of you lot?

Vivendi's actions show how much the music industry really cares about the artist!

How am I supposed to feel bad copying a cd that costs at the most a nickel to produce and costs me $18??? The worst bit is the Artist only gets pennies on the dollar for the sale. Your better off just giving the artist a buck and calling it even. Check out this article it is a interview with Courtney Love. She does the math and the only person making a profit is the Record Label.

Such as in the US, right?

"Americans...need to watch what they say"

Well, US drug policy has rarely had anything to do with common sense. Marijuana's primarily illegal due to racism. Ephedra was banned this week based on a handful of deaths in America while tobacco kills approximately 4.8 million people per year world wide and while alcohol contributes to a significant percentage of auto accidents, firearm incidents, rape, and child and spousal abuse.

Of course, I'm a prohibitionist, not an apologist for marijuana legalization. I'm of the opinion that tobacco and caffination of soft drinks should be illegal too. I'd just like to see a little less hypocrisy in our drug laws and our trade fights to push our own drugs on other nations.

Hats off to Perelman for reminding us that money has never been a mathematician's incentive. The whole Clay thing is a travesty and not the right way to help mathematics.

(Contrast: this sort of snake-oil merchant, who puts money over truth.)

I did a little research on this guy, and he has several non-fiction books under his belt with the same hellfire-and-brimstone invective. They also didn't cause so much as a blip on the cultural radar. Yet in an interview at Salon.com, he has the gall to say, in response to asking why he had no problem with saying in his column that Martha Stewart had a nice ass, "One of the things I try to do in these columns that I write -- I consider this as kind of a personal mission -- is to try to purge our language of political correctness. It just stultifies. Isn't that what provocative, memorable language does? It forces back the frontiers of expression."

So this guy sees his newspaper column as the beacon of a lingual crusade? I think what we're dealing with here is delusions of granduer, which goes partway towards explaining his vehemence about GTA: Vice City. (But I will not pick apart what he wrote about the game, not for a Bill O'Reilly nutball of the print world.) That, and the fact that he's no spring chicken or versed in videogames, otherwise he couldn't claim the game's visuals were almost photorealistic.

Bah. Don't grace this hack with an e-mail.

You forget highly urban markets where all of the available radio stations (both AM and FM) have been taken over by Clear Channel, and the available public radio stations have all gone NPR, or don't have enough power to reach your area (ie, their transmitter is in a valley.)

Ironically, XM is owned in part by Clear Channel - could it be they have a vested interest in making local radio so crappy, that people will HAVE to subscribe to XM?

Trent Reznor is squarely in the Mac camp. Here's a few URLs:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2000/06/tren t/
http://www.macminute.com/2002/01/31/01311710
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/09/17/rezno r/

The overriding lesson I got out of this is that a techno-geek starting a business is like a person who loves to cook starting a restaurant. To succeed at figuring out your business model, market research, pitching to financiers, managing employees, buildings, etc, etc, etc, requires a true business geek, not a tech geek. The people who should start tech businesses are the ones who truly love business as well as technology, or those who can find a trustworthy business-genius partner. Incidentally, the pitfalls of the latter approach are showcased in the documentary film Startup.Com .

It's much more of a return to the 80s than that, what with the male makeup and other primping and the narcissism. It's basically the mainstreaming of gay fashion obsession for heterosexuals.

Gag me. Here I am in the prime of my life, and fashion trends are swinging away from comfortable clothing to dandying around the town again. Just what I need...

Which is more discreet? A flock of HUGE FUCKING EAGLES, or two little Hobbits sneaking into Mordor and dumping it into Mount Doom?
How could Gandalf do that when he died fighting the Balrog in Moria? He was nowhere near Frodo by the time he returned. Next.

I think Radagast would have been better for getting help from the Eagles.

OK, here's a plan. You get most of the BIG EAGLES to fly around Barad-dur. Their going "Caw! Caw! (or whatever noise Eagles make) Hey Sauron! Look outside! We're not only flying in your airspace, but we're FUCKING in your airspace! Caw! Caw! Caw!"

Meanwhile, the one eagle that isn't fucking in mid-air is flying Frodo to Orodruin. Drops the ring along with the stupid hobit into the volcano.

It would make a lot more sense that to have a troop of eagles fucking in mid-air on a path to Orodruin.

No, I guess the censors wouldn't have let him get away with that in the 1950s.

OK, Why didn't they just take the ring to the Grey Havens, and then to Valinor, where one of the Valar could probably destroy it. I mean they created the fscking world, you think they could destroy a ring that was made by one of the Maiar.

Oh yea, it wouldn't be a very interesting story if they had done it that way.

(Moderation -1 Very Very Silly)
(I was going to post this AC but WTF.)
(Note: I don't normally make bad puns about HUGE FUCKING EAGLES.)

As long as I'm being vulgar....

There is evidence to prove both Democrats and Republicans are lying cocksuckers. Vote independently.

I go to political demonstrations but I don't carry signs because I hate sound bite politics. Then I saw Sparky[tm] the Wonder Penguin holding a sign that said simply "Bush is a Wanker."

I suppose I could carry a sign that says that on one side and "Democrats and Republicans are lying cocksuckers." on the other side.

OK, one final silly "what if they" theory:
What if they built a time machine and killed Celebrimbor before he helped Sauron, or maybe just told him, "Sauron's a bad dood. Don't help him to make the most evil ring in the entire universe OK dood. Remember the shit that went down just because your grandfather made those jewels. Find a safer hobby, like macrame. Stay out of jewelry, it has a bad history in your family."

I chose to go with Sirius Radio and I've been very pleased with it (I've had it for a bit over a year now). And, in addition to the no-commercials policy on their music stations, one of the major deciding factors for me was ClearChannel's stake in XM.

For those not aware, ClearChannel owns over 1200 stations nationwide and they're one of the major proponents of payola. That's right -- artists get on the air simply because their labels paid for their songs to be played.

I believe that radio play should be based on merit and not deep pockets. And, I don't want to have anything to do with ClearChannel.

I can't comment on the issue of "number of confessors", but the indiscriminate removal of thousands of (mostly black) voters via mis-identification as felons is well documented at this point.

Greg Palast wrote an excellent article for Salon regarding this issue.

So, the Gore/Bush Florida corruption allegations involve both pre-election shenanigans AND pre-election shenanigans.

The CNN article is based on the assumption that the Florida voting (pre-counting) processes were held cleanly, when there is strong evidence suggesting otherwise.

I won't address the murder conspiracy issues, as dis/belief in them is irrelevant to the "role-cleansing" issue.

here's an interesting article on how the two authors and the the two sagas were intertwined.

Gates may be a ruthless businessman, but he is giving away billions of his dollars in a dedicated effort to fight AIDS, develop vaccines for scores of deadly diseases, and improve educational and healthcare opportunities for millions of impoverished women and children. Yes, our right to have a choice in operating systems is important. But it is nothing compared to the right of a child in India or Uganda to live free of crippling disease. On the most important issue, Gates passes the test with flying colors.

God forbid that anyone outside of the USA might have ever been first at anything

You drooling java fanboys are all alike. Doing a google search on "java" doesn't prove anything about Java's performance (seriously- those werent even benchmarks you linked to). Neither does linking to a page titled "C++ Sucks".

Here is some data right back at you:
http://www.jelovic.com/articles/why_java_is_slow.h tm
http://dir.salon.com/tech/col/garf/2001/01/08/bad_ java/index.html
http://www.advogato.org/article/624.html
http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~cs154/PerfComp/

Chew on dat, butt monkey.

If you read carefully, the link provided only says that it was the film that was faked, not the existance of Pearce or his aircraft. Pearce, as far as I know, really did exist, and really did build that plain,according to articles like this and others. Just google it up. Hard to believe a faked film was the basis of evidence for several books on the subject.

Hey, Saddam called some of later missile strikes "Operation Monica", not me. Though now that you mention it, I don't know why the news article called it Desert Fox, which it couldn't have been. My point is its hypocritical to say Bush is doing this as a PR campaign, or to deflect attention, when basically the same thing happened with Clinton and his many cruise missiles. I personally tend to give them both the benefit of the doubt. But this is Slashdot, so we should only give one the benefit of the doubt and the earlier one must have been good because we only have 2 year memories. I'm sorry you lost your buddy in Iraq; My family has lost relatives in every war from WW1 to Vietnam; We've been lucky since then.

Who launched a half-assed attack against Al Qaeda? Can you find a reference to "Al Qaeda" that exists before 9/11/01? Not likely. This is all made up bullshit.

Here you go, that took about 10 seconds. I guess you're technically right since it was only called "bin Laden's network of terrorist groups", not "Al Qaeda" then. Of course, 1998 was such a long time ago, and those cruise missiles were just a friendly gesture. Here's an interview where OBL himself mentions the attack. Half-assed is demonstrated in these two articles, however the latter one is written after 9/11 and it isn't fully fair, since hindsight is 20/20. But we could have done better, that's for sure. Here's another referenencing the attack. Calling it all "made up bullshit" sure sounds good, but its hard to rebut the facts of history. Do I think Clinton's scandal caused the 75 cruise missile attack? No, but the timing sure seems bad. Now tell me again why Bush is doing this all as a big PR campaign? Seems like "No War" would have been a hell of a lot more popular with the voters around here.

as a result of the previous Bush's actions

We made a mistake in 1991, but again hindsight is perfect. We're finishing it now; the sanctions and cruise missiles were just putting it off. Responsibility for OBL and Al Qaeda rest soley with Clinton and later GWB. Sure, the original Gulf War fanned the flames a lot, but that was a UN war, and our options were limited since the UN only knows limited/partial war, and all the limited/partial results that brings (see Korea). So who's your favorite leader? More likely than not they either (1) fought a war in which Americans died, or (2) ignored a security threat so that his successor had to fight the war instead. Don't even say JFK was your favorite... you'll have a lot more bodies to count.

Fox News Alert.
Perterson Case
Fox News Alert
Jackson Case
Fox News Alert
Toby Case
Fox News Alert
More Mindless crap.

Before 9/11, Faux News and others were spinning stories practically continuously, despite dire predictions by the Hart Rudman Commission and the Gore Report.

And this is coming from someone who in the past bought dish network so I could watch fox news. But that is before it turned into all trash, all the time.

Sanctions have ended and Saddam will not return. That is wonderful. But for the record:

Saddam pocketed a bunch of the money

Of course the Iraqi government was creating cash revenue for itself. The oil-for-food (O.F.F.) program only provided commodities in exchange for oil; it didn't allow the government any access to cash. How well would the US government function without cash? Oil smuggling was the only thing that gave a salary to Iraqi teachers, public healthcare workers, and civil servants. Physicians in particular began receiving salary increases that were proportional to the crumbling of sanctions in 2000. Sure, the regime invested in social services partly to reduce popular discontent; it was self-serving. But that doesn't change the fact that sanctions, not just Saddam, violated Iraqi human rights and were in fact designed to. Bush Sr. thought of this as "Making life uncomfortable for the Iraqi people."

The UN sanctions were suppose to let food and medicine get to the people of Iraq

Actually no, they were supposed to appear to allow this on paper, but not in practice. For six years Iraq could sell no oil, which cut off 90 per cent of its foreign revenue at a time when Iraq imported two-thirds of its food. As the UN predicted (Bush Sr. ignored it), this led to massive malnutrition. In 1996 the O.F.F. program began, with a pointless cap on oil exports. Two years later the cap was removed, but the US and Britain tied up $5 billion of humanitarian supplies including many spare parts for the oil industry. The point wasn't to kill Iraqis; that was just an "acceptable" consequence of wrecking Iraqi oil production and undermining its global market influence. This should come as no surprise. Donald Rumsfeld certainly wasn't preaching human rights when he shook hands with Saddam, as Reagan was launching his campaign to support Iraq's unconventional weapons development.

No wonder UN humanitarian coordinator Denis Halliday said the O.F.F. program was "designed to fail". I heard this with my own ears when Halliday spoke in New York; similar things from his successor Hans von Sponeck when he spoke in Milwaukee; and more diplomatically from Sponeck's successor Tun Myat when he spoke in Baghdad.

the facts are pretty simple.

Not really, as I have shown. I'm glad this is behind us, but if the history books are honest, they will slaughter the leaders on both sides.

• Karimov in Uzbekistan
• Alijev in Azerbajdzjan
• Nazarbajev in Kazakstan
• Musharraf in Pakistan

Of course it's purely a coincidence that the ties to the oil industry from the Bush administration are so close: The United States of Oil. Or you can use Google to find similar stories: Bush administration oil ties

Wouldn't it be simpler, not to support these people to begin with?

Actually, this has been implemented, in the 2000 Presidential election to disenfranchise thousands of florida voters(most of whom were likely voting for Gore) http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/ 04/voter_file/print.html

Article on Salon...

Guess you missed this correction.

Harpers...

Here is Katherine Harris' response to the garbage the Palast published.

You might also want to read the USCCR Report, which states in part:

The report does not find that the highest officials of the state conspired to disenfranchise voters. Moreover, even if it was foreseeable that certain actions by officials led to voter disenfranchisement, this alone does not mean that intentional discrimination occurred. Instead, the report concludes that officials ignored the mounting evidence of rising voter registration rates in communities..

The Dissenting Statement is also a worthwhile read on the subject.

Ok, how about:
Article on Salon...

Harpers...

Bradenton Herald...

Harvard U. School of Gov't Reseach Paper...

One or these days, they're going to declare it treasonous to be so criminally ignorant. Wise up before then.

Here's another idea. How about discouraging illegal immigrants that cost taxpayers billions of dollars from breaking our laws, maybe by sending them home? Or even making them pay their own way while they're here? Oh no? That's not compassionate enough? Free schools, hospitals and prisons for them!

How do illegal immigrants cost billions in taxpayer money? Certainly, it would cost far, far more money to police the border and actually locate and deport everyone who wasn't supposed to be here, in addition to turning the country into an orwelian nightmare to do it. Illegal immigrants also contribute to the economy by doing jobs that Americans would frown upon, and by working more cheaply (say, three houses could be build with illegal labor, where one could be build with full-rate American labor). Also, many illegals do in fact pay taxes, because their income is automatically withheld from their paychecks. their kids even die for this country. As far as schools are consourned, all children born in the US are citizens, regardless of the status of their parents. And how exactly would you make them pay for their stay in prison? Or do you think we should just dump them back in Mexico so they can hop back across the border if they are caught committing a crime?

Oh, I get it, you're just stupid.

A lot of those billions are spent on marketing not research. In addition a lot of the fundamental research is done by public institutions, because for profit companies are more reclutant to spend money that may produce some return in 10 years time.

See this article in Salon...for instance.

inefficient == less than full capacity. Central planning wastes resources that people would otherwise exploit as they pleased. The net result is a lower standard of living and under-employment. It's generally for the benefit of those in power under both systems too.

Music is a good example of market consolidation resemeling a socialist state. The FCC decides who can broadcast and collects lots of money. The big music companies decide who they will promote and collect lots of money. People who could promote alternate acts are locked out and musicians end up doing anything else for a living because music does not pay, even for best selling artists. So the whole structure of restrictions is really supporting the FCC and RIAA. It can be argued that musicians would be better off, ie employed, in a system that was free.

Don't worry, I was fired.

At least one big-name record producer and one musician will vehemently disagree with you on that point...

Heres an interesting article
about Stevens over at Salon.

There was a cool write-up of this in Salon right after he died. See the last couple paragraphs of the second page. Kind of cool for a guy that helped so many people, most of them who never got to thank him.

There was a cool write-up of this in Salon right after he died. See the last couple paragraphs of the second page. Kind of cool for a guy that helped so many people, most of them who never got to thank him.