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Other African countries have... well, few things so extreme, but sometimes they have things to prevent their population from being "exploited". And it may just be that a little exploitation is the price of economic success. I have a random column on the matter of Africa by some award-winning economist if you care for a peek.

Has some interesting commentary about this madness.

"What saddens me the most, is that the Media plays a great part in forming this image"

umm as if arabs hijacking planes have nothing to do w/ it ? or arabs who blow up israeli busses have nothing to do w/ it ? the media ? they are your greatest defenders !! they won't even call a terrorist a terrorist !!!

so let me tell you what saddens me:

1) 3000 people killed on 9/11 by arabs

2)the death of 1000 israelis in the last few years who were killed by arabs.

3) seeing a woman burried alive because she broke islamic law

4) 17 sailors of the uss cole who were murderd by arabs

look here for more of what saddens me
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/mikeadams/ 2004/06/14/12021.html

but what really saddens me is people like you who continue to blame the media, israel and GW Bush for thier problems.

Ok, so Pat Robertson isn't as radical as al-Masri. Point conceded, I'm not even trying to argue that. The point I was trying to make was that Muslims who are as extreme in their beliefs as Pat Robertson is in his would be labeled as radical clerics while their western counterparts are not.

Maybe I should throw out some more names besides Roberston? How about Fred Phelps, the guy who organizes the celebration of Mathew Sheppards death. Or what about Ann Coulter, who said about countries she thinks harbor terrorists "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

I also have to wonder, what would our religious right do if the situation was reversed? Right now they have the luxury of being citizens of a wealthy, powerful nation many of whom support their beliefs. For guerrilla fighters fighting a superpower, the options are pretty limited. Note, I'm NOT condoning taking hostages, killing civilians, or any of the tactics being used. I'm just saying it's easy to condemn anyone who disagrees with you, it's harder trying to see things from their perspective.

they could even encourage people to take "polls" about what products they prefer, allowing for even more targeted ads

Like ads for hair products, emo music and razor blades perhaps.

Mind you if there's money in Emo, that would explain the style choices in digg's flickr photos.

People are getting away with murder from myspace as well. I wouldn't want my teenage daughter on there, outside of the fact how many rampent viruses are on some of those pages, among other things:

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/rebeccahag elin/2006/02/28/188049.html

From the article:

"In February, a 14-year-old New Jersey girl was found dead in a dumpster after arranging a meeting with a stranger on MySpace.

- A 15-year-old California girl was abducted in December and found murdered in January. Her MySpace page included personal contact information and lots of activity.

- Hartford, Connecticut officials are investigating eight sexual assault cases after teenage girls met men on MySpace.

- In Lafayette, Louisiana four teen girls were sexually assaulted by a local pervert who found them on MySpace.

- In another Louisiana case a predator lay in wait for a teen girl in the parking lot of her place of employment, which he had found on her profile page."

In a galaxy not so far away,

the Old Software was crumbling away, rotting from the corruption and treachery within. Power-hungry technocrats and wealthy bureaucrats maneuvered and bribed their way into office, while one ambitious ex-Hobbyist plotted to destroy the Hobbyists and rule the galaxy. Hoping to restore virtue and the remembered glory of the Software, the High Council of Free Software dispatched the Geeks - protectorate of justice in the galaxy - on a quest to retrieve the lost Source Code. They believed that the small incomprehensible object (which intensified the power of the Code) would unite the disaffected among the people and would destroy the corruption around them. However, within their Free Software, the evil ex-Hobbyist had other traitorous designs. Foreseeing that the Code would secure his position as The Hacker, he deceived one of the...uhh Wookies! and sent him to acquire the Code. . .

The NY Times is a very biased source. They have a record of intentionally misrepresenting the facts , and that is just one case of many (a truly horrible case, at that). I find it difficult to believe what they print, as it is very obvious that the paper has a very strong bias and is willing to print lies and half-truths in order to promote an agenda. I'm disappointed whenever SlashDot links to that rag.

1. I'm not an economist, but I'd think that being a younger economy would actually make it easier to have a greater %-wise increase in GDP. And that's really what I was referring to when I talked about economic strength. Of course with nearly 300 million to just 20 million the USA's gross GDP is always going to be bigger.

2. I certainly agree that you also need to consider the citizen health and welfare and not just raw GDP. But that can be easier said than done. For example - is it really a great benchmark to have very low % below the poverty line if practically the entire population is hovering just above it? And who defines the poverty line? Along this vein I found an article by Walter Williams (conservative columnist and economist) to be very revealing. There's been a lot of hype in America about the growing gap between the rich and the poor.

He refers to a study started in 1968 that tracked 50,000 families. The study found among other things that only 5% of those families in the bottom quintile for income in 1975 stayed there until 1991. Without quoting the rest of the statistics what the study revealed is that American society is extremely class-mobile.

The overall trend was that poor families tended to get much wealthier with time - which makes sense. The other trends were also fairly conservative-reinforcing: work full time, get married, etc. Walter didn't take into account how many of those not working full time may have been injured or disabled but the study does indicate one powerful fact - if you want to make money in America and you're willing to work then for the most part you can.

You can read the article here: http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams /2006/01/04/180969.html

I don't know that much about socialist countries, but I have heard that their job creation levels are far, far lower. I also doubt that they maintain the same kind of class mobility that America's economy can. It's not a perfect meritocracy - but it's the closest thing you can get.

-stormin

I'm sorry, but your definition of religious endorsement, while acceptable and reasonable, is not the ACLU's definition of religous endorsement. I wish that the ACLU thought as you did, but in reality they are rabidly anti-christian to the point of attempting to re-write history. At the same time, they do defend the rights of other religions such as Islam.

Here's a URL of their anti-christian tendencies:

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/dennisprag er/2004/11/16/13670.html

And a URL of their pro-muslim tendencies:

http://www.aclufl.org/news_events/archive/2003/fre emanrelease052703.cfm

When it comes to religion, and as someone else said, gun control too, the ACLU does pick and choose their battles based on a clearly left-wing political agenda.

Here's what happened. After 9/11, authorities found a bunch of e-mail addresses and phone numbers in the phones and computers of confirmed terrorists. They tracked down those leads. Most of the people the NSA started eavesdropping on -- about 7,000 -- lived overseas, and their phone calls were to other foreigners living abroad. But, according to Risen's book, "about 500 people" living in the U.S. who were in contact with suspected terrorists had their communications tapped. Risen calls this "large-scale" spying on the American people even though, as the Weekly Standard recently noted, this constitutes "1.7 ten-thousandths of 1 percent of the U.S. population."

It just shows you Bush's comtempt for the rule of law. They couldn't do what they wanted to do legally, so they just went ahead and did it anyway.

There are strong arguments that what the administration did was legal. You seldom see those arguments strongly presented in the media, if they are presented at all. I would be "shocked" if this had anything to do with certain historical voting patterns and the the irrational hatred of President Bush by some in Amerik^Hca.

In an article about France and P2P, comments like yours bashing Bush in a completely offtopic forum get modded up.

The moderators are really suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome if they even can't stop themselves from modding up any offtopic Bush hating posts.

It's sad how far down this site has become. As much as the slashbots feared Bush would ruin America and the world, it's quite evident that it's destroyed slashdot, at least.

There have been a number of report about Bush having outbursts lately. Couple that with his extreme isolation and I think its probably true.

Funny how everyone wanted to investigate Clinton for sex in the oval office,
but not one peep from the mainstream media about a report that Bush
violated his oath of office. At a minimum there should be some sort of inquiry
into this.

For the record they are both asshats.

Firefox? The particular application I have open at this very moment? Perhaps uninterestingly, I have exactly 17 tabs open right now, with no (noticeable) adverse consequenses. 18, if you don't include opening the parent link, of course. I am a somewhat-regular user of fark.com (not sure if I should admit that) which, by its nature, allows itself to opening MANY pages at once. If you would prefer, I can list every link I have open at this exact moment, for reference:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=170983&op=Repl y&threshold=1&commentsort=0&tid=95&mode=nested&pid =14243431 (which is this /. reply page)
http://mail.google.com/mail/
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/state/h c-11154432.apds.m0309.bc-ct--statdec11,0,3518180.s tory?coll=hc-headlines-local-wire
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/12/11/nation al/a02121105_02.txt
http://www.pcomelet.com/articles1details.asp?NewsN um=40
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pag ename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid =968163964505&cid=1134344411957&col=968705899037&c all_page=TS_World&call_pageid=968332188854&call_pa gepath=News/World
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/johnleo/20 05/12/12/178651.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AtXC1y50oxBO 7AL1gup9Q5.8vLYF?slug=ap-heat-vangundyresigns&prov =ap&type=lgns
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-12-12-brit ish-inferno_x.htm?csp=34
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051212/od_uk_nm/oukoe _uk_india_bangalore;_ylt=AosQuO8FvVJ0Vd3RebwSpmVva A8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051212/ap_on_el_pr/de mocrats_one_community;_ylt=AsioggEugZtPPwnu2ul_1Ii s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-
http://www.wfmy.com/watercooler/article.aspx?story id=53576
http://www.wytv.com/news/regional/2075952.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/132 7686.cms
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/technology/5517017 /detail.html?r

I would agree. This guy seems fairly obnoxious, and while there are many here that would like to make him the anti-Christian martyr, more details are emerging. The university forced him out of the position rather than him volutarily resigning, and the police are treating him like he filed a false report, despite his obvious bruises.

For all we know, in a fit of road rage he might have flipped off a couple of rednecks and they forced him off the road and slapped him around a little, and then he siezed the opportunity to scapegoat his favorite target (fundamentalist Christians).

A fundamentalist Christian who is also a criminology professor offered to help Dr. Mirecki to fight this religious intolerance. Mirecki's responses (or lack thereof)....

Check out Mike Adam's (the author of the townhall.com article) bio here...

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/contributors/mikea dams.html

However, if you read more, you find out that perhaps he wasn't attacked at all...

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/mikeadams/ 2005/12/08/178356.html

There are some inconsistencies about the events of his alleged "beating".

typically on opposing sides of the [sic] isle

Rest assured they are both on the same side of the "isle", the one with a tropical island nest paid for by Thurston Howell III, er, the book publishers.

Bob Barr no doubt made plenty of friends in publishing when he recently wrote a book. Book royalties are a convenient way of laundering money bound for politicians (Newt Gingrich, Hillary Clinton, etc.) since they are ostensibly for something the person did rather than being outright contributions.

This controversy seems no different than the one about SBC's pipes, it's basically people griping that they want more money off someone else's hard work. Let's hope that the courts believe that indexing a book and putting that index online with small excerpts is fair use.

I might have checked this out, but first there are no excerpts to base a judgement on, and second this guy is a neo-con tool. These guys are responsible for making the world UNHAPPY in a lot of ways, so why would I trust his advice? Check out this column. He proceeds to write off all kinds of valid points by labeling them "hysteria", ignoring the fact that the whole war was based on neo-con hysteria. He lists some clearly fucked up statistics on the Patriot Act, and then through some magic hand-waving somehow spins this as a positive thing! I have no reason to trust this guy's judgement. And what's up with the silly fucking pipe he uses to show off his wedding ring?

LS

Sure it's controversial, if you hate science. Like when Republicans at the Heritage Foundation twist the number of hurricanes to hit the US mainland into "the number of hurricanes". And ignore that even those fewer storms in that category are still fiercer. There's "controversy" when Republican governors of Alabama lobby to deny the Greenhouse, then collect FEMA $billions for their favored reconstruction companies like Halliburton. I've got to admit that I'm running out of names to call these envirocaust deniers.

Why must you plagarize the work of others?

Cut&paste from here , with a little added idiocy.

What a waste of life this poster is

> 'Brewster Jennings & Associates' was a CIA front, or at the very
> least it had been infiltrated by CIA.

Yeah, or for the slower witted spies, you could just wait for Novak to publish his second article where he identified Brewer Jennings & Associates as a CIA front company:

> In making her April 22, 1999 [to Gore], contribution, Valerie E.
> Wilson identified herself as an "analyst" with "Brewster-
> Jennings & Associates." No such firm is listed anywhere, but
> the late Brewster Jennings was president of Socony-Vacuum
> oil company a half-century ago. Any CIA employee working
> under "non-official cover" always is listed with a real firm, but
> never an imaginary one.

This was at the beginning of Novak attempting to dismiss Wilson's conclusions about his trip because he was "partisan" (even ignoring the fact that Wilson gave money to Bush and Gore, and he served under both parties' presidents). It's considered to be a logical fallacy, but it hasn't stopped Republicans from trying it in the past two years of this WMD debacle. The fact that they exposed information about the CIA for political gain is unconscionable.

Are you freer to move around in Canada or the US? (hint: you will not be checked for your papers when travelling inside Canada. hint: you can still carry a small knife on a Canadian domestic flight.)

I'm not sure what you're referring to in regards to the 'papers'. The only 'papers' I've ever had demanded were my driver's license and insurance, during a traffic stop for speeding, and I had the same thing happen in Canada. You've got me on the knife, but on the other hand, I can carry around a handgun in my trunk in the U.S. if I'm driving, so we're even.

Are your rights of privacy and protection guaranteed by the state? (hint: in the Canada it is not a crime to let someone know that the government is violating their constitutional rights.)

No, on the other hand, if we're talking about free speech, it is a crime to actually try using those constitutional rights. Win for the USA.

Are you free to do what you will with your property (hint: DMCA, fair use) Um, yeah. My definition of free to use my own property includes not having it seized by the government in taxes. Win for the USA.

The list goes on.

It sure does, and the US keeps winning on most counts. Too bad you can't talk about it in your own press.

Seriously, these are the same folks who were willing to commit an act of treason to get back at someone who dared speak the truth concerning the blatent lies the President used to lead us into this mess in Iraq. Why should anything these people do surprise us anymore?

Everyplace you look in Bush's record, you'll see a constant pattern of lies, deception, stupidity, selfishness and tribalism. Bush Jr. has never, ever been about what's best for the United States or its people. Americans will be paying for this particular mistake for decades to come -- anyone who thinks that the seeds of anti-Americanism and economic ruin that these arrogant, short-sighted little men have planted won't come back to haunt us is a fool.

Would this be the same Richard Clarke who was head of US counterterrorism for eight years under Bill Clinton, when Bil Laden built his organization and pulled off such attacks as Khobar Towers, African Embassy bombings, and the USS Cole attack?

Or would this be the same Richard Clarke who permitted Bin Laden family members to leave the US after 9/11?

Or the same Richard Clarke who blamed Bill Clinton for not destroying terrorist training camps after the USS Cole bombing?

If Clarke is right about anything, it's only because he's like a stopped clock - right twice a day only because of coincidence.

It could be taken that way, I think.

Certainly that's why that great champion of the "little guy", John Edwards, cut his salary and took his pay in capital gains from stock in a dummy S corporation.

He was able to cheat those suckers at the US Treasury out of $738,000 in Medicare taxes that otherwise would have been wasted on grannies in nursing homes. Let's hear it for the ethics of the Democratic Party!

-ccm

Being plonked by the guy who thinks the Battle of the Karbala Gap was proof that Saddam was dangerous instead of a minor nuisance. Wow. Why are you not scared of Hussein's former enemies, who killed far more GIs than the republican guards? Because they are part of democratic Iraq?

But *shh*. Don't bother these guys (on either side) with the facts. All of the prudent cuts came from their own party, as did the idea of fiscal responsibility, while all the bad cuts and debts came from the other one . . .

Does it bother you that the Contract With America was a Republican idea, specifically Newt Gingrich?

Make sure the FCC knows you want them to keep their grubby paws of satellite radio. The religious right are coming after satellite radio as well.

And it gets worse. The terresterial broadcasters are now saying that they won't be able to compete against satellite unless the FCC levies the same restrictions against satellite that they do on regular radio.

I'm a very happy XM subscriber and I'd hate to think that they might get sucked into this rediculous quagmire as well.

-S

Even as a Democrat I wouldn't mind controlling her hotness. Especially from a third-person rear perspective...

But because he is a useful idiot of the Left, for whom emotions and intentions trump all facts and evidence in any argument, he did not feel the need to actually provide any data to support his views.

I, on the other hand, being a conservative, well-educated intellectual, did so. And here is what I found, from a Canadian government site:

The Copyright Act states that the fair dealing defence may be used only in the following cases: private study, research, criticism, review and newspaper summary.

... [T]he Canadian notion of fair dealing should be distinguished from the American concept of fair use, which has historically resulted in a broader application by American courts.

(Department of Canadian Heritage)

So commercial photographic reproduction of a sculpture is restricted in precisely the same way there as here, except that personal-use provisions are even less applicable. And it's no use appealing to the right to free speech in Canada, as there is no First Amendment there, and free speech can be restricted in any fashion that seems right to the government of the day.

Furthermore, Canadians have to pay a tax on blank audio tape and other recording media, which is not the case here.

There is no basis whatsoever to think that Canadians have greater rights in fair use of copyright, free speech, or freedom of the press than we enjoy in America. The evidence is quite the opposite.

Here again we see an example of a miserable malcontent leftist asshole who, in his eagerness to believe the worst about the USA, blindly accepts any slanderous accusation about America without regard to the facts. A stupid, ill-informed sheep, in other words.

--ccm

Agreed!

Henceforth I will ignore any blather from the lips of mansion-dwelling Hollywood liberals or hypocritical lefty politicians who want me to turn my life upside down in the name of environmentalism.

Journalism has committed suicide and covered up the act.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdquotes.asp
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/kathleenparker/ kp20040410.shtml
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040618/D839DV0O1 .html
http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9902/13/afghan. binladen/ (note date)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,36 04,314700,00.html (also note date)
http://www.kultursmog.com/Life-Page01.htm
http://www.kultursmog.com/Life-Page02.htm
http://www.independentsforkerry.org/uploads/media/ kerry-iraq.html
http://clinton.senate.gov/speeches/iraq_101002.htm l
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FD03Aa02.h tml on on the "worldwide support we have squandered"

Columnist denying it.

USA Today nailing him on it.

Washington Post doing the same.

FCC investigation into Armstrong Williams payola.

Seriously, this is not a conspiracy; it happened. You can argue whether (as USA Today states) he was contractually obligated to be favorable towards vouchers, but he definitely took money to run ads on them... and immediately afterward, wrote columns favorable of the Bush administration's position on the issue. This would be *incredibly* questionable, in and of itself. If he took the money with an additional obligation of running those columns, it is quite possibly illegal.

After that go outside, play, and take some good breaths of our polluted air. You'll be happier that way.

In l962 Michael Di Salle was running for governor of Ohio. It was a season in which U.S. officials were calling out an alarm against possible air attacks. Governor Rockefeller came close to writing into the New York State building code a requirement that new houses have individual bomb shelters, and he led the way by constructing a shelter in his own home and office. There was the problem of the huge expense of public bomb shelters. The Republican candidate in Ohio promised a $100 million program to provide these shelters if he was elected.

Democratic contender Mike Di Salle, something of a humorist, called a press conference. He would announce his own program for bomb shelters which would cost the state a mere $5,000. The press met him eagerly, and he explained what he would do. Namely construct two huge arrows at $2,500 each, visible high in the air. One, pointing northwest in neon lights would be labeled DETROIT. The second, pointing west, would be labeled CHICAGO. Why would bombers pause over Cleveland?

It is our DUTY and moral right as free men (and women)to fight unjust laws,whether it be the stupid pot laws that now imprison more of our brothers and sisters than the ENTIRE prison population of 1970 or the stealing of what was once fair and reasonable copyright laws by the buying off of our political system.And just as we once ran speakeasy joints and helped hide bootleggers,now we commit piracy and ignore the guy down the block selling weed.Before you scoff,please consider that the human animal NEEDS art just as we do bread and water because we are not only material beings but spiritual beings.This is why we have created art since we could first paint on walls.As a musician i have always made sure that anyone i played with share our works through p2p.As i showed each band time and time again if you charge a FAIR AND REASONABLE PRICE (in my cases,between $5.00 and $8.00 for the e.p and NEVER more than $12.50 (usually $10)for the cd) that the fans will ALWAYS be willing to support the artist so they can keep bringing them new and original art.It is when the GREED of those in power coupled with a willingness to allow the people to be trampled on for a price that allows such disgusting injustice to prevail.If the poor and abused citizen has the choice of paying their abusers or living without the things that their mind and spirit requires to grow,THEN THERE IS NO CHOICE BUT TO DISOBEY!Please see http://www.townhall.com/documents/odcd.htmlas mister Thoreau is much better on the subject than i.And how sad is it that i decided that i should post this as an A.C for fear of our increasingly jackbooted government.I can only hope that the good folks at /. will destroy my records if they kick down their door over my "thoughtcrime".

I've been so wrong headed, it's terrifying. Thank you, sir, for turning my life around. Your shining example of refusing to stand on the shoulders of giants to instead figure everything out yourself has changed my life already.

And you call yourself literate? I guess you are "basically literate," as you put it, but you have no comprehension skills. I said nothing about "refusing to stand on the shoulders of giants to instead figure everything out yourself."

Name five "giants" at your university. Then tell me what you learn there that I can't from a book or the Internet.

Let us strike down the universities, I say! Sinkholes for valuable money that would be better placed lining the pockets of the proletariat! Education for none!

I agree completely.

But then, I also know who the General was at the battle of Yorktown and how to calculate change for my lunch.

Do you?

I say let's stop subsidizing those who would like to make their living by hiding in school for their whole life. Education for all!

I've been so wrong headed, it's terrifying. Thank you, sir, for turning my life around. Your shining example of refusing to stand on the shoulders of giants to instead figure everything out yourself has changed my life already.

And you call yourself literate? I guess you are "basically literate," as you put it, but you have no comprehension skills. I said nothing about "refusing to stand on the shoulders of giants to instead figure everything out yourself."

Name five "giants" at your university. Then tell me what you learn there that I can't from a book or the Internet.

Let us strike down the universities, I say! Sinkholes for valuable money that would be better placed lining the pockets of the proletariat! Education for none!

I agree completely.

But then, I also know who the General was at the battle of Yorktown and how to calculate change for my lunch.

Do you?

I say let's stop subsidizing those who would like to make their living by hiding in school for their whole life. Education for all!

Well, since the top 10% of the wage earners pay over 65% of the taxes, I think they should spend the money on what/who they see fit, even themselves if they want (ie, fancy cars). Also, since the US has a progressive tax (the more you make, the higher your tax rate), I see nothing wrong with providing some tax rate cuts to those already paying the most.

The deficit has always been an artificial number since the debt is owed to the US itself and the federal government doesn't have to worry about paying itself back (it's quite unlikely to foreclose on itself)... this isn't something most US citizens understand. A "balanced" US budget is basically meaningless. For the billions/trillions of dollars the US spends on defense, they are paying individuals a salary to survive (I mean, what other industry would you prefer they spend money on), it's not like they're loading dollars into a huge rocket and sending it all to the sun. That money pays people's salaries and funds research... another concept lost on most folks. It is NOT money lost, it's money put back into the economy having been previously collected, in part, from taxes. I for one was happy to be paid a portion of those billions at one time (former defense industry engineer). The taxes extracted from those salaries help pay for so many things that the underserved need.

It's fine to bitch and all, but be sure about what you're complaining.

The trouble with blogs, is that no-one writing them has the time to follow up these stories.

You've got it backwards. The blogs follow-up on stories that the mainstream media is "disinclined" to follow until they become hot. Remeber the 60 Minutes memogate? That was a direct result of the blogosphere following up on the obvious fakery should have been almost immediately spotted by seasoned journalists or their experts. That is, it should have been spotted if they weren't on an Ahab like quest, a la Mary Mapes the 60 Minutes producer who was on a five year quest to get the goods on George Bush while at the same time disregarding their own experts warnings about the documents.

The real reason that this won't go anywhere is because there is nothing to it. The "present climate" that you speak of is one in which anyone with the goods on Bush would be considered a hero by 80% of the media and 30% of the country..

so as long as you admit almost every regime in the ME is stealing their people's oil, I'm all for definition. Except there is a problem when applied to Iraq, where we took' oil from Saddam and basically gave it back to the people.

US .. which does not have sovereignty over the Iraqi people nor the international authority to administer their resources.

Riiiiight ... and a Stalinite dictator does have such sovereignty. Declaring 'international law' is so much fun! Death to America & Israel because... err. they violate international law!

Your 'enemy', eh? Surely you're not referring to your own countrymen!

In this debate, you are on the other side. Does that mean you should be deported to gitmo? No.
Does that mean I will vehemently disagree with you, and call a spade a spade and an opponent an enemy? Yes. After the election, I have little reason to get you on my side as you have little to offer the nation(as do I), and I hope those in charge make the right decisions despite disagreements in the populace.

"The IRS data divide taxpayers into percentiles according to their adjusted gross incomes. Following is the share of aggregate income taxes paid by each group:

Income Group ---- Tax Share
Top 1 percent ---- 33.7 percent
Top 5 percent ---- 53.8 percent
Top 10 percent ---- 65.7 percent
Top 25 percent ---- 83.9 percent
Top 50 percent ---- 96.5 percent"

Tax Rates 2002

Last week, the Internal Revenue Service released data on distribution of the income tax burden in 2002. They put a lie to John Kerry's contention that the rich are not paying their fair share and should be taxed more.

The IRS data divide taxpayers into percentiles according to their adjusted gross incomes. Following is the share of aggregate income taxes paid by each group:

Income Group ---- Tax Share
Top 1 percent ---- 33.7 percent
Top 5 percent ---- 53.8 percent
Top 10 percent ---- 65.7 percent
Top 25 percent ---- 83.9 percent
Top 50 percent ---- 96.5 percent

Income Group ---- Tax Rate
Top 1 percent ---- 27.25 percent
Top 5 percent ---- 22.95 percent
Top 10 percent ---- 20.51 percent
Top 25 percent ---- 16.99 percent
Top 50 percent ---- 14.66 percent
Bottom 50 percent ---- 3.21 percent