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Great. A page of PDFs. What's in the PDFs? Overly optimistic assessments?

Let me show you some data that points to the US getting out of Iraq as soon as politically palatable:

USA TODAY/Gallup poll results, note question #7.

What does it all mean? Here's what VOA says.

Yep He's had a amazing long career http://msn-uk.imdb.com/name/nm1342014/

err, even that was uncredited ... http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2003-03-1 9-mocap_x.htm

I think he should be known as the Uncreditted Virtual Actor.

So far his publicity exceeds his acting career ... or IS his publicity his creditted acting career?

The question is, when will the dam finally burst?

I think it's about to. We'll see in November. Although I'm personally not voting Democrat, I'm splitting my vote among various losers, which is closest to "none of the above". I'm damned sick of both parties (although the Repubs have more of my ire at present).

When will we see headlines talking about impeachment?

As I'm old enough to have voted for Nixon, I'd say as soon as the Democrats control both Senate and Congress.

When will people finally wake the fuck up and say enough is enough?

Never. Cows don't revolt.

Will there ever be an end to the war on terra?

Will there ever be an end to the war on drugs? That started with Nixon (analgies analogies!)

Will we ever see a terror level below yellow?

Not so long as the President is yellow. In fact, the whole Federal Government seems to be full of cowards, wimpily cowering before the big bad Muslims.

Does anyone believe the bushit?

Unfortunately, yes. You only have to read Slashdot to see that... and these are supposedly nerds, supposedly intelligent. I wonder what they're talking about over at the People Magazine forums? Probably this, this or this.

It's pathetic. I should move to Amsterdam.

I consider a retracted story to be on the "very floppy" side of those degrees. I would also consider anyone who didn't consider a retracted story to be better defined as "a flop" than "not a flop" to be very uninsightful indeed.

Has USA Today retracted their story? I don't think they have, so what you ``consider'' about retracted stories is sort of irrelevant. After some brief googling, I found this op-ed piece in USA Today criticizing the NSA "snooping on phone calls and records" (or rather the lack of congressional oversight on such snooping). This was posted last night, so I'm guessing they haven't backpedaled much.

Care to retract your silly post?

CIA simulations the day of the attack

It is intriguing that they did not uncover this glaring defense weakness when they simulated commercial airliners crashing into the twin towers two years before the attack Perhaps that is why the CIA was conducting a simulation the day of the attack

Phew glad I work for Qwest since it looks like we were the only ones to refuse that request http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-12 -hayden-support_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

...who, incidentally, are providing it voluntarily

No, you're wrong:

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

They tried to force at least one company that resisted. Do you really think they asked meekly and said "Oh, okay" when a someone said no? What else will we learn as this starts to see some sunlight?

If there ever was an example of where eminent domain should be employed, this is it. Every waste treatment facility and coal fired power plant in the US should be required to build bio-fuel reclamation facilities ASAP or face stiff penalties. This foreign oil dependency situation is out of control, and this bio-diesel generation technique seems to be the most promising solution.

If the case is truly frivilous, it will cost as much to prosecute as to defend, so there is no way to "extort" money. Moreover, a billion-dollar company can afford to pay $20K to get a case dismissed. A lawyer so desperate for work that he is bringing frivilous class-action cases can't afford to drop $20K of his own money on a hopeless case.

The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.

O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington.

"The board of directors and Wally mutually agreed that his decision to resign at this time for personal reasons was in the best interest of all parties," said John Lauer, Diebold's non-executive chairman of the board.

The announcement was made after the stock market closed. Diebold stock fell nearly 2%, or 73 cents, to $37 in after-hours trading. The stock has traded between $33.10 and $57.81 in the past year.

In 1975, a congressional investigation revealed that the NSA had been intercepting, without warrants, international communications for more than 20 years at the behest of the CIA and other agencies. The spy campaign, code-named "Shamrock," led to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was designed to protect Americans from illegal eavesdropping...

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

The Korean slice of the Web is relatively small compared to the English-language chunks of cyberspace. Koreans often come up short when trying to find information in their native tongue.

To remedy the situation, Naver -- which is more like a Yahoo-esque portal than a mere search engine -- came up with what it calls Knowledge iN, where users post questions that are answered by other users -- creating a database that now totals more than 41.1 million entries. A search on the site brings up typical Web results along with the Knowledge iN database and news and blog sites.

Long story short, I used to spend long hours in a NOC (like half the people reading this). After one particularly long day of work with little stretch-time, I was walking home and boom, felt like I had a crack in my pelvis. A hospital visit revealed DVT.

A week of self-administered heparin (sp?) injections, three months of warfarin/coumadin with bi-weekly pt/inr blood tests (to adjust the coumadin dosage) and the lifelong worry that it'll act up again. I've had it reappear three times so far though I've been able to keep out of the hospital.

And it can definitely kill you. If a clot travels to the lungs or your heart you're in for a rough time. David Bloom, a reporter in Iraq, (somewhat) recently died from DVT due to sitting in a cramped M88 for days, hours at a time.

I guess what I'm saying is trust me, get up and walk around every hour or so. DVT blows.

Super Mario Bros http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108255/
Alone in the dark http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369226/
House of the Dead http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317676/
BloodRayne http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383222/
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119707/
And many more travesties, hell thats not even all Uwe Boll's fiascos.

Only to be joined by all these on the aforementioned shoulders.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2006-04-26-mov ie-based-games_x.htm

IMHO, Metroid, Halo, and WOW have the best shots at being average movies.

I will watch them all, just like i have every Comic Book inspired piece of crap, to get the few good films. Anybody remember that utter feeling of disbelief upon leaving Batman back in 89 and thinking "Wow that wasn't a bad movie". Yeah me too, Good times. XMen, Spiderman

Never Discount the Mystery Science Theater type of enjoyment, you get out of uninspired crap like House of the Dead, Captain America, Fantastic Four (Yes, Both of them), and Daredevil.

heh. You jest but it is a ripoff.

Lasik is minimum £800 (£400 per eye) for the no frills version. Plus there's the incumbent risk (around 5% of lasik surgery introduces complications making their eyesight worse, ranging from double vision to complete blindness - source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-06-28-las ik.htm, amongst others).

Glasses are dirt cheap and absolutely safe. If you don't like the look modern contact lenses are also dirt cheap and absolutely safe.

Have you ever googled "sarin iraq"? I'll assume not as you would find, "Gasp!", dozens of examples of chemical munitions found in Iraq. Before speaking so condescendingly, please do two and half minutes of research for yourself. one of the dozens: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-07-01 -poland-iraq-sarin_x.htm

My response to reading the article: duh!

Here are some recent articles on the developments in China. The US is not starting this race, but it'd be nice to keep up regardless.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-07 -27-china-satellites_x.htm
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HD20Ad03.html
http://www.house.gov/coxreport/chapfs/ch4.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01c.html
http://www.taiwandc.org/twcom/84-no3.htm
http://www.afio.com/sections/wins/1998/notes48.htm l

The world is, a dangerous place. As with Sudan and Iran, the UN is no deterrent to aggression. Enlightened self-interest directs us to investigate these types of systems for the same reasons we investigate lethal pathogens. Surviving them requires understanding them even if we never intend to use them.

This is kind of a crappy Slashdot item, as it links to a Yahoo-hosted news article that will be gone in a month. Yahoo collects and temporarily hosts news items. Their links are dead usually after about a month, in my experience. Future readers won't be able to use the link given in the OP. Wayback doesn't archive Yahoo-hosted articles either, so far as I know. Users can get the same Associated Press article here or here.

I find it annoying when I read a Slashdot item from yesteryear and the links are dead. When you link to Yahoo, you're ensuring that you're giving a link that'll be worthless in the not-too-distant future.

Just take a second to search for the name of the article in Google News or something to get a more permanent link. It's not hard.

Hoo boy... here goes.

The RIAA says "but it costs money to make good music."
You say "supply and demand."
Well now you can't have it both ways. Either say "we have it, you want it" OR say "but we'll be pennyless." NOT BOTH.

So you are obviously an economist, since you know what supply and demand is... but you have never heard of economies of scale. Odd. You think $5 CDs would be a loss?? Maybe if the music business is more bloated than I thought. I can make CDs for less than $3... so the cost of production is not the issue. The previous poster explicitly stated that the $5 CDs would sell in greater numbers and would be OLD STOCK. No "studio fees" or any excuse like that. (yes, I know that you do not think that the greater numbers would offset the lower price, but you seem to think that it would result in a net loss to sell them at that price -- they are two separate issues)

You may be right about the current rate bringing in the most money, but you are seriously deluded if you think that /.ers buy the dung that you are heaping.
Also, according to the numbers The music industry has been pulling in less money lately. Maybe a valid case could be made that CDs are overpriced. I guarantee that the music industry DOES care if he buys a CD. BMG does not make its money by being exclusive. That's a horrible comparison.

Clinton did not put any boots on the ground in Bosnia. That is why no GIs died in this war. If there had been casualties it would have been devestating for Clinton. The right wing punditry hated that war.

The fact that you think the count is zero proves my point. Don't feel bad, it's taken much googling to find anything at all.

The USA Today 02/19/96 edition speaks of the first American death in Bosnia. You are correct in saying that the right tried to hang it on Clinton's neck. (Personally, I supported the Bosnian mission. The fact that my brother was serving over there didn't change that.) I also recall seeing on the Military Channel where an Apache or two went down as well. But for the life of me, I can't get an total count of American lives lost in Bosnia. But that's my point: You see morbid death counts every hour of every day on the war in Iraq.

Official count for the Mogadishu incursion is 14 KIA, 29 due to non-hostile activity. Bosnia's official count is zero.

The fact that you think the count is zero proves my point. Don't feel bad, it's taken much googling to find anything at all.

The USA Today 02/19/96 edition speaks of the first American death in Bosnia. I also recall seeing on the Military Channel where an Apache or two went down as well. But for the life of me, I can't get an total count of American lives lost in Bosnia.

Those most surprised by this are those who pay the least attention. The White House Correspondents Dinner is similar to this every year. Last year the first lady roasted Bush.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-05-01-lau ra-bush-comments_x.htm

This year's commentary was a bit more biting than usual, and it actually targetted the correspondents (and not Bush) a bit more than usual. Net result: a wash.

That's less true everyday. The average US citizen spends no more than 15 minutes a day on news. That's an old figure from a journalism class I took, but it's not going to change much. As those 15 minutes are increasingly consumed online at work, other forms will dissapear. Here's a mainstream admission of that, just in case you need someone official and legitimate to tell you the obvious. Note also that the USA Today also failed to make the 100 top web sites. What's easier for you is easier for others too.

It's all a farce anyway, "mainstream" is something that may have existed in an era of 3 tv networks, but it's gone now. This article is more amusing than the above and is not so far from the truth.

Actually, I'm well aware of NASA's proposals for replacing the shuttle fleet, and I whole-heartedly support these proposals. Griffin seems to be putting the space agency in the right direction, and I have no serious dispute with his leadership. The main thrust of my argument - if you'll pardon the obvious pun - is that NASA continues to downplay safety concerns on the shuttle, a program that even Griffin admits was a bad idea in the first place. At the moment, the reward for returning the shuttle to active service, i.e. completing the ISS, just doesn't seem to justify the risks involved.

...the space shuttle program had nothing to do with manned settlements on the moon or Mars.

Sadly, you're absolutely correct. Back in the early 1970s, NASA officials sold Congress on the space shuttle concept by arguing that a reusable shuttle would reduce the costs and increase the frequency of manned space travel. With three decades of hindsight, I think it's reasonable to say that the shuttle program achieved neither of these goals.

In my mind, that was one of the biggest problems with the shuttle - it never looked like an appropriate follow-on to the success of Apollo. Instead of boldly going where no man had gone before, America adopted a beancounting approach to space travel with the shuttle, going where we'd already been dozens of times before, with the vain hope that it would be less expensive this time. The ISS has done nothing to change this. I'm afraid that I just don't care if we ever learn to teach ants how to sort tiny screws in space.

You and I may disagree on this point, but I believe that the future of manned spaceflight lies in reaching out towards the edges of the solar system, putting men and women on Mars and beyond. So this is why I'm still wondering what NASA has accomplished with the shuttle program that even comes close to the earlier Apollo program.

Regarding costs, I've never seen a published comparison for operating the shuttle vs. launching Apollo missions in real dollars but according to Wikipedia, the Apollo program cost $25.4 billion ($135 billion in 2005 dollars) for 11 flights, including 6 landings. In comparison, the space shuttle program has used a total of $145 billion of NASA budget over the years, and has flown 114 missions. The average cost per mission then is $1.3 billion, but that includes R&D and construction of the shuttles and their facilities. Directly related costs per launch are quoted at only $55 million, meaning it would cost only that much to add another launch to the manifest, assuming no further problem mitigation needs to be performed. Yes, $1.3 billion is too much to justify the program, but when it was originally expected to launch 12-24 times per year (200-400 launches by now).

See my point above. The Apollo program put men on the moon; no one doubts that NASA spectacularly accomplished its goals with Apollo. In comparison, the shuttle program failed to meet most of its stated goals, as the Wikipedia article you reference suggests. We received something infinitely valuable for the $135 billion 2005 dollars spent on Apollo. Despite the enormous risks, not a single astronaut died in space during the lunar program. Now contrast that with the space shuttle program. We received something less obvious and tangible with the space shuttle, and it has so far cost the lives of 14 astronauts. With the price of gas toping $3 a gallon in the U.S., let's use an oil analogy here: if we hit a gusher with Apollo, then the shuttle program has turned out to be a mostly dry well.

I also want to point out that this "obvious

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/20 05-06-15-walmart-shift_x.htm

"NITRO, W.Va. (AP) - Workers at a West Virginia Wal-Mart (WMT) store have been ordered to be available to work any shift at any time or face dismissal."

Following which it immediatelty jumped up in April.

Or did they report there was a "civil war" in Iraq? One of those is factually true, the other is not.

What do you mean? Someone gets to officialy declare "a civil war"? Or is it based on the amount of armed militias, sectarian gangs, and random thugs blowing things up and killing people by the hundreds? In the first case, no civil war was ever fought, ever as there are no valid, legitimate "sides" to "officialy" declare it, before it starts. If it is the other, a "civil war" is simmering in Iraq.

Which of them makes one "better" informed? I guess it's a matter of opinion.

Not emphasising one, versus the other (which is your whole beef here) does impact the listener's information. However it pales in comparison with simple partisan hackery which places like FOX and much of the corporate media represent. The point is that none of the so called "news" organizations should engage in either. No careful selection of news items to fit an agenda, but far more importantly a severe separation of "news" from "opinion". There are many privileges granted to newsmen in exchange for their supposed allegiance to truth, not to the bottom line. If they are unable to fulfill their part of the bargrain, all their privileges should be revoked and the so-called "news" channels severely penalized by FCC via revoking their licenses and granting the bandwith to real news organizations.

Since being laid off from his tech writing job in January 2002, Moran has paid for just about everything, such as health insurance, college tuition for his son and basics like groceries and gasoline, with the home equity line.

Ok, before anyone berates me, I read the article but didn't look at the pic.

The one in the pic is rediculous in the light of many of the ones already developed that have FAR more potential.

Like these, or these

Perhaps not the ones in the article, but there are many better variations.

Like these, or these

Maybe there is a configuration option I am missing or something but IE7 honestly seems very slow at times. Certain web pages I go to just are not loading very quickly. Such as this morning I opened http://www.usatoday.com/ thinking I would take IE7 out for a bit longer of a test drive. It took a longer ammount of time for the USAToday home page to load in IE7 than for me to get frustrated with the wait, open Firefox and start reading the details of a particular cover story article. By the way it did finally load but it took almost 35 to 40 seconds to do so. I am assuming there is a logical explaination though because that was so slow I cannot imagine anyone using IE7 if this were a comon occurance. However, I do like the new stripped down look of the interface though very simliar to firefox and opera.

Honestly i cannot decide which is my favorite browser but neither IE6 nor 7 are even in the running. Sometimes I use Opera other times I use firefox as each has small things I like about them more based off whatever it is I am currently doing. These days i pretty much only use IE if I go to a page that requires ActiveX support and it flashes up that my browser is unsupported by this site. By the way, to me those sites seem to be getting fewer and farther between all the time.

in New Orleans, city's top IT manager is now fighting to keep a free municipal wireless network functioning at high speeds. http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/s tory/0,10801,110773,00.html More info : http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/200 6-03-28-new-orleans-wifi_x.htm?POE=TECISVA Talk about needs... Hmmmphh

Some how i doubt spying on citzens would satisfy any citizen base?

Plenty of people support wiretapping. I don't, and I doubt most Slashdotters do, but the Slashdot crowd isn't even remotely representative of the overall American electorate. It's hard to believe, but about half the country believes that giving the government more police powers will lead to a more secure nation.

You can say what you like about these people being duped, but at some point you have to concede that the importance of privacy is not a universal constant throughout America. To some people, flag burning, for example, is a much more important issue.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, album sales are up 3.6% on 2005 in the US (article), caused in part by a large increase in *legal* downloads.

Why remove nude art, when you can dress them!!!
WASHINGTON (AP)
-- No longer will the attorney general be photographed in front of two partially nude statues in the Great Hall of the Department of Justice.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/01/29/sta tues.htm

Did you not SEE and HEAR the hearing a Congressional comittee had where they pulled reps of Cisco, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft (I believe) and basically lambasted them for giving in to the Chinese. http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2006-02-12-chi na-net_x.htm/

Going back to books hey ? Remember the story about cheap paper thin screens about to be ready for marketing. Wait until every two pages of your book is filled with flashy adds ... You know you want it !

1.) It's not censorship. Censorship comes from a government, not from a free encyclopedia that you didn't pay for.
2.) It's not a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Wikipedia is owned by Wikimedia, which is allowed to do whatever it damn feels like to its own sites.
3.) The articles were deleted because Wikipedia does not have a solid policy regarding living people.
Right on the Main Page, Wikipedia touts itself as the "free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" and has been promoted as "the sum of all human knowledge." [1] Get a grip on what censorship is and what it really means to be an all inclusive encyclopaedia. If Jimbo doesn't like this, its high time he cashed in his chips for a new set of buzzwords.

"Hold on, we have a chmod 777 here..."

(See: "code 777" reference at:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-04-15-rob ot_x.htm

and enjoy... THIS is a real-world use of non-human implants...)

"We have the technology... The waiting list... The Patents... We can PRE-build her..." could be the "Gaumard Scientific Co. Inc." opener for their marketing and training products...

But, I wonder if she can respond (Kill Bill-Style) to any male nurses humping her...

DOH! word image: "native"

Talk about giving birth to good ideas...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-04-15-rob ot_x.htm

I wonder if they can add complications such as put the doll in a coma, or a series of convulsions, or program it to give out Exorcist-like wails and moans. If she hurls up a noxious, caustic, corrosive pea green soup-like fluid, I wonder how the students will react.

Now, if they make one of Kess' mother, having delivery occur while the mother is wrist-strapped to an overhead rod as the infant emerges from her back.

=======

I guess some guys may proclaim: "Now THAT'S a REAL Doll...", but then ask, "How many serial ports or USB ports does she come with? How much range of motion in her joints? How many decibels in her piezo throat? Will she make coffee?...."

Others might ask, "Does RealDoll.com have plans to replicate bleeding and moaning mannequins?" (In the interests of equal opportunity, the male dolls should moan and bleed, too... The sky's the limit; only your lack of imagination is in the way...)

Give it a few year and we'll have people ordering robot love like in the movies and films...

Probably these won't work for the carpool lane, though. Well, unless you program it to drive, and YOU are the passenger... well, if your state allows a non-sentient driver behind the wheel of a vehicle on public roadways...

USA Today: Boot Camp will start exodus to Windows

From the article: "Further, your IT department now has to support two operating systems, which -- given that the majority of IT pros aren't Mac people -- means hiring or training. But let's say you're blessed with a staff that already knows both. You're still faced with two OSs, two sets of problems, and double the headache. Oh, joy..."

USA Today: Boot Camp will start exodus to Windows

From the article: "Further, your IT department now has to support two operating systems, which -- given that the majority of IT pros aren't Mac people -- means hiring or training. But let's say you're blessed with a staff that already knows both. You're still faced with two OSs, two sets of problems, and double the headache. Oh, joy..."

Other nations actually purchase that debt, in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds and notes. Those bonds have increasingly been snapped up not just by private investors but by foreign banks. Japanese investors hold the most U.S. debt, but China has been buying more than any other country in recent months.

The biggest trade deficit is with China, too, at $162 billion. Japan is next, at $75 billion.

because they keep financing YOU

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2005-08-27-g rowing-debt_x.htm

James Yee, American soldier, Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo. Was captured at an airport once he left duty as chaplain, detained at Guantanamo for quite some time, no trial, nothing. And that's just one I know off the top of my head.

Common guys, "mysterious" force fields? if ed's had bothered to google the facts there wouldn't be a need for this post(same for that ABL article- currently neutered as a tech demonstrator).

Wired, aug/2002
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,54641, 00.html

SecDef's Force Transformation
http://www.oft.osd.mil/

more info on Trophy(Rafael)
http://www.defense-update.com/products/t/trophy.ht m

similar effort using AESA(Raytheon's Quick Kill)
http://www.edefenseonline.com/default.asp?func=art icle&aref=02_14_2006_OM

info on AESA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Electronically _Scanned_Array

the need for such a system(fuel cost IS a factor but it's a fixed cost. See fob.gov
SP0600-06-R-0033 for example):
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2004 /Dec/SurvivalInCombat.htm

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this system used by Carnival cruise lines:
http://www.atcsd.com/lrad.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/ 2005-11-07-cruise-blast_x.htm

"mysterious" force fields? LOL. I'm moving my slashdot bookmark next to collegehumor and dumpalink.

Federal Education spending has increased by an average of 7% anually from 2001-2006.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-04-02 -federal-spending-inside_x.htm


I'd tell you how much the defense spending has increased since, but I only have a BSc in Mathematics and thus I cannot count that high.

Iraq agreed to comply with certain requirements, and failed to do so for the better part of a decade. They continued to possess banned weapons - including WMDs - and in general refused to cooperate with UN inspectors. Even Hans Blix said that the Iraqis were hiding things, and the onus was on Iraq to provide documenation.

If you can't see the difference between Bush, Rumsfeld, and Saddam you simply are blind... Two answer to the people (whom seem to have voted Bush, and by proxy Rumsfeld into power twice), one only to his whims. Two played by the world's rules and those of the UN; the other bribed his way through the UN to try to get what he wanted.

I haven't heard of too many US citizens being bathed in acid, or shredded alive, or getting your ankles drilled through, among other things...

Yeah, Bush and Rumsfeld are JUST LIKE Saddam... The US is one big dictatorship with no personal freedoms and we're all just being used like cattle...

Well duh, everyone knows they have better things to do.

(apologies, I couldn't resist)

I really don't know the concern about the privacy either. Is the people that only pretend to be rich or are in tons of debt and about to go publicly bankrupt in fear here? Or is it the ones that cheat on their taxes that are worried like this poor guy, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-28 -cunningham_x.htm

Why can't people spell html?