] There are several reasons that more money goes to
] Republican than to Democratic states and districts, such
] as where we base our military units. But a simple fact
] is that Gore states receive an average of $0.87 in
] federal spending for every dollar of federal taxes they
] contributed to the treasury, while Bush states receive
] $1.12 for every federal tax dollar they contribute--and
] it's getting worse.

shenanigans people. total shenanigans.

Daily Kos || Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.

] LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) -- A second-grader was scolded and
] forced to write "I will never use the word `gay' in
] school again" after he told a classmate his mother is a
] lesbian, the American Civil Liberties Union alleges.

good job, teach... we want to teach children of gay parents to be ashamed of who they and their parents are. good call.

maybe you should spend some more time on teaching fundamentals of English, rather than fundamentalism

] The child was also made to sign a "Student Behavior Contract,"
] where he wrote, "I sed bad wurds."

anyone want to tell me the point of making a child this age SIGN ANYTHING EVER.

The Associated Press

] A provision of an intelligence spending bill will expand
] the power of the FBI to subpoena business documents and
] transactions from a broader range of businesses --
] everything from libraries to travel agencies to eBay --
] without first seeking approval from a judge.

holy $#|!^ they managed to pass patriot II in an intelligence appropriations bill and no one knew about it until after it was on the books!

Wired News: Congress Expands FBI Spying Power

] Kucinich Calls for Hearing on Diebold DMCA Abuse
]
] Excerpt from a letter by Representative Dennis Kucinich
] (D-OH) to the heads of the House Judiciary Committee,
] requesting a Congressional hearing on Diebold's use of
] the DMCA to silence democratic speech

I think he's a little out there on some things, but this really makes me happy. I will definitely watch the Rep from Ohio long after this election cycle is over. (disclosure: i am firmly in Dean's camp). In case you didn't hear, earlier in the week, Kucinich posted parts of the Dielbold memos on his website.

Kucinich Calls for Hearing on Diebold DMCA Abuse

Salon interviews former Georgia Senator Max Cleland about troubles the 9/11 Commission (which he is still a member of) is having in obtaining documents from not just the White House.

] Let me walk you through this thing here. First of all,
] we're not talking about a prescription drug plan under
] Medicare here. We're talking about the most serious
] assault on the homeland of the United States since the
] British invaded during the war of 1812. This is the deal.
] The joint inquiry made up of Democrats and Republican
] members of Congress, they issued a report [this summer],
] but they couldn't get at the PDB's. They kicked the can
] down the street so that the 9/11 commission could get at
] the full story. That's the reason for this independent
] commission, with the time and energy and staff to get at
] all of this. Had the Joint Intelligence Committee been
] able to do its job, there wouldn't have even been a 9/11
] commission.
]
] We're coming down to the final [months] of the commission
] and we're still messing around with access issues. This
] is a key item. I don't think any independent commission
] can let an agency or the White House dictate to it how
] many commissioners see what. So this "deal," we shouldn't
] be dealing. If somebody wants to deal, we issue
] subpoenas. That's the deal. That was the deal with the
] FAA, that was the deal with Norad.
]
] And the reason is principle. Clinton has agreed to
] cooperate with the commission and is eager to come before
] it. So why doesn't this White House, which was on the
] bridge when the ship got attacked, why doesn't this White
] House want to know everything that happened on their
] watch so that it can't happen again? Why they want to
] play games with this commission, to make deals, I don't
] know. It's information control. It's not transparency.
]
] I don't know if they're hiding something. But the public
] will never know and the 9/11 commission will never know
] because under the current deal, a minority of
] commissioners will see a small number of documents and
] then brief the White House on what they're going to tell
] the other commissioners. Wait a minute! That doesn't make
] any sense at all.

Former Senator Max Cleland Interview: 'The President ought to be ashamed'

] In public hotspots, and other areas where WLAN is
] available, the GC79 PC Card provides you with maximum
] speeds of up to 11 Mbps. When WLAN is not available,
] select GPRS/HSCSD instead.

mmmm..... first GPRS/802.11 card I have seen. that's what I am talking about. would have been a good card to test that implementation decius and abaddon were working on.

Sony Ericsson - GC79

] The U.S. Senate this week passed the 21st Century
] Nanotech Research and Development Act, which authorizes
] $3.7 billion over four years for research and development
] into nanotechnology.

There may be some research money for you after all, nanochick!

Senate passes nanotech funding bill | CNET News.com

] Homosexuality can be separated from marriage in roughly
] the same way. Marriage is a broadly shared American
] value. You don't have to support homosexuality to support
] marriage. A politician can say, "I'm pro-marriage. The
] issue isn't whether you're straight or gay. The issue is
] whether you support marriage."

This is a fantastic article for anyone interested in the political ramifications of the Mass. ruling concerning gay marriage. A clear way for liberals to win the argument. William Saletan is a savvy dude.

It's the Commitment, Stupid - How to sell gay marriage. By William Saletan

] In a sign of the growing importance of DVD sales to
] Hollywood, 20th Century Fox is considering a plan to
] resume production of Family Guy, a sometimes crude
] animated comedy that the Fox network took off the air
] more than 18 months ago.

Most fantastic news I have read all day. In addition, the article points out that the DVD sets were the years highest-selling tv show and 4th highest television title ever.

oh, and btw: I don't actually read USATODAY, I just copped the link off of /. (almost as bad, I know).

USATODAY.com - 'Family Guy' may return

Decius wrote:
] ] "Cricket Media recently released 'Netflix Fanatic', an
] ] OSX based shareware app that lets you manage your rental
] ] queue without logging on to Netflix. An article on Think
] ] Secret reveals the reason behind it's mysterious
] ] disappearance. Apparently the developer's employer,
] ] Apple, has claimed ownership over the application's name
] ] and source code.
]
] Apple really shows their true colors here. On my own time with
] my own resources is not your fucking property. Employers have
] gotten away with contracts like this because they have the
] resources to afford the attorneys, many employees don't
] understand the contracts, and those that come under fire
] usually don't have the resources to defend themselves. People
] that DO understand these contracts often find it impossible to
] negotiate with employers. I've turned down jobs over this in
] the past.
]
] Contracts of this sort are specifically designed to remove
] incentives to innovate. They allow employers to prevent
] employees from developing anything that might threaten
] established businesses, while also removing the financial
] rewards from innovations that employers do approve of. There
] is absolutely no aspect of these contracts which meet the
] Constituional goals of Intellectual Property (promoting
] science and the useful arts); These contracts are typically
] far far too overbroad to be seen as protecting employers from
] unfair competition. They are specifically designed to
] eliminate distruptive innovation and uphold the status quo.
]
] Can the government really use powers granted by the
] Consititution to craft laws that are specifically designed to
] be used by citizens in a manner that is destructive to goals
] of the Constitution?
]
] Legal, or illegal, its obviously wrong.

The government is not using any affirmative powers here. This is all the power to contract. The real lesson to be learned here is read your damn contracts. All of them. When you affix your signiture to something, you are promising something. None of us know what the contract says here, but more than likely, it falls under the standard work product rules that have been embedded in copyright law for many many years.

If you don't want all your code to be owned by your company, negotiate that with your company. If they are not willing to negotiate, don't take that job. It is a free market economy; if enough people don't take jobs because of it, then the standard will change.

RE: Slashdot | Apple Claims Ownership of Shareware -- DON'T WORK FOR APPLE