] You may recall our post on Monday about a Florida woman
] who was trampled in a mad stampede of people scrambling
] to buy a $30 DVD player at the local Wal-Mart. It was one
] of those stories that perfectly symbolized our nation's
] unhealthy obsession with shopping, right? Well, we might
] be unheathily obsessed with shopping, but there is
] growing evidence that the woman, who is a "frequent
] faller" who has managed to injure herself nine times
] before at various Wal-Marts around Florida, is faking it.
] Over the years she's also filed injury claims against six
] other businesses, as well

Gizmodo : Woman injured in Wal-Mart $30 DVD player stampede might have faked it

Bill O’Reilly had a hard time getting on this list. I mean, if you take away the “wetback” commentary, and the “joke” that a black boys choir was out in the
parking lot stealing hubcaps, and the lawsuit against Al Franken, and the embarassing performance at the C-SPAN Book News conference, and the threatening to beat up the son of a 9/11 victim, and the lying about where he grew up, and the whole Peabody Awards thing, and the false “Fair and Balanced” promise, and the fact that he’s a grade-A asshole that most conservatives don’t like, and the insistence that anyone who doesn’t appear on his show is afraid of him, and the faux-everyman demeanor, and the
continuing jihads against Jesse Jackson, rap music, George Clooney, Al Franken, the United Way, Europe, Hollywood, Bill Moyers, the entire American left, Canada and PepsiCola, AND that he lies constantly about being a conservative...

...well, he still belongs on the list, actually.

Fantastic list. quite funny. references ATHF, Futurama, etc in discusiing these assholes. worth a quick read.

Twenty Most Annoying Conservatives of 2003

] In 2000 George W. Bush campaigned across the country
] telling voters: "My opponent trusts government. I trust
] you."
]
] Little wonder that some of his supporters are now
] wondering which candidate won that election.
]
] Federal spending has increased by 23.7 percent since Bush
] took office.

fortunately, 9/11 gave him the justification he'd been praying for. i think the public is starting to tire of that excuse...

The Bush Betrayal (washingtonpost.com)

] 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

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

] so today is veteran's day. a day that in the past has had
] little to no meaning for me (selfish twentysomething),
] despite the fact that both of my grandfathers were highly
] decorated servicemen. on a normal year, this is a day
] where i would drive up to a bank, post office, etc, and
] bitch and complain about this *unknown* federal holiday
] and wonder what was going on. today is a little
] different, however. more than likely due to hightened
] political involvement on my part due to howard dean's
] candidacy, this war (and it is still war, no matter what
] the president tells us) we have found ourselved in is
] beginning to shape and change our generation. i have a
] good friend, with whom I graduated at emory law, who is
] about to enter the army jag corp at the end of the year.
] never did i think that instead of practicing law, he will
] more than likely be handling a machine gun. but it took a
] posting on daily kos today, linking to an op-ed at the
] new york times, to really make me think about the
] significance of today. The article, found here, consists
] of a few short exerpts of final letters home from
] soldiers who have since been killed in the line of duty,
] in President Bush's war. please go and read those
] letters. and remember that people are getting killed--
] families destroyed. while these soldiers are pawns in
] Bush's plan (or lack thereof), we, as his challengers,
] should not simply hold up the statistics day in and day
] out as proof that we are right. we should remind everyone
] of the human cost of this terrible strategy, one that
] even Bush's father condemned.
]
]
] "And just a reminder-- Bush hasn't attended a single
] funeral. He doesn't have the balls to stand up to these
] grieving families and tell them his war was worth the
] sacrifice these families are paying." -- DailyKOS,
] November 11, 2003, writer is a veteran.

Go to supernicety.com for the links. Sorry, i didnt feel like reformatting it again.

the supernicety: veteran's day

] In a historic move, Democratic presidential hopeful
] Howard Dean will skip public financing and the spending
] limits that come with it, hoping his money-raising power
] can help win the nomination and unseat President Bush,
] campaign officials said Saturday.

historic indeed. never been done before. hear hear, i say...

CNN.com - Dean skips public funding for White House bid - Nov. 8, 2003

] U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said the book — "Lies and the
] Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
] — is a parody protected by the First Amendment (search).
]
] "There are hard cases and there are easy cases," the judge said.
] "This is an easy case. This case is wholly without merit, both
] factually and legally."

Ahhh, victory! The First Amendment still wins over corporate interests. Thank you Judge Chin...

Judge Denies FOX's Injunction