Acidus wrote:
] ] "If they're in cell block 1A or 1B, these prisoners --
] ] they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're
] ] insurgents," said Inhofe, a conservative from Oklahoma.
] ] "Many of them probably have American blood on their
] ] hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of
] ] those individuals."
]
] And by "a conservative from Oklahoma," they mean a Republican
] Senator. This isn't some hate filled politically driven
] talk show host saying these remarks. The is a
] Representative of the American people in the highest
] house of the Congress, telling the world the torture inflicted
] at Abu Ghraib was justified,and dehumanizing the victums as
] people not worthy of rights.

One of America's basic principles is the assumption of innocence until the proof of guilt. If we are supposed to be bringing democracy to Iraq, I would expect those principles to be upheld.

This Senator tiptoes around the fact that there are detainees in Abu Ghraib who are not guilty of any crime. He said "Many of them probably have American blood on their hands." 'Many' and 'probably' are subjective. They can mean anything.

If we are going to roll back the clocks to Spanish inquisition tactics, let's just fold now and quit calling America a democracy. Be aware though that a government willing to use torture against the civilians of a foreign country has the moral capability to use that same torture against its own population.

RE: GOP senator - Why are we so concerned about treatment of terrorists?

Concerning COPPA and children under 13:

For the time being, if you are under the age of 13, we're going to have to ask you not to use this website. We don't like this at all. This company's founders were both avid computer users at the age of nine, and certainly could have used a service like this.

Unfortunately, the government has made it very difficult and expensive for us to provide service to you. We want to fix this, but we have more pressing problems right now. Please ask your parents to email us at feedback@memestreams.net and tell us that you would like to use our service. Once we've established that there is enough demand for this service from people in your age group we will figure our what we will need to do to allow it.

© 2001 The Industrial Memetics Institute.

phunktion wrote:
] In response to the recent lawsuits that the RIAA have filled
] against 261 US file sharers the EFF have placed a petition on
] their website that has drawn a large audience. It started off
] with a target of 10,000 signatures but the number is now more
] than 4 fold this. The petition will be sent to congress to
] help campaign for an end to the lawsuit madness of the US
] music industry.

Here's a novel idea: STOP DOWNLOADING AND SHARING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THAT YOU DID NOT PURCHASE

It has worked for me for quite some time now. I don't have any mp3s or software that I did not purchase. I don't feel sorry for the chumps getting sued. They are a bunch of spoiled babies crying because their toys are being taken away from them. Suck it up, buy your music, quit whining about it. If you didn't give the RIAA a reason to be litigious bastards, they wouldn't be litigious bastards.

Here's my commentary on this petition:

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is on a rampage, launching legal attacks against average Americans from coast to coast. Rather than working to create a rational, legal means by which its customers can take advantage of file-sharing technology and pay a fair price for the music they love, it has chosen to sue people like Brianna LaHara, a 12 year-old girl living in New York City public housing.

Spare me the Sally Struthers routine about the children. The RIAA is not launching attacks on average Americans. They are going after people who are stealing their product. If the RIAA does not want to create a means by which its customers can share files, that's their choice. Everybody shed a tear for Brianna living in the projects with internet access. Brianna, here's a clue: Use your computer to sharpen your intellect, use the public education system to get a scholarship, and get out of your situation. Downloading mp3s is a waste of your time as a developing youth compared to other ways you could be growing.

Brianna, and hundreds of other music fans like her, are being forced to pay thousands of dollars they do not have to settle RIAA-member lawsuits -- supporting a business model that is anything but rational. This crusade is generating thousands of subpoenas and hundreds of lawsuits, but not a single penny for the artists that the RIAA claims to protect.

No they aren't, they brought it upon themselves. Again, who cares about whether the RIAA's business model is rational? If you don't like it, don't buy the music. If you steal the music, the RIAA does have recourse. People bought the music for decades with the copyright warnings. Now that there is technology in place to actually put some teeth into the enforcement, people start bitching. Deal with it. Oh and the artists, they know what they are getting into when the sign. Spare me the sob story for the poor artist.

Responsibility for your... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

RE: Take a Stand Against the Madness; EFF Stop the RIAA Petition

Elonka wrote:

] this investigation. I also really despise any insinuation
] that the White House knew about the impending attack but did
] nothing to stop it. That's just absurd.

How about August 6th, 2001? Bush received an intelligence briefing that mentioned hijackings. So says Condoleeza Rice. She qualified that though by saying it was only an "analytic brief." Sure, whatever.

The House and Senate intelligence committees wrote a joint report on Sept. 18th, 2002 about 9/11. In that report, it was stated that in July of 2001 "senior government officials" were warned of:

"a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming weeks. The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties ... (it) will occur with little or no warning."

I don't consider it absurd that the White House knew. As for whether they allowed it to happen, it is kind of scary to think they would do that. Off-course airplanes were intercepted 67 times in 2001 prior to 9/11 as part of standard operating procedures. With the apparent stand-down orders for our air defense on 9/11, it seems pretty obvious to me it was an inside job.

The FAA was putting out plenty of warnings that summer about threats. I could list them all but a Google search for "9/11 warnings" will show plenty of documented warnings.

Ashcroft stopped flying commercial airlines during the summer of 2001. He stopped based on FBI threat assessments. When he was asked by reporters if he knew anything about the threat, his answer was, "Frankly, I don't." Another time when asked, he simply walked out of his office.

The Justice Department did come out and say it was "completely unrelated" to 9/11, citing nonspecific threats against his life. Not that Ashcroft's Justice Department would try to cover for him or anything, I mean, I'm not insinuating *THAT* :)

All in all, it's kind of sad that the 9/11 commission's work is wrapping up during an election year. People like me, who aren't going to vote Republican or Democrat, Bush or Kerry, we don't care about either party. But since many people do, it cheapens the whole thing to partisan politics. This should have been done as soon as the attacks took place. That it's taken this long to get where we are is a shame. I hate the timing because it's in an election year. It becomes too convenient for both sides to turn it into just another campaign issue instead of investigating the biggest terrorist attack on US soil in our history.

There are so many facts around 9/11 that are suspicious that it's hard to digest all at once, even if you do have an open mind to it. I'm a skeptic by nature. Consider this:

"An average of 3,053 put options in Merrill Lynch are bought between September 6-10, compared to an average of 252 in the previous week. Morgan Stanley, another WTC tenant, sees 12,215 put options bought between September 7-10, when t... [ Read More (0.7k in body) ]

RE: Bush Agrees to Let Rice Testify Publicly

Elonka wrote:

] Bush too... World War II? Bush's fault.

Not saying George W. Bush is responsible for WWII (you know, the whole not being born yet kind of rules that out) but his grandpa Prescott sure helped Nazi Germany out back in the day. Just semantics though :)

RE: The George W. Bush Conspiracy Generator

inignoct wrote:
] ] Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who urged the United
] ] Nations to endorse a preemptive war to strip Iraq of its
] ] weapons of mass destruction, conceded yesterday that
] ] Saddam Hussein's government may have no longer had such
] ] munitions.
]
] [ well, how about that. ] -k

David Kay just resigned his post in Iraq, stating the same thing, that Iraq has no WMDs.

People who cling to the notion that we will eventually find the weapsons need to wake up. The US government lied to invade Iraq. Pretty simple.

RE: Powell Voices Doubts About Iraqi Weapons (washingtonpost.com)

crankymessiah wrote:
] This is whack. Anti-American propaganda from North Korea.
] Worse then junior high schooler's rap. Entertaining
] regardless...

I like the morph of GW into the chimp face. Reminds me of http://www.bushorchimp.com I so thought of morphing those first though. Commie bastards beat me to it!

RE: Fucking USA

Video clips of strange commercials from Japan

...

Japander:n.,& v.t. 1. a western star who uses his or her fame to make large sums of money in a short time by advertising products in Japan that they would probably never use. ~er (see synecure, prostitute)

Japander.com

Read on for the interesting conclusion :)

...

Scientists have discovered a one-celled protozoan parasite called Toxoplasma gondii that frequently lives in the brains of wild brown rats. It is a normally harmless parasite commonly found in most mammals, including man.

But T. gondii can only reproduce in the guts of cats.

Researchers at the University of Oxford in the past couple of years have been studying the parasite and now have found it appears to be influencing the behavior of rats.

Scientists say it makes infected rats unafraid of cats, their natural enemy.

But the Oxford researchers found that when infected, normally super-cautious rats not only are significantly less fearful of cats, but they also are actually drawn to them.

No one knows how it happens, but they do know why.

The parasites need to be eaten by cats in order to get into their digestive system and reproduce. Somehow, they are changing the behavior of rats to make that more likely to happen.

Of Cats and Rats

A $46 million high school dazzling with the latest technology - from interactive digital textbooks and computerized tablets to electronic play diagrams for the basketball team - will be built by the Philadelphia School District in partnership with the Microsoft Corp., officials announced today.

...

Microsoft's contribution will not be monetary, but services worth millions of dollars, including a full-time on-site project manager, planning and design expertise, staff training and ongoing technology support. It plans to bring in other technology partners.

The company's reward is the opportunity to design a school using technology in every way possible from the ground up - a prototype it could then market.

...

"They will be in an advisory capacity. We're still running the school," said Ellen Savitz, the district's chief development officer. "There's no fear of a corporation somehow overtaking the educational focus."

...

Could be good, could be bad. This seems like Internet Explorer vs. Netscape Navigator all over again. Open source alternatives on cheap hardware versus Microsoft's offering. The game this time is technology in schools. Microsoft does NOT want kids learning any alternatives, I know that much. Teach them early that Microsoft is how you interface with information technology.

I think their definately should be a healthy fear of Microsoft having too much of a focus in education.

Microsoft to design city high school