] Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted
] federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide
] swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget
] Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the
] presidential election campaign.

[ BC'04 is dismissing it because the response is irreparably colored by the fact that the Democrats requested it and KE'04 is noting that the "CBO is nonpartisan, it's independent, and right now it works for a Republican Congress with a former Bush economist at its head." The shifting of the tax burden is a common meme these days, but not usually from anywhere as high up as the CBO.

Whatever, you'll note that the report is being released on a Friday afternoon, which pretty well guarantees that it's bad news for the administration. -k]

Tax Burden Shifts to the Middle (washingtonpost.com)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Procrastinating monkeys were turned into workaholics using a gene treatment to block a key brain compound, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

Blocking cells from receiving dopamine made the monkeys work harder at a task -- and they were better at it, too, the U.S. government researchers found.

Dr. Barry Richmond and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health used a new genetic technique to block the D2 gene.

"The gene makes a receptor for a key brain messenger chemical, dopamine," Richmond said in a statement. Dopamine is a message carrying chemical associated with rewards, movement and a variety of other important functions.

"The gene knockdown triggered a remarkable transformation in the simian work ethic. Like many of us, monkeys normally slack off initially in working toward a distant goal," he added.

[ But what about the super smart rats, huh?!? When is NIMH gonna come clean about that Secret!? -k]

The Slacker Gene?

It seems clear to me that this case has almost nothing to do with "sending a message to worm writers" and almost everything to do with providing a spectacle for thousands of computer users like these... As we watch this guy get nailed all of these people feel vindicated and rejoice! They're right, and he is wrong, and he is going down! The system works! I love big brother!

[ Agreed. Most of these responses are absurd. Particularly the "try him as a cyber-terrorist and put him in jail forever". The fucktard who said that probably goes to church every week and thinks he's a good Christan, if I had to guess. You have to have pretty perfect (and always incorrect) view of your own impeccable morals to judge others as harshly as that.

People have so little perspective. This poor fucker's life is pretty much ruined as it is. If you need someone else's life to be utterly destroyed for your own satisfaction, you need preofessional help. -k]

vnunet.com - Blaster B plea angers onlookers

] Kerry isn't perfect, but the alternative is just
] completely....I hate to keep carping on this, but within
] the libertarian movement we're gonna have to
] actually sit down and talk about where we stand on the
] two variants, because one of them is actually part of the
] problem at this point. I used to think of myself as both
] kinds of libertarian, but I have pretty well parted
] company with [D.C.-based leader of libertarian-leaning
] conservatives] Grover Norquist at this point. I
] don't see anything particularly free about a
] plutocracy.

[ There's a shitload of good stuff in this article, and the bit i memed above here is just one that stuck me towards the end. Go read it now. -k]

Reason: John Perry Barlow 2.0: The Thomas Jefferson of cyberspace reinvents his body -- and his politics.

] Opponents say such a system would not be in the best
] interests of the poor and the middle class who would pay
] the same tax rate as the wealthy even though they have
] less disposable income.

I saw this meme floating around last week but I ignored it because I felt it was unlikely to materialize. The President saying "thats interesting" doesn't, in my mind, make it any more realistic that this will happen, but everybody is talking about it, so its worth some commentary.

People, in general, seem to be responding to it very thoughtlessly. "Yeah, get rid of the IRS!" is about as mindless a response as those on the other side who are always screaming bloody murder over "low" corporate taxes without having a basic understanding of how accounting works.

What really bothers me about this proposal is that it seems to be defended with gross generalizations rather then hard data.

Sure, elmininating the income tax code will save some money, but how much exactly? There is a lot more to corporate accounting then income taxes. Its not like the accounting industry goes away. Most of those guys are collecting data for the benefit of investors, not the IRS. Nor is it like the government won't need a revenue organization. We know exactly how much it costs other countries to manage national sales taxes versus their income taxes. Why don't the proponents have this data?

Another assertion is that rich people will pay more taxes because they spend more money. Thats asinine! Any wealthy person who spends a proportionate amount of his income versus someone in the middle class is a fool who will not be wealthy for long!! Where is the data about the change in middle income tax burden? Most western countries have federal sales taxes. The information is available. The fact that advocates of this plan haven't collected it makes me very suspicious.

What this will do is make it really easy to save money for retirement. You no longer need tools like IRAs and 401ks. You can save as much as you want and spend it however you want. There is real freedom in that. Freedom for a Social Security system that is absolutely doomed. Of course, there are middle steps that can be taken toward that, such as raising the bar on Roth IRAs.

The other thing that it will do is make it basically impossible to raise taxes outside of a war context. Today small tax increases can be made in particular areas where political opposition to a tax increase is related to support for the item being funded. Under this system there will be only one tax, and so you've got to get everyone's permission in order to fund any new program. If a new program isn't unanimously loved its not going to run. Period.

Look at Tennessee. They are a sales tax state. Most states with a sales tax have a supplimental source of income, like tourism. Tennessee doesn't. Tennessee has huge revenue problems. They can't raise taxes. They can't afford proper schools. They'd can't afford their medicare program. They've nearly declared bankrupcy recently. They closed all the public parks in the state two years ago.

Thats how we're talking about running the federal government. Sure, its a great way to control government spending, but the results are less then pretty.

Bush says national sales tax worth considering - Aug. 11, 2004

[ If your Sony-Ericsson phone just doesn't look enough like your favorite Linux/Mac OS, here are some themes to remedy your shameful situation. The debian one is perfect, as in, it looks like crap. I just wonder if you have to reinstall the phone's graphics subsystem and recompile the kernel 43 times to make it work. -k]

ZwahlenDesign Sony Ericsson Theme / Displayprofile

] What, the place where you go to eat ice cream
] doesn't have an ultraviolet cellphone sterilizer?

[ Wow. On reading the quote, I was about to say how Japan is a really strange place, but actually, i think this is Korea. Either way, UV cell sterilizer at an ice cream shop. Yep. -k]

So fresh and so clean - Engadget - www.engadget.com

] Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, of Hopkins, Minnesota, admitted
] "intentionally causing damage to a protected computer"
] before a federal judge in Seattle yesterday as part of a
] plea bargaining arrangement. He faces between 18 to 37
] months in prison for his crime instead of a maximum
] sentence of ten years in jail. Parson may also be ordered
] to pay a fine, which could run into millions of dollars,
] according to Assistant US Attorney Annette Hayes.

He plead down to 37 months and millions in fines? The guy took an active worm, changed its tag (to his name!), and re-released it. This does NOT set an example for "worm writers." Parson didn't write a worm, and the people who did were never caught. Parson put his name in the worm. Any idiot could have caught him. The actual impact that adding his name had on the spread of this worm was zilch.

The only message the government is sending here is that our laws are unjust and our police are incompetent. Once again, the smart people get away scott free but the unlucky and dim get squashed like bugs for no good reason.

[ Yeah, it's pretty stupid. The kid certainly shouldn't get off scott free, but it seems overly harsh given the circumstances. -k]

Blaster teen pleads guilty

] Beards are out. So are jeans and athletic shoes. Suit
] coats are in, even on the steamiest summer days.
]
] That dress code, imposed by the Department of Homeland
] Security, makes federal air marshals uneasy -- and
] not just because casual clothes are more comfortable in
] cramped airline seats. The marshals fear that their
] appearance makes it easier for terrorists to identify
] them, according to a professional group representing more
] than 1,300 air marshals.

[ Fucking retarded. This better be a cover for the fact that there are a shitload other Air Marshals who *don't* have a dress code. Because if they're compromising everyone's safety because "the airline industry complained that air marshals' attire was too casual," a whole bunch of people need to be fired. Start with this guy :

"In order to gain respect in a situation, you must be attired to gain respect," Mr. Adams said in an interview. If air marshals were allowed to be too casual in their dress, he added, "they probably would not gain the respect of passengers if a situation were to occur."

-k]

Air Marshals Say Dress Code Makes Them Stand Out

] Last Thursday, Kerry told minority journalists at the
] Unity 2004 conference in Washington that "I believe I can
] fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic,
] more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches
] out to other nations and brings them to our side."

[ Well, I think it's pretty damn obvious what Kerry *meant*, and I give his opponents enough credit that they do too. What they won't do is admit that, and what they will do is ride this comment for all it will give them, driving home the idea that liberals are pussies who'd roll over without a fight. The media will play along (for fucks sake, this article is about how Cheney *will*, i.e. hasn't yet, but is going to, deride Kerry over the comments, and news.google shows quite a few others) and I fear that the ever so sophisticated public will buy the misinterpretation as conventional wisdom. Fucking politics. -k]

CNN.com - Cheney to blast Kerry over 'sensitive war' remark - Aug 12, 2004