"They came into my home, made me pay for my own TV, then double-booked the revenues," said Rachel Sanchez of Las Cruces, just north of El Paso. "Right in front of my daughters."

SatireWire | REMAINING U.S. CEOs MAKE A BREAK FOR IT

Interesting application of PCR.

real time PCR

Things that make you go "hmmmm":

Its provisions allow for secret arrests of persons in certain terrorist-related cases until indictments have been handed down and there is no time limitation for this process. America has never permitted secret arrests for indefinite time periods. In addition, Patriot II provides that these terrorist arrests may be under "no bail" conditions and that any federal employee who discloses the identity of someone who has been secretly detained may be imprisoned for up to five years.

The bill mandates that government authorities are entitled to have ex parte (one- on-one, without defense counsel or a public record) and in camera (private) - meetings with judges without opposing counsel or defendants even being notified to secure rulings on search warrants, admissibility of evidence and investigative procedures. In certain cases where naturalized American citizens are found to be working with foreign governments, or making donations to foreign based charities later found to be supporting terrorist causes, the Attorney General will have the right to revoke U.S. citizenship and extradite those charged to any country in the world, whether there is an extradition treaty in place or not.

There has been some debate, encouraged by inaccurate and extremely irresponsible reporting by some "alternative" journalists and radio talk show hosts indicating that the bill provides the government with the ability to strip native-born U.S. citizens of their citizenship for seemingly trivial offenses. This is patently untrue. The actual truth is bad enough.

Section 501 of Patriot II amends section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1481) pertaining to the citizenship status of those who have acquired U.S. citizenship. It states that those who have entered into the armed forces of a foreign government (when such forces are engaged in hostilities against the US), or have joined or provided material support "to a terrorist organization... if the organization is engaged in hostilities against the United States, its people, or its national security interests" will be deemed to have made a prima facie (apparent on its face) statement that they intend to relinquish their citizenship.

Lewis and Moyers were correct in their interpretation of this section in that a naturalized American who makes a donation to an Islamic charity later alleged to have been giving money to a terrorist organization could be stripped of their citizenship and deported anywhere without it ever having been established that he or she even knew how the charity was distributing its money.

The act broadens the scope of activities that qualify for the loose-to-non-existent guidelines for eavesdropping and surveillance under Patriot I and allows law enforcement personnel to obtain "national" search warrants for domestic and foreign terrorism investigations. As discussed in previous FTW stories, under Patriot I the definition... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Patriot II

A vested interest in bacteriophage research
w/ history, discussion, links and MORE

baceriophageco

Not only is the American voting code secretly held by private companies (naturally for copyright reasons; the Dollar trumps Democracy every time), but private companies manufacture the voting machines. And those companies are owned, predominantly, by Republican interests. Including Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who won by a landslide on machines made by Election Systems and Software (ES&S), a company he owned a considerable interest in. And he wasn't the only one.

Open Source Code Meets Democracy - in Australia anyway

The leaked, draft Patriot Act II, probably to be launched at the legislature during the upcoming war, has some very scary, very constitution smashing provisions. These guys are fascists, I'm telling you....

from linked article:
Among other things, the draft includes provisions that would:
Authorize a DNA database of "suspected terrorists"-- a category so broadly defined that it could, according to CPI, include anyone associated with "suspected" groups, and any "noncitizens suspected of certain crimes or of having supported any group designated as terrorist."

Nullify most law enforcement consent decrees passed before September 11, 2001 that do not relate to civil rights violations. Consent decrees are legal agreements that limit law enforcement's ability to gather information about individuals and groups. Many, such as New York City's Handschu agreement (which was severely weakened by a federal court ruling on Tuesday), were arrived at in response to police abuses, including the harassment of social justice groups.

Enable the government to "expatriate" U.S. citizens "if, with the intent to relinquish his nationality, he becomes a member of, or provides material support to, a group that the United Stated has designated as a 'terrorist organization.'" Currently, you must formally state your intent to give up U.S. citizenship in order to lose it, or take a drastic action such as serving in the military of a state that is at war with the U.S. CPI warns that Patriot Act II would allow the government to "infer" that intent from an individual's political associations, and possibly deport any citizen who participated in the work of a group that the attorney general chooses to brand as "terrorist," even if he or she broke no laws.

....
Please note that the FBI considers Greenpeace and PETA to be 'terrorist' groups. Whether you support them or not, isn't that going a little too far?

Muted Response to Ashcroft's Sneak Attack on Liberties

flynn23 wrote:
] When the videotape in the VCR is replaced by a hard drive
] so that the copy made is as good as the original and can be
] shared over the Internet with a multitude of people, the right
] to record looks more--at least in the view of several media
] companies--like a license to steal.
]
] Oh for CRYING OUT LOUD! Get out of the way and let it happen
] already. We've only been waiting 10+ years for this to happen.
] It's finally all here, and you idiots are still trying to stop
] it. You'd think after 10 years, you'd have figured out how to
] make the transition by now.

Gee, information is getting hard to control, isn't it? But control it they must, that's the only way to make really obscene amounts of money, and incidentally control what media gets produced and promoted.
This is a great example of centralized control of a resource vs. decentralized control of that resource. I wonder what will happen....

RE: Recording Restricted

] A bacterial infection that overpowers most antibiotics
] has escaped the confines of hospitals and is showing up
] in alarming numbers among the general public in
] California, according to health officials.

For a long time now, this has been one of my pet issues.

Just in case you have not heard the line yet, unless you need them, I mean really need them, do not take antibiotics. You will be doing your fellow man a great disservice if you over use them. Also, (easy one) do not spend any more time in hospitals then is necessary. Remember, those germ things evolve faster then you do.

I didn't like the "Gay Men" slant of this article.. Left a bad taste in my mouth in reguard to how AIDS wasn't taken seriously till it started killing people enmass who were not gay.

Superbugs. Get used to that phrase.. You will have trouble finding someone skilled in the medical field who dosen't think we will see more of them..

The super-bugs have arrived!

Superb dialogue, viz:
"Jesus, this UK dossier on Iraq's concealment infrastructure is a total fuckin' hodgepodge! Can someone say, 'C-'? Did they order the thing out of the back of Tiger Beat?"
"People are gonna go *die* because of this document. Could you at least reword the passages you TOTALLY COPIED from outdated sources? Or get someone other than a spotty Manchester United-jersey-wearin' intern to handle the important paragraphs? For fuck's sake! Their concealment infrastructure dossiers are as crappy as their 'news'-papers!(Thanks for being our 'girlfriend' though, Mr. Blair!)"

See page 18 for Iraqi child-saving ideas!

www.mnftiu.cc | get your war on | page nineteen

Just FYI to computer users and enthusers

COMPUTER RECYCLING & REUSE DIRECTORY