It has taken almost three years—by some counts, more than 6 years—but ICANN’s domain name policy making organization has finally taken a stand on Whois and privacy. And the results were a decisive defeat for the copyright and trademark interests and the US government, and a stunning victory for advocates of the rights of individual domain name registrants.

In Historic Vote on WHOIS Purpose, Reformers Win by 2/3 Majority

Decius wrote:
YouTube has taken down the videos [of Colbert's performance], citing copyright infringement.

If the news can't be used for discourse, what good is it?

RE: Boing Boing: Why was Colbert press corps video removed from YouTube?

Ummm... why does everyone keep comparing the U.S. to their house? Your house is a piece of property where you and whoever you select live together. A country is... oh wait, I'm not a fourth grade social studies teacher. We all know what a country is, right? And this country is a "democracy."

A democracy made up of citizens. You can't choose who's born here as you can't choose your family... But you can choose who crosses the border the same way you can the threshold of your families house. We can make our democracy stronger if we pick and choose than if we let just anybody in.

Additionally, why do people keep comparing homeless people to immigrants? "The bottom of the barrel?" How about the people who were brave and bold enough to cross an extremely inhospitable border, move to a new country with a new culture, language, and system, and find a job. Have you ever moved to a new CITY? Its rough, man. I wouldn't say that those peope are the 'bottom of the barrel'.

I'd rather import someone who might have a better chance of curing cancer, than someone to wash my dishes. We have more than enough people to do dishes already, we have a bottom of the barrel and it's sort of crowded there. If they've decided to cross over in some inhospitable method it's a damn shame they didn't think they'd make the grade if we were to make the choice of accepting them or not. They should save the hard work and show us why we should choose them rather than the person next to them. If they wish to come here and be a house cleaner, good for them, but it's less useful than someone who can come and teach a college course. Not a grade of humanity, but some people are more useful than others. Why should we encourage malaise?

I also believe that you will find many individuals of great intelectual worth who come here legally and illegally. Some refer to it as "the brain drain."

Great... a genius has crossed the border illegally... Now he can go home and learn to follow rules. Sorry, but if you fuck up at the threshold, you can't sleep over... I don't care how smart you think you are, you are not welcome in my family's house.

RE: How can Illegal Immigration help our Homeless situation?

Well, well, well. Amidst all the posturing and fist-shaking about who dared to leak the career information about CIA employee Valerie Plame, and the resulting witch hunt, it looks like we've actually found that Bush indeed did happen to "accidentally" release that information to disgrace his political enemies. Libby has now apparently testified that Bush OK'd the release of the oh-so-career-destroying information.

Whodathunkit!

I wonder if perhaps we'll get lucky and Bush will actually follow through with firing the person who leaked this information like he swore he would at a press conference shortly after this witch hunt began, and fire himself and Cheney?

Who let the secrets out! Who! Who-who-who!

"I don't want to sound glib here, but it's the first time
in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since
we stopped testing nuclear weapons,"

Pentagon plans gigantic explosion at Nevada site - Yahoo! News

But Hadley and other administration officials realized that it would be much more difficult to shield Bush from criticism for his statements regarding the aluminum tubes, for several reasons.

For one, Hadley's review concluded that Bush had been directly and repeatedly apprised of the deep rift within the intelligence community over whether Iraq wanted the high-strength aluminum tubes for a nuclear weapons program or for conventional weapons.

For another, the president and others in the administration had cited the aluminum tubes as the most compelling evidence that Saddam was determined to build a nuclear weapon -- even more than the allegations that he was attempting to purchase uranium.

This is called "Lying to Congress" and punishable by 5 years in a federal correctional institution. Go to jail. Go directly to Jail. Do not go to the G8 conference, do not collect $200,000 speaking fees.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Insulating Bush (03/30/2006)

Recently retired Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan believes that there will be a major independent candidate for president from the nation's political center, according to a published report.

Report: Greenspan predicts indie presidential candidate - Mar. 10, 2006

(CBS4 News)
FT. LAUDERDALE
After CBS4's Mike Kirsch aired a piece where several South Florida police officers were caught on camera intimidating would-be complainants against their police departments, one officer has taken action against the station in court.

CBS 4 - South Florida's Source for Breaking News, Weather, and Sports: Officer Takes Action Against CBS4 After Story Airs

Rattle wrote:
In his recent appearance on the Charlie Rose Show, Donald Rumsfeld talked about how the DoD needs MemeStreams:

Rose: Did you get what you needed from the budget in order to carry out the kinds of thing that is you think are a part of this battle against terrorism, this long war, and this attitude that you're reflecting now? In terms of the kind – how you're shifting from a Cold War to a different war.

Rumsfeld: The budget is fine. It's going to --
Rose: You can live with it?
Rumsfeld: We can live with it and we ought to do a better job of spending it. In other words, it is --
Rose: In terms of weapon systems?
Rumsfeld: Well, no. Weapons systems are one thing. Everyone talks about this airplane or that ship.
Rose: Right.

Rumsfeld: I'm more interested in intelligence gathering, connecting intelligence to the operations in real time so that you can actually stop something from happening. That's what we need to get better at. It is the soft stuff. It is the connectors. In linking the services in a way that you leverage that capability. Increasing precision in your attacks. Speeding data to the user, the person who needs it. The operator of that -- to have that data in his hands so something good can come of it. That's what we need. Sure, we have to worry about platforms and ships and guns and tanks and planes and that stuff. That is not what the department of defense has to be about.

Here is the video.

RE: Interview with Secretary Rumsfeld on the Charlie Rose Show

Ben and Jerry's guy throws his oreos in the political arena.

TrueMajorityACTION Oreos