O'Brien,
a New York Times reporter who has covered Trump's businesses for
more than a decade, wrote in TrumpNation: The Art of Being the
Donald that The Apprentice star had repeatedly exaggerated
his wealth and "was not remotely close to being a billionaire."
The book actually pegs Trump's worth "somewhere between $150
million and $250 million," hardly chump change but a figure much lower
than the billions the mogul says he has accumulated, and one he claims
in the lawsuit is "grossly misrepresented."
...

In the lawsuit,
filed Monday in New Jersey state court, Trump is seeking $2.5 billion in
compensatory damages and $2.5 billion in punitive damages.

Yahoo! Top Stories - Trump's Billion-Dollar Defaming Claim

Nemester is an online community that connects paranoids, egotists, villains, and monomaniacs through networks of competing agendas and incompatable ideologies for bitter conflicts, mutual loathing, or to find their one, true nemesis.

Nemester

DoJ search requests: Google said no; Yahoo, AOL, MSN yes.

Update: Earlier today, I asked a Justice Department spokesperson which search engines other than Google received requests to provide search records. The answer: Yahoo, AOL, and MSN were also asked to supply search records information, and all complied. Google did not, and that is why the DoJ asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order the company to do so.

Boing Boing: DoJ search requests: Google said no; Yahoo, AOL, MSN yes.

The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying "intelligent design" is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.

Vatican paper article says 'intelligent design' not science

First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."

This is probably more interesting, and timely, then Gore's speech.

Martin Luther King - Letter from Birmingham Jail

The American Constitution Society and the Liberty Coalition host a speech by Fmr. Vice Pres. Al Gore at the DAR Hall in Washington. Gore speaks about the limits of executive power, the issue of monitoring domestic communications and the authorization of the use of torture in the war against terrorism.

I still don't like Al Gore but every so often he gives good speeches. He gives a good rundown of how things are fucked up in our country today and blames everyone for it (but Bush especially).

C-SPAN: Fmr. Vice Pres. Gore Speech on Executive Powers

WASHINGTON - In the 50 years that Grant Goodman has known and corresponded with a colleague in the Philippines he never had any reason to suspect that their friendship was anything but spectacularly ordinary.  But now he believes that the relationship has somehow sparked the interest of the Department of Homeland Security and led the agency to place him under surveillance.Last month Goodman, an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words “by Border Protection” and carrying the official Homeland Security seal.

Homeland Security opening private mail - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

DENVER -- Federal prosecutors have decided against filing misdemeanor charges against a woman who refused to show identification when a bus she was riding in entered federal property.

Still would have been nice to have had the precedent set.

TheDenverChannel.com - Health - No Charges: Woman Wouldn't Show ID On Bus

CNN was airing Vice President Dick Cheney's speech live from the American Enterprise Institute in Washington -- when a large black 'X' repeatedly flashed over the vice president's face!

The 'X' over Cheney's face appeared each time less than a second, creating an odd subliminal effect.

As this DRUDGE REPORT screen capture reveals, while one 'X' flashed over Cheney's face CNN ran a headline at the bottom of its screen: "CHENEY: I DO NOT BELIEVE IT IS WRONG TO CRITICIZE."

One top White House source expressed concern about what was aired over CNN. "Is someone in Atlanta trying to tell us something?"

Something was on the fritz with CNN's mind control equipment during Vice President Dick Cheney's speech at the American Enterprise Institute. For a short time, viewers were able to see messages normally only visible to people with the glasses from They Live.

A CNN official gave this response to the matter via TVNewser:

"Upon seeing this unfortunate but very brief graphic, CNN senior management immediately investigated. We concluded this was a technological malfunction not an issue of operator error. A portion of the switcher experienced a momentary glitch. We obviously regret that it happened and are working on the equipment to ensure it is not repeated."

Cheney, CNN, Matt Drudge, and the mysterious X

The Report TSA Is Trying to Bury


"Based on the limited test results presented to us, we cannot assess whether even the general goal of evaluating passengers for the risk they represent to aviation security is a realistic or feasible one or how TSA proposes to achieve it. We do not know how much or what kind of personal information the system will collect or how data from various sources will flow through the system. Until TSA answers these questions, it is impossible to evaluate the potential privacy or security impact of the program..."

PrivacyActivism.org -