HeadLines: A Blog For FreshSpace™ Archive I

HeadLines Archive June-July, 02002

A Blog of FreshSpace™

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Blair's aides denounce US 'blundering' in Afghan war
From the Uh oh, looks like things are falling apart or How to lose the war on terrorism in four easy steps Department:

Act arrogant
Alienate your allies
Shoot at everything
Enrage and upset the people you're there to help
And what's this about a lack of communication between US and British forces? Operation Condor took off without us? What's that all about? Are the British upset at our policy of shooting first and asking questions later? It looks like, the way things are going, next we'll be kicked out of NATO. Maybe even the UN! (and it looks like this administration thinks that's all right by us). So much for the New World Order, that didn't last long... Is that Clinton's or Daschle's fault? My favorite line [from the article] is: "...They [the tribal areas] live by a strict code of honour, attacking and kidnapping outsiders who stray into their mountain valleys...." kinda makes you wonder what those without a strict code of honor do...
Also in the news, Things are heating up in Korea, the Israeli Army Destroys Palestinian HQ and the US has taken a step back from a Saudi peace proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. On the other hand, good news is, no polyps were found...

Why we should be worried about George W Bush
Even as the rest of the world embraces the International Court, the US is quietly pushing to pass the Bomb the Hague Act. Even as we push to invade Iraq, the Bush Administration opposes a U.S. Ban on Iraqi Oil . Even as George W. Bush announces he will vigorously go after corporate executives fleecing America, saying "no violation of the public trust will be tolerated", he himself violated Security Laws four times making him millions while his next in command remains as yet unaffected by a token SEC investigation into similar practices at Haliburton. And the list goes on...

EULA better do as I say or else...
Yikes! Another damned if you do, damned if you don't from MS. Isn't this blatant anti-competetive behavior? Can't somebody stop this? what's a poor Harry Homeowner to do? Doesn't MS realize this does more, in the long run, to shoot themselves in the foot than anything else? When will the masses become so fed up that they flee the Windows platform in droves? Probably not until MS kills off all the competition with Palladium...

Micro-Managed Micros Coming Soon
I find this more than a little obnoxious/repugnant. More, I feel genuinely threatened. Now, I love MS and have no particular desire to rush off platform, but they are pushing me away. What's more they are threatening the very thing they are pushing me to - Linux. I would be far more encouraged if MS worked with GNU to co-exist peacefully. But this [ Palladium] is the SSSCA/CBDTPA adopted voluntarily by the private sector! (Is this the faustian deal they had to make to keep from being broken up?) Probably not. This is just too good for MS. Ironic though that the very thing that MS needs to do to save itself from it's perceived and/or imagined enemies is precisely what the government wanted all along with regards to Disney, Warner Brothers, Hollywood, etc. -- a DRM (Digital Rights Management) system designed to thwart the free exchange of ideas, information, wealth, music, etc... so that only a few will profit at the expense of the many. If we are naught more than a herd, what can we do if the ranchers want to lead us into their coral? I'd like to think we are far more than our lowest common denominator (a herd, a mob, etc.) but sometimes I fear that this is just wishful thinking... Incidentally, I see this as having happened before, perhaps more than once. It is recorded in the Bible as the fall of the Tower of Babel. This DRM/Palladium conspiracy is the informational equivalent to the confusion of tongues. The only thing is I think the Bible story got it backwards. The tongues were confused first, then the Tower fell... the ability to communicate is tantamount to civilization; the ability to freely exchange data is tantamount to communication. Thus, if Palladium/SSSCA-type systems are implemented, civilization will fall once more... those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it... (did anyone happen to see the movie Memento? Can you see this as an allegory of human civilization?)

Bush's Grim Vision
Interesting article. But the author is wrong abut one thing. If this were a dictatorship, we would not be able to read this, let alone the writer be allowed to write it. That he can write this and we can read it means it's not too late! As George Clinton would say, "Think. It ain't illegal yet!"

Iraqnarok?
I dunno. Bush's plans to topple Saddam Hussein doesn't look like a bright idea (or very prudent.) I just hope they do a better job than that 48 hour coup in Venezuela...

Downing Resigns
wow. this is quite a surprise. what's this all about? Isn't this the guy Bush needs the mostest in his battles around the world? strange...

White House Faces Disclosure Suit
OK here's the thing. The White House is looking bad because it started taking Cipro, the drug used to ward off the effects of exposure to Anthrax, weeks before the public was alerted and weeks before any of the workers at the Brentwood Postal Facility became apprised of the full extent of their situation (and long before anyone died). Meanwhile, The White House decided today to release news that Abdullah Al Mujahir was captured over a month ago but is just getting around to telling us about it now.
"...Al Mujahir, also known as Jose Padilla, was arrested May 8 as he flew from Pakistan into Chicago O'Hare International Airport. 'We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb,' Ashcroft said...."
Why, after waiting this long, decide to release this information now? Why release it at all? Perhaps this Cipro thing is big news? Maybe its just a coincidence. (Like last week when, on the same day the FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley testified before the The Senate Judiciary Committee, Bush released his big news about creating an even bigger, more intrusive government starting with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security). What makes it all the more interesting is just how opposed Bush was to making this a cabinet level position, a mere few days earlier... -D

CIA, FBI, Misunderestimated Al Queda
There's so much information out there right now, it seems like we almost don't need an Independent Investigation. Of course, we do -- if only to try and make sure it doesn't happen again...
911 Conspiracy
What Really Happened?

What Did The Government Know and When Did It Know It?
The Proof of a 9/11 Frame Up Is Right before You

Bush & 911 Foreknowledge
Major 911 Oddities Revealed In NY Firehouse Documentary
Oddities of 9/11: Little-known facts of the world's best-known event
9 Unpopular Ideas On 9/11
Wherdy Go?

Dynamo Len - Lewis finishes Tyson in eighth round
Tyson turns kitten once he gets his assets whomped? haha too funny! Guess, all he really needed was a little discipline...
Replies:
Are you kidding? He threw that fight. Right after he talked about a rematch. In fact, he let Lewis hit him right in the face a few times without even bothering to try block it. Now they will do a rematch and make millions more. He is in debt right now and that fight won't bring him out.

Ashcroft’s Failures Deserve a Hearing
"...In a bureaucracy that was already inundated with information that couldn’t be sorted into the categories of useful and useless, he proposes to collect still more..."
I don't think Mueller was the problem. I'm afraid to say what I think the problem is... ...The problem is, I shouldn't feel afraid to say what I think the problem is, in a free country.

Dubya calls for US Gestapo
I dunno, but I think the article (from the link above) is right about one thing. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security does not shrink the Federal Government, it subsumes it! Further, it drowns the Intelligence Communities in a sea of noise - worthless info, like what are you surfing on the net tonight, or purchasing with your credit cards? The NSA had phone conversations between Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Mohammed Atta, the CIA had over twenty reports from leaders and agencies all around the world, spelling it out for them in all upper caps. The FBI had credible evidence from field agents, flight schools and hard drives. Meanwhile, Bush took a month-long vacation when he could have been doing half of what he's doing now. Maybe he didn't know, but he should still be held accountable. If he hadn't gone on vacation for a whole month, barely a few months in the White House, and concentrated on fixing the problems he blames Clinton for after the fact, then no, he should not be held accountable. But he gets a report stating clearly that attacks are immanent and he goes on vacation?! Nope. Nothing we see here justifies adding of another pancake to the stack. Rather, what's needed is the leadership to act on the Intelligence given, not sit on it reading children's stories to first graders... I'll bet Liberman (who I think scares me more than Bush) would have shot those planes down the moment they deviated from flight plan... furthermore, I am concerned that, with all this talk of protecting the Homeland, there is no one left protecting the Nation...
Replies:
This is so ironic. They criticized him for not making it a cabinet level position and combining them together. Now that he wants to combine them on the advice and findings of Congress, they don't like that either. On C-Span this morning they pointed that out to a critic - that he just opposed whatever the President wants to do and somehow his previous reasons were all wrong now.
I bet they will combine all this information onto one big mother (Unix) machine somewhere. Man, if you could break into that sucker... you could find ANYTHING out! Perhaps even who really killed Kennedy! Nah... only new stuff like where Marion Barry is going to buy drugs next so they won't be there to bust him. Maybe they can also get the FBI off of Windows 95 at the desktop!

Repealing the Estate Tax

The country stands to lose $800 billion between 2011 and 2021
I like the quote from Roosevelt: "The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government." But, also, I am concerned. The article (Tax the Wealthy) suggests that charity based organizations will be severely hurt by repeal of the Estate Tax. What are non-profit orgs doing to lobby against this?
"...Estate tax repeal will most likely reduce charitable giving and bequests, particularly from estates in excess of $20 million, by an estimated $5 billion to $6 billion a year. This will certainly hit large charities that depend on bequests, such as hospitals, universities, and land conservancies. But it will also affect the entire nonprofit sector because one-third of all bequest dollars go toward creating or expanding foundations..."
Replies:
I can talk as someone who has had to close a number of estates over the years, from 1983 to recently. Frankly they don't know what they are talking about, that is obvious and should be painfully obvious to anyone who has followed an estate. First of all that money WAS taxed. How can you get money and not pay taxes on it eventually somehow? Even if it is a capitol gain, you still MUST pay taxes on it when you trade/turn it in, regardless of if it is in an estate or not. The IRS is very good at finding that, I know all to well from experience. So he is just plain wrong on that one. About the farmers, he is very wrong on that. Farms are disappearing all across the country because they can't pay the death tax on it (many many many examples in PG county and Calvert county). Say you have land that has been in the family for 80 years, and is appraised at 20 million. That isn't that big of a farm BTW, you have to pony up with about 7 million for the taxes, who can do that? I mention this because this is something that happened about a year before they repealed the tax and was in testimony before congress. Same thing applies if you happen to have a factory with machinery... they come after you for that like the blood suckers they are.
They give you up to $600,000, then they tax you. How many farms are below that? I wouldn't want to try to find one around here, I'll tell you that. So he is just plain wrong on that too.
Regardless, in my father's will for example, he had set aside money for charity but it was based on how much the estate taxes were at the time. No money ended up going to charity because the estate taxes were so high, so here is an example where the estate taxes cost charity organizations a lot of money, not as Mr. Gates would have you believe. My father turned out to not be something unique as I thought it was, I ran across this type of setup a number of times with my wife's relatives in Chicago. Many rich people give to these organizations. Ironically, there are many more white people who give to the NAACP than black people for example. I guess he is so rich he can't think straight.
-R
hey, thx for taking the time to explain all that. always good to hear other sides of an issue... -D
the extraordinary thing about taxes is that the more you think about them the less sense they make...
-JBD

How Government Grows
 ThirdAge Joke Archive 

                   Congressional Oversight

                   The government has a vast scrap
yard in the middle of a desert. The
                   congressman whose district it's in
says someone might steal from it at night;
                   so Congress creates a night
watchman, GS-4 position, and hires a person
                   for the job. 

                   Then the congressman asks, "How
does the watchman do his job without
                   instruction?" 

                   So Congress creates a planning
position and hires two people -- one person
                   to write the instructions, a GS-12,
and one person to do time studies, a
                   GS-11. 

                   "How will we know the night
watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" the
                   congressman asks. 

                   So Congress creates a quality
control position and hires a GS-9 to do quality
                   control studies and a GS-11 to
write the reports. 

                   Then the congressman asks, "How are
these people going to get paid?" 

                   So Congress authorizes positions of
timekeeper, GS-9, and payroll officer,
                   GS-11, and two people are hired to
fill the slots. 

                   "Who will be accountable for all of
these people?" the congressman asks. 

                   So they hire three people, an
administrative officer, GS-13, an assistant
                   administrative officer, GS-12, and
a legal secretary, a GS-8. 

                   On the eve of the next election
season, the congressman looks at the cost
                   and says, "We have had this command
in operation for one year and we are
                   $18,000 over budget. We must
cutback overall costs." 

                   So they lay off the night watchman.
-JBD
Ho ho ho and a bottle of Cipro...
Feds sued over anthrax documents
Legal group wonders why White House took Cipro before attacks
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
[From article]"...Legal watchdog group Judicial Watch has filed lawsuits against several Bush administration agencies for failure to produce documents concerning the terrorist anthrax attacks of last October, the organization announced today..."

Didn't See This On the Net Yet
Have you seen how if you fold your twenty dollar bill into an airplane on one side it shows the crashed pentagon and on the other the crashed world trade center? now that's too weird!
Here's directions:

fold $20 bill lengthwise so that only the greenback is showing. Hold it so the lower half of the White House is facing you.
draw an imaginary line down the middle, holding the bill lengthwise
fold ends diagonally toward each other, like you were making an airplane.
The scene of the World Trade Center is now facing you, upside down. Turn it over and around and first look at the Pentagon attack. Can you see the flames? The trees make the smoke. Now turn it over, the two buildings look just as they did that day, etched in time, on the back of our $20!!!. Even the location of the crashes is eerily resembled in the folded depiction. Again, can you see the flames? How odd that you must fold the twenty like an airplane to see this!

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