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This might seem a little harsh, but according to the New York Times:
The era of tax-free e-mail, Internet shopping and broadband connections could end this fall, if recent proposals in the U.S. Congress prove successful.
So goodbye to internet at the library, free email accounts, and all the other things that make the internet attractive. One of the reasons why all these taxes are being proposed might be to stifle public debate. By taxing all the email and other methods of communicating via the internet, congress is basically attacking the very freedom of speech.
This could also have to do with the cries from the big media players that the internet is killing their profits. Nice to know that our politicians are looking out for the big media players again. It would be nice to have politicians who actually cared about freedom and liberty for a change. The 2008 election may decide more than we think, and there is only one candidate who has constantly advocated a no new taxes, hands off the internet policy, and that is Ron Paul.
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From Judicial Watch:
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. Three deaths were related to the vaccine. One physician’s assistant reported that a female patient “died of a blood clot three hours after getting the Gardasil vaccine.” Two other reports, on girls 12 and 19, reported deaths relating to heart problems and/or blood clotting.
As of May 11, 2007, the 1,637 adverse vaccination reactions reported to the FDA via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) included 371 serious reactions. Of the 42 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 18 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormities.
And this vaccine is being pushed on girls as young as 9? Is this country insane? The FDA is for sale, and the American people are treated as lab animals by the oligarchs in power. At some point people need to wake up before it’s too late.
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Accord to the Nevada Appeal,
Vees said the girl has been determined by her doctor to have Guillain-Barre syndrome, an acute, autoimmune condition that can lead to paralysis.
The girl, whose mother Rhonda Vega is a full-time teacher’s aide at Carson Valley Middle School, received her first booster shot of the cervical cancer prevention vaccine Gardasil on May 2.
“According to her neurologist, that’s what caused this,” said Vees,
Gee that sounds bad. But of course since the manufacturer and the CDC don’t list this as a recognized side effect, it’s not considered to be (kinda like VIOXX) . Nice to know that this little tested, brand new, vaccine is being mandated by the government for young teenage girls. The article continues:
Vees cites a Feb. 21 report on the National Vaccine Information Center Web site, nvic.org, in which NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher states, “There are twice as many children collapsing and four times as many children experiencing tingling, numbness and loss of sensation after getting a Gardasil vaccination compared to those getting a TDAP (tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis) vaccination. There have been reports of facial paralysis and Guillain-Barre syndrome.”But it’s all good, because for the next 5 years or so, these girls will have a lower chance of getting some kinds of sexually transmitted viruses, and of course since the push for this vaccine to be mandatory, it must mean that the government thinks that girls 12-17 have a high chance of being sexually active, and being at risk for the targeted viruses, and that they have weighed the risks of using little tested drugs on a wide variety of people.
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According Reuters, “undocumented workers” are beginning to sue their employers for violating their rights. The specific case in the article is not unique according to the attorney for the exploited workers:
“In a lot of ways, what they did unfortunately is not out of the ordinary. The practices are very common in a wide range of workplaces, especially those that use predominantly immigrant workers,” said Audrey Richardson, an attorney with Greater Boston Legal Services, which represents the workers.
Hinting that more companies will face these actions for hiring “undocumented workers”. The problem for businesses who choose to do so is that they put the future of their company at risk. At any time a disgruntled employee can cause a tsunami of legal problems, most of which wouldn’t even be an issue if the companies would have just followed the law in the first place (note: I don’t think that there is a federal mandate to regulate wage and price controls).
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New Scientist reports, that according to some fringe scientist at the Max Plank Institute,
The implications of the findings are worrying: on a global scale, Keppler estimated, methane emissions from plants and trees could amount to hundreds of millions of tonnes a year, throwing scientists’ understanding of the greenhouse gas’s sources and sinks way off kilter.
Gee, I wonder what other things might be missing from the computer climate models, or even from the Al Gorified model?
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Larry Agustin discusses Microsoft’s patent claims, and states:
Gutierrez and Microsoft aren’t interested in intellectual property rights. They’re not interested in allowing the Open Source world to defend itself. They’re not interested in a fair fight. Like a bully, they refuse to face the Open Source world in a fair fight, instead hinting at willful infringement and making backhanded threats.
I can’t help but agree in part, because, in my opinion, the claims of willful infringement mean that Microsoft should have reason to believe that the patents were knowingly violated. This means two things:
1. That the people who wrote the components that supposedly infringe are in places where the patents are valid (big if).
2. That the distributors of the software were also aware of the supposedly protected methods being used (an even bigger if).
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The RIAA continues to aggressively go after people who “illegally download music”. According to BrietBart.com:
At first, Sarah Barg thought the e-mail was a scam. Some group called the Recording Industry Association of America was accusing the University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomore of illegally downloading 381 songs using the school’s computer network and a program called Ares.
However, I believe that this story is slightly incorrect, I think the issue is that Ms. Barg redistributed the files (i.e. she wanted to “give back ” and not “be a leech”), as most P2P filesharing programs redistribute the file as you are “downloading” it.
That said, it’s a sad commentary on the fate of freedom, when a person supposedly commits a crime by clicking a link of something. While it would be nice to blame the RIAA, the problem is related to where the RIAA files suit against people with little or no real evidence. The fact that the courts have allowed the RIAA to sue people, while at the same time declaring other cases frivolous when brought by persons with less resources shows that the courts in the United States are skewed to favor wealthy litigants. Growlaw.net documents one such case where a well funded litigant has been able to drag companies through the courts for years on a case with what appears to be little basis for the action.
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According to PostGazzette.com,
It’s at least part of the reason companies such as British Airways, Nike Inc. and Pizza Hut International allow their workers nap breaks and find productivity increased as a result. A NASA study found that a short nap can boost workers’ output by as much as 34 percent.
Wow, a 34% increase in productivity. It would seem to make sense to have a policy that allows people to take regenerative breaks then.
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While the Ron Paul website is a good place to go for Ron Paul’s announcements, Technocrati seems to have the most frequently updated news about Ron Paul.
For some reason Yahoo, MySpace, etc. have decided to block news about Ron Paul. Apparently he is some kind of threat to the status quo, and so should be marginalized.
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According to AP, Millions of people are turning off their televisions.
Of course, it can’t be because people are realizing that they are being LIED TO. Nope it’s just that people are time shifting shows, or bored with television, etc.
So nothing will change over at the mainstream media, they will keep feeding people the same old stuff, and threaten to sue everyone who might report about it.
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According to RenewAmerica. Ron Paul won the republican debates on May 3, 2007, but is ignored by the major media because, according to RenewAmerica:
when it comes to Washington politics, there are only three considerations that even register with big-media: money, money, and money.
That’s right. It’s not about what the people want, it’s all about Money. This is why Ron Paul is ignored by the media, and many places (i.e. GopBlogger, for instance) refuse to list Ron Paul on their polls, because he tends to win when he is listed.
Ron Paul is a true conservative, he supported Reagan in 1976, he supports the constitution and he scares the people who are addicted to big government, both the fake republicans and the fake democrats, both of whom seem to always be able to agree to spend more money every year. So these elite groups, which care only about money, and are STEALING the future from the children of America, have decided to boycott Ron Paul, and Embargo the news about him. So much for impartial news.
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Over at MSNBC.COM, they are reporting:
In the first Republican debate of the 2008 campaign, the 10 most prominent contenders walked a fine line on the war.
That is totally horse hockey, Ron Paul, came out and spoke against the Iraq war, and was singled out by Chris Mathews for being against the war. I guess MSNBC has a “We decide, We Decide” policy. Since they don’t want Ron Paul to be a contender, they just pretend he doesn’t exist.
Of course, there might be a different explanation, maybe the writer at MSNBC just wrote his report BEFORE the debates based on the questions that he had. At least that would be more honest that deliberately misleading people about Ron Paul.
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Apparently the makers of the HD-DVD are concerned about the publication of a number (article at 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0) that is used to “encrypt” HD-DVD disks. At this point the cat is out of the bag so to speak, but I am sure that the courts in America will be filled with people litigating this issue for years to come. The reality is that people throughout the world already have this number, and are going to do whatever they are going to do with it, and in fact, litigating the issue will only serve to put this number into court documents (DUH!), which are public records.
In any case, I think that no one person OWNS a number. Just because I use a number like 13 256 278 887 989 457 651 018 865 901 401 704 640 for some purpose does not give me exclusive rights to that number, and I hate that America has become so restrictive that the mere mention of a number can result in threats to sue.
The original article about this was at Doom9.org, but of course, could be deleted at any time due to the “Freedom of speech” being eliminated in America. -
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A company is now marketing new sound technology that beams sound directly into people’s heads. According to Boston.com,:
Court TV recently installed the audio spotlight in ceilings of bookstores to promote the network’s new murder-mystery show. A voice, whispering, “Hey, you, can you hear me? Do you ever think about murder?” was beamed toward customers as they browsed the mystery section in several independent bookstores in New York.
Sounds a little creepy to me. Sounds beamed into peoples ears. People used to laugh when someone claimed to hear voices, now we find out that commercially available technology is available to do just that.
