Terabyte Discs
The new man on the hot seat is Judge Michael Chertoff, nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Chertoff was hip-deep in creating -- and covering up -- the infamous White House "torture memos": carefully detailed guidelines from the desk of President George W. Bush that instigated a global system of documented torture, rape and murder.
Before Bush elevated him to the federal bench, Chertoff headed the Justice Department's criminal division, where he was frequently consulted by the CIA and the White House on ways to weasel around the very clear U.S. laws against torture, The New York Times reports. Bush and his legal staff, then headed by Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales, were openly concerned with "avoiding prosecution for war crimes" under some future administration that might lack the Bushists' finely nuanced view of ramming phosphorous lightsticks up a kidnapped detainee's rectum, or other enlightened methods employed in the administration's crusade to defend civilization from barbarity.
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This is thug law, a death-cult of blood and domination -- the true religion of the Bushists and their mirror-image crimelords in al-Qaida.
# Garry Reed, The Loose Cannon Libertarian - Aid for Dependent Corporatcrats - on "corporate welfare".
So let's connect the dots. We have a government, currently run by one re-elected Bush, which collects copious coins from its citizens under the threat of severe penalty (re: IRS), reroutes millions of that money into corporate cashboxes, who in turn (under threat of antitrust busting) churn out checks to champion the re-coronation celebration of one re-elected Bush.
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So the next time you hear those antiglobalization protesters howl, "Capitalism sucks!" try explaining to them that we don't have capitalism, what we have is a kind of Socialist Fascist Marxist Corporatcratic Mercantilism.
# Charley Hardman - Hope and Life - Mr. Hardman has nearly lost hope of ever being able to live free in the supposed land of the free. I, like him, wish there were someone I could kill to stop the assholes from stealing my money, but all I really want, like Mr. Hardman and Carl Drega, is to be left alone. [saltypig]
Which brings me back to hope. As Bastiat noted long ago, men naturally seek to live as efficiently as possible, and some won't think twice about gaining their "efficiency" at your expense. But between covert thieves and overt despots lies that most elusive yet plentiful animal, the Self-Righteous Chickenshit (SRC). SRCs can be thought of in two blurred classes -- rule maker and rule follower -- neither of which has enough balls to rape you to your face; they must use procedures and agents (a collective). You don't pay "your taxes", a procedure kicks in. If you strenuously resist this procedure (as rightfully you may) you will eventually be killed. And those who participated in your killing (conspiracy to commit murder) will be lauded as having done their jobs.
# David Codrea - Merchants of Death - an article that Guns & Ammo was afraid to publish naming corporations that push gun control. Dannon Yogurt, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Sara Lee, Levi Strauss, Disney, Toys-R-Us, Hyatt, Time-Warner, 7-Eleven, Zany Brainy, and many more available from a list at NRA-ILA. [codrea]
# Jake Ellison at The Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Anti-war group targets on-campus military recruiters - good for them. [root]
# Alan Gottlieb via U.S. Newswire - Stop Suicides, Close Golden Gate Bridge,' Gun Rights Group Suggests - makes as much sense as eliminating handguns, but I doubt the idiots in San Francisco's gummint will think so. [kaba]
# Michael Kanellos at CNet - Group aims to drastically up disc storage - a terabyte, 200 DVDs, on one Holographic Versatile Disk (HVD), should be possible with this new technology. No word on commercial ship date. [root]
