STATEMENT

This bill would require an operator of any interactive computer service or an Internet service provider to establish, maintain and enforce a policy requiring an information content provider who posts messages on a public forum website either to be identified by legal name and address or to register a legal name and address with the operator or provider prior to posting messages on a public forum website.

The bill requires an operator of an interactive computer service or an Internet service provider to establish and maintain reasonable procedures to enable any person to request and obtain disclosure of the legal name and address of an information content provider who posts false or defamatory information about the person on a public forum website.

In addition, the bill makes any operator or Internet service provider liable for compensatory and punitive damages as well as costs of a law suit filed by a person damaged by the posting of such messages if the operator or Internet service provider fails to establish, maintain and enforce the policy required by section 2 of the bill.

Oh boy, here we go.

New Jersey bill prohibits anonymous internet posts

From infosthetics.org:

animated visualization simulating the US & coalition military fatalities that occured in Iraq, shown in the context of time & (geographical) space. the animation runs at 10 frames per second, one frame for each day, with data taken from icasualties.org. might be interesting to overlay this with a similar chart consisting of Iraqi casualties over the same timeframe?

...

April and November of 2004 really stand out in this kind of visualization. There's also sound that varies in volume to go along with the plots.

Iraq War Coalition Fatalities

Abu Dayya sources some of his flags from suppliers in Taiwan, but he buys Israeli flags from a merchant in Israel, even though he sells them to be burnt at anti-Israeli rallies.

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What a zany world we live in. This could be lifted straight out of The Onion.

Gaza shopkeeper stocks up on Danish flags to burn

Decius wrote:

Iran has started moving its foreign exchange reserves out of Europe in a bid to shield the country from the threat of sanctions, reports suggest.

9/11 may have caught you by suprise, but whatever goes down with Iran, say you knew it was coming...

Iran is opening its own oil exchange in March. All petrochemicals will be priced in Euros.

Iran - A threat to the petrodollar?

Another smart move on Iran's part.

RE: BBC NEWS | Business | Iran 'moves assets out of Europe'

The Federal Communications Commission thinks you have the right to use software on your computer only if the FBI approves.

No, really. In an obscure "policy" document released around 9 p.m. ET last Friday, the FCC announced this remarkable decision.

According to the three-page document, to preserve the openness that characterizes today's Internet, "consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement." Read the last seven words again.

FBI to get veto power over PC software?

wilpig wrote:

On the heels of a report earlier this week that Atlanta area Katrina victims were using $2,000 debit cards to purchase luxury items like Louis Vuitton handbags, Houston police yesterday discovered the cards, provided by FEMA and the Red Cross, being used at local strip clubs.

The Houston Police Department just formed a task force to investigate the abuse of the cards, which were distributed to thousands of Katrina hurricane victims to provide for necessities, such as food, clothing and toiletries. On the first day, the police found the cards being used to buy beer while ogling exotic dancers.

I just can't get enough about these cards getting abused.

Yeah, I cringed when I heard we were just going to GIVE people money to spend any way they want. For those not keeping score on the FEMA cards, that means YOUR tax money was used to subsidize this.

RE: WorldNetDaily: Storm-relief money spent at strip clubs

Decius wrote:

President George W. Bush said federal relief efforts in Gulf states ravaged by Hurricane Katrina are so far are "not acceptable.''

NOLA mayor agrees. WTF is FEMA doing?!

This is an interesting analysis of FEMA statements contrasting with others more close to the situation:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

RE: Bush blasts releif efforts

Dagmar wrote:

Assuming they actually manage to rebuild New Orleans, that is.

I don't think they should. When I first learned about the geography of New Orleans in middle school, I thought to myself, "What happens if a hurricane hits it?"

We're seeing the answer now. Sometimes common sense isn't so common. Generation after generation just kept building more stuff there. No one remembered the lesson of Galveston, TX in 1900 it seems.

I feel sorry for everyone in New Orleans who died because of or is suffering from this hurricane, but the land is not a practical place to have a city. I'm reminded of Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England."

RE: New Orleans Decends Into Barbarism

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which processes loads from tankers too large for mainland ports, evacuated all workers and stopped unloading ships on Saturday morning said Mark Bugg, the terminal's manager of scheduling. The LOOP, 20 miles offshore, is the nation's largest oil import terminal and handles 11 percent of U.S. oil imports.

Katrina Targeting U.S. Oil Operations

Wal-Mart LP's Kill Suspected Shoplifter

Man held down on burning pavement until he died

Wal-Mart loss prevention workers tackled a man suspected of stealing diapers - a new father with a two month old child - holding him down with a choke hold and knee to the back while he was shirtless on the scalding pavement of a Wal-Mart parking lot in Texas.

The incident was witnessed by dozens of shoppers, including a prominent Texas attorney, Charles Portz:

Charles Portz said he was getting out of his car when he saw a heavy blonde haired man being chased by five people who appeared to be security or store employees. He said he saw them wrestling the man to the ground. "The blacktop was extremely hot," said Portz "He had no shirt on and they wouldn't let him up off the blacktop." He said one of the men had Driver in a chokehold and had his knee in the back of his neck as the men tried to subdue him. "He kept trying to get up and they kept pushing him back down," Portz said.

According to Portz, Driver began to plead with them men. "He's begging, 'Please call an ambulance, let me up, do something, I'm gonna die," said Portz. He said the loss prevention employees called the police more than once, but another bystander called for an ambulance after realizing Driver was in trouble. Portz said he eventually began to plead with the Walmart employees. "I told them, this guy doesn't look like he's breathing," Portz said, "They said, 'He's all right." He says he continued to plead with the men, pointing out that the man's fingernails were turning gray. "They said he's just high on something," adding, "They just kept him pinned down for twenty minutes or more until the ambulance came." He said he believed Driver was dead when the ambulance left with him, but he was not certain.

The store employees could not have known that the witness who was pleading with them to let Driver get up from the hot pavement was a high profile Houston attorney, from the Portz and Portz law firm. He said after the man was handcuffed he continued trying in vain to persuade the Walmart employees to allow him to get up, even pointing out that a second pair of cuffs could be used to attach the ones already on Driver to a nearby truck trailer. "The problem is they kept him down on the blistering concrete with no shirt on," Portz reiterated. He said law enforcement arrived at about the same time as the ambulance.

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Very sad. I believe people who practice frontier justice should receive it as well. I know the death of this piece of shit employee won't bring the guy back to life, but he definately deserves a similar fate.

At least have him held down in a choke hold on hot pavement for about half an hour, let him see how he fares.

Walmart Kills Houston Man for Shoplifting