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Zes op de tien PvdA-kiezers vinden dat hun partij wel met een initiatiefwet voor een referendum over het nieuwe Europese verdrag moet instemmen.

Bijna de helft (47 procent) vindt het zelfs “kiezersbedrog” dat de PvdA-fractie in de Tweede Kamer niet meewerkt aan het houden van een volksraadpleging.

Dat blijkt dinsdag uit een peiling van Maurice de Hond.

En wedden dat de PVDA in de peiling niet opeens ook 47 procent van de zetels kwijt is? Stelletje schapen.

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Newsday story about a 35-year-old woman named Jennifer Flynn, an activist who works for getting funding and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients. She noticed that cars were tailing her over long distances as she drove around visiting her family. She wrote down the license plate of one of the cars, and it’s registered to a phantom company at a non-existent address.

The license plate number traces back to a company - Pequot Inc. - and a post office box at an address far from the five boroughs. Registering unmarked cars to post office boxes outside the city or to shell companies is a common practice of law enforcement agencies to shield undercover investigators.

…..

The street named on the license-plate printout exists, though the address doesn’t. An auto-shop worker on the block suggests checking with the post office. When Postmaster Bonnie Colgan and an assistant are shown the printout, they stop dead in their tracks.

There’s a Pequot Capital Management in midtown and a Pequot Construction in the Bronx. But no Pequot Inc. in Amenia.

“That’s not a real company,” the assistant says. “The people who used that box, they’re from New York. They used to come here and get the mail, but not anymore.”

Colgan is tempted to elaborate, but doesn’t.

“I can’t because of the sensitive nature of the issue,” she says.

Link

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I rather like Chris Dodd’s view on the President’s threat to veto S-CHIP funding:

“While he reportedly plans to call for up to $200 billion to continue a war that his top general can’t even say is making the country safer, George Bush is rejecting the idea that we would spend less than one third of that amount for the health of America’s children.

“That says all that needs to be said about this President’s priorities.”

Of course, that’s a bit unfair: Bush is vetoing this bill not because it’s too costly, but because giving uninsured children health coverage will make them dependent on the teat of the state, and we don’t want the little parasites nursing at the Department of Health and Human Services forever.

But a point of clarification: Though Bush is constantly complaining that “Congress has made a decision to expand [SCHIP] eligibility up to $80,000,” and that children whose parents make that much shouldn’t get health insurance, or should have to pay for it out of their allowance, or something. But as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found, “at least 85 percent of the otherwise-uninsured children who would gain coverage under the bill have incomes below states’ current SCHIP eligibility limits.” In other words, the new funding isn’t going to expand the program’s cutoffs so much as allow it to fulfill it’s current obligations, which, for now, it lacks the money to actually do. If the compromise S-CHIP bill passes, the states will be able to reorient the program to covering all children beneath the cut-off, rather than keeping quiet to effectively ration — yes, ration — the coverage.

But that’s the reality of Bush’s position. It’s not so much his funding preferences that are at work. Rather, his ideology called for the government to pursue a hopeless war that’s killed thousands and triggered a sectarian civil war, but is outraged by the idea of the government helping children attain health coverage.

Ah, compassionate conservatism.

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Tucker substitute host David Shuster confronts Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) about the blatant hypocrisy of the Republican party when he asks about Rush Limbaugh’s Senator Betrayus smear against Senator Chuck Hagel and all Blackburn wants to do is rehash tired slams against the New York Times over the MoveOn ad.

[..]

Shuster: “Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last solider from your district who was killed in Iraq?”

Blackburn:”The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq uh - from my district I - I do not know his name -”

Shuster: “Ok, his name was Jeremy Bohannon, he was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?”

Blackburn: “I - I, you know, I - I do not know why I did not know the name…” [Snip]

Shuster: “But you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man, he was 18 years old who was killed, and yet you can say chapter and verse about what’s going on with the New York Times and Move On.org.” [Snip]

Shuster: “But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? I mean, here we have a war that took the life of an 18 year old kid, Jeremy Bohannon from your district, and you didn’t even know his name.”

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I have to admit I always wondered what would happen if you landed with the parking brake on. I guess now I know. You’ve got to give the guy some credit for keeping the aircraft under control. I wonder if this is covered under Embraer’s warranty.

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A supporter of Rudy Giuliani’s is throwing a party that aims to raise $9.11 per person for the Republican’s presidential campaign.

Abraham Sofaer is having a fundraiser at his Palo Alto, Calif., home on Wednesday, when Giuliani backers across the country are participating in the campaign’s national house party night.

I’m glad they set President Ahmadinejad of Iran straight about visiting Ground Zero. In the USA, nobody is allowed to exploit 9/11 for political gain unless they’ve got an (R) after their name.

and talking about Iran, here’s a list of the complaints that are currently thrown around about Iran:

Large state-sponsor of terrorism.
Taking over Iran in 1953.
Funding terrorists and IEDs in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Executes homosexuals.
Stones adulterers.
Seeking nuclear weapons - to use.
Wants to annihilate Islamic holy sites, states and/or Muslims.

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More than 100 inmates in orange jumpsuits flashed gang signs and screamed at the four Oakland teenagers entering San Quentin Prison’s cell block courtyard, urging the youths to join them and to “keep thuggin’.” One boy turned his head, wincing as his gaze fell on an open-air toilet.

This recent trip to California’s most notorious prison was a chance for the youths — three of whom live in a group home — to see that street life ends one of two ways: dead or behind bars.

“Welcome to the garbage can of society,” inmate guide Jeff Elkins told the group.

[..]

Based on current trends, 32 percent of black males will enter state or federal prison during their lifetime, compared with 17 percent of Hispanic males and 5.9 percent of white males.

Personally, I tend to think that if you’re locking away a third of an entire population, it’s not the population that is at fault.

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Stel, als onbekend anoniem maar zuinig ict-bedrijf wil je jezelf eindelijk eens goed in de markt zetten, maar een professionele GeenStijl CovertMarketingOperation is net even wat te duur. Dan verzin je toch zelf wat? Dat is nou precies wat Ciber deed, een ICT-klup die vooral onder de rivieren en op de NYSE actief is. Vanochtend veroorzaakte de directeur, samen met zijn marketingmedewerkers een file van in totaal bijna 30 kilometer op de A2 tusen Utrecht en Den Bosch. File in BEIDE richtingen door een ludieke actie waarbij de it-ers koffie uitdeelden op de snelweg. Ze verlengden de ‘gewone’ file en veroorzaakten eveneens een kijkersfile van 6 kilometer in tegengestelde richting. Dat is niet alleen heel dom maar ook heel erg strafbaar (Wegenverkeerswet artikel 5). De koffieuitdelers wisten arrestatie door de KLPD ternauwernood te voorkomen door snel weg te rijden toen de boel uit de hand liep. As we speak zijn ze op weg naar headquarters en gaan nu koffie uitdelen op scholen. Nou geen koffie aan kleine kinderen geven hé!
Update: Volgens het KLPD was de ‘fileaangroei’ als gevolg van de actie 11 kilometer richting Utrecht en 7 kilometer in zuidelijke richting, als gevolg van lekkere blonde dames in een gepimpte chevy.

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The Hill Times is reporting that Patricia Neri, the Director General of Copyright Policy at Canadian Heritage has been removed from her position to become a special advisor to Assistant Deputy Minister Jean-Pierre Blais with “duties still to be determined.” While people move all the time in government, this development is noteworthy - not just because it comes mere weeks before a copyright bill may be unveiled, but because there are mounting rumours that the move comes as a direct result of a conflict of interest concerns.

Personnel at the Copyright Policy branch were advised by email late last week that the move was for “personal reasons,” though Neri apparently stopped coming into work soon after Labour Day. According to multiple sources, the personal reason involves a personal relationship with one of Canada’s leading copyright lobbyists.

While Neri’s personal life is no one’s business but her own, this does raise troubling questions about the quick passage of Bill C-59, the anti-camcording legislation, since Neri appeared as a witness before a Senate hearing on the bill with the lobbyist in the room. The Privy Council Office places particular responsibility on public servants that appear before a Parliamentary committee since they do so on behalf of the Minister.

from the comments:

The good professor neglects to mention the name of the copyright lobbyist in question. The talk is that it is Douglas Frith, head of the movie industry in Canada.

And Doug Frith is the brother of…Royce Frith, the former Liberal MP, cabinet minister and high commissioner to London…what a happy family.

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Simply when you try to multiply 850 by 77.1 excel display the result to be 100000 !!!

It appears all multiplications where 65,535 is the answer are at risk. Here is an interesting theory about the cause of the bug.

(Microsoft is already working on a fix: they will be disabling multiplication in all future versions of Excel.)

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They’re fighting for our freedoms. And in order to fight for our freedoms, thousands of miles away from home, thousands of miles from their sweethearts and husbands/wives, they must be kept pure and without sin. Therefore, Christian groups demand the military not allow PX stores to sell porn (aka Playboy).

A Christian advocacy group is encouraging military families, and other concerned citizens, to write letters to the Defense Department expressing concern over the recent decision by the Pentagon that allows the sale of certain adult magazines at military exchanges.
…
Trueman says the Alliance Defense Fund is encouraging citizens to get involved in this fight over this pornography policy. “What we’re going to do is try to get more and more complaints into the military about this policy. Because in justifying this policy by the military what they’ve said [is] they’ve had few complaints from families about the sale of pornography in the military,” he says.

Trueman says sexual harassment and other problems in the military are exacerbated by pornography. He says this new policy, of deeming magazines like Penthouse and Playboy as not sexually explicit, counters common sense.

Gambling on military bases is ok though, because what could they do better with their hard-earned cash? Surely, not send it home to family or save it, instead it’s best if casinos on bases ensure their paychecks end up right back in military coffers. It’s the best possible situation, because then they have less to spend on porn.

One comment from the One News Now article:

How sad! To take a wonderful human being and turn her into a sex object. How evil. Even the taliban has respect for the sacredness of the female body.

Posted by MJ | September 20, 2007 4:56 PM