John Kerry’s debate prep session (as imagined by Harry Shearer)

And probably also very realistic:

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For four days, John Kerry has huddled with his top advisers in a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired resort in the low hills of south-central Wisconsin, being drilled on foreign-policy details and practicing what for him is a most elusive objective: brevity.

For Kerry aides, preparing the Massachusetts Democrat to debate President Bush on foreign policy tonight has had less to do with providing him material – he inhales facts the way a Hoover vacuums a carpet – and more with restraining him from exhaling it all back when asked a question.

Kerry held four full-length mock debates with aides, said Stephanie Cutter, his communications director. Each was videotaped, and Kerry and his aides watched the tapes afterward to look for any ways he could improve his performance. Aides used a buzzer to help him keep his answers short.

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The U.S. Supreme Court Monday let stand a lower-court ruling that telemarketers’ rights to free speech are not violated by the government’s nationwide do-not-call list.

Without comment, the justices rejected an appeal by commercial telemarketers against the lower-court ruling, which upheld as constitutional the popular program in which consumers can put their names on a list if they do not want to be called by telemarketers.

“We hold that the do-not-call registry is a valid commercial speech regulation because it directly advances the government’s important interests in safeguarding personal privacy and reducing the danger of telemarketing abuse without burdening an excessive amount of speech,” the appeals court said.

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SpaceShipOne achieved its most spectacular flight yet, climbing to an altitude of 364,000 feet (70 miles), eight miles beyond what was needed to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

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The most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen’.

–Steve Ballmer (CEO Microsoft)

You know, my iPod has only music I own the CD for (95%), or I got legally in another way (such as the new hitch-hiker episodes or some dutch radio comedy (5%). Mister Ballmer can go kiss my ass, calling me a thief like that. And if he thinks he’s going to be able to shove his DRM crap down my throat he’s got another thing coming.

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A series of billboards around the Twin Cities that brazenly declare “DON’T VOTE” have angered civil rights activists.

Fifteen of the billboards have sprung up in Minneapolis, St. Paul and its suburbs in the last few days. Several are in areas with large minority populations, including the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis, leading the NAACP and other groups to criticize even the suggestion that citizens shouldn’t exercise the right to vote.

“This is a highly sensitive election season, and to put it in areas like the Phillips neighborhood, that’s a minority community that’s been disenfranchised enough,” Brett Buckner, NAACP branch president in Minneapolis, said Friday. “I don’t care what kind of campaign this is, that community’s been through enough.”

The billboards are owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc. Lee Ann Muller, the company’s general manager for outdoor advertising in Minnesota, wouldn’t say who is paying for the billboards, but said it’s a “teaser” campaign and its full meaning would become clear soon.

“I made the judgment call that the end of the campaign has value and a positive message, positive benefits for the community,” Muller said.

Muller said the sponsor, which is paying about $60,000 to have the billboards up for a month, is not advertising a product. She said the “reveal,” when new billboards replace the “DON’T VOTE” message, would be Oct. 11.

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Soviet Russia was famous for its smokestack industries, belching noxious fumes in pursuit of quixotic five-year plans. It took on, as a national mission, the “subjection of nature’s forces to man�?, as Karl Marx had so memorably put it. The downfall of red Russia was thus a triumph for greens everywhere. As the “evil empire�? collapsed, a sizeable chunk of its dirty industry soon followed. This week, the post-Soviet Russia of President Vladimir Putin provided another victory for the environmentalists. On Thursday September 30th, Mr Putin’s government approved the Kyoto protocol, the 1997 treaty that aims to curb greenhouse gases. With Russia in, the treaty can finally come into effect, seven years after it was agreed.

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In an attempt to use John Kerry’s words against him, the Bush/Cheney campaign has taken two words uttered by him at Thursday’s presidential debate and begun using them in a misleading way that contradicts the Democratic presidential candidate’s position.

The deceptive attack is best captured in a new ad released by the Bush/Cheney campaign, which features the following script:

He said he’d attack terrorists who threaten America. But at the debate, John Kerry said America must pass a “global test” before we protect ourselves.
The Kerry doctrine: A global test.
So we must seek permission from foreign governments before protecting America?
A global test?
So America will be forced to wait while threats gather?
President Bush believes decisions about protecting America should be made in the Oval Office, not foreign capitals.

Kerry did say that he believes a preemptive war waged by the US should pass a “global test.” But in context, his meaning was quite different than what the Bush campaign is claiming: “But if and when you do it, Jim,” Kerry said to Jim Lehrer of PBS, the debate moderator, “you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you’re doing what you’re doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.”

Clearly, Kerry meant that a President must be able to demonstrate to the world that the preemptive war is being waged for legitimate reasons, not that foreign governments must provide “permission.”

In fact, Kerry said the exact opposite at another point in the debate. In his very first answer of the night, the Democratic candidate said, “I’ll never give a veto to any country over our security.”

The misleading quote isn’t only being used in a Bush ad. The President has also made it part of his stump speech. Speaking October 1, the day after the debate, in Lehigh, Pennsylvania, he said, “One other point I want to make about the debate last night. Senator Kerry last night said that America has to pass some sort of global test before we can use American troops to defend ourselves. He wants our national security decisions subject to the approval of a foreign government.”

The President has even gone so far as to call this out of context quote the “Kerry doctrine.”

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Poland, which has sent troops to support the US-led forces in Iraq, has acknowledged its “ultimate objective” is to acquire supplies of Iraqi oil.

The Polish Foreign Minister, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, said his country had never disguised the fact that it sought direct access to the oilfields.

He was speaking as a group of Polish firms signed a deal with a subsidiary of US Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company, Halliburton.

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The recent controversy surrounding CBS News documents related to President Bush’s National Guard service demonstrated how the reliability and validity of documents must be examined before they are accepted as truth. In the same way, when considering Christianity, one must examine the reliability of the Bible, the foundation of the Christian faith. Upon careful review, one will find that the Bible is not only the most distributed, most translated and most unique religious text in the world, but it is one of the most verifiable and reliable documents in history, religious or otherwise.

C. Sanders, in the Introduction to Research in English Literary History, explains tests that determine a book’s historical reliability. The three tests are the bibliographical test (examining the manuscripts that exist), the internal evidence test (is the whole book consistent with itself?), and the external evidence test (can outside sources verify the contents of the book?). In using these academic tests, one will find that, indeed, the Bible is unrivaled in its historical accuracy.

I kept expecting a punch line, but apparently this guy is absolutely serious.

It’s the one thing that will confuse W. and paralyze him in a moment of crisis.

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The patriots at Free Republic have uncovered a Kerry dirty trick so vile, it threatens the very foundation of our democracy.

Posted on 10/01/2004 11:59:30 AM PDT by Lazamataz

I noticed something last night.

G.W. Bush’s necktie was askew. It looked unprofessional. I wondered HOW in the heck that could have happened.

Then during the replay, I saw how it happened. When Kerry greeted Bush, Kerry held on to Bush’s hand as Bush was walking away. Bush was forced to awkwardly stretch his torso, dislodging the correct placement of the tie.

I initially thought it was all happenstance. But on further review, I saw that Kerry made a point of adjusting his tie after the handshake, just in case the manuever dislodged his too.

Maybe it was an accident, maybe not. I think not. If anyone has contacts to Bush, please advise them of this possible purposeful action, or at the very least, MAKE SURE BUSH’S TIE IS STRAIGHT. I was focused on the tie, it looked so sloppy.

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Uit een onderzoek van Bits of Freedom naar de praktijk van notice en takedown bij internetproviders blijkt dat het merendeel van de providers veel te snel ingrijpt bij klachten en websites radicaal verwijdert. Juist omdat providers met één druk op de knop teksten kunnen blokkeren, vormt de lakse omgang met klachten een ernstige bedreiging voor de vrijheid van meningsuiting online.

Voor de test heeft Bits of Freedom een tekst uit 1871 uitgekozen van Multatuli (pseudoniem van Eduard Douwes Dekker) en bij 10 verschillende providers online gezet. Vervolgens heeft de fictieve ‘juridisch adviseur van het E.D. Dekkers genootschap’, Mr. Johan Droogleever, via een gratis Hotmail adres een klacht gestuurd aan alle providers. In 70% van de gevallen bleken de providers de tekst te verwijderen, zonder verder te kijken naar de pagina of de twijfelachtige herkomst van de klager.

Het auteursrecht op werken verstrijkt 70 jaar na de dood van de auteur. Douwes Dekker overleed in 1887. Sinds 1957 behoren al zijn werken dus tot het publieke domein. Deze basiskennis van het auteursrecht blijkt helaas niet aanwezig bij de meeste internetproviders. Vooral bij zakelijke websites zou je verwachten dat de provider de belangen van zijn klant zwaar laat wegen, maar alle drie de geteste zakelijke hostingproviders (Active 24, iFast en Yourhosting) verwijderden de website, één zelfs binnen drie uur. Ook twee gratis toegangsproviders, Tiscali en Wanadoo, verwijderen de tekst zonder verdere vragen aan de klager. Een Hotmail adres volstaat dus om een website te verwijderen. De drie geteste betaalde toegangsproviders (Demon, Planet Internet en XS4ALL) hanteerden een procedure met een schriftelijke vragenlijst. Maar alleen XS4ALL bekeek de website daadwerkelijk en constateerde dat het werk tot het publiek domein behoorde. UPC liet weten geen klachten te accepteren van een niet-verifieerbaar Hotmail adres en liet de tekst ook staan. Freeler reageerde in het geheel niet op de klacht en deed niets.

Onder de Europese richtlijn voor elektronische handel uit 2000 riskeert een provider zware claims als het gaat om materiaal waarvan ze ‘redelijkerwijs behoort te weten’ dat het een onrechtmatig karakter heeft. Hoe een provider iets zou ‘behoren’ te weten is onduidelijk gebleven. Providers hoeven niet actief alle informatie te controleren, maar moeten na een klacht zelf beoordelen of een homepage of website misschien onrechtmatig is. Aan die beoordeling en aan de verdere procedure zijn geen verdere regels verbonden. Die zelf-regulering blijkt in de praktijk te leiden tot cowboy-rechtspraak.

Bits of Freedom pleit daarom voor een precieze afbakening van de aansprakelijkheid van providers, en een concrete invulling van de notice en takedown procedure, met ruimte voor hoor en wederhoor. Providers zouden materialen alleen moeten verwijderen als er onmiddellijk gevaar dreigt, als de onrechtmatigheid daadwerkelijk onmiskenbaar is of er als er aantoonbaar grote financiële schade dreigt. In alle andere gevallen zouden websites online moeten blijven totdat de rechter een oordeel heeft uitgesproken. Ten slotte pleit Bits of Freedom voor jaarlijkse publicatie van de aantallen klachten en gevolgde procedures. Geen enkele provider in Nederland biedt een dergelijk overzicht aan, wellicht uit angst dat dergelijke transparantie tot ongewenst publiek debat leidt.

This just proves Bush’s and Allawi’s point.
The attacks are just in a small percentage of the country. The insurgents are only able to attack where there are roads, buildings, or people nearby.
Once we get rid of all the roads, buildings and people, the attacks will stop.

A poodle named Peter poses with glasses during competition at the World Dog Exhibition in Beijing Saturday Oct. 2, 2004. More than 400 dogs are expected to participate in the 5-day festival, which will feature grooming displays, competitions and advice on dog training. (AP Photo/str)

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The man chosen for the third-ranking job in the CIA resigned under pressure from the U.S. spy agency more than 20 years ago after being caught shoplifting, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Michael Kostiw, picked by new CIA Director Porter Goss to be the agency’s executive director, has not received final clearance to take the job, although he had been scheduled to be sworn in Monday, the newspaper reported, citing a friend of Kostiw whom it did not identify.

Citing past and current agency officials, the Post said Kostiw was caught shoplifting in late 1981 at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He had been an officer for 10 years at that point.