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How much Internet service is “unlimited” Internet service? If you are a user of Verizon Wireless’s Broadband Access wireless Internet service, “unlimited” means five gigabytes per month or less. The company is quite specific in its advertisements that the service is for unlimited e-mail, web surfing, and corporate intranet use, but not for downloading music or videos or running servers.

That sounds fair, I guess, but what happens if you go over your five gigs per month (a figure that is not published anywhere)? You get a letter saying that you’ve gone over your “unlimited” allotment and had better cut back or risk being booted from the system. Even then you aren’t told that you’ve gone over five gigs, just that you’ve been using too much.

If you continue to use too much bandwidth, your account will be cancelled and you will be charged the $175 early termination fee.

Now here’s the part of this story I find especially interesting: Verizon doesn’t look at packets or protocols to determine if you are improperly using bandwidth, they just look at total bytes transferred. If you go over five gigs THEY ASSUME YOU ARE BREAKING THE RULES and cancel your account. There is no way to appeal this decision, even if all you were doing was precisely within Verizon’s own definition of “unlimited.” Verizon’s position is that using more than five gigs per month is IMPOSSIBLE without violating their terms of service.

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The Constitution
Was cast aside by Congress.
Hideous corpus!

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“Er is geen tak van criminaliteit waar zoveel doden vallen als in het verkeer.”

– Verkeersofficier Koos Spee

Dus u weet het, als u de volgende keer in de auto stapt, beschouwt Koos u als crimineel.

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A Yellow Cab driven by a tiny African man named Bale pulled up to the curb and the Air Port Taxi authorities pointed me to his taxi. I threw my stuff in the back seat and we headed out to the hotel. I was in Canada this week. It’s a long ride to town and I had once again climbed into the cab of a man who had lived to see his country change from a calm pastoral British protectorate to a boiling horrible dictatorship.

His didn’t happen in six years. His happened in four months.

“Where you from?”

“Uganda.”

“How long have you been here?”

In a thick accent he answered, “about 24 years.”

“What brought you here?”

“Freedom.”

[..]

“What do you think about Bush?”

“Bush is a dictator. Did I offend you?”

“No. What makes him a dictator?”

“You cannot joke about killing him. Hell even under Amin we danced and sang death songs at him. He had a hotel complex that he tortured people in. The difference between Bush and Amin as far as that goes is that I knew where my relatives were being tortured, and no one knows exactly where the Americans are torturing their victims.”

“Do you believe we are doing horrible torture to thousands or to a few?”

He thought about it and said “Is there any difference? My experience is that once torturers begin torturing, the torturers have a hard time stopping.”

That really upset me. I persisted. “Seriously, do you think we are torturing thousands?”

He took his time. “They won’t let you see one dead soldier. Even under a flag they won’t let you see it. They don’t tell you the truth about anything. They lie lie lie. My experience tells me this. I don’t really know. But if I had to guess, I would guess that your government is doing the worst things you can possibly imagine. Liars are lying because they cannot tell the truth. When I see Bush speak, I don’t see a stupid man as you do and many others. I see a man who is too shamed to tell the truth. He has caused so much pain and knows it, but if he admitted one little bit of it, it would come crashing out like a dam. You understand? Bush is in a lot of pain.”

We pulled up to the hotel, I asked him to park and waved off the bellhop.

“What do you think will happen to America, Bale?”

“What do you mean WILL happen? What hasn’t happened yet? You torture in secret. You invade for what? The government reads your e-mail and listens to your telephone and makes you take off your shoes and pull out your computer. For what? Who do you need to protect yourself against? Is your computer going to attack you? Who should you be afraid of? Your government is more scary to most people than any terrorist. I feel for you really. Because I don’t think you have any idea how far down the road you already are.”

“So you think we are already at a dictatorship,” I asked.

“I think you are far worse than a dictatorship. You are in a dictatorship but most of the population is still living in another time. Once America was the cat’s meow. The problem isn’t so much your government. It is your population. Here you are have lost so much in freedom, so much in prosperity and so much in reputation, and you have to ask me if you are living under a dictatorship,” He answered a call for a pick- up. “I will have to leave. There is a passenger across the street. But I will leave you with this. Dictatorship looks different to everyone. Some of them are disguised and people can’t see past the disguise. In China, it was years before anyone questioned why they all wore the same close. In America, if you are rich or conservative, dictatorship can be very pleasant. You understand?”

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Top Diebold corporation officials ordered workers to install secret files to Georgia’s electronic voting machines shortly before the 2002 Elections, at least two whistleblowers are now asserting, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

Former Diebold official Chris Hood told his story concerning the secret “patch�? to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for Kennedy’s second article on electronic voting in this week’s Rolling Stone Magazine.

Hood’s claims corroborate a second whistleblower who spoke with Black Box Voting and Wired News in 2003.

Even if the patch was totally benign this story leaves the election in a state where the people cannot trust the results, and that effectively means democracy is dead.

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Panel 1: Witnesses: Lt. Gen. William Odom, Dr. Paul Pillar.

live blogging below…

Pillar spoke first. He addressed the question of whether the disaster in Iraq is the result of poor execution or of the initial decision to go in at all. “Most of what we are seeing,” he said, “and in particular the communal violence, is an almost inevitable result of having ousted the dictator Saddam Hussein.”

Odom spoke second and addressed points of argumentation that he hears too often and is tired of hearing, including being told to ignore the past and focus on the future, to ignore how we got into Iraq and only talk about what to do from here on. Unless, Odom said, we discuss whose interests this war served, we cannot decide what to do. It served no U.S. interests. It served the interests of al Qaeda and Iran.

Al Qaeda recruiting declined in 2002, Odom said, but spiked after the U.S. invaded — rose in Asia as well as in the Middle East. And Iraq is a great training ground for terrorists now. In addition, Odom said, a wedge is being driven between the United States and its European allies. “Osama understands that; we seem not to.” The invasion of Iraq, Odom said, probably saved al Qaeda from ceasing to exist.

“Iran’s clerics,” Odom added, “must have been equally surprised and delighted.” Terrorists can now train in Iraq and engage in violence in Israel.

The longer the war goes on, Odom stressed, the more it benefits al Qaeda and Iran.

[..]

Odom again spoke of leaving Iraq and said “It takes a very high level of ignorance to believe America can leave behind in Iraq any government that will not be anti-American.”

[..]

Rep. Hinchey asked Odom “How do we get out?” Odom’s reply came without a pause: “Well, the Constitution gives the House the right to impeach.”

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Six-term Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned yesterday amid reports that he had sent sexually explicit Internet messages to at least one underage male former page.

Foley, who was considered likely to win reelection this fall, said in a three-sentence letter of resignation: “I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent.”

The resignation rocked the Capitol, and especially Foley’s GOP colleagues, as lawmakers were rushing to adjourn for at least six weeks. House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate “contact” between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.

He knew and decided to keep it under wraps. I guess Boehner’s next job is going to be Catholic Bishop.

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De Tweede Kamer is zwak, gewetenloos en zonder geheugen. Dat zegt het vroegere Tweede Kamerlid Ayaan Hirsi Ali in een interview dat zaterdag in NRC Handelsblad is verschenen. In de ruim drie jaar dat ze zelf deel uitmaakte van de Kamer, heeft ze geconstateerd dat de “belangrijkste machtsbeslissingen genomen zijn in achterkamertjes”.

De VVD-fractie waarvan Hirsi Ali deel uitmaakte, werd nauwelijks gekend in besluiten over zaken als het regeerakkoord, de oorlog in Irak en het sturen van militairen naar Afghanistan. “We praatten er wel over, maar dat sloeg verder helemaal nergens op. Dat was meer een vorm van groepstherapie”, zegt het vroegere Tweede Kamerlid.

Gezien de opkomst en het stemgedrag heeft de gemiddelde Nederlander dat al jaren door.

(wat de gemiddelde Nederlander ook doorheeft, is dat het regeerakkoord een paar weken terug al door de SER geschreven is, en dat kabinet balkenende IV eigenlijk al een feit is. Een linkse coalitie komt niet verder dan 68 zetels)

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Tweeduizend cellen in gevangenissen en huizen van bewaring staan leeg, 13 procent van het totaal. Dat blijkt uit vertrouwelijke cijfers van het ministerie van Justitie, melden regionale kranten zaterdag.

Tegelijkertijd lopen zesduizend veroordeelden rond, omdat de politie geen mankracht heeft om ze op te pakken. PvdA en SP reageren verbijsterd en kondigen aan het bestaan van meermanscellen en het verblijf in bajesboten ter discussie te stellen.

Misschien, best PVDA en SP, kun je beter het quotum-beleid voor bonnenschrijven ter discussie stellen, heb je opeens ook geen capaciteitsprobleem meer bij de politie, en zitten je cellen zo vol.

Now here’s another reason I’m not buying new music anymore. Now get off my grass, young whippersnappers!

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The magnificent island of Vatu Vara is often referred to as ‘Hat Island’ because of it’s unusual shape. The island is reputed by many to be the most beautiful in Fiji. It’s unique topography with limestone cliffs covered in dense tropical jungle and the flat summit is like a cross between Bora Bora and ‘The Lost World’ of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. From the top of it jungle-clad 1,030 foot peak, to the bottom of it’s aquamarine lagoon this is 100% pure tropical paradise. All the cinematic clichés about tropical islands are here for real; and to continue the theme you even get Mel Gibson as a neighbour. He owns Mago island just 30 kilometres to the east.

The volcanic and limestone island is nearly 2 miles in diameter at its base, and it’s massive peak dominates the surrounding skyline and is visible from nearby islands such as Kaibu, Yacata, and Vanua Mbalavu. The limestone cliffs souring above the beaches, lending an aura of majesty that few islands in the Fiji in Fiji possess. The closest island in appearance is Monu Riki island in the Mamanucas which was the location for Tom Hank’s in ‘Cast Away’; but Vatu Vara dwarfs Monu Riki by comparison.

For sale for only $75 million!

only bond supervillains need apply, and even then there are no sharks with frickin’ lasers on their head included