Press 'Asleep At The Wheel' On Astroturf

Allowing baby bells a greased track for 'franchise reform'

Consumer advocate Bruce Kushnick wonders why nobody in the press seems to care that the baby bells are using consumer groups (often fake ones) to manipulate the public as part of their recent push for video "franchise reform". Consumer advocates (real ones) note the reform bills making their way through dozens of states will eliminate public access, legalize cherry picking resulting in less broadband penetration, erode local eminent domain rights, and strip away consumer protections -- which will lead to higher prices.

Yet the vast majority of the news coverage of these laws is bubbly editorial regurgitation of incumbent lobbyist talking points, fed to consumers via these conflicted groups. In a piece for the Harvard University Nieman Watchdog, Kushnick laments the fact that nobody in the technology sector seems particularly concerned about any of this (there are, after all, iPhone stories to write).

You would think it would be embarrassing for the press and media to quote astroturf and co-opted groups as ‘authentic’ – but most press simply are asleep at the wheel. In many cases, as with the Newark Star Ledger, op-ed pages run pieces by astroturf or co-opted groups while news coverage seldom questions why various non-profits have come forward to support a corporate position.

He points to similar Gordon Cook concerns from last summer. Also see the older Common Cause report on astroturf organizations and their impact on public telecom-related discourse.

FDA Approved Viral Adulteration of Our Food Supply

On Friday, August 18, 2006, the FDA approved a viral cocktail to be sprayed on foods we eat. This is the first time viruses have been approved for use as food additives. The FDA wants you to believe it will be safe to consume these viruses every day for the rest of your life with no adverse health effects. Not surprisingly, the FDA doesn't want you to know which foods are adulterated in this manner, for fear you may not buy them; thus, no labeling will be required. This is a monumental announcement by the FDA, indicating they are throwing all caution to the wind regarding the safety of our food supply.

Are you willing to stand in line for a virus-laden sandwich? How do you like the idea of buying virus-infested food for your family? The first virally contaminated foods entering our food supply with the blessings of the FDA will be luncheon meat and poultry. Live viruses will be sprayed on foods such as cold cuts, sausages, hot dogs, sliced turkey, and chicken.

At issue is the very real problem of a poor quality FDA-approved food supply that is already full of diseased and sickly animals, many of them imported from other countries. The use of antibiotics during growth and radiation during food processing is required by the fast-food animal farms owned by multi-national companies to cover up the horrendous health of the animals they wish to feed to Americans. Animals in poor health are a friendly place for bacteria to grow and prosper, especially after such meat goes to market. Rather than address the source of the problem, the FDA wants to add another adulteration into our food supply.

The stated goal of the new FDA-approved viruses is to kill a rare bacterium known as Listeria monocytogenes. This bacterium is killed by cooking; however, it poses a problem in meats that are cooked during processing and not cooked again prior to consumption, so it can readily infect foods such as deli meats.

Yes, the FDA plans to use one infectious organism to fight another. The carnage of battle will end up in your digestive tract along with the victorious live viruses, which the FDA assures us will not attack human cells. However, they cannot possibly be certain the viruses will not attack the friendly bacteria that make up the lining of your digestive tract. The FDA approval was based on scant human testing, mostly from unrelated medical experiments. Such safety data is woefully inadequate to determine safe ingestion of a specific product by humans over the course of a lifetime.

Turning Loose the Bacteria-Killing Viruses

The company that produces these biotech viruses is Baltimore-based Intralytix, Inc. The viruses are known as bacteriophages, viruses that kill bacteria, or phages for short. Phages have been around a long time, living as parasites inside many bacteria.

Intralytix uses biotechnology to grow viral phages in a culture with Listeria, in theory teaching the viruses to recognize the bacteria. The FDA-approved cocktail contains six different viruses intended to attack one strain of bacteria.

This concoction is then sprayed on food. If Listeria is present in the food, the bacteria will ingest the viruses. This results in massive viral replication inside the bacteria, until such point as the bacteria simply bursts. This battle results in significant production of bacterial poisons called "endotoxins", as the bacteria tries to defend itself. When the bacteria burst, these endotoxins are released. These, along with the victorious live viruses, will now be on the food that will be eaten.

The FDA and Intralytix would like us to believe that these viruses will only attack the specified bacteria they are intended to kill and will be harmless to humans. I'm sorry to burst their bubble, but they can't possibly guarantee such safety. It is true that the viruses, at least at this time, cannot recognize human cells. However, the virus can potentially recognize normal bacterial cells in the human digestive tract and may be able to adapt to infect one or more of these friendly bacteria.

The FDA Certainly Knows There Are Risks

The FDA had some concerns about the amount of bacterial endotoxin in the Intralytix product before it is sprayed; however, FDA tests apparently showed that the product was adequately purified and so they declared it safe if used as approved. Will the FDA diligently monitor the quality of this product once it is on the market, or will it go the path of many FDA-approved drugs that the agency can't keep track of?

There is certainly a risk that humans will be exposed to excessive amounts of endotoxin. This could come from the manufacturing of the viral cocktail, the interaction of the viruses with bacteria after being sprayed on food, and/or the interaction of the viruses with bacteria in the digestive tract.

The human immune system is highly reactive and sensitive to bacterial endotoxins. They provoke allergy, asthma, autoimmune problems, and elevate cholesterol. They also interfere with the healthy function of cells lining the digestive tract. Researchers have demonstrated that the presence of bacterial endotoxins can start cancer in the colon .

Additionally, the human immune system reacts directly to viral phages. Thus, a person who eats a lot of processed deli meat is certain to evoke an immune reaction to the viruses. What will this reaction be? Allergy? Asthma? Autoimmunity? Cancer? How can the FDA approve a food additive that it knows can induce a variety of human immune responses? Phages are so good at disrupting normal immunity that they are being considered for use as part of organ transplant medicine.

The ingestion of significant amounts of viral phages into the human digestive tract is a wild card full of unknown outcomes. For example, it is certainly possible that these phages, which constantly mutate in order to survive, are likely to find a way to infect bacteria they were not intended to infect. Since phages are parasites, they could hijack the friendly bacteria of the digestive tract and turn them into viral machines, constantly generating viral particles that are likely to confuse the human immune system, if not directly infect the body. We know from history that these viral phages can turn innocuous bacteria into a killer, which is how cholera occurs.

Furthermore, the Listeria bacteria are not going to take the issue lying down. They will develop resistance to the viruses over time, as we have seen with the overuse of antibiotics. Going down this path we are likely to have hundreds of viral food additives in the food we eat, all designed to combat some possible infection coming from poor quality food. Sooner or later we will inadvertently create deadly new super-strains of bacteria and/or parasitically infect the human digestive tract with an untreatable infection.

There is also the very real possibility of unintended viral recombination. What happens when a person with viral stomach flu eats food containing a dose of this viral food additive? It is certainly possible for the genetic material of the flu virus to interact with the genetic material of the viral phages, provoking an undesirable new viral infection.

Let's not forget that the FDA won't tell us which foods in the food supply contain genetically modified organisms (GMO). Seventy percent of the packaged food on grocery shelves already contains GMO adulterated food. These foods have viral promoter genes woven into the DNA of every cell, a technique used to implant a pesticide toxin into every cell of this fake food (see Fight for Your Health, chapter 15). What happens when the viral phages interact with the viral promoter genes in GMO food? What new virus will be encouraged to form?

Keep in mind that the FDA wants to conduct this experiment on our food supply to protect a small minority, only about 2500 people, who are made seriously ill by this infection each year. The ill are mostly pregnant women, elderly with compromised immunity, and small children. It would be a lot more to the point if the FDA would simply warn such people that eating these foods, due to their poor quality of production, may be dangerous. What the FDA should really do is improve the quality of our food supply, the true source of the problem. Why expose millions of Americans to an unproven ingestion of live viruses for the benefit of so few?

The FDA has failed miserably for the past century to protect the public from the adulteration of our food supply by vested interests. This is just one more insult added to a long list of injuries.

The Tip of an Iceberg

Intralytix has an agenda for the American food supply, as well as for healthcare in general. This recent FDA ruling allows Intralytix and other similar biotech companies to get their foot in a door that should be slammed shut and bolted closed.

The company is also seeking FDA approval for viral sprays to treat foods that could be contaminated with E. coli and Salmonella, which means that similar "trained" viruses could end up in a majority of the protein foods in our food supply.

Intralytix sees financial opportunity. They have already licensed their now FDA-approved viral spray to an undisclosed multi-national company for use around the world. When the CEO of Intralytix, John Vazzara, was recently asked about this partner company, he refused to disclose their name. The grand profit-driven biotech experiment on the health and well being of all Americans is now in full swing.

John Vazzara also owns stock in, as well as provided seed money to start, SteelCloud Inc. (formerly Dunn Computer Corporation). SteelCloud is a defense contractor with lucrative deals with the Department of Defense, recently landing a 3.4 million dollar contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

Congress should investigate the financial ties and backroom dealings that would allow this bizarre food additive approval by the FDA.

Of course, we will need new wonder drugs to combat the new bio-tech produced infections. Americans will stay sick and the sickness-driven bio-tech industry will flourish. The bio-tech industry will make people sick on the front end and treat them on the back end. It's a win-win situation for profit on illness.

The FDA is Rapidly Becoming a Public Enemy

Experimenting with viruses being added to the food supply is incredibly dangerous and reckless. It is completely impossible for the FDA to guarantee safety in the near term or the long term. Thus, the FDA has made the bureaucratic decision that relative safety is acceptable to them. What right does the FDA have to tamper with the food supply in this manner?

It is quite clear that the Bush agenda has been to promote American biotech companies as the new future for American prosperity. Administrative opinions have trumped science in virtually every situation wherein safety conflicts with profit.

The FDA will refuse to require labeling on food sprayed with viruses, just as they refuse to require notification that food has been genetically modified and contains toxins in every cell. The reason is obvious; no person understanding these issues would buy or eat such food. Thus, the FDA acts to hide the information from the public to foster profits for biotech companies and the growth of the biotech industry. This is a betrayal of the public trust.

The leaders of the FDA are personally responsible and need to be held accountable. This means Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., temporary head of the FDA and his chief science officer, Scott Gottlieb, M.D. These men are not only obsessed with approving risky drugs for the benefits of Big Pharma, it is now clear that they are willing to allow obvious adulteration of the food supply. They seek to control what we eat, and they are tampering with survival of the human race.

The FDA does not truly know how safe viral phages are to consume on a regular basis. They have no idea of the cumulative effect over the course of a lifetime, especially as more of these viral cocktails are added to the food supply. They have no way to measure how this new type of adulteration in the food supply will interact with the poor digestive/immune health of half the American population, in combination with all the other serious adulterations already approved by the FDA. The FDA lacks due diligence in honoring its mandate to protect the American public.
Boycott Viral Tainted Foods, Support Your Sustainable Farmers

The only hope Americans have is to resurrect the quality of our food supply. Doing so is against the odds, as there are billions of dollars of profit-mongering taking our food supply in the wrong direction. One day Americans will realize that food security is as important to national security as any other topic. It is now crystal clear that we cannot count on the FDA to do the job that Harvey Wiley, M.D., envisioned one-hundred years ago.

How can any responsible parent feed virus-tainted food to their children? The FDA should be forced to revoke this approval. Since the FDA is refusing to make food companies list the viruses as ingredients in food, consumers have no choice but to avoid buying all foods that could be sprayed. I see no other way that safety can be assured, since the FDA refuses to do its job and is putting American's health at risk.

Every American has an obligation to support food security for our nation. Congress must correct the leadership at the FDA and the FDA itself. Americans must quit buying poor quality toxic food. Your greatest ability to change this problem is based entirely on what you purchase.

Get connected to the sustainable family farms in your community. Buy meat that is range raised without antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones. Demand that the food you are eating is labeled with a country of origin. Buy American; buy locally-produced food whenever possible. Support those who truly believe in being the stewards of our land and food for our people and for future generations. These good people are being squashed out of existence by multi-national agribusiness, companies that could truly care less about the quality of our food supply or the security and health of Americans. How you spend your money is your most powerful vote. Vote for those who care.

More than 5 credit card digits = lawsuit for retailers

Credit Receipts From Rite Aid, Wendy's, Fedex Draw Fire for Containing Certain Consumer Data

So far this year, plaintiffs' lawyers have filed more than 100 federal lawsuits seeking class-action status against big merchants such as Rite Aid Corp., Wendy's International Inc., FedEx Corp., TJX Cos. and Inter Ikea Systems BV. Also in the line of fire are lesser-known regional restaurant chains such as In-N-Out Burger and Melting Pot fondue restaurants.

A slew of suits brought on behalf of consumers have been filed in recent weeks in U.S. district courts in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas.

Merchants are under pressure to help ensure the security of electronic transactions. Still, most of the nation's retailers don't comply with the card industry's myriad rules that prohibit the storage of certain customer data and require the installation of sophisticated firewalls to protect their computer systems.

Earlier this year, TJX, parent of discount clothing chains T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, disclosed that its computers had been hacked in a security breach that left at least 47.5 million of its customers vulnerable to fraud.

The requirement that retailers cut off card data is part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which sought to protect consumers from fraud and identity theft amid the growing use of electronic payments. Although it was enacted more than three years ago, the law gave retailers some breathing room to make the change. In addition to the receipt requirements, the law also gives consumers the right to obtain a credit report, without charge, every 12 months.

As of Dec. 4, retailers are prohibited from printing more than the last five digits of a credit-card or debit-card account number on receipts that are handed to customers. The receipts also can't include the account's expiration date. The law applies only to electronically printed receipts, rather than those that are written by hand or imprinted on old-fashioned manual machines.

"Slips of paper containing people's financial information should not be floating around," says J. Mark Moore, a lawyer at Spiro Moss Barness LLP in Los Angeles. The law firm has filed more than 40 lawsuits against retailers, charging that they "knowingly and intentionally continued to use cash registers which were not programmed to, or otherwise did not, comply" with the law.

Although the Federal Trade Commission is responsible for enforcing the law, the legislation also gave consumers the right to sue for violations. For those who receive receipts with the full account information, the best thing to do is either keep it in a safe place or rip it up, experts say. A consumer can also report a violator to the FTC. A spokesman says the agency hasn't received consumer complaints about violators and hasn't brought any enforcement actions tied to the law. The agency's regional offices are working with retailers to remind them of the law.

The lawsuits contend that retailers are "willfully" violating the law -- a practice that could result in fines of as much as $1,000 per transaction.

Blue roses - it's finally been done

For all of you out there who are still playing the dating scene, maybe next year you'll have a new option for telling your "special someone" that the gig is up. Now that these have been successfully bred, you should start to see them pop up in commercial grower greenhouses pretty quickly.

Australian and Japanese researchers have demonstrated the application of RNAi technology for gene replacement in plants, developing the world's only blue rose.

Breeders had attempted to make true blue roses for several years, but none had successfully bred roses with blue pigment until fairly recently. In its first commercial application in plants, technology was used to remove the gene encoding the enzyme dihydroflavonol reductase (DFR) in roses.

Roses are very old garden subjects – a favorite for some 5,000 years. The 'something blue' was the delphinidin gene that Florigene's geneticists cloned from a pansy, to direct pigment synthesis in the rose into the 'blue' pathway. The 'something borrowed' was an iris gene for an enzyme, DFR, required to complete the delphinidin-synthesis reaction.

A Note To Employers: 8 Things Intelligent People, Geeks and Nerds Need To Work Happy

There are many reasons to let geeks work the way they want to work. Today they work in every industry. They are the knowledge base, blood and sweat equity of many businesses. They work harder than most. They work longer than most. Their job isn’t a separate “thing they do” while they look forward to going home and relaxing. Geeks *live* what they do. They eat, sleep and breathe it. They are your systems administrators, your IT team, your programmers, your web developers, your designers… and sometimes even your customer service and sales people.

Anyone who understands how to leverage todays technology to increase intelligence, productivity and efficiency; anyone who stays up nights working to get better at what they do; anyone whose job is their life - is a geek. These are the most important asset your company has. For this reason, its important to give geeks what they want. Best part is, if you do, they most likely will not leave your company to work for someone who will.

#1. Let them work when they want
Geeks work almost every moment they are awake. They are online before they go to the office. They are home working after the office closes. They work weekends. They are even sometimes working in their dreams. Employers should understand this and more importantly appreciate it. Don’t force geeks to work 8 - 5 if there is no real need other than “company morale.” Meetings are one thing (, so is socializing with coworkers, but a relaxed office schedule will do wonders for the contentment levels of your employed geeks.

#2. Let them work where they want
Geeks prefer to have a couch around to nap on if they are tired. Some like no windows, others want to stare out into a city or landscape. At home, geek’s offices are usually more lived in, more comfortable and enjoyable than anywhere else in the world. This is because they love what they do, and they do it so much of the time they need to be comfortable where they do it.

#3. Let them control their lighting
There is nothing more annoying than working in bright crappy fluorescent lighting if you prefer to work in the dark, or vice versa. Geeks usually have sensitive eyes from staring at CRT monitors for too long. The last thing you want is your geeks to have headaches. Most geeks aren’t very pleasant to work with when they have headaches.

#4. Let them wear headphones
Geeks are experts in the arts of “focus.” Focusing takes removing all unnecessary distractions from your environment and creating a state where nothing else is going on but what they are working on. The harder the problem they are trying to solve or the more creative they have to be, the more they need to focus. Headphones, or simply a lack of ringing phones and talking sales people allow geeks to focus much easier.

#5. Do not expect them to wear a suit
Geeks find arbitrary activities that lack real and meaningful purpose, a waste of time and energy. This includes attire. Most companies today are aware of this and even practice casual dress so as to make everyone more comfortable, but geeks are a special case. “Suits” (the kind of person) usually represent a business man who lacks most things other than a nice smile and great negotiation skills.

#6. Do not make them participate in company events (unless you are sure it is geek-friendly)
Most geeks will not be jumping up and down with joy to attend a company party to celebrate the local football team, unless of course there is beer, and they can hang around and talk to each other about geeky things. Keep this in mind when planning company events. Geeks like to have fun, just not the same kind of fun as your typical non-geek.

#7. Do not hold a lot of arbitrary meetings that could have otherwise been handled through email or IM
This one is important. Like I said, geeks need to focus to be happy and able to focus. Nothing is more of an interruption than someone walking into their space unexpectedly and saying “hey do you have a minute?” The answer is usually going to be a disgruntled “Sure.” The truth is geeks are fine with attending planned meetings (and will happily be there if the meeting is really a necessary one for them to attend in person), but are usually most happy communicating through email and IM. These forms of communication are most appealing to geeks because they do not interrupt you, and polite geeks will even respond with a quick “hold on a sec, I’m in the middle of something.” Email and IM are recorded, searchable records of conversations. They are efficient and to the point. This also makes geeks happy. Geeks can discuss anything through email and IM and will usually be more willing and thorough with their response. Face to face meetings are important, geeks know that, but I would guess that 90% of conversations and meetings held face to face, would be more efficient and end with happier people, if they were held in a recordable, written, virtual space.

#8. Do not make them do anything other than work
This one isn’t completely accurate all the time. Geeks are team players, but they are also easily insulted by being given a task below their level of expertise or outside of the scope of their position. They’ll do it, but they won’t be totally happy. This includes: answering phones, taking out trash, going shopping for company supplies, and “filling in” for a sales person.

Another year, another ACC Business Platinum Cup

Telarus, Inc. took home another Platinum Cup award from ACC Business for being in their top 1% of agents again this year at the Channel Partner's Expo in Las Vegas. This makes the 3rd year in a row Telarus has walked home with this award. You don't get awards for sitting on your hinee. Pictured are some of the great agents and staff who help make Telarus the best telecom master agency in the business.

A Neutral Net Means More Capacity Investment

Telco lobbyists and think tanks have been busy suggesting that all of this network neutrality foot stomping will scare off bandwidth investment, resulting in capacity armageddon. In reality, core investment is booming. Telco lobbyists are simply trying to fend off laws that would prohibit them from creating a new revenue stream by charging a prioritization toll to content providers. Techdirt points to a new study that says retaining network neutrality will actually increase telco investment in bandwidth.

"The conventional wisdom is that Internet service providers would have greater incentive to expand their service capabilities if they were allowed to charge," says Professor Kenneth Cheng, in a study summation. "That was completely the opposite of what we found." That's not to say that network neutrality laws should be passed, since there's still the possibility that our existing lawmakers are too incompetent to construct functional legislation (that doesn't, say, outlaw VoIP prioritization).

But is it possible to retain network neutrality without laws?

From: BroadbandReports.com

My opinion: No, it is not possible to retain network neutrality w/o laws. Consolidation in the telecom's industry has made coopetion impossible. Investor led companies have no real incentive to do what is best for the public good. They are first and foremost responsible for returning a profit to their investors. Their motivation is to spend as little as possible while returning the greatest ROI.

Spending as little as possible means squeezing as much into what you already have in place as possible without spending any money. Thus the carriers have extreme onus to impose paid prioritization - in order to force people to pay or else get their traffic left behind due to lack of capacity for unpaid traffic.

Rest assured that carriers absolutely want to get into the bill-by-the-bit business. They abhore being treated like a "dumb pipe" or commodity.

Personally, I think all transit capacity should be regulated as if it were an interstate highway. It should be available to all comers at a set price with non-discriminatory access. Transit should be forced into wholesale only mode with the retail divisions of said operator being structurally and financially separated from retail and sales operations.

Honda paying out $6 million for 'overclocked' odometers

If you've been wondering how your Honda or Acura just seems to cover ground an awful lot quicker than your previous ride without even getting you a speeding ticket, listen up. Apparently, around six million Honda / Acura owners have been wheeling around in vehicles that are clicking off miles quite a bit faster than they're actually being driven.

Rubik's Cube... for those more interested in a nap

Ok, now I'll admit that I'm professionally lazy. But this even got me going! It's perfect for those of us who like the thought of solving a Rubik's Cube and can never seem to take it all the way to completion. Myself, I had one of my desk most of the way through college in some 1/2 solved form or another. And oh yes, I knew about the websites that would give you the solution. Too much work. I'll be adding this to my Christmas wish list this year. A Rubik's Cube for the lazy! I are one.

Windows Vista Flunks At MIT

Tech staffers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are warning professors and administrators at the school -- host to one of the country's most prestigious computer science departments -- not to upgrade desktops or laptops to Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system because the software isn't yet ready for "productive and safe computing," according to an internal statement posted on MIT's Web site.

US News Sources Too Slanted

Ok... I've gotten tired of listening to report after report of Anna Nichole Smith's death juxtaposed to next to nothing coverage of what's really going on over in Iraq. For a media so ready to pound Bush for screwing up, they're sure not ready to air our real dirty laundry around the world.

I could go on and on but why bother? Instead I'd like to encourage YOU, an intelligent person, to compare for yourself. Surf over to CNN and then compare their coverage to the BBC News. I think you'll not only be floored, you'll be irate at what we're not being told and shown. I'll grant that the BBC isn't perfect either but they're a far cry from CNN, MSNBC, et. al.

Go compare for yourself. And while you're there, bookmark the BBC News. I personally encourage you to make it your primary source for international news.

The Pentagon's not-so-little secret

Feb. 8, 2007 | Deep within the bowels of the Pentagon, policy planners are conducting secret meetings to discuss what to do in the worst-case scenario in Iraq about a year from today if and when President Bush's escalation of more than 20,000 troops fails, a participant in those discussions told me. None of those who are taking part in these exercises, shielded from the public view and the immediate scrutiny of the White House, believes that the so-called surge will succeed. On the contrary, everyone thinks it will not only fail to achieve its aims but also accelerate instability by providing a glaring example of U.S. incapacity and incompetence.

The profoundly pessimistic thinking that permeates the senior military and the intelligence community, however, is forbidden in the sanitized atmosphere of mind-cure boosterism that surrounds Bush. "He's tried this two times -- it's failed twice," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said on Jan. 24 about the "surge" tactic. "I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?' And he said, 'Because I told them it had to.'" She repeated his words: "'I told them that they had to.' That was the end of it. That's the way it is."

On Feb. 2, the National Intelligence Council, representing all intelligence agencies, issued a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, as harsh an antidote to wishful thinking as could be imagined. "The Intelligence Community judges that the term 'civil war' does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq, which includes extensive Shia-on-Shia violence, al-Qaida and Sunni insurgent attacks on Coalition forces, and widespread criminally motivated violence. Nonetheless, the term 'civil war' accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict, including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities, a sea change in the character of the violence, ethno-sectarian mobilization, and population displacements."

The report described an Iraqi government, army and police force that cannot meet these challenges in any foreseeable time frame and a reversal of "the negative trends driving Iraq's current trajectory" occurring only through a dream sequence in which all the warring sects and factions, in some unexplained way, suddenly make peace with one another. Nor does the NIE suggest that this imaginary scenario might ever come to pass. Instead, it proceeds to describe the potential for "an abrupt increase in communal and insurgent violence and a shift in Iraq's trajectory from gradual decline to rapid deterioration with grave humanitarian, political, and security consequences."

Bush justified his invasion on the basis of false intelligence in the now notorious NIE of October 2002 that claimed Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Now, as the latest NIE forecasts nightmares, he is escalating the war. But almost everything has changed in the nearly four years since the invasion.

A newly elected Congress has been galvanized to debate a bipartisan resolution disapproving of Bush's escalation. Yet in the Senate, where 60 votes are necessary to establish cloture on a filibuster, the Republican minority has blocked a vote. Though many Republicans are keenly aware that continued support for Bush's policy amounts to political suicide in 2008, all but two of them have joined a phalanx to shut down the vote. By mustering behind him, they tie their fate to his policy. Bush, however, will be gone, while they remain exposed to the political elements.

Even Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the Republican cosponsor of the resolution against the escalation along with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., cast his lot with the Republican martyr brigade, voting to suppress his own measure. In 2002, the Republican right mounted a primary campaign against Warner in retribution for his deviation from their ideological line, but failed feebly. Warner cannot fear a repetition of the right's vengeance. Can he be undermining himself out of deference to the authority of a commander in chief whose course he believes is reckless?

The Republican prevention of a vote on the Warner-Levin resolution reflects an effort to close debate on the war itself. It amounts in effect to a gag rule on Bush's Iraq policy. During the Vietnam War, under President Johnson, neither party attempted to shut down debate. After 1969, President Nixon's Vietnam policy consisted of misdirection, deception, covert action and fait accompli, such as the counterproductive and ultimately catastrophic invasion of Cambodia. The Bush administration's methods can be traced to the Nixon administration, with Dick Cheney as the connecting thread.

The reception of the latest NIE, even more than the NIE itself, indicates again Bush's and Republicans' denial of objective analysis from the professional intelligence community. The October 2002 NIE was produced under intense pressure from the White House, especially Vice President Cheney, to validate its preconceived views. "The administration used intelligence not to inform decision-making, but to justify a decision already made," Paul Pillar, the national intelligence officer for the Middle East who oversaw the assembling of that NIE, wrote a year ago. In the shadow of this travesty, the new NIE was written with great care; its frightening descriptions, therefore, should be considered to be deliberately guarded and reserved in tone.

Just as Bush and the Republicans rejected the bipartisan wise men of the Baker-Hamilton Commission, they have now rejected the objective assessment of the professionals. By thwarting the bipartisan Warner-Levin resolution, they have declared that they will operate on their own fanciful criteria, even against their own political interests.

As the Senate curdles in frustration over Republican tactics, the trial of Scooter Libby continues to clarify the degree to which the administration covered up its disinformation campaign that led the country into war with another disinformation campaign to cover up the role of the vice president as the prime mover of the smear campaign against former ambassador Joseph Wilson for committing the unforgivable act of revealing the truth. For the Senate Republicans, Scooter Libby is not an object lesson. The lesson they take away, if any, is not the necessity of open government but once again the need to burn the tapes.

Libby's effort to prevent his grand jury tapes from being entered into evidence in his trial resembled nothing so much as Nixon trying to suppress his tapes. Both in the end revealed their respective coverups. Cheney learned from Nixon to burn the tapes at least figuratively; now, his chief of staff, Cheney's Cheney, has tried to protect Cheney by literally and futilely suppressing the tapes. Cheney finds himself back at the beginning. For him, life has come full circle. From the entire history of deception, from the Nixon to the Libby tapes, the Republicans have learned nothing.

The new NIE offers more than "key judgments" on "The Prospects for Iraq's Stability." It is also a template for the short-term future of American politics. The ruthlessly cruel events projected for Iraq will blow back to the United States. The more Bush fights there, the more the embattled Republicans must fight here.

The Senate Republicans' vote to suppress the resolution on the war was the moment when they irrevocably aligned themselves completely with a president who rejects objective analysis. Unable to shield him or themselves from the inevitable consequences, they have made a conscious decision to place the president's delusions above the welfare not only of the Republican Party but also of the troops sent into the deadly labyrinth of Baghdad. Quietly and calmly, as the Republicans hype the "surge," the war planners prepare for the worst.

Educational Toys - Discovery Toys turn play into learning

I find myself surrounded by new parents these days. I guess that's what happens when you're a single guy in the middle of a bunch of young married couples.

So what comes with being in the middle of newborns and toddlers? Well first there is the baby shower blitz. Then there are toddlers who need to be entertained and stimulated so they don't drive everyone crazy... ooo... I mean so they gain the proper life skills and are equipped and ready to excel in school.

While digging through my normal shopping haunts looking for some unique baby shower and toddler, I remembered that there was a company out there doing some unique stuff. They're called "Discovery Toys". Michelle Helferich, my half sister-in-law (is that a real title? let's run with it), happens to be a distributor. Not only is she a distributor, she's a highly engaged mom of a pre-schooler herself.

Michelle Helferich maintains a blog about happenings, experiences and living life. It's no blasé life either. Michelle and Joe are the parents of an extraordinary little gal, named Kayla, who is gifted with Trisomy 21, aka Down syndrome.

When Kayla was born, Michelle left civil service to become a domestic engineer. If you'd like to peek into their life, take a moment to pop over to her blog - Big Blueberry Eyes. The life of a military wife, raising a pre-schooler with Trisomy, tending to a quiet geek hubby (2 geeks from the same dad... imagine that... 1 quiet, 1 talkitive) and running a small business on the side requires a lot of balance, courage and scheduling.

The next time you find yourself looking for a suitable gift for that inquisitive toddler in your life, head over to Michelle's Discovery Toys ecommerce site. I'm sure you're find something perfect!

I joined the online backup revolution... you should too.

Those who know me in the business world know that I'm not a big fan of outsourcing. I only do it when it really makes sense... or when it saves me a lot of work.

Well, back almost 2 years ago I found an online backup product that worked in peer-to-peer mode called Vembu. It was a great product hampered by the limitations of configuration and maintenance. We still use it in our datacenters - where the environment is controlled and the bandwidth plentiful.

Once the per license prices of Vembu started going up, I started looking for something else that might fill the gap. That's when I heard about a handful of startup's making use of Amazon's hosted services web services APIs and outsourced data storage and processing services - known as Amazon S3. Using those web services and outsourced storage space dramatically reduce the cost of starting up and running a business whose purpose in life is to amass large quantities of data that doesn't get touched very often.

"Large quantities of data that doesn't get touched very often..." Hmm, doesn't that sound like the exact definition of computer backups? Absolutely. Since S3 is so well fitted to the online backup model, it's no surprise that 7-8 real companies are trying to make a business of it.

The first product I tried that made use of them was called Elephant Backup. Great idea... horrible software. Their software must have truly been written by engineers because it made no real sense to normal users. Even I, a tech guy, looked at a few of the ways they did things and went "Huh?"

So I've been on the lookout for companies doing similar things and testing the products. After more than a couple false starts and some hair pulling, 2 months ago I finally found an online backup product that works as advertised, required no manual intervention from me, and just did it's thing without pestering me in the process. That product is Carbonite Backup.

Cheesy name... great product. And yes, it literally does create a carbon copy of your data for backup purposes. The shining star of this product isn't their website (nice but who cares... you should never have to touch it if the product works right). Instead the real meat is their client software. It has smarts to figure out - with pretty good accuracy in all of my tests - what files to back up and what to ignore.

The Carbonite software doesn't fuss with trying to backup all your software installations, Windows files and other junk. It zooms in on the important stuff: documents, emails, photos and important settings. The biggest surprise for me was that it figured out I was using Mozilla Thunderbird as my email client and correctly chose all the Thunderbird mailbox files to back up. (This did create a slight problem. Keep on reading for details.)

For those who have never used online backup tools before let me give you a couple helpful hints to make things register correctly in your brain.

1. Your computer has to be connected to the internet and able to actually access the outside world for backups to take place. If it's turned off or not online, nothing happens. So don't use online backup if you're seldom online or the machine spends more time turned off than it does turned on.
   
   
2. The speed of backups and restores is limited by your connection speed. If you're on a 768kbps DSL line, forget about it unless you have next to nothing to back up (in which case, why aren't you just burning CDs instead?). On my 6mbps x 640kbps DSL line it took about 7 days to completely backup 29 GB of data.
   
   
3. Carbonite is smart enough to not use up a lot of bandwidth when you're doing stuff. It waits for you to be idle. For me that meant my backup went much slower than it could have. I'm on my main PC 16 hours some days. "Normal" people won't notice it as much as I did.
   
   
4. If you have VoIP in active use, set Carbonite to use "Lower priority" mode. I couldn't figure out why my VoIP calls (on all 4 of my terminal adapters) went to crap at night after I installed Carbonite. Come to find out I was using the phone at night when my PC had gone idle. So that meant Carbonite was running full bore and using up all my bandwidth trying to make that initial backup. Setting it to Lower priority mode not only limits the amount of data it will try to send at a time, it also makes the data it sends go in smaller chunks so it doesn't bottleneck your connection.
   
   
5. Files get automatically re-backed up every time they change. For normal files this is terrific, however, as I mentioned Carbonite recognized my Mozilla Thunderbird email files as something it should back up. That meant every time I got a new email, Carbonite tagged my 680MB inbox file as something that needed to be backed up. I eventually had to set that one particular file to "manual" status so it wouldn't be backed up automatically. It was causing my whole backup to choke since it was constantly getting requeued.
   
   
6. You can't reliably back up Outlook files unless you exit Outlook. This is Microsoft's fault, not Carbonite's. Outlook opens its files for exclusive use when it's running. Thus your marvelous PST file that really needs to get backed up will not be touchable while Outlook is running. This is quite easy to solve. 1) Close Outlook at night and leave your computer running. 2) Install the Outlook Back-up Add-in from Microsoft so Outlook will allow you to easily save a 2nd copy of your PST file somewhere periodically. Then backup that 2nd copy since it won't be in use.

Looking at the product Carbonite offers as a whole, I'd have to say my favorite feature is it's unobtrusiveness. It's one of those products you install and forget about - until you need it. The only reminder it's running in the background is occasional hard drive access (when it scans for new files) and a little green lock icon to let you know it's happy.

Since I'm a Carbonite user myself, I can give you something that they don't advertise. 1 free month of service. Use the link on the title or click here to try Carbonite for 15 free. If you go to their website without that link, you'll pay $49.95 for 12 months. Use my link and you'll get 13 months instead of 12. (Hey, have I ever mentioned that my lucky number *is* 13? No kidding.)

I suggest letting the 15 day free trial fully run its course. No credit card is asked for to start or required during the trial. They will back up everything except big movie files during the trial. If you like how it works, subscribe and smile at getting a free month. (Especially since *I* didn't even get a free month when I started using the service myself!) If you don't like it, uninstall and go about your merry way but don't forget to find another way to back yourself up!!

Remember, "Lessons not learned are repeated until comprehension." And one lesson most computer users shouldn't have to learn twice is to back up their data. So get going... go backup your computer RIGHT NOW. Mommy says you can't have your dessert until you do. :P

Car Renting Anecdote

I was doing a car rental online tonight for an upcoming trip and ran across some a comment that struck me as funny. I thought I was the only person in this guy's shoes. I prefer to drive smaller cars and always feel like I'm going to take down a wall or the car next to me in something big like an SUV or van.

Since I have preferred status with a couple companies, I normally get a class upgrade. When inventory is tight at certain locations that can lead to really strange upgrades. For example, I once reserved a mid-size car (smallish Toyota or something like a Pontiac G6) and walked out to the pickup lot to find my name attached to a Ford Expedition. I was mortified at the thought of driving such a large car but never thought about going in and asking for a *downgrade*. Never dawned on me that such a thing was possible.

Dayton Ohio a coupla days ago, on a one day business rental:

I went from (reserved a) Compact to (got) a Caravan.

...and then promptly marched right back in and stated "Unless you want the Caravan back wrecked, I'd like a car that I will not smash into things with" (like I had originally requested).

Since this was the second time (in a short period) that something like this has happened (last time I refused a Chevy Suburban for my compact), I called them up and now "no upgrades" is in my profile. I'm used to subcompacts.... If I drive a big car, I'm going to smash it into stuff... then noone is happy. Hopefully that note will stop these crazy upgrades.

The joys of "status". We used to have to fight for nice upgrades... now we're asking for downgrades. What is the world coming to?

If only Embarq would call me up and offer to upgrade my 5-6mbps DSL service to 45mbps DS3 service for no charge, boy would I be a happy camper! Even if it would mean I'd have to buy a $4000 router.

China says Bush should "respect religious diversity"

Ok, Hell must have frozen over while I wasn't looking yesterday. China is speaking out about religious tolerance. That's like George Bush trying to explain "intelligence".

Reuters is reporting on remarks from Ye Xiaowen, China's director of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs.

President Bush should scrap his unilateral approach and respect religious diversity in his "war on terror" to resolve troubles in Iraq.

Now those comments would seem quite off-base for a country who does not recognize non-state sponsored religion, ran an ethnic cleansing/redistribution campaign in Tibet and still is doing so other places, and is itself trying to run the Muslims out of the western part of it's country.

RDU HDTV owners... WRAL offering free over-the-air antennas

Fellow RDU folks... if you're within the coverage of the WRAL TV5 (CBS) broadcast area you can get a free over-the-air antenna for your HDTV setup. For more information check out the linked page on the WRAL website.

Most people don't realize there are currently channels being broadcast that don't come through your satellite dish or most of the cable systems. For example NC ETV (PBS) - channel 4 in the RDU area - broadcasts 5 channels. WRAL 11 (ABC) broadcasts 3. There are a total of 35 digital channels available to most of the people in our area. You just need the right equipment to receive those channels.

Here's the basics of what you need:

1. HDTV set or something suitable to watch the broadcasts on.
2. A TV tuner that can decipher those digital HDTV signals. This is called an ATSC tuner. Some HDTV's have the built in (most of the newest ones) and some require an external box. Check with where you bought your TV from if you have any questions.
3. An antenna that is strong enough to pull in the stations that you want to receive.

The good news is that digital signals still look great when analog signals are too snowy to watch. Digital is pretty much an all or nothing affair. Either there's enough information being received for the TV to display a perfect picture or you get nothing. The bad news is if there's not enough information being received... you get nothing.

So if you have #1 and #2 above covered, take WRAL up on their offer. Let them give you a free antenna. It will save you anywhere from $50 to $150. Their engineering folks will take a look at where you live, analyze the terrain between you and their broadcast tower, and order the correct antenna for you at no cost.

That's a great deal! Take advantage of it ASAP! Get their free antenna form in the mail today.

Bush... Shorthand for ungrateful poopie head.

Cheney's Handwritten Notes Implicate Bush in Plame Affair - excerpt

"Bush has long maintained that he was unaware of attacks by any member of his administration against [former ambassador Joseph] Wilson. The ex-envoy's stinging rebukes of the administration's use of pre-war Iraq intelligence led Libby and other White House officials to leak Wilson's wife's covert CIA status to reporters in July 2003 in an act of retaliation. But Cheney's notes, which were introduced into evidence Tuesday during Libby's perjury and obstruction-of-justice trial, call into question the truthfulness of President Bush's vehement denials about his prior knowledge of the attacks against Wilson. The revelation that Bush may have known all along that there was an effort by members of his office to discredit the former ambassador begs the question: Was the president also aware that senior members of his administration compromised Valerie Plame's undercover role with the CIA?

Further, the highly explicit nature of Cheney's comments not only hints at a rift between Cheney and Bush over what Cheney felt was the scapegoating of Libby, but also raises serious questions about potentially criminal actions by Bush. If Bush did indeed play an active role in encouraging Libby to take the fall to protect Karl Rove, as Libby's lawyers articulated in their opening statements, then that could be viewed as criminal involvement by Bush."

How to Wash A Cat - By Bud Herron

Instructions for all your first time cat owners out there. Be sure to have your cat bathed prior to my arrival at your house. My allergies thank you in advance.

Bank Of America To Charge For "Free" Checking

From: The Consumerist, Ben Popkrn

Bank of America will start charging "Free Checking" customers starting 2/1/07. The bank will switch change the accounts to "MyAccess" checking, with a fee of $5.95/month.

When one SlickDeal forum member called to complain, the BoA rep said, "It's not a big deal...it's less than $100 a year."

Fees can be avoided, however, on BoA MyAccess checking if direct deposit is set up or if there is a scheduled transfer of $25+/month to a BoA savings account.

Several months ago, Bank of America offered a $100 signon bonus for opening a new checking account. We even encouraged readers to take advantage of this apparently "strings free" offer, even if they didn't intend of continuing to bank with BoA.

Looks like now the heretofore invisible string has been plucked. What rhymes with plucked?

Who needs BuyerZone when you have VARNetwork?

A little group of upstart telecom guys are biting at the heals of BuyerZone and OnForce. Telarus, Inc. announced today that they have reached a tremendous milestone - 1,000 Value Added Resellers (VARs) under their network known as VARNetwork(tm).

In under 6 months, they developed and launched VARSearch(tm), a database of telecom hardware dealers and network integrators. The VARSearch database drives VARNetwork.com and is accessible to the general public for use in finding a telephone or network equipment installers/dealers in their local area.

The current crop of VARNetwork VARs represent brands including: Cisco, NEC, Avaya, Toshiba, Nortel, Vodavi, Extreme Networks, Juniper, Foundry Networks, Artisoft and TalkSwitch.

"The 1,000th profile that we added to VARSearch marked the first major milestone in the development of our VAR program" commented Robert Butler, Director of the Telarus VAR Network. "As we add more VAR partners to our database, the results that VARSearch provides our users will continue to increase in quality. Users of our software are now finding multiple VARs in their area, usually under 20 miles away, as a result of the increase in memberships. As the results of VARSearch improve, so too does the number of people who choose to use our VAR search tool. Helping businesses find the right VAR is what this program is all about."

Over 800 unique leads went through VARSearch network to Telarus' group of partners in December '06. They rate VARs based on a number of factors including geographic proximity to the customer, previous customer and agent feedback, and VAR's level of participation with ShopforT1's core telecommunication services business. Those ratings determine which VARs are returned for a given search and in what order they will be presented to the potential customer.

I'm wishing them the best of luck... I love to see an underdog going up against well funded competitors. Especially when that underdog is using better ideas and technology to wage the war.

Presto Printing Mailbox Experience Update

Well... it's been 3 months now. My grandmother has gotten accustomed to having Presto around. You know a piece of technology has been formally adopted into someone's life when they start taking it for granted.

For example, the other day she called to let me know that the ink had run out. That makes usage about 1 high capacity cartridge per month. Not bad considering she seems to be going through a whole ream of paper a month too.

I do have one complaint... The Presto Mailbox only uses a single cartridge. That means it creates black by printing CMY together. That makes for a slightly less black than actual black. It also means that color ink usage is higher than it realistically should be. In turn, the higher ink usage makes the total cost of ownership higher than it really should be.

Altogether, it's been quite a surprise as to how well the system works.

Best Buy Calls 911 On Customer Asking For Refund

Best Buy calls 911 after Consumerist reader RJH asks for a refund on a nonworking Tony Bennet CD.

Sooooo RJH buys the CD and goes to his car to play it. He gets "Disk read error" three times. RJH walks back in with his three minute old album and receipt and asks for a refund.

The clerk tells him there's state and federal laws against refunding money. Our guy calls him a fool.

Manager comes and says the guy can have a substitute disk or leave, or else the manager will have him arrested for trespassing.

Guy laughs.

Manager calls 911...

---

RJH writes:

"I was out shopping with my daughter, Z and her brother yesterday, trying to use those dreaded gift cards, the one of interest was from Best Buy.

While they are looking for music, I see the new Tony Bennett CD, kind of a Duets and I decide to spring for the fifteen bucks.

We get to the car and I pop it in and see "Bad Disk" on my player. I tried unsuccessfully three times to get it to work, but alas, it must have been a bad disk. So I walk back into the store with my three minute old receipt and show it to the door guard who shows me to the return line. Now I have owned this thing for three minutes and I just want to swap it out. It is three days after xmas and I really do not want to go through the entire return process so when I finally get to the front of the line; the customer service trainer is waiting on me. I tell him, forget it, just give me my money back, it is a bad disk.

He tells me there are state and federal laws against them refunding my money at which I literally laugh out loud. I said there are no such laws. He claimed there were and I said, if you believe that you are a fool. Then I asked to see a copy of the law at which point the "manager" showed up. He said that he would show me the law it was right out the front door and If I did not leave, they would have me arrested for trespassing. At this point the manager says I can have another disk or be arrested for trespassing. I asked again to check the CD, it was a bad CD.

I am thinking this is a riot, let's just see where this goes.

Sure enough, he calls 911 for a trespasser in his store.

I am literally laughing out loud. I go back to the car where the kids are and explain that I will be a few more minutes. I get my phone and call my wife and tell her what is going on.

Then I call corporate in MN. I explain what is going on and the "senior customer consultant" tell me to please hold after he agrees that it is an out of control situation. The first question that corporate asked me was if they actually checked the CD to see if it was bad. I told him that they did not check it in spite of my requests.

About this time the manager comes to me and says that it looks like the cops ain't coming so he will give me the money back.

Now the cops show up, (three officers in two cars!) I have the customer service people refunding my money, the three cops looking for me, and me on hold with corporate.

I get my money then approach the cops and explain my side of the story. They just shake their head. I apologize for the store manager wasting their resources. I was kind of hoping that they would arrest me.

I finally get the guy from corporate back on the line and he commits to calling me tomorrow with resolution.

Turns out it wasn't a call from him I got today, the store manager called. I went over the details with her and after what seems like a thirty minute discussion she admitted there is not a federal or state law against a store refunding a customer for a defective product. She then asked what it would take to make it right, I told her to think about it and call me back. She did call back later today and offered me a twenty five dollar gift card. I asked her to donate it to Salvation Army and guess what, they can't do that either."

Pathetic. Kudos to RJH for standing up to these Best Buy mendicants. They didn't count on a customer calling their bluff. Doubt RJH will be purchasing many Tony Bennet CDs from them again.

What this means for your weekend: If you believe a store is wrong, stand up for yourself.

Meet their threats with complete confidence.

Be like Violent Acres, who, on the advice of her Marine father, kicked a bully in the nuts with her Cabbage Patch rollerskates and yelled while standing over his body, "I'LL EAT YOUR EYES! I'LL EAT ALL OF YOUR EYES!"

See you in 2007.

— BEN POPKEN

Introductory DSL Prices on the Rise... because they can

Industry analyst Dave Burstein takes a peek at how consistently high cable broadband prices have allowed the major phone companies to raise their introductory DSL prices of late. As BroadbandReports recently noted, Verizon bumped the price of their $15 768kbps DSL tier to $20, and Burstein claims AT&T's website reflects a recent price-hike as well. "Compare those rates to France, where twice the speed, 60 channels of TV, and free international calls have settled at about 30 euro, or $40," laments Burstein.

That means customers who want reasonably priced service had best get on the stick and order DSL service soon. Otherwise they may find themselves facing price parity between DSL and cable modem service instead of enjoying the steep discounts we have been getting for the past year or so.

Customers can check pricing and availability using Anyion's DSL & Cable Modem Availability website.

5 years later, WTC mail keeps coming

NEW YORK - It's the kind of holiday mail that might have been tossed aside, discarded like any other piece of junk mail: a special offer for a facial at a local spa.

Only the address on the letter no longer exists. And the woman the letter is addressed to died more than five years ago in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Hundreds of pieces of mail destined for the former trade center still arrive every day at a post office facing ground zero — the relics of the unfinished lives of Sept. 11 victims.

Telephone bills, insurance statements, wine club announcements, college alumni newsletters, even government checks populate the bundles of mail. Each bears the ZIP code once reserved exclusively for the twin towers: 10048.

"I guess sooner or later they'll realize the towers aren't back up," said letter carrier Seprina Jones-Sims, who handles the trade center mail. "I don't know when."

Some of the nation's most recognizable companies and organizations, from retailers to research hospitals, are among those sending the mail. Much of it seems to result from businesses not updating their bulk mailing lists, said U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Pat McGovern.

The postal service declined to identify the senders and recipients of the letters according to policy. Several companies formerly housed in the towers also declined comment.

The trade center mail meets varied fates once it arrives at the Church Street station.

A handful of companies pay for a service that forces the post office to hold the mail until a messenger picks it up. The rest of the mail travels various routes. Some will be returned to the sender, some will be forwarded to the company's current address and some will be sent to a Brooklyn recycling firm to be destroyed.

That the Postal Service is even forwarding mail from a nonexistent address five years later is rare. "Normally we'd only forward mail for a year, but we're making an exception here," McGovern said.

The trade center's mail used to travel from the Church Street post office and up through the towers. It would start on the ground tucked in the letter carrier's bag and continue up higher and higher — to the 68th floor, the 89th floor, the 104th floor.

The morning's mail never made it through the flames and smoke on Sept. 11, 2001. It stayed put with the letter carriers, who silently observed the chaos that unfurled outside the post office.

Flying debris blew out most of its windows. After a three-year restoration, its doors officially reopened in August 2004.

Rafael Feliciano delivered mail to floors 78 through 100 of the south tower for three years. He watched the tower collapse on television from a bar several blocks away with a co-worker.

"He turned to me and said, 'You just lost your route,'" Feliciano recalled. When the dust cleared, he spent weeks identifying office workers who came to pick up their mail, searching for familiar faces to see if they had survived.

Mail addressed to people who were killed was marked as deceased right away, he said. But it kept coming.

"It's been five years later. How many people don't know the towers are gone?" he said.

Jones, 39, took over the trade center mail after Feliciano — too shaken to enter tall buildings any longer — left his route to become a driver. She gets to work at 5 a.m. The mail is carefully divided among white plastic trays labeled by company name.

But the Church Street post office — built in 1935 and now on the National Register of Historic Places — is no longer the bustling hub it was when it stood just steps away from the city's tallest buildings.

Between 2001 and 2002, the total weekly volume dropped from 1.2 million pieces to just 485,000. It has risen slightly in the years since.

The neighborhood is slowly awakening, attracting more and more residents and businesses after the exodus that occurred five years ago. The post office's marble floors are newly polished and the building is brimming with employees. When they gaze out the long bay windows overlooking ground zero, they see nothing but blue sky.

"You start flashing back to that day," Feliciano said. "That's why I got off the routes. It's like a movie that plays over and over in your head."

100 million free 411 calls = providers nightmare

Jingle’s free 411 service has announced that users have now placed over 100 million 411 calls.

Jingle isn’t creating a new market - they are destroying an entrenched, $8 billion market with an ad supported, free product. Every call processed by their system is $1 to $1.50 that won't end up in a greedy telephone provider's pocket.

Their profit per call is minimal... but in volume it has potential. And the biggest benefit is it encourages people to continue using their phone (especially cell phones) to get directory assistance. Jingle's call automation techniques make their costs to provide the service much more sustainable than traditional directory assistance models.

Staples shafts customers, loses my business

Yesterday I ordered a Brother MFC-5440CN from Staples in their Monday sale. It was late in the afternoon - well after the crush of Monday morning traffic. The unit was priced at $49.95. A good deal.

Well, today I get a form email from Staples:

Dear Valued Staples Customer:

Item: PRINTER,MFC-5440CN qty 1

Due to high demand for this item, our stock has been depleted. Please note that you were not billed for it. It cannot be backordered or reordered and no substitute is offered.

How annoying. I guess the holiday shafting has begun. The annoying part is that before I could order it, I had to put my zip code in so they could "verify item availability". Guess their ERP system sucks major.

There's a new commandment in my operating instructions now. It says "Thou shalt not shop at Staples." Too bad for them... I've only spent $12,000 on office supplies this quarter with them. I'll be sending my Staples Account Rep the URL to this post.

Merry Christmas Cindy! Let fulfillment know that 3 strikes and they're out. Told you that upfront.

Good thing CostCo called yesterday to ask if it would "offend me" if they increased the size our business credit line.

Wilson, NC Residents to Get High(speed) Fiber Diet

'Fiber To The Curb' Is Coming: City Of Wilson To Make Fiber Optic Network Access Available To All

The Wilson, North Carolina, City Council has voted to approve a $26 million, 30-mile fiber to the home network that will serve area residents with the triple play. "If we are to compete in this global society, we’ve got to have the infrastructure that’s necessary to do so," says assistant city manager Alice Freeman. "This fiber is as critical today as electricity was in the late 1800s," she says, adding that "this is economic development pure and simple ... We are just trying to give our citizens and businesses what they need to compete." The existing network is being used in firefighter training.

OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE HAS JUST BEGUN

Like Cornered Rats, GOP Losers More Dangerous Than Ever

NEW YORK--"My fellow Americans," assured incoming president Gerald Ford hours after the Watergate scandals forced Richard Nixon to resign, "our long national nightmare is over."

I'm tempted, in the aftermath of the widest and most stunning electoral repudiation of Republicanism since Watergate, to mark the Democratic recapture of governorships, the House of Representatives (and probably the Senate) as the beginning of the end of Bush's fascism lite, and thus a long overdue vindication of what I've been saying about him since his December 2000 coup d'état.

Back in 2001 and 2002, state-controlled media called me radical. Now, with most Americans seeing things my way, I'm mainstream. Yet I'm more scared now.

"Iraq," I wrote a week before the 2003 invasion, "will probably be Bush's Waterloo." And so it has been: Exit polls found voters more motivated by opposition to the war than any other issue. "There was general revulsion in the country, particularly among Democrats and independents, against the conduct of the war in
Iraq," said pollster John Zogby. "This was, at the grass roots, a referendum against the war and the president. For Republicans, there was significant disappointment about opportunities lost through enormous budget deficits, threats to civil liberties, a failed social agenda, and the war." Although Democrats failed to nationalize the election, Iraq succeeded: a pitiful seven percent of respondents to the latest Gallup survey still want to "stay the course."

A White House controlled by an unpopular, highly partisan lame duck, a rival party majority without enough votes in Congress to override his veto, and the early start of a highly anticipated 2008 presidential campaign add up to one likely result: gridlock. Bush's legislative and military agendas are dead. But our long national nightmare has just begun.

A Frightening New Security State

We'll be cleaning up Bush's mess long after his scheduled abdication on January 20, 2009. But the trillions of dollars in national debt he has run up and his two losing wars will drain our economy for decades to come. We've provoked a new generation of terrorists. Yet even more damaging and nearly impossible to unravel will be the threats to Americans posed by the neofascist national security apparatus the Bushists will leave behind--unless they use it to remain in power.

Shortly after 9/11 Bush began the first of a long series of power grabs that have transformed him from the leader of a country beholden to its people to an authoritarian despot. He signed a secret executive order granting himself the right to declare anyone in the world, including a U.S. citizen, an "enemy combatant"--without proof--and order him assassinated. Violating federal law and privacy rights, Bush authorized the NSA to listen to our phone calls and read our e-mail. FBI, CIA and HomeSec goons "disappeared" thousands of people into a horrible new matrix of concentration camps and secret prisons.

On October 17, 2006 Bush signed the Military Commissions Act. The new law, scarcely mentioned in the media, is breathtaking for the breadth of its attack on basic rights. Under the MCA either the president or the secretary of defense may declare you an "enemy combatant"--as usual, without proof. Under that designation you may be jailed, without the right to an attorney, for the rest of your life. You can even be tortured. Your U.S. citizenship can't protect you. And it's all "legal."

Concentration Camps

In January 2006 HomeSec awarded a $385 million contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton Co., to build "temporary detention and processing capabilities"--internment camps--"in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."

The question, asks Progressive magazine editor Ruth Conniff, "is what is the government planning to do with mass roundups of people?" After all, Bush and other Republican leaders have spent five years calling Democrats and others who disagree with them traitors and terrorists. Following so much hateful rhetoric, you can't blame liberals for wondering whether they too are about to be declared "enemy combatants." They're not paranoid; they're just paying attention.

And Now, Martial Law

About a week ago some left-wing bloggers began circulating rumors that Bush had secretly signed something called the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" that "allows the president to declare a 'public emergency' and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to 'suppress public disorder.'" I couldn't find the text of the law at the time, formerly H.R. 5122, or a reliable media account, so I decided not to report on it.

I can now confirm the bloggers' account. Bush signed the JWDAA hours after the MCA, in a furtive closed-door White House ceremony. There is, buried deep down in Title V, Subtitle B, Part II, Section 525(a) of the JWDAA, a coup. The Bush Administration has quietly stolen the National Guard away from the states.

Here's the relevant section of Public Law 109-364:

"The [military] Secretary [of the Army, Navy or Air Force] concerned may order a member of a reserve component under the Secretary's jurisdiction to active duty...The training or duty ordered to be performed...may include...support of operations or missions undertaken by the member's unit at the request of the President or Secretary of Defense."

The National Guard, used to maintain order during natural disasters and civil disturbances and the sole vehicle available under U.S. law to enforce a declaration of martial law, has previously been controlled by state governors. They have now been stripped of that control. Thanks to the JWDAA, Bush or Rumsfeld can now deploy National Guardsmen in American cities without obtaining permission from state governors.

Section 526 of the Warner Act goes further still. It states that the "Governor of a State...with the consent of the [military] Secretary concerned, may order a member of the National Guard to perform Active Guard and Reserve duty..." The key word is "may." A governor can no longer deploy the Guard in his or her state without first getting Rumsfeld's permission.

Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sounded the alarm during senatorial debate, but U.S. state-controlled media ignored him. The Warner Act, he said, "includes language that subverts solid, longstanding posse comitatus statutes that limit the military's involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law...We fail our Constitution, neglecting the rights of the states, when we make it easier for the president to declare martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty."

Only one governor, Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, made a fuss over the Warner Act. A spokesman for the National Governors Association requested a wimpy "clarification" concerning what circumstances might prompt Bush to impose martial law. As far as I can determine this column marks the first time the JWDAA has been mentioned in the mainstream media.

Now the dark men who engineered America's post-9/11 police state have watched the public reject their policies. The incoming Democratic majority Congress will be able to hold hearings and launch investigations that could lead to their indictments and removal from office. John Dingell, the liberal incoming chairman of the Commerce Committee did nothing to dissuade GOP fears of "a blizzard of subpoenas": "As the Lord High Executioner said in 'The Mikado,'" Dingell recently joked, "I have a little list."

A year of crisis commences.

As ugly secrets surface, Bushists will turn desperate. Democracy has failed their grand schemes; token resignations like Rumsfeld's come too little, too late. Only tyranny can save their skins. Will the beleaguered neocons led by Cheney and Bush, cornered like rats, unleash their brand-new police state on their political opponents? Or will they tough it out and suck up the fines and prison sentences to come? The next year or two could go either way.

The nightmare is not over.

(Ted Rall is the author of the new book "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?," an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis of America's next big foreign policy challenge.)

Broadband in the Boonies

Look Ma! I made a news. Jackson West over at Web Worker Daily picked up a guide I wrote for Work.com called "Getting Internet to Your Business in the Boonies". Hopefully it will help out some of the rural entrepreneurs who are struggling to make locating in the new or growing businesses outside the major metro areas.

I personally live on one of those rural areas and love the fact that my cost of living is now 1/3 - yes, a 66% decrease - what it cost me to live in cities like Dallas and Atlanta.

Like me, many folks locating in rural areas have to pre-plan what they will be doing for broadband. It's usually not as simple as getting a phone line and ordering DSL or calling up the local cable company for a cable modem. In most cases there is no cable company anywhere near the location. And if the local central office does have DSL, you're too far out to get it. Those are the breaks that come with country living.

Are the trade-offs worth it for a techie? Absolutely! My living costs are dramatically reduced. My commute to the metro airport here is exactly the same as it was to the airport in Dallas or Atlanta. And my internet connection still works the same - it just costs a lot more (which is offset fully in my case by the decreased cost of housing). The only things I miss are nice resturants and quick access to tech toy stores like CompUSA, Best Buy, Fry's Electronics and MicroCenter. But... on the flip side, I'm now on a first name basis with the UPS, FedEx and DHL guys thanks to online shopping.

(PS... If you live in a rural area, Amazon Prime is a steal! I know I've more than gotten by money's worth on the free 2-day shipping and $3.99 overnight shipping. I can't figure out how they don't lose their shirts on it... b/c I keep ordering stuff that ways more than a pound or two and they keep shipping it to me overnight for $3.99.)

}Davoice

60 days til Christmas... What do I want?

Ok, it's that time of year again. People are asking me what I want for Christmas.

I told my parents I wanted a ThermaPen.

Other things that always interest me... let's see:
- Square faced watches. I have tiny wrists and always have to take links out though (so a nice gesture would be including a $20 bill for me to pay the jeweler to do it).
- SD card flash memory.
- Fancy food that doesn't contain dairy or eggs - i.e. no mayonnaise either. (Cheeses are usually ok though.)
- A good peppery olive oil from unexpected Mediteranian countries like Turkey.
- Gift cards to office supply stores.
- Chocolate. Not a big fan of filled chocolates though. Cherry and amaretto filled stuff is a good bet though.

I'm sure something else will strike my fancy but that's a good start.

First Impressions with Presto Preview

Well... it's been a week on the Presto Preview - aka the HP Printing Mailbox powered by Presto. I have good news and bad news.

Bad news first: I don't have any juicy dirt to sling about the product. Darn!

Here are my takes so far concerning the service:

- The product is too hard for their target market to setup. They're targeting Baby Boomers - or anyone in the 60 to 75 year range for that matter. No way could my grandmother have set up the unit by herself without someone helping. She read the setup poster, looked at me with a blank face and said "Do what?" I proceeded to setup the unit without any instructions. It's the same problem we had with VCRs... if it's not intuitive to someone with no technology experience, it won't be used.

- The technology is great and does exactly what was promised. But not enough work has gone into turning the actual equipment into something that doesn't require a big, six way folding, double sided poster to setup. I'm going to lay the blame for the hardware itself not being made "idiot proof" squarely on HP's shoulders. Over the years they have - in my professional opinion - tried to simplify printer setup but have yet to break through the intelligence barrier yet. I'm betting it's because they have too many engineers working in the product teams and not enough normal people.

- Instructions for the unit read like an engineer is trying really hard to explain something to a normal person. They need another level of abstraction so things come out like a normal person is explaining it to another normal person. Most technology companies suffer from this same problem. More time is needed to get the important things up to the surface and the technology related stuff hidden under the surface.

- My generation takes a lot of technology things for granted. Even simple stuff. For example, the instructions said to purchase "printer paper from your local discount store". My grandmother had never heard of "printer paper" or "copy paper" for that matter. I fished around with a few other explanations and the one she finally understood was "typing paper".

- The back-end of the service is still a work in progress. This was experienced firsthand when one day last week I sent an email that got rejected. Later in the day, the Preview support staff sent an acknowledgment that I had emailed during a transition to a new server.

- Along the same lines, a few things are still missing from the back-end. There are only 2 email templates (and 1 for Halloween) to chose from and only 2 "subscriptions" (think of them as electronically delivered newspaper or magazine clippings). According to the documentation, eventually there will be templates for most holidays and special occasions.

- Scheduled checks for new emails work as promised. Although I have had a few occasions where emails I sent near the check time weren't delivered until the following check. I'm not sure how long it takes there servers to process incoming emails into the format the Mailbox uses but in once case I emailed 20 minutes prior to the scheduled check and the email didn't make it on that check.

- Speaking of scheduled checks, there's a glaring feature omission - no button to initiate a check at that specific moment. As a regular email user, I would have expected the equivalent of a Send/Receive button so that a check could be made in case you were expecting something to be sent right then. There is no such button. So you just have to wait for the next scheduled check. If you have all 3 daily checks set up it's not an issue... but if you're using the default single daily check that might be a problem. (Yep, the default is for the unit to check for new messages once a day.)

- The biggest surprise for me was that HTML emails actually retain their formatting and picture placement. I've copied and pasted a few web pages into emails for my grandmother. They come out the other side with formatting and web page images in place as I would expect. That's a welcome feature since it means no one has to print web pages off for her anymore when she sees things on TV.

}Davoice

Problem w/ IE7 - Windows has detected a significant change in your machine configuration.

File this under capital A for annoying.

I took the plunge last night - after backing up of course - into IE7. I hadn't bothered with any of the betas because I've grown averse to being on the bleeding edge of Microsoft technology. Cutting edge will do for me, thanks.

Well, I got cut. After installing IE7 it wanted to reboot. Which I let it do. Upon reboot, I got the dreaded Windows has detected "a significant change in your machine configuration" message. Whoopie. Now I have 3 days to reactivate.

And oh fun... the internet reactivation declares I have exceeded my permitted number of activations for my license. Of course I have b/c Windows insisted I reactivate every time I added more RAM, upgraded the hard drive or swapped out the DVD burner for a faster one in this machine. So here goes a call to Microsoft's 866-Call-India activation help line. After reading off my series of digits to the gal, she quizzed me on about 10 different things. Finally she gave me an activation code... at the excruciating pace of 3 digits at a time - and she waited for me to acknowledge the receipt of each 3 before giving me any more.

So the question still remains... WHY did IE7 trigger the Windows hardware change reactivation? The world may never know.

Getting ready for Presto Preview

On Tuesday of this coming week, a new test will begin in our family... a test that will mark a new era for a certain grandmother. Thanks to HP, our family will be testing one of the HP Printing Mailbox units for Presto!

For those who haven't heard of what Presto! is about, here are a couple links:
- Presto puts digital photos in the hands of your grandma
- New printer delights the tech inept

The short version is... The Presto! service combines a dedicated HP printer, modem and the Presto! service to make a hands-off unit that someone who is unfamiliar with technology can use to receive emails and photos. The unit looks like a slightly overgrown HP printer and has a place to plug it into a phone line on the back. Just install an ink cartridge, insert some paper and plug it into a phone line. When the little blue light blinks, you've got mail. That's it. Their target market is the Baby Boomer generation... specifically the 50+ year old folks who don't already have an internet connected PC or are timid about getting online with what they already have.

As the account manager, I get to pick and chose who can email the Presto Printing Mailbox. Each Mailbox unit gets a personal email address that can be given to anyone who has regular email. The trick is those folks can only send email to the Mailbox user if the account manager has added them to the allowed senders list or the Mailbox user has called an 800# and had the person added to their list manually.

During the preview, emails will be limited to email/html (the HTML being semi-unknown at the moment b/c I haven't seen how well they render it yet), JPGs and GIFs. That's enough functionality to allow photos to be easily emailed to the Mailbox user as well as family update emails and general cheer type messages.

I'm hoping they will expand the service to support PDF attachments and maybe Word docs. But for me PDFs would be perfect.

If this works well, it will revolutionize the way our family keeps in touch with the grandmother in question. Right now we all share photos and stuff via email with each other but she never gets to see them. This is the grandmother who swore she would never type after leaving a career as a librarian.

One of the coolest features of the service I'm waiting to validate is their auto-sensing of the account and hardware ID based on the caller ID of the phone line into which the Printing Mailbox gets connected. Supposedly, if I have setup the account before the Mailbox is plugged in and connects to the Presto! service the first time, everything will automatically configure itself and email from the Presto! account will just start flowing in w/o any further interaction from me.

Should this little piece of technological mash-up work as promised, I know what I'll be buying a few other 50+ year old family members over the next months.

Listen up AT&T: Protect the BellSouth Engineers!

Most people don't know it... but Bellsouth is home to the most experienced hurricane response team in the world. Bar none. Bellsouth - and pretty much any utility company in the south - has almost yearly experience recovering from some sort of natural disaster. They have successfully recovered from hurricane after hurricane, tornados, flooding, ice, etc.

After Katrina, it’s amazing that Bill Smith, Chief Technology Officer for BellSouth Corporation, and his team have yet to be guaranteed their positions once the SBC(ATT)/BellSouth merger completes. While Bill would be the first to tell you they have procedures that need improvement, the BellSouth response to Katrina and Rita's large scale crisis was professional and (relatively) effective.

Keep in mind that disaster preparedness is not revenue generating! And even in the best cases recovering from a distaster costs the company millions to billions of unbudgeted dollars. So we all need to remind the folks planning ATT/SBC/Bellsouth's 10,000 layoffs how crucial protecting these skills are.

The FCC Commissioners recently introduced a new Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. The new bureau will presumably continue the often complimented job (yeah, it's ok to laugh) of the FCC getting regulations out of the way during Katrina crisis. Regardless, D.C. bureaus and committees are not enough. Real public safety requires the most skilled professionals at the companies involved.

Hopefully part of the merger approval negotiations that are ongoing will include a quiet conversation between the FCC Chairman, Randall and Ed. A simple comment that the commission will continue to watch the staffing and level of investment in disaster preparedness should do the trick. AT&T has plenty of good reasons to take advantage of the BellSouth engineering talent. Let's hope they actually do the right thing.

CircuitCity.com coupon: 10% off $199 or more

Get a jump on Christmas electronics shopping! CircuitCity.com offers dealnews readers 10% off most orders of $199 or more via the link in this post. The discount shows on the page where you enter your credit card information. It matches the best percent-off discount we've seen from CircuitCity.com this year. Excludes all Apple items and iPods, all PCs, and several name brands. Coupon ends October 14.