Spammer Sues Victim for $ 4 Mill

Cruise.com is suing its spamming victim for $3.8Million.

"Imagine asking a corporation to stop spamming you and instead of honoring your request, it sues you in federal court and continues to send the same unwanted, junk email you asked it to stop sending in the first place. This is precisely what happened to Mark W. Mumma, a web hosting and email service provider in Oklahoma City. A suit was filed against Mumma in the U.S. District Court's Eastern District of Virginia on Feb. 8 by suspected spammer cruise.com, its parent company and the parent's principals."

VoIP: Get Ready for Voice Spam

According to Internet News, "overseas telemarketers are quickly learning that they can use IP voice calls to "dial for dollars," getting around both traditional long-distance cost constraints and U.S. Do-Not-Call regulations to flood Internet traffic with phone calls that would make even the most egregious spammer blush."

Get ready for the deluge. The combination of reduced labor costs overseas and cheap phone cost that are a fraction of current costs could result in as many as 150 calls a day.

My favorite quote: "Technically, there is nothing you can do about it," Cohen said. "Pornography, gaming and spam are the biggest moneymakers on the Internet, and people who do marketing to reach customers and encourage them to spend money know this. So I don't see any way out."

Partisanship: The House Loses Its Ethics

In retaliation for the House Ethics Committee's three admonitions to Tom DeLay for violations of the House's own ethics rule, the Republican "leadership" replaced the Ethics Committee's chairman and two other Republicans on the Committee. Then they attempted to reduce the Committee's power by rewriting the rules. This was too far for even some Republican members, and now there is an impasse.

The Wall Street Journal published an article today pointing out that Bush's Social Security reform is going nowhere because Democrats who are philosophically aligned with private accounts simply do not trust Bush after his highly partisan first term.

The price of the partisanship practiced by this administration is becoming increasingly steep for all Americans. The House "Ethics Free Zone" is just the latest example.

Administration's Two Prongs of Media Management

Two articles today point out how withholding more and more information and the increasing use of providing prepackaged video press releases disguised as new reports are being used by the Bush administration to manage the news.

The AP reported that "the percentage of requested information that is eventually released in full has been declining since 1998 at the Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Interior, State, Transportation and Treasury departments. ........At the CIA , just 12 percent of the FOIA requests processed were granted in total in 2004, down from 44 percent in 1998. The FBI gave people asking for records everything they asked for just 1 percent of the time in 2004, compared to 5 percent in 1998."

Meanwhile today's NYTimes reports how at "least 20 federal agencies have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years." The PR releases use fake reporters to present positive spins on administration activities which are often aired on TV as legitimate, independent reporting.

U.S. to Back EU on Iran Incentives

The US has decided to join Europe in offering Iran incentives to abandon its suspected nuclear arms programs. The US believes that it made the policy shift in return for a European promise to turn Iran into the UN Security Council if Iran refuses to cooperate.

UK and US refuse to investigate Iraq casualties

An international group of public health experts have urged the US and UK to setup an independent investigation of war casaulties rated to the war in Iraq. Both government's have refused and will continue to use the figures produced by the Iraqi Ministry of Health which the experts contend vastly understate the number of caualties. The MoH lists less than 20,000 total casualties, while UK public health experts estimate that war has caused nearly 100,000 civilian deaths.

"Mr Straw told parliament, "The Lancet study suggests that there is an obligation deriving from article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the multinational force itself to have a reckoning of the number of civilian casualties it has caused. There is nothing in article 27, or elsewhere in the Fourth Geneva Convention, to support this suggestion.""

Biden and Lieberman help Republicans look after the rich

Joe Biden and Joe Leiberman helped the Republicans and credit card companies get the bankruptcy bill they wanted and paid for. Biden was reportedly encouraged by over $142K in campaign contributions by one credit card company alone; several are incorporated in his home state of Delaware.

Not only did 12 Democratic senators bravely defend the rights of credit card companies against the drepravations of the poor who held down credit profits to a mere 300% increase in recent years, but they also helped ensure that the rich would not have to suffer the same indignities. The bankruptcy bill ensures that Asset Protection Trusts will still be around to protect the assets of the rich from the invading hands of creditors and loosened the conflict of interest rules for investment banks over the protests of the SEC.

Credit card companies evidently know that the rich are too smart to pay their usurous interest rates and focused their attention on getting their pound of flesh from the poor.

Greenspan finally figures out there is "no free lunch."

Alan Greenspan is now worried about the budget but he is not 'overly' concerned about the record U.S. trade gap and heavy consumer debt loads.

'Has something fundamental happened to the U.S. economy that enables us to disregard all the time-tested criteria for assessing when economic imbalances become worrisome?' Greenspan asked rhetorically. 'Regrettably, the answer is no; the free luNews - nch has still to be invented.'"

Students Don't Have a Clue About Finance?

According to the NYTImes, "More states are requiring students to learn about managing money, but personal finance remains a fringe topic in schools and a major source of federal concern.

Seven states mandate that students take a course about basic finances to graduate high school, according to 2004 survey results released Thursday by the private National Council on Economic Education. That's up from 2002, when just four states required such courses."

Unfortunately, at a time when schools are overloaded with huge class sizes and shrinking budgets, the reality is that these programs are not being delivered. The pending bankruptcy legislation only highlights the risks of ignoring basic financial education.

World ready to fight new flu?

World not ready to fight flu pandemic, says study released in the UK. Even in the UK, the government estimates that it only has enough antiviral drugs to treat a quarter of the population.

"The WHO estimates that a flu outbreak could kill up to 8m people around the world, with another 30m being hospitalised."

Church of Critical Thinking

A recommended site. Nice essays and correspondence with various groups such as Scientology, Air America and others the founder suspects of shoddy thinking.

RIAA + Greed = Higher Online Music Prices?

Some leading music labels are in talks with online retailers to raise wholesale prices for digital music downloads, in an attempt to capture more profits from the burgeoning demand for legal online music.

"The moves, which suggest that the labels want a bigger slice in the fledgling market's spoils, has angered Steve Jobs, the Apple Computer chief executive who is behind the popular iTunes online music store."

Having passed the Digital Millenium Copyright Act that criminalizes a wide range of activities plus adds huge monetary penalties to the new violations, the record labels are now attempting to raise prices for downloaded music. Greed, stupidity, and a compliant Congress continue to dominate this area of our culture.