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ADV: Staff Announcement
by Administrator 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

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Re: This Memorable Day
by pgut001＠cs.auckland.ac.nz 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

Eugen Leitl <eugen(a)leitl.org> writes: >On Tue, Nov 02, 2004 at 08:16:41AM -0500, R. A. Hettinga wrote: >><http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB109936293065461940,00.html> >No cypherpunks content. Just local politics. And it's not even original, they've mostly just translated it into English, updated it a bit (e.g. League of Nations -> UN), and changed the Russian names and references to Middle Eastern ones. Peter.

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Calif. settles electronic voting suit against Diebold for $2.6M
by R.A. Hettinga 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/11/10/financial1…> Ths San Francisco Chronicle Calif. settles electronic voting suit against Diebold for $2.6M RACHEL KONRAD, AP Technology Writer Wednesday, November 10, 2004 (11-10) 15:31 PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced Wednesday a $2.6 million settlement with Diebold Inc., resolving a lawsuit alleging that the company sold the state and several counties shoddy voting equipment. Although critics characterized the settlement as a slap on the wrist, Diebold also agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to partially reimburse Alameda, San Diego and other counties for the cost of paper backup ballots, ink and other supplies in last week's election. California's secretary of state banned the use of one type of Diebold machine in May, after problems with the machines disenfranchised an unknown number of voters in the March primary. Faulty equipment forced at least 6,000 of 316,000 voters in Alameda County, just east of San Francisco, to use backup paper ballots instead of the paperless voting terminals. In San Diego County, a power surge resulted in hundreds of touch-screens that wouldn't start when the polls opened, forcing election officials to turn voters away from the polls. According to the settlement, the North Canton, Ohio-based company must also upgrade ballot tabulation software that Los Angeles County and others used Nov. 2. Diebold must also strengthen the security of its paperless voting machines and computer servers and promise never to connect voting systems to outside networks. "There is no more fundamental right in our democracy than the right to vote and have your vote counted," Lockyer said in a statement. "In making false claims about its equipment, Diebold treated that right, and the taxpayers who bought its machines, cavalierly. This settlement holds Diebold accountable and helps ensure the future quality and security of its voting systems." The tentative settlement could be approved as soon as Dec. 10. The original lawsuit was filed a year ago by Seattle-based electronic voting critic Bev Harris and Sacramento-based activist Jim March, who characterized the $2.6 million settlement as "peanuts." March, a whistle blower who filed suit on behalf of California taxpayers, could receive as much as $75,000 because of the settlement. But he said the terms don't require Diebold to overhaul its election servers -- which have had problems in Washington's King County and elsewhere -- to guard them from hackers, software bugs or other failures. The former computer system administrator was also upset that the state announced the deal so quickly. Several activist groups, computer scientists and federal researchers are analyzing Nov. 2 election data, looking for evidence of vote rigging or unintentional miscounts in hundreds of counties nationwide that used touch-screen terminals. Results are expected by early December. "This settlement will shut down a major avenue of investigation before evidence starts trickling in," March said. "It's very premature." A Diebold executive said the settlement would allow the company to spend more money on improving software and avoid "the distraction and cost of prolonged litigation." Diebold earnings plunged 5 cents per share in the third quarter because of the California litigation, which could cost an additional 1 cent per share in the current quarter. Diebold shares closed Wednesday at $53.20, up 1.22 percent from Tuesday in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. "We've worked closely with California officials to come to an agreement that allows us to continue to move forward," Diebold senior vice president Thomas W. Swidarski said in a statement. "While we believe Diebold has strong responses to the claims raised in the suit, we are primarily interested in building an effective and trusting relationship with California election officials." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Re: China's wealthy bypass the banks
by Tyler Durden 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

Oh No!!!! Way overly simplistic. Also, you are comparing apples to bushels of wheat. >However Confucianism vs Daoism/Taoism is rather different from what >you would get in the west. Confucianism is somewhat similar to what >you would get if western cultural conservatives allied themselves with >nazi/commies, in the way that the commies are prone to imagine >conservatives have supposedly allied themselves with nazis. Taoism >somewhat similar to what you would get if anarcho capitalists allied >themselves with pagans and wiccans... WOW! I'll skip the obvious comments and ask, In which centuries are you suggesting this applies? Now? If so, you are clearly NOT talking about mainland China. Please re-define the centuries/epochs during which you believe this to have been true, and then maybe I'll bother responding. -TD

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The Full Chomsky
by R.A. Hettinga 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

<http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/c-e/chapin/2004/chapin111004.htm> MensNewsDaily.com The Full Chomsky November 10, 2004 by Bernard Chapin Question: How could a linguist working as a college professor have omniscient insight regarding the inner-workings of the American government and exclusive knowledge concerning the hidden motivations of every government official in our nation's history? Answer: There's no way he could. Yet, such common sense does little to refute the fact that Noam Chomsky is one of the ten most quoted figures in the humanities. He has published screed after screed deconstructing American foreign policy positions and never has given any indication that his insinuations may somehow be limited by lack of connections or first hand evidence (or, in some cases, any evidence whatsoever). Since the 1960s, he has fully played the role of Wizard Professor and created an entire library's worth of "pseudo-academic smog" . Until recently, there have been few antidotes for his morass of accusations and allegations, but now we have The Anti-Chomsky Reader, edited by David Horowitz and Peter Collier, which offers purchasers the service of deconstructing the deconstructor. Once you've finished reading it, you'll be highly grateful as Chomsky's lies are so pervasive and counter-intuitive that it's a wonder anyone but the paranoid ever read him in the first place. The Anti-Chomsky Reader is a compilation of essays outlining and refuting the travesties that the M.I.T. linguist has passed off as truth. It does not confine itself to politics alone. Substantial space is given to the analysis of his scholarly publications in linguistics. These are addressed in two chapters called, "A Corrupted Linguistics" and "Chomsky, Language, World War II and Me." In the area of his chosen field, many have given him an intellectual pass but this work does not. His linguistic ideas may be as spurious as his political tomes. All sources give him initial credit for his core academic assumption about the "biological basis of grammar," but it seems that he has engaged in little in the way of scientifically verifiable work over the course of the last fifty years. Chomsky's creative terminology dazzles admirers but his new theories inevitably amount to nothing Overall, the compendium leaves no region of his reputation left unexamined. Anti-Americanism is central to his worldview. He never sees this nation as being superior to any other. At best, we mirror the pathologies of totalitarian states. We can discern this clearly in Stephen Morris's "Whitewashing Dictatorship in Communist Vietnam and Cambodia." The author sums up Chomsky's fetish for defending the Vietnamese and Democratic Kampuchea aptly when he argues that, "As a radical political ideologue, he is crippled by an intense emotional commitment to the cause of anti-Americanism. Operating on the principle that 'my enemy's enemy is my friend,' he wholeheartedly embraced the struggle of two of the world's most ruthlessly brutal regimes." Chomsky's hopes for mankind are vested in murderous revolutionaries and not in his own nation. It is our nation, and never the Khmer Rouge, which gives its citizens the freedom to vote, the freedom to trade, and, most obviously, the freedom to spread the type of sedition that Noam Chomsky has been disseminating for close to 40 years. He does not limit himself to Asia, however. The professor has constantly minimized the acts of many totalitarian states. Chomsky regarded Soviet control of eastern Europe, when compared to the American presence in Vietnam, as being "practically a paradise" We see a man who cares far more about Holocaust deniers than the six million who were exterminated in gas chambers or desolate Russian ravines. After 9/11, he was more concerned about a fictitious famine in Afghanistan than about the nearly 3,000 incinerated in The World Trade Center attacks. He predicted that the toppling of the Taliban would result in 3 to 4 million famine deaths. When no such famine occurred, he did not issue an apology or retraction. He simply chose to say nothing. There is not much about this world famous ideologue that is genuine. He has ardently defended the right of free speech for anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying cranks like Robert Faurisson and Pierre Guillaume but chose not to say anything, or sign any petitions, supporting Soviet intellectuals relegated to the gulag due to their ideas. Chomsky's self-proclaimed political orientation is preposterous. He is enthralled with the socialist ideal but describes himself as a libertarian. If this were true he would be the first libertarian in history who hated capitalism and the free market. He also claims to be an anarchist but seems to love nothing more than strong governments which redistribute the wealth of its citizens and coerce its people into complying with the socialist ideal. He is so deeply repulsed by our nation, and so entirely lacking in perspective, that he holds Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Truman to be war criminals but Pol Pot, who murdered 25 percent of all Cambodians, as creating "constructive achievements for much of the population." He has an easy answer for those who dare argue with him. We do not understand as we have false consciousness . Only he, the magician, can know the true workings of the American state. Stylistically, Chomsky's works are written with an obfuscating hand and penned in the language of the opaque. The mechanics of his style: "As a strategy for creating a Potemkin village of intellectual authenticity, [are] brilliant; as scholarship it is charlatanism." Chomsky litters his work with footnotes yet the footnotes are a parlor game because they often lead to more footnotes citing other assertions he made in earlier works. The most egregious passage of them all occurs in John Williamson's essay, "Chomsky, Language, World War II and Me." It concerns Chomsky's interview with The New Yorker magazine where he is quoted as saying to one of his classes that Russian archives proved that Britain and the United States supported Nazi armies in the hopes of holding back the Soviet's eastern advance. When questioned about the quotation by Williamson, Chomsky dismissed the reporter as having manufactured his statement and that she had printed "a ridiculous gossip column." He then, even though he claimed not to have said what he did, referred Williamson to a source that did not support his assertion in the least. Chomsky's statement about the reporter turned out to be slanderous as the lecture that the reporter quoted from is available online via videotape. In it, the linguist says exactly what the reporter says he did. When confronted with his mendacity, Chomsky changed tactics and pronounced how absurd it was for someone to quote from his lecture. The real absurdity is that anyone should take him seriously at all. In case one thinks that this was an isolated incident, Chomsky appears to have learned nothing from The New Yorker scandal as he lied last month in a speech at the University of Michigan when he said that the United States had planned an attack on Japan before Pearl Harbor. No evidence was offered to support his claim as no evidence exists. What can one say about Chomsky? As a scholar and shaper of young minds he is deplorable. He is a Jew hating Jew who views the Israelis as Nazis and their behavior will result in "a final solution from which few will escape." His country has made him rich and famous although he discerns no good in the sea of prosperity around him. His is a most disturbed, jealous, and depressed mind. Chomsky has tied his life's disappointments to officials in Washington. If the linguist would merely be content to hate himself rather than project his feelings upon the government, we would all be much better off. Phrase from "Chomsky and the Cold War" by Thomas M. Nichols, p. 48. Nichols, p.61. Argument made by Eli Lehrer in "Chomsky and the Media: A Kept Press and a Manipulated People." p.82 Recounted by John Williamson in "Chomsky, Language, World War II and Me." pp. 236-241 Chomsky quoted on page 94 of Paul Bogdanor's "Chomsky's War Against Israel." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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RE: China's wealthy bypass the banks
by Tyler Durden 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

Fascinating. And typical of the unusual Chinese seesaw that has occurred throuout the aeons between hyper-strict centralized control and something approaching a lite version of anarchy. There's no good mapping of this into Western ideas of fascism, marxism, and economics. Interesting too that there's a ganster base in Wenzhou. This is precisely where the young Chiang Kai Shek consolidated his power early on as a local gangster/warlord. -TD >From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> >To: cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net >Subject: China's wealthy bypass the banks >Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 16:10:52 -0500 > ><http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/11/09/business/yu…> > > > > > >China's wealthy bypass the banks > >By Keith Bradsher The New York Times > Wednesday, November 10, 2004 > > >WENZHOU, China The Wenzhou "stir-fry" is not a dish you eat. But it is >giving indigestion to Chinese regulators and could prove troublesome to >many investors worldwide, from New York money managers, Pennsylvania >steelworkers and Midwestern farmers to Australian miners. > > Here in this freewheeling city at the forefront of capitalism in China, >the dish is prepared when a group of wealthy friends pool millions of >dollars' worth of Chinese yuan and put them into a hot investment like >Shanghai real estate, where they are stirred and flipped for a hefty >profit. The friends often lend each other large amounts on the strength of >a handshake and a handwritten IOU. > > Both sides then go to an automated teller machine or bank branch to >transfer the money, which is then withdrawn from the bank. Or sometimes >they do it the old-fashioned way: exchanging burlap sacks stuffed with >cash. > > The worry for Chinese regulators is that everyone in China will start >cooking the Wenzhou stir-fry and do it outside the banking system. > > In the last few months, borrowing and lending across the rest of China is >looking more and more like what is taking place in Wenzhou. The growth of >this shadow banking system poses a stiff challenge to China's state-owned >banks, already burdened with bad debt, and makes it harder for the nation's >leaders to steer a fast-growing economy. > > The problem starts with China's low interest rates. More and more >families >with savings have been snubbing 2 percent interest on bank deposits for the >double-digit returns from lending large amounts on their own. > > They lend to real estate speculators or to small businesses without the >political connections to obtain loans from the banks. > > Not only is the informal lending rate higher, but the income from that >lending, because it is semilegal at best, is not taxed. For fear of shame, >ostracism and the occasional threat from thugs, borrowers are more likely >to pay back these loans than those from the big banks. > > Tao Dong, chief China economist at Credit Suisse First Boston, calculates >that Chinese citizens withdrew $12 billion to $17 billion from their bank >deposits in August and September. > > The outflow turned into a flood last month, reaching an estimated $120 >billion, or more than 3 percent of all deposits at the country's financial >institutions. > > If the bank withdrawals are not stemmed in the months ahead, Tao warned, >"this potentially could be a huge risk for financial stability and even >social stability." > > And with China now accounting for more than a quarter of the world's >steel >production and nearly a fifth of soybean production, as well as some of the >largest initial public offerings of stock, any shaking of financial >confidence here could ripple quickly through markets in the United States >and elsewhere. > > For instance, if the steel girders now being lifted into place by >hundreds >of tower cranes in big cities across China are no longer needed, that would >produce a worldwide glut of steel and push down prices. > > On Oct. 28, when China's central bank raised interest rates for one-year >loans and deposits by a little more than a quarter of a percentage point, >it cited a need to keep money in the banking system. Higher official rates >should "reduce external cycling of credit funds," the bank said in a >statement. > > Eswar Prasad, the chief of the China division of the International >Monetary Fund, expressed concern about bank withdrawals in a speech in Hong >Kong three days before the central bank acted. > > The main Chinese banks have fairly substantial reserves, but they need >those reserves to cover huge write-offs of bad debts some day. > > The hub of informal lending in China is here in Wenzhou, 370 kilometers, >or 230 miles, south of Shanghai. Some of China's first experiments with the >free market began here in the late 1970s, and the result has been a >flourishing economy together with sometimes questionable business dealings. > > Depending on how raw they like their capitalism, people elsewhere in >China >describe Wenzhou as either a center of financial innovation or a den of >loan sharks. But increasingly, Wenzhou is also a microcosm of the kind of >large-scale yet informal financial dealings now going on across the >country. > > The withdrawals by depositors and the informal money lending has spread >so >swiftly here that it is only in Wenzhou that the Chinese central bank >releases monthly statistics on average rates for direct loans between >individuals or companies. The rate hovered at 1 percent a month for years >until April, when the authorities began limiting the volume of bank loans. > > Borrowers default on nearly half the loans issued by the state-owned >banks, but seldom do so here on money that is usually borrowed from >relatives, neighbors or people in the same industry. > > Residents insist that the risk of ostracism for failing to repay a loan >is >penalty enough to ensure repayment of most loans. > > Although judges have ruled that handwritten IOUs are legally binding, >creditors seldom go to court to collect. "If it is a really good friend, I >would lose face if I sued them in court," said Tu Shangyun, the owner of a >local copper smelter and a part-time "silver bearer," a broker who puts >lenders and borrowers in touch with each other, "and if it weren't a good >friend, I wouldn't lend the money in the first place." > > > > Violence is extremely rare, but the threat of it does exist as the >ultimate guarantor that people make every effort to repay debts. > > "Someone can hire a killer who will chase you down, beat you up and maybe >even kill you," said Ma Jinlong, who oversaw market-driven financial >changes in the 1990s in Wenzhou as director of the municipal economic >reform committee and is now an economics professor at Wenzhou University. > > An austerity policy was invoked, its goal to slow rapid economic growth >in >the hope of stopping a spiral in the inflation rate. With consumer prices >rising at 5.2 percent a year despite price controls on many goods and >services, and with less-regulated prices for goods traded between companies >climbing nearly twice as fast, people lose buying power while their money >is on deposit at a bank. > > The interest rate for informal loans jumped last spring to 1.2 percent a >month, or 15.4 percent compounded over a year, and has stayed there ever >since. According to the nation's central bank, total bank deposits in >Wenzhou have been dropping by $250 million a month since April as companies >and individuals withdraw money, either because they can no longer obtain >bank loans for their investments or because they want to lend the money at >higher rates to each other. > > For lenders, these interest rates are much more attractive than earning a >meager 2.25 percent a year, even after the recent rate increase, on a >deposit at a government-owned bank. And while Beijing assesses a 20 percent >tax on all interest from bank deposits, nobody pays tax on the income they >receive from lending money on their own, Ma said. > > Most informal loans have traditionally gone to relatives or neighbors to >finance the starting of small local businesses. Wenzhou is now one of the >world's largest producers of no-brand sunglasses; Dong Ganming, the owner >of a 350-employee sunglasses factory here, said that his plant was just one >of almost 1,000 here involved in making glasses. > > Fierce competition has prompted local residents to borrow money to >exploit >every possible niche in the industry, with some factories making nothing >but bridges for sunglasses so that they will not slide down customers' >noses, other factories making only the lenses, and so forth. Any government >crackdown on informal loans would carry the risk of stifling highly >efficient small and medium-size businesses that have little hope of >obtaining loans from the state-owned banks, which still allocate credit >based partly on political connections. > > Dong said that loans from friends and family allowed him to start his >sunglasses company with 10 employees a decade ago; he quickly paid off the >loans and has been reinvesting most of the profits ever since, putting very >little into bank deposits. "The interest in the bank is very low," he said. >"If you invest the money, you can get much more money." > > But more recently, residents here say, a lot of money has been flowing >into real estate here and in other big cities, especially Shanghai, helping >to fuel double-digit increases in interest rates. > > Deals increasingly involve people who have no family or neighborhood >connection, raising the risk of disputes. > > Kellee Tsai, a specialist in Chinese informal banking at Johns Hopkins >University in the United States, said that many overseas emigrants from >Wenzhou had also been sending their savings back here to be lent at much >higher rates than are available in the countries they have moved to. > > Some local investors have been able to pay for their investments with >profits from businesses here, like Chen Shen, the owner of four shops that >sell shoe-manufacturing equipment to the hundreds of shoe factories that >have popped up in this area. She said she paid cash for an apartment near >Shanghai's Bund, its riverfront district, that had appreciated as much as >60 percent in less than two years. > > > > Still, Chinese regulators do not like the practice, and officials have >been trying to stamp out such operations with limited success. > > They have outlawed the practice of pooling savings into various kinds of >informal banks that make loans for real estate and other investments: >Organizers are subject to the death penalty but are rarely caught unless >the informal banks collapse. > > Oriental Outlook, a Chinese current affairs magazine, reported late last >month on the trial of a man accused of operating an illegal bank northeast >of here that collapsed a year ago, leading to the filing of more than 200 >civil lawsuits. Another man who lost money in the scheme and went bankrupt >as a result assaulted the defendant outside the courtroom, the magazine >said. > > The extent of such pooling is unclear. But it poses the greatest risks of >damage to financial confidence if bank runs occur at these informal >institutions, economists agree. Bank runs, with depositors lined up >clamoring for their money back, have been an occasional problem around >China for years, but are always quickly contained as the authorities rush >to distribute as much cash as necessary. > > "The policy with bank runs, even with illegal banks in some cases, has >been to flood the bank with liquidity and pay everyone off," said Michael >Pettis, a finance professor at Beijing University, who criticized as ill >advised the Chinese policy of bailing out even illegal banks. > > "One of the most salutary ways to let people know not to put money in >these is to let two or three go bankrupt." > >-- >----------------- >R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> >The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> >44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA >"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, >[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to >experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' _________________________________________________________________ Dont just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/

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Declaration of Expulsion: A Modest Proposal
by R.A. Hettinga 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

<http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?print=yes&id=5652> HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE: The National Conservative Weekly Since 1944 Declaration of Expulsion: A Modest Proposal It's Time to Reconfigure the United States by Mike Thompson Posted Nov 3, 2004 [From the author: This is an essay I've been working on for the past several weeks, updated moments ago with what appears to be Bush's final number of victory states (31) once the nonsense of provisional votes in Ohio is overcome. As an admitted "modest proposal" (a la Swift's satiric story of the same name), it is nevertheless serious in pointing out the cancer that continues to threaten our body politic.] Branded unconstitutional by President Abraham Lincoln, the South's secession from the American Union ultimately sparked "The Civil War" (a name that was rejected by Southerners, who correctly called it "The War Between the States," for the South never sought to 1] seize the central government or 2] rule the other side, two requisites for a civil war). No state may leave the Union without the other states' approval, according to Lincoln's doctrine--an assertion that ignores the Declaration of Independence, which was the vital basis for all 13 American colonies' unilateral secession from the British Union eight decades earlier. Lincoln's grotesque legal argument also disregards a state's inherent right of secession which many scholars believe is found in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Meantime, America has become just as divided as it was a century and a half ago, when it writhed in Brother-vs.-Brother War. Instead of wedge issues like slavery, federal subsidies for regional business, and high tariffs, society today is sundered by profound, insoluble Culture War conflicts (such as abortion and gay marriage), and debate about our role abroad (shall we remain the world's leader, or become an unprincipled chump for the cabal of globalist sybarites who play endless word-games inside the United Nations and European Union sanctuaries?). For many decades, conservative citizens and like-minded political leaders (starting with President Calvin Coolidge) have been denigrated by the vilest of lies and characterizations from hordes of liberals who now won't even admit that they are liberals--because the word connotes such moral stink and political silliness. As a class, liberals no longer are merely the vigorous opponents of the Right; they are spiteful enemies of civilization's core decency and traditions. Defamation, never envisioned by our Founding Fathers as being protected by the First Amendment, flourishes and passes today for acceptable political discourse. Movies, magazines, newspapers, radio/TV programs, plays, concerts, public schools, colleges, and most other public vehicles openly traffic in slander and libel. Hollywood salivated over the idea of placing another golden Oscar into Michael Moore'sfat hands, for his Fahrenheit 9/11 jeremiad, the most bogus, deceitful film documentary since Herr Hitler and Herr Goebbels gave propaganda a bad name. When they tire of showering conservative victims with ideological mud, liberals promote the only other subjects with which they feel conversationally comfortable: Obscenity and sexual perversion. It's as if the genes of liberals have rendered them immune to all forms of filth. As a final insult, liberal lawyers and judges have become locusts of the Left, conspiring to destroy democracy itself by excreting statutes and courtroom tactics that fertilize electoral fraud and sprout fields of vandals who will cast undeserved and copious ballots on Election Day. The truth is, America is not just broken--it is becoming irreparable. If you believe that recent years of uncivil behavior are burdensome, imagine the likelihood of a future in which all bizarre acts are the norm, and a government-booted foot stands permanently on your face. That is why the unthinkable must become thinkable. If the so-called "Red States" (those that voted for George W. Bush) cannot be respected or at least tolerated by the "Blue States" (those that voted for Al Gore and John Kerry), then the most disparate of them must live apart--not by secession of the former (a majority), but by expulsion of the latter. Here is how to do it. Having been amended only 17 times since 10 vital amendments (the Bill of Rights) were added at the republic's inception, the U.S. Constitution is not easily changed, primarily because so many states (75%, now 38 of 50) must agree. Yet, there are 38 states today that may be inclined to adopt, let us call it, a "Declaration of Expulsion," that is, a specific constitutional amendment to kick out the systemically troublesome states and those trending rapidly toward anti-American, if not outright subversive, behavior. The 12 states that must go: California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware. Only the remaining 38 states would retain the name, "United States of America." The 12 expelled mobs could call themselves the "Dirty Dozen," or individually keep their identity and go their separate ways, probably straight to Hell. A difficult-to-pass constitutional amendment, however, is not necessary. There is an equally lawful route that mercifully would be both easier and faster. Inasmuch as Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution specifies that "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union," it is reasonable that the same congressional majority may expel a state from the Union. Is there, after all, any human organization in existence (including a family or law firm) that may not disown, disinherit, ostracize, alienate or expel diabolical members? Whether the nation is purged of these 12 states via the Constitution or statute, the process of elimination must begin now, for the need of societal detoxification has waxed so overwhelmingly clear. Examine the "Mostly Mainstream 38" and "Fringe 12." Of the 50 states, Bush won 30 in the 2000 presidential election against Gore, and 31 in 2004 against Kerry. More dramatic is the huge disparity among counties. Of 3,112 counties nationwide, Bush in 2000, for example, won 2,434, a crushing 78% majority. (In the counties composing "Bush USA" live approximately 150 million persons; in the 678 of "Gore/Kerry USA," 140 million.) Gore/Kerry denizens are concentrated in the metropolises of the East and West Coasts and those big cities on the Great Lakes or Mississippi River. Other significant pockets of ultraliberal extremists may be found in intellectually incestuous college towns and pro-big-government state capitals, along the estranged and overwhelmed Mexican border, and in Dixie's welfare-addicted Cotton Belt. The demographics revealed by the two most recent presidential elections are radically different and have resulted in "Two Americas" (but not the simplistic "Two Americas" [one rich, one poor] envisioned by Kerry'sMarxist-tongued running mate, John Edwards): * BUSH USA is predominantly white; devoutly Christian (mostly Protestant); openly, vigorously heterosexual; an open land of single-family homes and ranches; economically sound (except for a few farms), but not drunk with cyberworld business development, and mainly English-speaking, with a predilection for respectfully uttering "yes, ma'am" and "yes, sir." * GORE/KERRY USA is ethnically diverse; multi-religious, irreligious or nastily antireligious; more sexually liberated (if not in actual practice, certainly in attitude); awash with condo canyons and other high-end real estate bordered by sprawling, squalid public housing or neglected private homes, decidedly short of middle-class neighborhoods; both high tech and oddly primitive in its commerce; very artsy, and Babelesque, with abnormally loud speakers. Bush USA also is far safer, its murder rate being about 16% of the homicidal binge that plagues Gore/Kerry USA--2.1 per 100,000 residents, compared with 13.2 per 100,000 (from a study by Professor Joseph Olson, Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota). A downsized, post-expulsion United States still would be geographically big enough (and personally generous enough) to welcome millions of authentic refugees from the ousted former states, real Americans who crave lower taxes, smaller government, safer neighborhoods, more secure borders, greater moral leadership, and all the other aspects of a markedly better society-- one that spawns harmony, not cacophony; excellence, not dependence; justice, not histrionics; education, not brainwashing; enterprise, not welfare, and Godliness, not devilishness. As for the dozen ex-American states, they could always petition the UN and EU for foreign aid. Moreover, with any good luck (or bon chance), socialist Canada would annex our jettisoned territory, eh? Still Relevant After All These Years Language of the 1776 Declaration of Independence that rings true today for expulsion: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another . . . Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness . . . Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes . . . but when a long train of abuses . . . evinces a design to reduce them [the people] under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Language of Barry Goldwater, 1964 Republican presidential nominee that also rings true: Sometimes I think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the eastern seaboard and let it float out to sea. ---------- Copyright ) 2004 HUMAN EVENTS. All Rights Reserved.? -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Ashcroft resigns, America is Safer, at least for the moment
by Bill Stewart 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

With Ashcroft going, America's a bit safer, unless of course his successor is just as bad. One of the candidates for Ashcroft's successor is Bush's White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales, who's been responsible for several memos suggesting that POWs from Afghanistan aren't protected by the Geneva Conventions and that torturing captives may be ok. So we may not be safer once he's in place. Another candidate is Larry Thompson, former deputy attorney general, who's currently the general counsel for Pepsico. He's black, which is for some reason still politically interesting, but he's also indicated that he likes working at Pepsico. NYT's latest rumors favor Gonzales. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Cabinet.html?oref=login (Requires free login - use some fake email address if you don't have one.)

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Faith in democracy, not government
by R.A. Hettinga 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/0…> The San Francisco Chronicle Election Fallout Faith in democracy, not government - Victor Davis Hanson Sunday, November 7, 2004 Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were the only two Democrats to be elected president since 1976. Both were Southerners. Apparently, the only assurance that the electorate has had that a Democrat was serious about national security or social sobriety was his drawl. More disturbing still for liberal Democrats is that George W. Bush is the first Republican Southerner ever elected to the presidency, another indicator that a majority of the citizenry no longer finds conservatism and Texas such a scary mix. The fate of third-party candidates was also instructive in the election. Left-wing alternatives like Ralph Nader go nowhere. Conservative populists, on the other hand, can capture 10 percent or more of the electorate, as Ross Perot did in 1992 and almost again in 1996. Indeed, Perot's initial run probably accounts for Clinton's first election, and helped his second as well. In short, Kerry's 3.5 million shortfall in the popular vote underestimates the degree to which the country has drifted to the right. Over a decade ago, it took a third-party candidate, political consultant Dick Morris' savvy triangulation and Bill Clinton's masterful political skills to stave off the complete loss of Democratic legislative, executive and judicial power of the sort that we witnessed last week. Something else is going on in the country that has been little remarked upon. It is not just that an endorsement of a Michael Moore does not translate into votes or that Rathergate loses viewers for CBS. It has become perhaps far worse: A Hollywood soiree with a foul-mouthed Whoopee Goldberg or a Tim Robbins rant can turn toxic for liberal candidates. We are nearly reaching the point where approval from the New York Times or a CBS puff-piece hurts a candidate or cause, as do the billions in contributions from a George Soros. Television commentators Walter Cronkite, Bill Moyers, Andy Rooney or Ted Koppel have morphed from their once sober and judicious personas into highly partisan figures that now carry political weight among most Americans only to the degree that they harm any cause or candidate with whom they are associated. Readers do not just disagree with spirited columns by a Molly Ivins, Paul Krugman or Maureen Dowd, but rather are turned off when they revert to hysterics and condescension. To the degree that the messages, proposals or endorsements of a delinquent like Ben Affleck, an incoherent Bruce Springsteen, or a reprobate like Eminem were comprehensible, John Kerry should have run from them all. This election also involved perceived hypocrisy. No one in Bakersfield or Fresno thinks that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld espouses views at odds with the privileged lives that they live; they, of course, unabashedly celebrate and benefit from free enterprise and corporate capitalism. In contrast, Teresa Heinz Kerry and John Kerry, George Soros or John Edwards even more so enjoy the fruits of the very system they at times seem to question. Thus, concern for two Americas is not discernable in John Edwards' multimillion-dollar legal fees, the Kerry jet, or Soros Inc.'s global financial speculation. It is easy for a Noam Chomsky or Michael Moore to trash Halliburton, but Red America wonders about the source of university contracts that subsidize privileged professors' sermons or why corporate recording, cinema and advertising conglomerates that enrich celebrities are exempt from Hollywood's Pavlovian censure of big business. That the man who nearly destroyed the small depositors of Great Britain also fueled MoveOn.org seemed to say it all. Where does this leave us? After landmark legislation of the last 40 years to ensure equality of opportunity, the public has reached its limit in using government to press on to enforce an equality of result. In terms of national security, the Republicans, more so than the Democrats after the Cold War -- in Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq -- oddly are now the party of democratic change, while liberals are more likely to shrug about the disturbing status quo abroad. Conservatives have also made the argument that poverty is evolving into a different phenomenon from what it was decades ago when outhouses, cold showers and no breakfasts were commonplace and we were all not awash in cheap Chinese-imported sneakers, cell phones and televisions. Like it or not, the public believes that choices resulting in breaking of the law, drug use, illegitimate births, illiteracy and victimhood can induce poverty as much as exploitation, racism or sexism can. After trillions of dollars of entitlement programs, most voters are unsure that the answers lie with bureaucrats and social programs, especially when the elite architects of such polices rarely experience firsthand the often unintended, but catastrophic results of their own well-meant engineering. So we all know the cure for the Democratic Party: More moderate, populist candidates who don't talk down to voters or live one life and profess another; more explicit faith in American democracy and values; and a little more humility in accepting the tragic limitations of human nature. Yet for many,that medicine of reappraisal will be far worse than the disease of chronic defeat. Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Cryptography Research Expands Into Europe
by R.A. Hettinga 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041110/sfw043_1.html> Yahoo! Finance Press Release Source: Cryptography Research, Inc. Cryptography Research Expands Into Europe Wednesday November 10, 8:09 am ET Industry Veteran Ken Warren Takes Reins as Smart Card Business Manager SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Recognizing the strategic significance of Europe in driving the deployment of smart cards, Cryptography Research, Inc. today announced it has set up operations in the United Kingdom to provide enhanced support for European licensees of its recently launched DPA Countermeasures Licensing Program. Cryptography Research also announced the appointment of smart card industry veteran Ken Warren to head up the effort as smart card business manager. Warren will ensure European customers can successfully implement CRI's patented countermeasures, and he will actively represent CRI in all European smart card industry activities. ADVERTISEMENT Although the smart card market is becoming increasingly global, the majority of the industry leaders have their headquarters, R&D facilities and design centers in Europe. By establishing representation in Europe, Cryptography research is again demonstrating its commitment to the smart card industry and to providing the necessary support to improve the security of smart card devices. In his position as smart card business manager, Ken Warren brings a wealth of industry expertise, and CRI's European customers will be able to benefit from his support at the local level. "With Ken Warren leading our European expansion, Cryptography Research has achieved a new milestone in its quest to reduce fraud and piracy in the smart card industry through effective DPA countermeasures," said Paul Kocher, president of Cryptography Research. "Europe is key to building on the early success of our DPA Countermeasures Licensing Program, and we are fortunate to have someone of Ken's stature at the helm and to represent us to the leaders in the smart card industry." Ken Warren has extensive experience in the smart card industry, having worked in a variety of roles for more than 12 years. Before joining CRI, Ken was group marketing manager at Renesas Technology Europe Ltd, the world's number-one supplier of microcontrollers and a leader in security IC products. Prior to that, Ken was smart card business development manager for Hitachi Europe Ltd. Ken has also held positions at NatWest Bank and Mondex International where he was responsible for IC security. "CRI has taken the lead in developing the technologies necessary for cryptographic device manufacturers, smart card vendors and smart card issuers to produce more secure, DPA-resistant products, and now we are bringing them directly to the major industry players in Europe," said Ken Warren. "I look forward to working with Kit Rodgers, director of licensing, and the others at CRI, and to supporting the smart card industry in its efforts to prevent DPA attacks and reduce fraud and piracy." Differential Power Analysis and related attacks were first discovered at Cryptography Research by Paul Kocher, Joshua Jaffe and Benjamin Jun. DPA involves monitoring the fluctuating electrical power consumption of smart cards and other secure cryptographic devices and applying advanced statistical methods to extract secret keys and other information. An attacker who successfully employs DPA can create fraudulent transactions, generate counterfeit digital cash, or receive unauthorized access to digital content. Cryptography Research's DPA-related patents provide the basis for implementing effective DPA countermeasures in smart cards and other devices, and a license is required to make, use or sell any DPA-resistant product. Organizations that join the Cryptography Research DPA Countermeasures Licensing Program receive priority access to Cryptography Research's experienced technical staff and research team. Licensees also gain the right to display the "DPA lock" logo on qualifying products. Early-adopter terms are being offered for a limited time to provide competitive advantages to early licensees, including superior pricing and forgiveness for infringement of CRI's countermeasure patents in already-deployed products with DPA countermeasures. About Cryptography Research, Inc. Cryptography Research, Inc. provides technology to solve complex security problems. In addition to security evaluation and applied engineering work, CRI is actively involved in long-term research in areas including tamper resistance, content protection, network security and financial services. The company has a broad portfolio of patents covering countermeasures to differential power analysis and other vulnerabilities, and is committed to helping companies produce secure smart cards and other tamper resistant devices. Security systems designed by Cryptography Research engineers annually protect more than $60 billion of commerce for wireless, telecommunications, financial, digital television and Internet industries. For additional information or to arrange a consultation with a member of the technical staff, please contact Jen Craft at 415-397-0123, ext. 329 or visit www.cryptography.com. Source: Cryptography Research, Inc. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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