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Submission + - Two Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unconstitutional

Submitted by buswolley
buswolley writes: Judge Ann Aiken in Federal court ruled two key provisions of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. According to the ruling, the Patriot Act provisions unconstitutionally circumvented the 4th Amendment, and removed the checks and balances provided for by our Constitution. This is a great victory for the people of the United States, and demonstrates the inherent strength of our system of government.
Democrats

Submission + - Iranians are not terrorists! (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
Kourosh Ziabari
Kourosh Ziabari writes: "Dear world-mates!
I am a Persian boy who tries to be a real Persian citizen. Do you know anything about the history of my country? When there was not any thriving city and inhabited land on the Earth, my ancestors and fathers were trying to build the modern buildings, discover the fire, reveal hidden caves, create new tools and bring the life to the dead world from the holy soil of Persia.

Dear respected people!
Do you know that my homeland, Iran in the centuries Before Christ was the largest residence place of people from different tribes and ethnic groups? All the Turks, Persians, Arabs, Indians, Reds and Blacks were taking place in Iran and selected the different parts of my country for live in.

Dear world citizens!
I am wondering that how your high knowledge and intellectually allows you to count on individuals and persons as the symbols and indication of a great and large number of people especially about Iran. No difference that Mr. Khatami is the president or Mr. Ahmadinejad and so on... all the politicians have their personal viewpoints and belong to political parties. They must act in order to meet the requests of their party and their international display is not a suitable measurement for knowing the people.

Dear Americans!
Some parts of you voted for Bush and now he is known as one of the greatest international terrorists. He sent thousands of your brothers, sisters, sons and daughters to the unsafe frontiers of Iraq and caused them to be killed. He gathered a great military with thousands of militants and soldiers. They are killing and being killed at last. So is it a logical conclusion that all of American citizens are terrorists because their president is so?

Dear just creations of the majesty God!
Make judge by your consciousness and acknowledgement. In which period of time can you remember that my country started war against a country and its people? Do you say me the Iraqi war? Surely you know that this 8 years unequal war was blamed by Saddam and the U.S. Sated helped him and equipped him with dangerous chemical weapons. They martyred more than 300,000 people and young men. Do you name the 40 years old Ottoman war with Persian Empire? You can find it among the historical documents that the Ottoman Empire imposed that war to Iran and Iran was compelled to resist...
Personally have you all positive views about the performance of your country leaders and its politicians? So is it digestible for you that your country be judged based on your leaders actions and their decisions? The American government, bombarded the Hiroshima and Nakazaki with chemical and atomic bombs. Are all the American people alike of their government heads and cruel such as them?

Dear friends...
Anything that I can say about the delightful history of Iran could be found in this article and this elaborated site. You can become acquainted with personalities such as Cyrus the great, Xerex the great and know more about the first Olympics in Iran, the innovations of Persian people, their peacemaking efforts and so on. But believe that we are different to Arab people and they cannot be compared with us. Persians are really aristocrat and noble people and respected by the all nations. Our country is full of peace and civilization signs and marks... notable poets such as Hafez and Ferdowsi, scared places such as Persepolis and thousands of components, places and individuals you can never imagine!"
VA

Submission + - Stand with the Burmese Protesters (avaaz.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I was hoping /. and the userbase of /. could help. After decades of military dictatorship, the people of Burma are rising — and they need our help. Marches begun by monks and nuns have snowballed, bringing hundreds of thousands to the streets. Now the crackdown has begun... When the Burmese last marched in 1988, the military massacred thousands. But if the world stands up and supports their struggle, this time they could succeed. We'll send our petition to United Nations Security Council members (including the dictatorship's main backer China) and to media at the UN, while also alerting the Burmese to our support: Please visit http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/ and sign the petition. Thank you !!!
United States

Submission + - Text Messaging as a Way to Get the Youth to Vote

Submitted by AaronBS
AaronBS writes: Shameless plug for own research: A new study by Michigan and Princeton grad students (along with non-partisan organizations) finds that text message reminders to newly-registered voters boosted turnout in the 2006 U.S. elections. Those receiving a text message were more 4.2 percentage points more likely to vote than those who did not receive a text message. The post-treatment survey revealed that many more people found the messages helpful rather than annoying. Slashdotters, would you be annoyed by or appreciate a text message from a non-profit that reminded you to vote?
Privacy

Submission + - Eavesdropping Didn't Help Uncover Terrorist Plot

Submitted by crymeph0
crymeph0 writes: Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell asserted that the "Protect America Act", which frees the intelligence community from pesky things like judicial oversight while they eavesdrop on international conversations, was used to good effect in exposing the recently foiled terrorist plot to bomb U.S. military facilities in Germany. Not so, according to other, anonymous, intelligence community officials. McConnell was forced to admit his errors in a phone call to Sen. Joe Lieberman. Turns out the military got wise to the bad guys months before the law was passed, simply due to alert military guards noticing odd behavior by some passers-by, a.k.a. good old fashioned police work!
United States

Submission + - MA Treasurer Arrested for 3 Peaches at Airport 2

Submitted by boot1780
boot1780 writes: The treasurer for the state of Massachusetts announced that he and his family arrested by US Customs officials and "treated like criminals" on their way back from Italy due to three peaches in his daughter's carry-on bag. "It felt like we were being interrogated and found guilty without any process, no explanation, no rundown of our rights," he said. He was told he had to pay a $300 fine or spend a night and jail, but wasn't told that paying the fine waived any right he had to an appeal. Well, they nabbed the girl with the three peaches. Any word on Osama yet?
United States

Submission + - Bush thanks Austrians @ OPEC (news.com.au)

Submitted by PenguSven
PenguSven writes: US President George W. Bush today thanked "Austrian" Prime Minister John Howard, in front of a summit of business leaders, for being a kind OPEC host.
Announcements

Submission + - BBC iPlayer to be cross platform (pm.gov.uk)

Submitted by
ddrichardson
ddrichardson writes: "The BBC iPlayer service is no longer to be tied to Windows only. Following a scucessful online government petition, the BBC trust in conjunction with Ofcom have decided to make the system cross-platform. From the Government response:

The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible."
Microsoft

Submission + - Norway votes "No, with comments" to OOXML (freecode.no)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After a tough race and much debate, the organization responsible for Norway's vote in ISO has decided to vote "No, with comments". Standard Norge has been under much pressure during the last week and came out with its decision today. The comments accompanying the No are here: http://blogs.freecode.no/isene/
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Drug for Infantile Spasms Price Increased By >2 (healthbusinessblog.com) 1

Submitted by
Grym
Grym writes: "Acthar Gel, the only drug used to treat Infantile Spasms (IS), as of August 25th, is now more than 20 times more expensive. Why the sudden price increase for a drug that was FDA approved 52 years ago? Was it more expensive to make? A new manufacturing process perhaps? Nope. According to the manufacturer, Questcor, at the previous price of $1,000 a vial (which only lasts two weeks), Acthar gel simply wasn't profitable enough.

Parents of children with IS are understandably outraged, as they can only hope that their insurance company covers them. If not (or if they don't even have insurance), the parents have to choose between financial ruin or watching their infant children writhe in brain-damaging convulsions. It's absolutely heartbreaking."
Businesses

Submission + - How-To video on NOT hiring american workers (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Lawyers at a conference discuss with clients how to go about not hiring qualified american workers so they can secure a green card for their immigrant worker.
The Courts

Submission + - 1st rule of Abu Ghraib:Don't talk about Abu Ghraib (forbes.com)

Submitted by pseudorand
pseudorand writes: Forbes has this story about the only officer tried for the abuse of prisoners by U.S. Soldiers in the Iraq Abu Ghraib prison. He was acquitted of failing to control the soldiers under his command, but found guilty of disobeying a general's order to keep quiet about it. So if you're in the military, I guess it's okay to commit whatever abuses of power you like, just keep it on the down low.
Republicans

Submission + - The Bush Administration Censored Climate Reports (depers.nl)

Submitted by AkumaReloaded
AkumaReloaded writes: The Bush administration actively censored reports on the environment from the World Bank. This was discovered by the Government Accountability Project (GAP). Apparently Paul Wolfowitz was actively engaged in this censorship. How does this effect the deminishing credit of the World Bank. And can it lower the faith in the Bush administration even more?

http://www.depers.nl/buitenland/92216/Bush-censure erde-rapporten-over-klimaatverandering.html.

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