I'd have taken advantage of it, called in the media, and explained to them just how common "selling your vote" is in congress, and how there is nobody who truly represents "we the people", especially that portion of us below 30.

I would sell my vote, but Diebold already sold it for me.

Turn on the microphone. Turn on the webcam. If you already have their myspace, you probably know what they look like and what town they're in, but this will help you locate them in real time if they are out using the machine at a coffee shop or something. If not, then get the info on the wifi nodes around them and you might be able to pinpoint them with the help of WiGLE.net. Hell, read all their gmail. If you can get a phone number google it to see if you can get a home address. Are you in the states? If you get their name, try their voter database. If they're registered, there will be an address. In a lot of cases, all you'll need to get that info is a birthdate or something similar that you could glean from their myspace page or their emails. If they're stealing laptops, the ner-do-wells may be in the criminal database already, so search there while you're at it. Of course, you could always try phishing as a low grade approach. Pop up a window while they are browsing and tell them they've won a prize and need to enter their mailing address to have it mailed to them. Something believable like a gift card to a local restaurant chain. If they don't buy the scam, you've lost nothing. Either way, there's so many phishers out there online these days they'll never suspect anything... You have their email. Impersonate them. Send out an email to their friend asking for a mailing address so you can send that friend a neat gift. When you get it, send the Spanish Inquisition. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition... And if they aren't available, send the local law enforcement to ask the questions.

One other idea would be to make a bogus MySpace account with a picture of a hot chick/dude (depending on the thief's gender) that lives somewhere in the same area as the thief.

Then befriend the thief over a couple weeks and get all the personal info you can (phone #, maybe even address, etc..)

Then just call the cops with a physical address and tell them the person committed grand theft of company property, and that you suspect they have the stolen property at their residence.

Grand Theft is committed when the money, labor, real or personal property stolen is valued at more than $400.

I'm not an American (well, technically, yes, but from Canada), so I do not mark the 4th of July.

Frankly, I often wonder if I will feel guilty in fifty years to have lived near the USA without doing much to change anything, like people under the Nazi regime. I wonder if I will be blamed for my laziness while an empire went mad in front of my eyes. I wonder what will my children think of me when (and if ever) the real atrocities of the American administration are revealed.

To me, there's not much to celebrate. Or maybe the 4th of July could mark the independence of the Rest of the World from the USA...

And there's that quote right now at the bottom of the page that says: "Violence is a sword that has no handle -- you have to hold the blade."

Indeed.

Well, maybe Bill Gates will now finish his degree at Harvard. The question is, will he pass the course?