The suppression of political groups is even worse than that - and not limited to the IRS, though the IRS instigated it in this case.

Companies use H1B and L1 visas as a method of bringing in cheap foreign labor.

First they post a job with outrageously high requirements for a lowball salary.

The only local workers who can do it are currently employed (often at the same company) for better money, so they won't take it.

The company "can't find" any local talent, so they bring in a foreign worker on an L1 or H1B visa who doesn't meet the job requirements either - but will do the job they actually wanted done, for an even lower salary.

The standard procedure for companies when they want to do this is to first post a job opening with outrageously high skill and experience requirements, and a sub par salary.

Any American workers who are qualified for the position are generally already employed at the same or better wages, in positions with lower requirements - so few if any apply. If a qualified worker does apply, it is a win for the company - they've just hired an overqualified worker for 1/2 to 2/3 of the salary such a position should command.

In the more common case that no workers apply who meet the qualifications set, the company applies for an L1 or H1B visa on the basis that it "cannot find qualified American workers". They then bring in foreign workers who do not meet the original requirements, for even lower salaries.

I don't have a facebook account, mainly because I neither want a potential employer judging me based on it, nor demanding my login. I also don't wish to have my information sold to whoever facebook is making deals with that week, as they change privacy policies.

So start the 5 years when the product is first sold retail, and prohibit them from charging for trial versions of the product.

The folks from Rumblefish are trying to do damage control - which at this point, any reasonable company would do.

It is possible that the "reviews" were done by an automated system on their side, which would be bad.

It is also possible that the "reviews" were done by a lazy human on their side who if there is any justice in the world, is in the process of being fired.

If the former case is true, it was a bad business model by the company which is now coming back to bite them.

If the latter case is true, then the company representatives posting here may just be decent people trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Either way, I'd say give them the benefit of the doubt. If the bogus infringement notices continue after this, we can break out the pitchforks and torches - otherwise it can be counted as a lesson learned.

By all means, give him a fair trial.

Then execute him.

...and his business associates, friends, family, and dog.

Unless you happen to be one of the 70 Afghan civilians nearby when it happened.

Oops. My mistake.

For that day, how about this instead:

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/nigeria/articles/20111201.aspx

Or this:

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20111201.aspx

Or this:

http://www.criticalthreats.org/gulf-aden-security-review/gulf-aden-security-review-december-1-2011

That took an extra 5 minutes of searching - I can likely find a dozen more if I bother to look.

Only 18 people? Ah, well that's all right then. Funny thing - if someone kills 18 people and they're not a terrorist, they get called a mass-murderer. ...and does it really matter where they are committing the attacks? Its OK because it isn't happening here?

Yep. You probably missed the part at the bottom where it mentions the other recent suicide bombings by the same group at a secondary school, university and hospital.

So terrorist attacks are OK if they don't -actually- manage to kill anyone?

...on the 22nd of July. Five months ago.

The most recent incident of Islamic terrorism was today:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8931171/Suicide-bomb-attack-on-Afghan-Nato-base.html

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/lebanese-media-idf-bombed-espionage-devices-uncovered-by-hezbollah-1.399257

...and yesterday:

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/343369/bomb-gunmen-kill-18-iraq-marks-us-withdrawal

...and the day before:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/somali-soldiers-killed-suicide-bomb-attack-15054747

...and the day before that:

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=247407

There were probably more, but that was just a cursory search. I could go back further - but the point is the word "common" in my statement. By far the vast majority of attacks are committed by islamic terrorists. Do other terrorists exist? Sure. ...but they're not committing attacks every day.

While there is a certain amount of (justified) paranoia that the government would use digitizing records as an opportunity to engage in revisionist history, I have to say that despite a desire to do so, the odds are against the government being able to pull it off.

In order for something like 1984's Ministry of Truth to function, the government would have to be far, far more competent and efficient than is ever to be likely.

As am I - except I have never had one, and have no plans to change that.

You assume that the terrorists are not willing to kill half the planet to accomplish their goals, even if half their own people die in the process. They've already proven repeatedly that they're willing to sacrifice their own lives and those of their own people to commit terrorist acts.

If half the world population were to die off (in equal percentages everywhere), countries like the US, UK and Germany would be vastly more affected in terms of productivity, influence, and ability to project military power than countries like Afghanistan, Yemen or Pakistan.

The actual deaths would likely vary somewhat from one country to another - but industrialized nations would still be the most affected, and the terrorists could easily see the deaths of half their own people as an acceptable cost.

Islamic terrorists are by far the most common sort in the modern world, and almost uniformly use their religion as the justification for their acts (as opposed to terrorists who happen to be of other faiths, who do so rarely). They also have a history of being willing to sacrifice their own lives to accomplish their goals. Even if they believed that they would themselves die in the process, and that muslims would be killed in equal percentages to westerners, they would still likely use it, on the (correct) theory that 50% casualties would be far more damaging to industrialized nations than to their own.

All that said, it really doesn't matter what sort of terrorists get a contagious, airborne bioweapon if they are willing to use it.

This sort of thing is why I've been saying for the last few years that I am far more concerned about terrorists with bioweapons than terrorists with nukes. The bioweapons are cheaper and easier to make, the raw materials easier to obtain, and the consequences of use potentially far more severe.

Once they've sold their knowledge, they can be identified, sometimes.

Keeping the knowledge from spreading isn't possible - eventually it will become commonplace. The challenge is making the raw materials and weapons grade nuclear material out of the hands of those who would misuse it.

A similar problem exists with bioweapons - eventually the knowledge to make them will become commonly available. The differences there are that raw materials for bioweapons are far easier to obtain, the equipment needed is far less expensive than for nukes, and the potential damage of bioweapons is far worse.