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Wal-Mart: Get Your Muslim Greeting Cards Here
2008-03-04 16:56:00
As Arwa Hamad strolls a new Wal-Mart , an eight-foot display of olive oil stops her in her tracks. “Oh, wow,” she says, marveling at the sight of so many gallons of Lebanese extra virgin. “We could go through one of these in a week in my house.” Around the corner, row upon row of gallon jars of olives—from Turkey, Greece, Egypt and Lebanon—soak in deep hues of purple, red and green. “Look at the size of these olives,” says the stay-at-home mother of three and native of Yemen. Hamad, 34, has shopped at Wal-Mart before, but never one like this. She is overcome with nostalgia as she spots Nido powdered milk and Al Haloub Cow, canned meat she calls the “Arabic Spam.” “My father loves this,” she says. “People from war-torn countries, this is what you lived on when you couldn’t go out of the house to shop.” This Wal-Mart, though, isn’t in a war zone. It’s in Dearborn, Mich., home to nearly a half-...
More About: Muslim , Wal Mart , Cards

Oregon Holds Health Insurance Lottery
2008-03-04 16:38:00
yahoo news:  PORTLAND, Ore. - Oregon is conducting a one-of-a-kind lottery, and the prize is health insurance. The state will start drawing names this week for the chance to enroll in a health care program designed for people not poor enough for Medicaid but too cash-strapped to buy their own insurance. More than 80,000 people have signed up since registration for the lottery opened in January. Only a few thousand will be chosen for the program. An estimated 600,000 people in Oregon are uninsured, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services. | read more | similar articles:Know How to Choose the Right Health Insurance Plan
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Computer Documents Suggest Link Between Chávez and FARC
2008-03-04 16:28:00
The Colombian government says it has recovered documents from the computers of slain FARC rebels that show financial ties between the leftist guerrilas and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Speaking at a press conference Monday, Colombia’s national police chief Gen. Oscar Naranjo said the evidence suggests Chávez had recently given $300 million to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The police chief suspects this money could be part of a deal to release several hostages held by the FARC. “This unmasks the relations of the FARC with a series of governments, with a series of personalities, some public, some more sinister,” Naranjo said. A representative of the Ecuadorian government may have been involved with the organization as well, he says, though Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa has already denied these charges. “They said we had a pact with terrorists, and that is completely false,” Correa said during a Cabinet meeting. “We are deal...
More About: Computer , Link , Farc , Documents

Sharper Image Won’t Honor Their Own Gift Cards!
2008-03-04 02:54:00
 From Yahoo NEW YORK - You know that Sharper Image gift card you got for Christmas? Right now, it’s worthless. And other gift cards in your wallet could lose their value, too. As more retailers file for bankruptcy or go out of business, more than $75 million in gift cards are at risk of becoming worthless pieces of plastic this year. “If I knew this was going to happen, I would have used them right away,” said Jon Tapper, a public relations executive from Boston who received two Sharper Image cards as business gifts just a few weeks ago. Their total face value is $50. “I love gift cards, but now this makes me think twice.” The Sharper Image announced late last month that it was suspending the acceptance of gift cards, at least temporarily. It urged shoppers to check the company Web site later this month for an update. That is typical of businesses that reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which treats gift cards as a loan to the company, not as cash...
More About: Gift Cards , Gift , Honor , Cards

First Spam Felony Conviction Upheld: No Free Speech to Spam
2008-03-03 15:51:00
arsTechnica.com: Virginia’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld the first US felony conviction for spamming. The spammer will serve nine years in prison for sending what authorities believe to be millions of messages over a two-month period in 2003. Jeremy Jaynes is the man who will make history. A Raleigh, North Carolina, resident who made Spam haus’ top 10 list of spammers, Jaynes was arrested in 2003 even before the CAN SPAM act was passed by Congress. Jaynes was convicted in 2005, but his lawyers appealed the conviction. This past Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld that conviction, but the vote was a narrow 4-3. The prosecution presented evidence of over 53,000 illegal e-mails that Jaynes sent over just three days during July, 2003, but it is believed that he sent 10 million messages per day between July and August of that year. Though he is a North Carolina resident, Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the AOL servers he used for sending spam were located in Lo...
More About: Free , Free Speech , Felony , Speech

Independent Truckers Being Run Over by Fuel Prices
2008-03-03 15:36:00
msnbc: Trucker Robert Griffith is on the road three weeks out of four, pulling oversize loads like crane booms, railroad ties and air conditioning ducts. One of his biggest worries: How he’ll find the money to buy his daughter a prom dress. As the cost of diesel doubled over the last four years, his take-home pay has plummeted, from $50,000 to $11,000 last year. He’s literally burning money; he spent $64,000 on diesel in the last eight months. Since he canceled his satellite radio, he’s on citizens band radio constantly (handle: Instigator) talking about what needs to change so truckers like him can survive. Trucking’s owner-operators, the self-employed drivers who haul everything from Hummers to hay, are suffering. Many say they’re running on the edge of bankruptcy, about to disappear unless they get help. While a wave of trucking failures now might be invisible to consumers, when the economy rebounds, it would push up shipping rates, helping increase...
More About: Fuel , Independent , Truckers , Prices

Chavez Warns of War with Colombia
2008-03-03 15:20:00
yahoo news: CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela and Ecuador ordered troops to their borders with Colombia , sharply raising tensions after Colombia killed a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil. President Hugo Chavez on Sunday promised Venezuela would respond militarily if Colombia violates its border, where he ordered tanks as well as thousands of troops. He also ordered closed Venezuela’s embassy in Bogota. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said he deployed troops to the border while also withdrawing his government’s ambassador from Bogota and expelling Colombia’s top diplomat. “There is no justification,” Correa said Sunday night, snubbing an earlier announcement from Colombia that it would apologize for the military incursion. Chavez called the killing of rebel leader and spokesman Raul Reyes and 16 other guerrillas on Saturday an attack by a “terrorist state,” saying it shows Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is a “criminal.” | re...

RIP: Canadian Musician Jeff Healey Dies at 41
2008-03-03 15:14:00
Musician Jeff Healey, 41, has died in Toronto from cancer, it was announced Sunday. Healey is internationally known for his 1988 album See the Light and for his appearance the following year in the movie Road House with Patrick Swayze. His hits included “Angel Eyes”. He was born Norman Jeffery Healey on March 25, 1966 in Toronto. At the age of 1, he was blinded from retinoblastoma, but still learned how to play the guitar by positioning the instrument on his lap. Healey was host of various Canadian radio programs in recent years and was set to release a new blues-rock album within weeks. He is survived by his two children, 13-year-old Rachel and 3-year-old Derek, and his wife. | view source | Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 similar articles:Daredevil Evel Knievel Dies at Age 69Redskins Safety Sean Taylor Dies Day After ShootingSchool Bus Crash Leaves 4 Students Dead
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NAFTA?
2008-03-03 15:01:00
laTimes.com: MEXICO CITY — Four campaign seasons have come and gone since presidential hopeful H. Ross Perot warned that NAFTA would create a “giant sucking sound” of jobs going to Mexico, and the trade pact is still generating plenty of noise. Calls to renegotiate the 14-year-old deal are rising from both sides of the border. Thousands of protesters paralyzed traffic in Mexico’s capital in January to demand a redo of the pact, which they said had hurt Mexican farmers. In the U.S., the North American Free Trade Agreement looms large in states such as Ohio, which hosts a crucial presidential primary Tuesday. The Rust Belt has shed hundreds of thousands of factory jobs since 1994, when the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade bloc was implemented. Ohio alone had lost a net 50,000 jobs as a result of NAFTA, according to a 2006 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are campaigning for the Democratic nomin...

U.S. Launches Missile Attack in Somalia
2008-03-03 14:49:00
msnbc: MOGADISHU, Somalia - Pentagon officials said Monday the United States launched an air strike in Somalia to go after a terrorist suspect. In the strike early Monday, Somali police said three missiles hit a Somali town held by Islamic extremists, destroying a home and seriously injuring eight people. A Pentagon official said the U.S. military was going after an al-Qaida suspect in the town. As yet, there is no word on whether the suspect was hit. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the strike. | read more | similar articles:Black Propaganda: How the Spooks Took Over the NewsSenior Hezbollah Militant KilledSuicide Bomber Attack s Iraqi School
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Hermione Granger Needs To Cast An Anti-Bitch Spell On JK Rowling!
2008-03-02 02:39:00
yahoo omg:  NEW YORK - As the creator of the Harry Potter books sees it, her kindness to fans might come back to haunt her. In papers filed for a lawsuit in Manhattan, J.K. Rowling says she feels betrayed by a fan, Steven Vander Ark, for his role in trying to publish an unauthorized reference work, “Harry Potter Lexicon.” Ark is editor of a Web site containing a fan-created collection of essays and encyclopedic material on the Potter universe, including lists of spells and potions found in the books, a catalog of magical creatures and a who’s who in the wizarding world. Rowling said she was especially irked that the site’s owner and the lexicon’s would-be publisher, RDR Books, continued to insist that her acceptance of free, fan-based Web sites justified the efforts. “I am deeply troubled by the portrayal of my efforts to protect and preserve the copyrights I have been granted in the Harry Potter books,” she wrote in court papers filed Wedn...
More About: Cast , Bitch , Anti , Hermione Granger

Microsoft Slashes Prices on Windows Vista
2008-03-01 04:34:00
news.com: In what may be an unprecedented decision, Microsoft said Thursday that it plans to lower the retail prices for several flavors of Windows Vista . For those in the U.S., Microsoft is cutting prices only on the higher-end versions of Vista, and only for the upgrade version used to move from XP or another copy of Vista. The suggested price for Vista Ultimate drops to $219 from $299, while Home Premium falls to $129, from $159. Other developed markets will also see price cuts, while in emerging markets, Microsoft is eliminating the distinction between full and upgrade versions of Home Basic and Home Premium as it attempts to convince more users there to use genuine software. | read more | similar articles:Windows: The Vista Death WatchCNET Ranks Vista in Top Ten Terrible Tech ProductsOver A Year Later And Windows Vista Is Still Not Worth It
More About: Prices

Secrets of the Inquisition
2008-03-01 04:26:00
newsWeek.com: Back in the Middle Ages, the Inquisition was a byword for fear and terror in Europe. Its tribunals, set up by the Vatican to ensure that “heretics” did not undermine the authority of the increasingly powerful Roman Catholic Church, burned and tortured witches, blasphemers and members of other faiths. Its judges condemned Galileo for saying that the Earth revolved around the Sun and executed thousands over the course of several centuries. Often, the best that the condemned could hope for was that they’d be strangled before being set alight at the stake. Now, after centuries of secrecy on the subject, the Vatican has launched a new phase in its campaign to show that the Inquisition wasn’t so bad after all. Church authorities have unveiled a temporary “Rare and Precious” exhibition at Rome’s Vittoriano Museum to “expose some myths” about this dark chapter of its past. The exhibit is also intended as a modern-day objec...
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Iraq Approves Execution of ‘Chemical Ali’
2008-03-01 04:18:00
Iraqi officials say the government has approved the death sentence for “Chemical Ali,” a cousin of Saddam Hussein, who is widely known for his role in poison gas attacks on Kurds in Iraq. It is expected that the execution will be carried within a month. Iraqi officials said Friday the presidency council approved the execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid two days ago. Under Iraqi law that means the former Saddam Hussein henchman will be hanged within 30 days. Majid ordered chemical attacks against Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s as part of a campaign to quash Kurdish resistance forces. The government of Iraqi Kurdistan says 180,000 Kurds were killed during the Anfal Campaign, including many civilians. Thousands more were deported. Falah Mustafa Bakir is director of the Prime Minister’s office for Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government. He says Iraqi Kurds want those responsible to face justice. “For us it was important for these crimes to be documented for the whole w...
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Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison
2008-02-29 06:26:00
yahoo news: NEW YORK - For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America’s rank as the world’s No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars. Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it’s more than any other nation. The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said. | read more | similar articles:It’s The Oil, StupidChavez Threatens to Halt Oil Sales to USIraqi PM Announces “Decisive” Offensive Against al-Qaeda
More About: Prison , High , Record

Sprint Posts Huge Loss, Scraps Dividends
2008-02-28 18:08:00
reuters.com: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a quarterly loss of $29.45 billion on Thursday due to a huge goodwill write-off and forecast deepening subscriber losses, pushing its stock down as much as 13 percent to a five-year low. The No. 3 U.S. mobile service said it would stop paying dividends for the foreseeable future, and Chief Executive Dan Hesse said it would take many quarters to turn the company around and rebuild its brand. “To be frank, the issues we face are more difficult than what I expected to find,” Hesse, who replaced Gary Forsee as CEO in December, told analysts on a conference call. “It takes hard work and time to regain a reputation.” | read more | similar articles:Verizon Wireless Introduces Unlimited Calling PlanTV Migrates to Cell PhonesGoogle Bets on Cell Phone Platform
More About: Dividends , Loss , Posts , Huge

12 Practical Steps for Learning to Go With the Flow
2008-02-28 17:58:00
zen habits:  No matter how much structure we create in our lives, no matter how many good habits we build, there will always be things that we cannot control — and if we let them, these things can be a huge source of anger, frustration and stress. The simple solution: learn to go with the flow. For example, let’s say you’ve created the perfect peaceful morning routine. You’ve structured your mornings so that you do things that bring you calm and happiness. And then a water pipe bursts in your bathroom and you spend a stressful morning trying to clean up the mess and get the pipe fixed. You get angry. You are disappointed, because you didn’t get to do your morning routine. You are stressed from all these changes to what you’re used to. It ruins your day because you are frustrated for the rest of the day. Not the best way to handle things, is it? And yet if we are honest, most of us have problems like this, with things that disrupt how we like things, with people who chan...
More About: Learning , Flow , Steps

Bush Urges Congress to Pass Wiretap Bill
2008-02-28 17:49:00
laTimes.com: WASHINGTON — President Bush today urged Congress to pass legislation that would give telecom companies immunity from class-action lawsuits for cooperating with U.S. intelligence services in monitoring terrorist communications. “Allowing these lawsuits to proceed would be unfair,” Bush said at a White House news conference. “If any of these companies helped us, they did so after being told by our country their assistance was legal.” Noting that the litigation process could lead to disclosure of surveillance techniques and make other countries less likely to cooperate with U.S. intelligence services, Bush said, “You cannot expect phone companies to participate if they feel like they’re going to be sued. It’s patently unfair.” Without impugning the motives of those seeking to sue, Bush said he suspected “they see a gravy train” and urged House leaders to act so calls to the United States from overseas can b...
More About: Pass , Bill

EU fines Microsoft 1.35 Billion Dollars for Non-Compliance
2008-02-27 17:19:00
EU has fined Microsoft $1.35 billion (899 million euros) for failing to comply with the 2004 antitrust order. It is highest ever fine charged by EU and it is also the first time ever when EU has fined a company because of non-compliance with an antitrust decision. The first decision in this antitrust case was given in 2004 citing that Microsoft withheld needed interoperatibility information to rival software companies which prevented them to make compatible software to Windows. The commision ordered Microsoft to provide those information which Microsoft agreed to but charged high royalty fees on ground of innovation. Further in investigation these high royalty fees were found unresonable and was order to lower them. Microsoft’s non-compliance to this decision for last 3 years caused the fresh fine of $1.35 billion. So far, Microsoft has been fined 1.68 billion euros in this case. | view source | Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 similar articles:Microsoft Slashes Prices on Win...
More About: Dollars , Compliance , Billion

Comcast Paid People to Fill Seats at Net Neutrality Meeting
2008-02-27 06:22:00
portfolio.com: Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said that the company paid some people to arrive early and hold places in the queue for local Comcast employees who wanted to attend the hearing. Some of those placeholders, however, did more than wait in line: They filled many of the seats at the meeting, according to eyewitnesses. As a result, scores of Comcast critics and other members of the public were denied entry because the room filled up well before the beginning of the hearing. | read more | T|B Opinion: Absolutely unacceptable. This bullshit stunt was staged for the sole reason of keeping Comcast critics out of the meeting - - a public hearing at a college!  No doubt, Comcast will spare no expense in its crusade to control the Internet. These greedy fuckers must be stopped - - If you don’t know about the fight for net neutrality, educate yourself and let your voice be heard. similar articles:FCC Questions Comcast about Interference with File SharingBush Urges Cong...
More About: People , Paid , Net Neutrality , Fill

Clinton ‘Steps-Up’ Obama Smear Campaign
2008-02-26 19:17:00
the independent: With her back against the wall, Hillary Clinton has been accused of turning to the sort of smear tactics more commonly associated with Republicans, in an attempt to block her opponent Barack Obama from getting the Democratic nomination. Over the weekend her campaign allegedly circulated a photograph of Mr Obama wearing the turban and traditional dress of a Somali elder. For the past year the Obama team has been fighting back against a whispering campaign that he is a dangerous Muslim. Mr Obama was born a Christian and attends a United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago. Whoever is responsible for the release of the photograph, ahead of votes in Texas and Ohio next week, it appears to be an attempt to use rumour and innuendo to derail Mr Obama’s buoyant campaign. Mr Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said: “On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged ...
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ICANN Sued Over Domain Front Running
2008-02-26 19:07:00
techCrunch.com: Network Solutions and ICANN are being sued over the “front running” domain registration practices that we covered last month. “Network Solutions has forced millions of people to buy Internet domain names from them instead of cheaper competitors through a scheme that’s netted the firm millions of dollars,” according to the federal class action lawsuit filed by Kabateck Brown Kellner. The suit also alleges ICANN is guilty by association as its policies allow Network Solutions to front run. For those not familiar with the practice, Network Solutions (and some other registrars) lock up domain names as soon as a user searches for them, taking them off the market and forcing users to use their service to register the name they want. | read more | similar articles:First Spam Felony Conviction Upheld: No Free Speech to SpamBush Urges Congress to Pass Wiretap BillComcast Paid People to Fill Seats at Net Neutrality Meeting
More About: Running , Domain , Front , Icann , Sued

Americans are ‘Financially Illiterate’
2008-02-26 18:29:00
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Americans don’t understand debt, which may be one reason that they have too much of it, according to a survey released Tuesday. The survey presented 1,000 people with a hypothetical scenario about credit card debt and asked them to compute how long it would take to pay it off. Only 35.9% of the 1,000 respondents could figure out how many years it would take for the amount they owe on their credit cards to double. A full 18.2% did not know how to respond and 31.9% of those surveyed over-estimated the timeframe. The survey by Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College professors and TNS asked respondents to assess their debt levels. Those who said they felt they were carrying too much debt were found to be “wildly wrong” when it came to using compound interest to calculate how long it would take to pay off that debt. | read more | similar articles:Going Bankrupt: The US’s Greatest ThreatCrisis Far From Over, Despite Emergency...

Pakistan Bans YouTube! Hopefully Thought-Blender Too!
2008-02-26 02:43:00
Well, this one will make T-Blender extremely happy! It seems that the country of Pakistan has officially banned YouTube from being surfed in their country. The reason? There?s too much anti-Muslim content on the site, and that can?t be tolerated by the Pakistanis. It?s good to know though that Pakistan will ...
More About: Youtube , Life , General

McCain Says He Could Lose Over War Issue
2008-02-25 23:19:00
yahoo news: ROCKY RIVER, Ohio - John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can’t, “then I lose. I lose,” the Republican said. He quickly backed off that remark. “Let me not put it that stark,” the ...
More About: Issue

Stranger Donates Kidney to 8-year-old Girl
2008-02-25 17:33:00
msnbc.com: ATLANTA - The picture of the smiling little girl on the flier was more than Laura Bolan could take. The 8-year-old on the pamphlet needed a kidney transplant, and Bolan knew she could help. She did a quick Web search on the surgery and talked it over with her husband. Then she made a ...
More About: Girl , Year , Kidney

No Learning Curve for Revamped Cavaliers
2008-02-25 17:21:00
nbc sports: CLEVELAND - LeBron James and his new teammates didn?t need any time getting acquainted. James scored 25 points and had 11 assists while all four players acquired in Thursday?s blockbuster trade contributed, leading the Cleveland Cavaliers past Memphis 109-89 Sunday night. As debuts go, these new-look Cavaliers were a smashing success. Cleveland built a ...
More About: Curve , Learning

Virgin Flies World?s 1st Biofueled Jetliner
2008-02-25 17:08:00
chicagoTribune.com: LONDON - Virgin Atlantic carried out the world’s first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with biofuel on Sunday in an effort to show it can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels. Some analysts praised the jumbo jet test flight from London to Amsterdam as a potentially useful experiment. But others criticized it ...
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Online Auction Listings Down 13% in Boycott of eBay
2008-02-25 07:47:00
usatoday.com: SAN FRANCISCO ? The biggest boycott by eBay (EBAY) sellers concludes Monday, capping a week of acrimony after the online-auction site raised fees and changed its feedback policy. Auction listings on eBay.com dropped some 13% since the strike started Feb. 18 to about 13 million items, according to third-party tracking sites such as dealscart.com ...
More About: Business , Listings , Ebay , Online

Ralph Nader Enters Presidential Race
2008-02-25 07:15:00
Political activist Ralph Nader has announced the launch of an independent campaign for President of the United States. Nader, who also ran for president in the previous three elections, made the announcement on NBC’s television program Meet the Press. “Dissent is the mother of ascent, and in that context I have decided to run for president,” ...
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