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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=542&u=/ap/20031030/ap_on_go_ca_st
_pe/tax_cheats&printer=1

IRS Aims to Stop Increase in Tax Evasion
1 hour, 7 minutes ago Add White House - AP Cabinet &
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By MARY DALRYMPLE, AP Tax Writer

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service (news - web
sites) has been waging a high-profile attack on
corporate tax evaders, but the agency's new chief
warns that midlevel and low-income tax cheaters had
better watch out too.



"I think that we have to address this vigorously," IRS
Commissioner Mark Everson said in an interview with
The Associated Press.


Everson, who is six months into a five-year term, said
he wants to make enforcement just as important as
customer service, the agency's main focus for the past
five years.


The changed emphasis comes as a survey conducted for
the IRS Oversight Board shows the number of Americans
who believe it's OK to cheat "a little here and there"
on their taxes increased from 8 percent in 1999 to 12
percent in 2003.


The same survey showed Americans generally agree with
Everson. About 95 percent those surveyed in July by
RoperASW said it's "very important" or "somewhat
important" for the IRS to make sure corporations and
high-income taxpayers pay what they owe.


This year, the survey detected an increase, to 87
percent, in the number of Americans who believe it's
just as important for the IRS to make sure that
low-income taxpayers pay their fair share. The number
who believe that's "very important" jumped 7 percent
from last year.


At the top of the income scale, Everson said tax
shelter promoters peddle potentially abusive products
not just in the United States, but increasingly
abroad, both to U.S. subsidiaries and foreign
companies, he said.


Among the lowest income brackets, Everson sees
challenges in educating new immigrants to a system of
taxation that requires people to step forward and
voluntarily assess and pay their taxes.


In the middle, he points to changing attitudes among
ordinary Americans.


The board describes the evidence of changing attitudes
among taxpayers as a "softening" of Americans'
commitments to pay what they owe and said the trend
merits a watchful eye. Everson said the trend must be
stopped before it spreads further.


"People are willing to pay their taxes," he said.
"They recognize that important obligation, but they
don't want to feel like they're paying when someone
else doesn't have to."


Those who believe it's acceptable to cheat "as much as
possible" remains small. But it also increased. Last
year, 3 percent of those surveyed agreed with the
statement. This year, it was 5 percent.


Overall, the number of Americans who believe it's
absolutely not acceptable at all to cheat on taxes has
declined. Last year, 86 percent of Americans polled
said it is not acceptable to cheat while paying income
taxes. This year, the number dropped to 81 percent.


Doug Shackelford, professor of taxation at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said
taxpayers may be absorbing the examples of corporate
tax evasion and starting to wonder whether they should
pay their fair share.


The solution, Everson said, is more visible
enforcement. Although most people report that personal
integrity is the biggest reason they pay their taxes,
the fear of being audited has risen sharply.


Actions already taken against those who promote and
use abusive tax shelters appear to be having an
effect. Everson said the number of shelter
transactions registered with the IRS has leveled off.


Congress and the Bush administration have exerted
pressure to stop companies from relocating a shell
headquarters in a tax haven such as Bermuda to cut
their U.S. tax liabilities by millions of dollars.


"It's tricky because some are intentionally hiding
things behind the curtain," Everson said.
"Understanding whether this problem behind the curtain
is getting smaller or staying the same size is
undoubtedly difficult."

Shackelford said the dual missions of the IRS -
enforcement and service - put the agency in a tough
spot.

"I sometimes think we have way too high of
expectations for the IRS," he said.

"They're supposed to be sort of like the neighborhood
cop on the block. They're supposed to get the
criminals, and they're supposed to help little old
ladies get across the street, and they're supposed to
have answers to all your questions when you pick up
the phone and call them, and that's probably not
realistic."

NOPALO, Mexico -- Slowly but surely, acre by acre, Mexico's Baja Peninsula
is becoming a U.S. colony.

"For Sale" signs are sprouting all over the 800-mile-long peninsula,
offering thousands of beachfront properties. Americans are snatching them
up. They have already created communities where the dollar is the local
currency, English the main language and Americans, the new immigrants
transforming an old culture.

"Everything's for sale, every lot you can imagine," said Alfonso Gavito,
director of a cultural institute in La Paz, the capital of Baja California
Sur, a state with 400,000 citizens and some of the last undeveloped beaches
in North America. "It's like 20 years of changes have happened in three
months."

This new land rush, involving billions of dollars, tens of thousands of
Americans and hundreds of miles of coastline, is gaining speed despite the
fact that Mexico's Constitution bars foreigners from directly owning land
by the sea.

Mexico's government wants foreign capital as much as Americans want houses
on the beach -- maybe more. So it worked around the Constitution. In 1997,
it changed the law to allow foreign ownership through locally administered
land trusts. A Mexican bank acts as trustee, the foreigner its beneficiary.

It took about four years before that new system worked smoothly. But now,,
the result has been a boom in migration, speculation and permanent vacation.

It's human greed -- it's human nature, said David Halliburton, who owns a
hotel outside Cabo San Lucas, on Baja's southern tip, where uncontrolled
growth already strains the social fabric. The amount of money coming in
here through overzealous developers and buyers is staggering.

Baja is closer by land and air to the United States than it is to the rest
of Mexico; state officials recorded more than 30 million trips by Americans
who spent well over $1 billion last year. They say they have no idea how
many Americans are living in Baja today, because a certain number are
illegal immigrants who never register their presence.

Evidence suggests that the number is more than 100,000, probably far more,
and growing fast since the Sept. 11 attacks and the souring of the economy
in the United States two years ago.

Since 2001, we have seen a boom in real estate sales, and the full-time
population of Americans is growing rapidly, said Tony Colleraine, an
American in San Felipe, about 160 miles southeast of San Diego. He said
about one-quarter of the town's roughly 30,000 residents were Americans,
many of whom want to get away from the regulations and rhetoric, and get
out of the bull's-eye in the United States.

In Rosarito, an hour's drive south of the U.S. border, about one-quarter of
the 55,000 residents are Americans.

An increasing number of Americans are moving here to escape their
government's policies and the costs of living, said Herb Kinsey, a Rosarito
resident with roots in the United States, Canada and Germany. They find a
higher standard of living and a greater degree of freedom.

At least 600,000 Americans -- again, an acknowledged undercount based on
government records -- are permanent residents of Mexico. That is by far the
largest number of U.S. citizens living in any foreign country.

Americans living throughout Baja say their new neighbors include
professionals in their 30s and 40s putting down roots, not only retirees in
recreational vehicles.

In Rosarito, the new home buyers include lawyers and members of the
military who commute across the border to San Diego, where housing costs
are about five times higher. A pleasant house by the Pacific in Rosarito
can cost less than $150,000; property taxes are about $75 a year.

Baja's future, Mexican officials say, lies in American land investment.

The government strongly promotes any kind of foreign direct investment,
which today is the only reliable source of economic growth in Mexico, where
more than half the 100 million people live in poverty.

In the empty streets of Nopalo, the future is coming on fast. A totally
American town is about to be built.

The site of a failed government-backed tourist development, Nopalo, which
means place of vipers, lies just outside the town of Loreto, founded in
1697, population 11,000. U.S. and Canadian developers plan to build 5,000
new homes for 12,000 fellow citizens.

Their master plan depicts a particularly affluent suburb, with houses
selling for up to $2 million each. The developers plan to break ground in
January. They envision a $2 billion investment over 15 years.

People will come by the hundreds of thousands to Baja, said one of the
developers, David Butterfield. Mexico gives you an opportunity to build
something you cannot build in the U.S. or Canada today. You cannot build
great things in America today. Regulations and litigation prevent change.

There are limits to change in Baja, too. They are set by nature. It rains 5
inches a year or less in many parts of the peninsula. A barrel of water
here is effectively worth more than a barrel of oil, and it takes many
millions of gallons to sustain a golf course, much less a suburb.

There is no drinking water in Loreto -- it is piped in from 16 miles away
-- and no place for thousands of construction and service workers to live.
Many Mexicans wonder if the new community will truly be the sustainable
development its backers promise.

I'm not sure there's anyplace in the modern world that's sustainable,
Butterfield said. I hope we're going to create one.

Homero Davis, Loreto's mayor, supports the project, somewhat warily. The
quality of life is a moral issue here, he said. The culture is at stake. We
don't want to be like Cabo San Lucas, where hotels and condominiums have
swamped what was once a little village.

But that scale of development is precisely what Fonatur, the federal agency
that promotes tourism in Mexico, has in mind for Loreto and the rest of Baja.

Fonatur, which conceived and built mega-resorts like Cancun, envisions
marinas for American yachts, four-star hotels and fancy golf courses
ringing the peninsula in a plan called the Escalera Nautica, or Nautical
Ladder, which involves $210 million in public money and hopes for $1.7
billion in investment from developers.

The whole premise of the Escalera Nautica is to create a land rush, and I'm
not sure that's good for anybody, said Tim Means, who has lived in La Paz
for 35 years and runs a respected ecotourism outfit called Baja Expeditions.

Baja was isolated from the outside world until the government paved a road
through the peninsula in the 1970s and 80s. The road connected Baja more
closely to the United States than to the Mexican mainland. That connection
is deepening as more and more Americans move here. So is a sense of
remoteness, of difference, from the rest of Mexico.

People on the mainland don't know we exist, said Doris Johnson, the
daughter of a Mexican mother and an American father, who runs a hotel in
Mulege. They ask, Do they speak Spanish in Baja? Do you need a passport to
go there?'

Johnson wonders what will become of Baja as it becomes more and more of an
American place. We have our own culture here, she said. But we don't have
much influence over what's changing our culture. said Doris Johnson, the
daughter of a Mexican mother and an American father, who runs a hotel in
Mulege.

They ask, Do they speak Spanish in Baja? Do you need a passport to go
there? Johnson wonders what will become of Baja as it becomes more and more
of an American place. {We have our own culture here, she said.

But we don't have much influence over what's changing our culture. said
Doris Johnson, the daughter of a Mexican mother and an American father, who
runs a hotel in Mulege. They ask, Do they speak Spanish in Baja? Do you
need a passport to go there?'

Johnson wonders what will become of Baja as it becomes more and more of an
American place. We have our own culture here, she said. But we don't have
much influence over what's changing our culture.

Subject: NOV 24 IS THE DATE TO START HARD BARGAINING WITH YOUR PHONE COMPANY


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/18/technology/18CELL.html

Bet Sirianni is the subject of an intensifying courtship. The overtures -
like the recent offer for a free second cellular phone - may win her over
to a longer-term relationship.

Her mobile phone service provider, AT&T Wireless, wants her to commit to an
additional two years on her contract. "I'm thinking about it," Ms.
Sirianni, a 40-year-old corporate art director in San Francisco, said of
the free phone proposal. "I may give it to my son."

Ms. Sirianni is one of millions of customers whom wireless companies are
trying quietly to entice into renewing their contracts in the next few
weeks. New phones, additional minutes and cash credits are being handed out
- all with an eye to locking in customers who may not know that come Nov.
24 a new federal regulation will allow them, for the first time, to keep
their cellphone numbers when they change mobile services.

Because mobile phones have become as important as traditional phone lines
for many consumers, the desire to keep the same cellular number has
prevented many from switching providers even if they are less than
satisfied with the service. That is about to change.

Kathleen Abernathy, a commissioner at the Federal Communications
Commission, recently cited a study that said as many as 8.7 million
cellphone users would switch immediately after number portability became
available.

The movement may be a watershed moment for the industry. For the six major
national mobile phone providers - AT&T Wireless; Verizon Wireless; Cingular
Wireless, a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth; T-Mobile, a
subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom; Nextel Communications; and Sprint PCS -
this could be the start of a shakeout that determines which companies will
thrive and which may be absorbed by others.

Heavy competition in this industry has always meant strong marketing and
customer retention campaigns. One of the mobile phone carriers' biggest
problems has been customer churn, with tens of thousands of customers
shifting from one provider to another every month in search of better deals
or service. The regulation allowing customers to take their phone numbers
with them will accelerate churn, and that is why wireless companies are
eager to sign customers to new one- or two-year deals before Nov. 24.

AT&T Wireless is now giving away $50 credits to some customers signing up
for an extra year of service as well as airline miles to particularly
valuable users. Cingular is handing out free phones and big discounts on
color flip-phones to people who sign up for two more years of service.
Sprint PCS has been offering similar giveaways.

While many customers are taking up these offers, most are not aware of
impending number portability. Industry analysts, research organizations and
the wireless carriers themselves say that public awareness of the new
regulations is low.

Wireless carriers are hoping that they can take advantage of that absence
of awareness to make an 11th-hour hard sell. "They are trying to sign
people up for multiyear contracts," said Patrick J. Comack, a
telecommunications industry analyst with Guzman & Company, an investment
banking firm. "They've significantly upped the incentives, and it's going
to get crazy going forward."

By signing customers to longer contracts now, the companies will be able to
keep more of them after portability takes effect - or at least force
customers to pay termination fees if they do jump services before their
contracts expire.

The industry has been trying to address the portability issue since the
beginning of the year, and has had notable success in reducing the
percentage of customers changing carriers, said Roger Entner, an analyst
with the Yankee Group. He said that 2.2 percent of mobile phone customers
switched carriers each month during the quarter that ended June 30 compared

with 2.7 percent a month on average in 2002.

Nonetheless, Mr. Entner and other analysts expect the numbers of customers
switching to soar immediately after Nov. 24, when news coverage and
advertising campaigns by wireless companies to lure away their competitors'
customers will increase public awareness. He projects that 50 million
people will switch providers in 2004, up from the 39 million the group
expects to change carriers this year.

The companies are quite aware that number portability gives them a huge
opportunity to compete for existing subscribers. Indeed, media outlets are
expecting already sizable advertising campaigns by those companies to take
off over the next few weeks.

Sprint, for example, has recently published 10 tips for consumers who want
to keep their phone numbers and plans to put brochures in stores explaining
the process. Three weeks ago, Verizon Wireless put up a Web site where
customers can learn about their right to keep their phone numbers and sign
up to be contacted by a company representative.

John Stratton, chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, said
portability would not change the company's long-term retention strategy,
but would "magnify it." One strategy is to provide subscribers with a new
phone every two years.

Jonathan Tinter, who oversees the portability strategy at AT&T Wireless,
said the company did not plan to change significantly its effort to keep
customers. But he said he had contingency plans to sweeten the deals if the
other carriers started to cut into his customer base, noting that the whole
industry was "getting more aggressive with retention."

Other carriers admit that they are already pursuing a hard sell. Andy
Wilson, the vice president for marketing at Cingular, said it was offering
better incentives to customers whose contracts were about to expire and
that he had seen a "much higher than a normal response."

Mr. Entner from the Yankee Group said many people were surprised and
pleased with the new deals. "When I talk to unsuspecting friends, they say,
`Look at the coup my carrier just offered me.' "

But he said the packages were likely to get even better after it becomes
possible to keep a cellphone number when switching carriers. "The smart
people are holding out to Christmas" to see what kind of deal they can get
to stay with their carrier, he said.

One holdout is John Engelhardt, 51, the director of public relations at
River Downs Racetrack, a thoroughbred race track in Cincinnati. He said he
was a satisfied customer of Cingular, but he planned to march into one of
its stores after Nov. 24 to see if he could get more weekly minutes or free
voice mail. "I'm going to ask them what they can do to sweeten the deal,"
he said, his voice growing with enthusiasm. "This is America. We're built
on competition."

Other mobile phone users have circled the date on their calendar for a
different reason: they are bent on changing service providers. Vanessa
Stagi, 28, a medical sales representative who has been with AT&T Wireless
for seven years, said she was tired of dropped calls, poor coverage and
high bills.

She has not switched until now because her friends and business clients all
have her current cellphone number. "If I switched, I'd have to notify every
single hospital and the doctors, surgeons, nurses, hospital directors," she
said. Very soon, she added, she will be liberated.

But, all that said, she could be persuaded to stay with AT&T Wireless, she
said, if it sweetened the pot enough. "If the offer was right," she said,
"I'd consider staying."

Sheldon (Shelly) Waxman, Writer/Lawyer
"The Black Messiah Murders," Sam Cohen #1
"Piranhas On the Loose," Sam Cohen #2
"In the Teeth of the Wind,"
"All Anybody Needs to Know About Independent Contracting"
PURCHASE AT MY WEBSITE: http://thelawyer.info/ OR Call Iuniverse toll free
1-877-823-9235

----- Original Message -----
From: "rex"
To:
Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2003 4:46 PM
Subject: Jury Nullification before U.S. Supreme Court


> Op/Ed (for publication)
>
> Jury nullification is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. The argument that
> jurors should be able to reject vice laws and acquit is in a new Petition
> for Writ of Certiorari. The Petition also argues various reasons why vice
> laws are unconstitutional. The nullification arguments and the entire
brief
> can be viewed at http://rexcurry.net .
>
> As an attorney and a libertarian I am urging the nation's highest court to
> recognize jury nullification, also known as jury pardon and jury veto.
>
> During my legal career, I have often been asked if jurors can overturn bad
> laws. The askers fear compulsory jury duty to convict defendants accused
of
> vices (gambling, prostitution, drugs) or other non-violent charges (tax
> non-payment, gun possession).
>
> The fear has risen because many non-violent consensual acts now carry
> mandatory sentences of 10 years and even life in prison. Jurors are not
told
> that their verdict will result in a non-violent defendant with no prior
> record going to prison for a decade or more. The jurors won't know what
they
> have done and if they find out, then they might become ill.
>
> Most courts hold that jurors do not have the right to acquit in defiance
of
> the law, though courts recognize that jurors have the power to do so, and
> that nothing can be done about jury nullification when it happens.
>
> In history, jury veto has been used for acquittals against charges
involving
> miscegenation, slavery, etc.
>
> For more information on jury nullification, jury veto, and jury pardon
see:
>
> http://members.ij.net/rex/fija.html
>
>
>
> for more ideas on liberty and libertarianism see
>
> http://members.ij.net/rex
>
> http://rexcurry.net
>
> Rex Curry
>
> Attorney At Law
>
> P.O. Box 8816
>
> Tampa, FL 33674-8816
>
> 813 238-5371
>
> rexy@ij.net
>
>

posted by FLoA  # 10/18/2003 08:23:07 PM   

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11460-2003Oct11.html
>
> Working with home movies on your computer, once a task of staggering
> expense and complexity, is reaching the point of actual usefulness -- just
> in time to save our degrading collections of fragile videotape. The
> combination of increasingly fast computer processors, increasingly roomy
> hard drives and increasingly cheap DVD- and CD-recorder drives makes it
> feasible to edit a tape library down to more watchable versions and then
> save the result on more permanent DVDs or video CDs (a lower-quality,
> cheaper way to store video).
>
> But if video editing is now doable, it's far from perfect -- especially
for
> users trying to add this capability to an older machine, because they have
> traditionally needed to add new hardware inside the computer's case. One
> add-on kit accepts that limit, whereas a second offers a detour around it
> for a higher cost.
>
> ATI's All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro (Win 98 or newer, $250, www.ati.com) requires
> adding a card to an available, internal PCI slot and assumes that you've
> already got a DVD or CD burner. This video card can import footage from a
> variety of sources -- VCR, camcorder and live TV -- via its analog
> composite and S-Video jacks. (It also adds extremely fast 3-D graphics to
> your computer.)
>
> A digital FireWire port is absent here, however, so you'll have to use the
> lower-quality, fussier analog outputs on digital camcorders.
>
> ATI bundles both beginner and advanced video-editing software. The simpler
> Muvee Autoproducer captures video and lets you string along clips in a
> sequence, add titles and export to a variety of formats (for instance,
DVD,
> Video CD and Windows Media Video) in just a few clicks. But you'll need to
> use a separate disc-burning program, Library, to get the movie onto a DVD
> or CD.
>
> The second option, Pinnacle Studio SE, delivers much more robust editing
> tools, including scene detection, clip trimming, visual sequencing with a
> wide variety of transitions, timeline editing, audio editing and extensive
> titling options. It also can create DVDs with professional-looking menu
> screens. Despite that power, it's fairly simple to learn -- and this one
> program also handles CD and DVD burning.
>
> A free online TV programming guide lets you schedule recordings of TV
> programs onto your PC's hard drive, turning your computer into a
TiVo-style
> video recorder with no monthly fees. But this is of limited relevance to
> the vast majority of people with computers and TVs in separate rooms.
>
> Hewlett Packard's Movie Writer dc3000 lets you start editing video without
> ever cracking open a PC's case -- but you'll need a USB 2.0 port and extra
> cash. At $400 (Win 2000 or newer), this external device, which combines a
> DVD+RW drive with composite and S-Video capture circuitry but omits
> FireWire, is the most expensive game in town. But it's also the simplest
to
> set up: Install driver and video-editing software, then plug it in.
>
> Actual use is not quite so effortless. Its "one-step" recording system,
> which is supposed to capture video and write it to DVD (the software
starts
> up when you press a button on the dc3000), first requires some
> configuration for the type of video you want to import, then sends the
> footage on a detour through your hard drive before burning the disc.
>
> For editing, HP bundles the same Muvee program as ATI, as well as
ArcSoft's
> ShowBiz, a mid-level editor that lacks the power of Pinnacle Studio but is
> fairly easy to use in comparison. Like Pinnacle Studio, it takes you all
> the way from capture to burning the DVD.
>
> None of these solutions is an ideal mix of capability, simplicity and low
> price. If you also need to upgrade your PC's graphics, the All-in-Wonder's
> power justifies its price. If you have a USB 2.0 PC that lacks both a DVD
> recorder and video-capture capability, get the HP.
>
> But the easier answer, especially if your computer is showing its age, may
> be to buy a new, video-ready PC or Mac, though it costs a lot more.
>

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42814-2003Oct4.html
>
> The computer industry makes plenty of devices to let you work away from
> home, but hardly any of them fall between a laptop and a handheld
organizer
> in size and capability.
>
> Yet, not everybody needs or wants a full-fledged laptop on the road, with
> its cost, weight, limited battery life and complexity. Meanwhile,
handhelds
> are too limited to let you write a letter and send it to somebody, at
least
> not without buying a great deal of add-on hardware.
>
> Two devices from a couple of unlikely suspects, however, suggest an
> in-between option. They're not for everyone, but they do point to some
> interesting alternatives to mobile computing as we know it.
>
> Both the QuickPad Pro Mail (made by Mountain View, Calif.-based QuickPad
> Technologies) and Texas Instruments' TI-83 Plus Silver Edition (with an
> optional keyboard) feature full-size computer-style keyboards, weigh in at
> about two pounds, offer simple connections to a standard PC and operate
for
> many hours on cheap AA batteries.
>
> They hark back to the era of computing when performance was measured in
> kilobytes, not gigabytes -- in other words, few power users will be happy
> with them.
>
> But somebody who just needs a cheap way to write might be content. They're
> simple to use and rugged, since they were designed for use in classrooms
> instead of offices.
>
> The QuickPad Pro Mail, launched this spring for $349, comes in one
piece --
> 9 by 12 inches wide and 1 inch thick, weighing two pounds -- that contains
> a standard keyboard and a monochrome, non-backlighted LCD screen that
spans
> just 18 lines high and 80 characters wide, matched to the width of the
> keyboard.
>
> The most useful software on board is a bare-bones word processor, but the
> QuickPad also bundles rudimentary organizer, spreadsheet and calculator
> applications. The whole thing boots up to its icons-on-a-desktop interface
> in about four seconds; although it runs on a version of DOS, user input
> doesn't get more complicated than navigating with the arrow keys and
typing
> one-letter commands.
>
> The QuickPad's slate-gray case includes an array of connection options:
USB
> and serial ports, a Compact Flash memory-card slot, an infrared
> data-exchange port and a phone jack for the internal modem. The QuickPad
> can connect to any standard Post Office Protocol account to send and
> receive e-mail -- but it can't read any attached files.
>
> QuickPad Technologies, a relatively recent start-up, sells this device,
> with a few related models, to consumers only through its Web site
> (www.quickpad.com). Michael Spencer, the company's marketing vice
> president, said regular institutional sales to state governments provide
> sufficient income for future development.
>
> Texas Instruments, a company without any name-recognition issues, took a
> different approach with its TI-83: It took a pocket-calculator design and
> added software and hardware to allow it to function as a basic note-taking
> machine. This $139 device remains on the hefty side, with a tiny
> black-and-white, non-backlighted screen (just 64 by 96 pixels); the $45
> add-on keyboard makes typing possible and includes a nifty note-taking
> program called NoteFolio.
>
> There's no provision for e-mail, however, and most of the rest of TI's
> software focuses on educational and science markets. The TI-83, as
> conceptually intriguing as it might be, doesn't measure up to the QuickPad
> as a writing tool.
>
> Both of these devices fall well short of Palm and other handhelds in terms
> of screen quality and software support -- even if no Palm combines a
> full-size keyboard and modem in one unit as the QuickPad does.
>
> There is, however, something to be said for a device built around long
> battery life, durability and a traditional keyboard. Millions of people
> once relied on a comparable device: It was called a typewriter.
>

> > > > > These are actual tombstones:
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Harry Edsel Smith of Albany, New York:
> > > > > Born 1903-Died 1942
> > > > > Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the
> > > > > car was on the way down.
> > > > > It was.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > In a Thurmont, Maryland, cemetery:
> > > > > Here lies an Atheist
> > > > > All dressed up
> > > > > And no place to go.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > In a London, England cemetery:
> > > > > Here lies Ann Mann, Who lived an old maid But died an old Mann.
> > Dec.
> > > 8,
> > > > > 1767
> > > > >
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > In a Ribbesford, England, cemetery:
> > > > > Anna Wallace:
> > > > > The children of Israel wanted bread,
> > > > > And the Lord sent them manna.
> > > > > Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife,
> > > > > And the Devil sent him Anna.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > In a Ruidoso, New Mexico, cemetery:
> > > > > Here lies Johnny Yeast.
> > > > > Pardon me
> > > > > For not rising.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > In a Uniontown, Pennsylvania, cemetery:
> > > > > Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake.
> > > > > Stepped on the gas
> > > > > Instead of the brake.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > In a Silver City, Nevada, cemetery:
> > > > > Here lays The Kid.
> > > > > We planted him raw.
> > > > > He was quick on the trigger
> > > > > But slow on the draw.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > A lawyer's epitaph in England:
> > > > > Sir John Strange.
> > > > > Here lies an honest lawyer,
> > > > > And that is Strange.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > John Penny's epitaph in the Wimborne, England, cemetery:
> > > > > Reader, if cash thou art
> > > > > In want of any,
> > > > > Dig 6 feet deep;
> > > > > And thou wilt find a Penny.
> > > > >
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > In a cemetery in Hartscombe, England:
> > > > > On the 22nd of June,
> > > > > Jonathan Fiddle
> > > > > Went out of tune.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > Anna Hopewell's grave in Enosburg Falls, Vermont
> > > > > Here lies the body of our Anna -
> > > > > Done to death by a banana.
> > > > > It wasn't the fruit that laid her low,
> > > > > But the skin of the thing that made her go.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > On a grave from the 1880s in Nantucket, Massachusetts:
> > > > > Under the sod and under the trees, Lies the body of Jonathan
Pease.
> > He
> > > > is
> > > > > not here, there's only the pod. Pease shelled out and went to
God.
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > In a cemetery in England:
> > > > > Remember man, as you walk by,
> > > > > As you are now, so once was I.
> > > > > As I am now, you soon will be.
> > > > > Prepare yourself and follow me.
> > > > > To which someone replied by writing on the tombstone:
> > > > > To follow you I'll not consent
> > > > > Until I know which way you went
> > > > > ^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^~~~^
> > > > > >From Boot Hill, in Tombstone, Arizona:
> > > > > Here lies Lester Moore
> > > > > One slug from a 44
> > > > > No Les
> > > > > No Moore
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > --
> > > > > ----
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > ------- FORWARD, End of original message -------
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
>

Subject: SAGE ADVICE from Richard Russell: The Fantasy System


> http://goldmoney.com/en/commentary/2003-08-05.html
>
> Is there anything ethically or philosophically wrong with the central bank
> system of money as it has evolved? My answer is yes. As gold was
> systematically removed from the system, the system became a "fantasy
> system." I say fantasy because the central banks are able to create money
> at will, with no discipline to stop them. This I believe - is immoral,
even
> evil. The current system allows a central bank to create money out of
> nothing - whereas I and my fellow Americans have to work for that same
money.
>
> Is it ethical, even logical, that I have to work my whole life to make say
> a million dollars when the Federal Reserve can, in a minute, create
> billions of the same fiat dollars that I work so hard for? The system
> defies logic and defies reality. It's a scam.
>
> But because there is no limit to the fantasy-dollars that the system has
> created, the system has simultaneously created a giant edifice of debt.
> Nobody is certain how much debt has been built into the US structure, but
> the accepted figure is around $38 trillion. If you figure that the average
> interest on this debt is 5%, then you are talking about $2 trillion a year
> needed to service that debt.
>
> Thus, the system now requires inflation to handle the debt. You see,
> inflation renders debt less onerous through time.
>
> This explains why the Fed is so terrified of deflation. In deflation, debt
> becomes increasingly difficult if not impossible to handle. In deflation
> dollars become scarcer and more potent, while the debt remains constant.
> This, in a nutshell, is why the Fed is so frantic to thwart the forces of
> deflation.
>
> The forces of deflation? What forces? During the '90s people, cities,
> states, the federal government, corporations - they all borrowed heavily.
A
> huge world of "prosperity" was created. But alas, the structure toppled
> over starting in late-1999. We refer to that as the "bursting of the
bubble."
>
> Why did the structure topple over? It toppled because "no tree grows to
the
> sky." It's as simple and yet as mysterious as that.
>
> But worse, at the same time, a number of deflationary forces came to the
> fore. They were:
> * The Internet, which allowed people to find the cheapest item.
> * China and Asia, which gave manufacturers and service providers a way of
> drastically cutting their costs.
> * Wal-Mart, which now accounts for 1.3% of the GDP of the nation. WMT gave
> people an outlet for Chinese goods. * WMT is now a giant, fast-growing
> chain that cuts prices mercilessly. The global economy, which allows
every
> nation to compete for exports with every other nation. This resulted in
> what I call "the end of pricing power." Today nobody can raise their
prices
> and no manufacturer can raise its wage scale.
> * The US negative current account, which exports tens of billions of
> dollars to other nations, and which has allowed * Asians to built up their
> manufacturing facilities and thus compete with US manufacturers.
> * The relentless rise in unemployment, which is a fear factor for the US
> population - and also a force for deflation.
>
> All the above represent the forces that now threaten the current system of
> fiat money. Above all they threaten the edifice of debt that was built up
> during the '90s.
>
> What is the Fed to do in the face of these forces of deflation, and the
> death of pricing power?
>
> The Fed's answer is that "We will absolutely not allow deflation to enter
> the picture. We'll preempt deflation. Since deflation is basically 'too
> many goods confronting too little money,' why we'll defeat deflation by
> creating so much money that deflation will be swamped. We'll drown the
> forces of inflation with a veritable ocean of liquidity."
>
> Can it work? Can the Fed defeat the natural forces of correction and
> contraction that is following the collapse of the greatest financial
bubble
> in history?
>
> The Russell answer - It can work for a while, and, in truth, it has worked
> for a while. But what has also happened is that in its inflationary
frenzy,
> the Fed has injected even more debt into the system. As I see it, three
> major problems have been rendered even worse.
>
> First, a housing bubble has been built. Due to low mortgage rates,
> Americans have rushed into housing, driving home prices up to absurd
> prices. And with the housing boom, more debt has been built into the
system.
>
> Second, the stock market bubble has been brought back. Is the stock market
> a bubble? With the S&P selling at 32 times trailing earnings and providing
> a yield of 1.70%, I say that the stock market is now most definitely in a
> bubble.
>
> Third, in driving short rates down, the Fed has created a bond market
> bubble. At the recent low, 10 year T-notes were yielding 3.1%, rates not
> seen in almost five decades. The bond bubble has now suddenly and totally
> burst, sending bond rates and mortgage rates higher. This morning the rate
> on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 5.71%.
>
> So what lies ahead? What I see is a continued battle on the part of the
Fed
> to thwart the forces of deflation. The more persistent the forces of
> deflation, the greater will be the Fed's inflationary efforts. The Fed
will
> use every resource, every "trick in the books," to thwart deflation. I
call
> it a "death struggle." It's a battle the Fed has vowed not to lose.
>
> In the end, the Fed's all-out inflationary war will impact on the dollar.
> Too many dollars will be created (of course that's happened already), but
> as the dollar is systematically destroyed, bonds will become suspect, and
> the whole world of financials will come under suspicion.
>
> The flow of funds will turn from the financials that are denominated in
> "funny money" to tangibles which possess an intrinsic value of their own.
> Among the financials that will stand out, I believe, will be the precious
> metals. Gold and silver possess intrinsic value based on 5,000 years of
> human history. Gold and silver are the financial equivalents of a Picasso
> painting or a ten-carat D-color VS-1 diamond. The difference is that gold
> and silver are priced every minute of the day while the price of a Picasso
> or a diamond is ultimately determined by auction.
>
> -------------
>
> You can subscribe to Richard Russell's newsletter at:
> www.dowtheoryletters.com
>

> San Francisco, California September 21, 2003;
>
> The 9th District Court ruled today the October 7th, 2003 recall vote in
> California will be held as scheduled but without the use of punch card
ballots.
>
> Apparently the ACLU argument that a majority of Californians are not smart
> enough to use a punch card ballot held up. The court ruled that punch
card
> ballots should be replaced with a show of hands. To vote yes on the
recall
> the voter will raise their right hand to register a no vote the left will
> be raised. Polling locations will be supplied with rubber stamps and ink
> pads. There will be only two authorized stamps an R for the right hand
and
> an L for the left. Only stamped hands will be counted. Voters should go
> to their designated polling location early on October 7, 2003 to have
their
> hands stamped then immediately return to their residence. At exactly
> 12:00PM noon all voters should stand in front of their residence with
> either their right or left had raised.
>
> The vote count will begin at exactly 12:00 noon starting in Mexico City
and
> working north from there.
>
> Voters are reminded to remain standing with their hand raised after they
> have been counted due to the possibility of a re-count. Switching of
hands
> is strictly prohibited. Once a hand is raised it must remain raised until
> the election is over. PPP's (Polaroid polling places) will be set up in
> strategic locations around the state and in the less accessible areas of
> Mexico. Absentee voters should locate the nearest PPP and have their vote
> recorded.
>
> Persons with only one arm will be permitted to have both sides of their
> hand stamped. R will be stamped in the palm of their hand and L on the
> back of the hand. The vote counters will travel the state in teams that
> include persons fluent in all seven languages that California ballots are
> normally printed in. Each team will include interpreters to enable team
> members to communicate. The Spanish vote will be recorded in Spanish, the
> Chinese in Chinese, the Korean in Korean and so forth. Also as has been
> the tradition for many years in California the illegal alien vote will be
> counted illegally and included in the total.
>
> The Governor was quoted to comment "I hope it doesn't rain and wash the
> stamps off".
>