meehawl

A 2004 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that 61% of American corporations, including 39% of large companies, paid no corporate income taxes between 1996 and 2000. Last year, corporations shouldered just 14.4% of the total U.S. tax burden, compared with about 50% in 1940.

Tags: business, capitalism, corporate welfare, corporatism, taxes by mike
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“We did all kinds of experiments to see who could do the best split in Abu Snena. We would put [Palestinians] against the wall, make like we were checking them, and ask them to spread their legs. Spread, spread, spread, it was a game to see who could do it best. Or we would check who can hold his breath for longest. “Choke them. One guy would come, make like he was checking them, and suddenly start yelling like they said something and choke them … Block their airways; you have to press the adams apple. It’s not pleasant. Look at the watch as you’re doing it, until he passes out. The one who takes longest to faint wins.”

Breaking the Silence

Tags: Hebron, IDF, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Palestine, Shovrim Shtika by mike
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Apparently also for Doctor Who. I noticed, in passing, this 200+ GB torrent download of seasons 1-26 of Doctor Who. At that size that’s got to be some kind of record. A few years ago it was a big deal to download a single 6 MB MP3.

Tags: BitTorrent, Doctor Who, porn by mike
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Quantum Sleeper

Tags: paranoia, social panic by mike
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The Americans say the militias have been using trained pigeons to signal the presence of American and Iraqi troops. The Iraqis wanted to know if they could fire on the pigeon keepers as American troops have done during the bitter fighting here. As long as the Iraqis determined that the flocks of birds were not a coincidence, the Americans advised, the pigeon keepers were fair game.

Tags: Baghdad, Iraq, pigeon by mike
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[Apple] tend to play fast and loose with the truth in their ad copy. Their towers are the fastest, their laptop is the thinnest, their phone is the most advanced. With so many unchecked exaggerations, Apple sometimes comes across as the consumer electronics version of Donald Trump.

Tags: Apple, Donald Trump by mike
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It’s no surprise that so few stopped to absorb the disastrous six-day battle of Basra that ended last week — a mini-Tet that belied the “success” of the surge … the political coalition and militia propping up Mr. Maliki are even closer to Iran than the Sadrists … the Maliki-Sadr cease-fire was not only brokered in Iran but by a general whose name is on the Treasury Department’s terrorist list: the commander of the Quds force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

If Moqtada S. is kicking ass all over Iraq, why does he call off his militia before they can win total ‘Western-style’ victory? … Sadr called off his boys for lots of good reasons: The first job of a guerrilla army is to stay alive. That’s much more important than winning a Western-style victory. The Mahdi Army is intact, ready for the next round … A guerrilla army facing occupiers with a monopoly on air power is committing suicide by going for total victory on the ground, seizing an entire city or district. Just ask the Sunni, who bunkered up in Fallujah and got slaughtered. By melting back into the civilian population, the Sadrists are now invulnerable to air attack.

Tags: Fallujah, Iran, Iraq, Mahdi Army, Maliki, Sadr by mike
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