Paul E. Ester's Flogger

Library Director James Oda earlier this month attempted to access the library’s new Web site Ñ www.fleshpublic.lib.oh.us Ñ to show it off for the library staff. After three months of work by the staff, Oda was justifiably proud of the site. Unfortunately, the library computer denied him access. … Rest of Article

The truck carrying ammonia nitrate, blasting caps and liquid oxygen overturned on the Indiana 45-46 bypass near the university’s golf course northeast of the main campus, Indiana State Police said…. Rest of Article

Officials in Comal County in Central Texas can only shake their heads at a statistical oddity from Tuesday’s elections.

After all the votes were counted, County Judge Danny Scheel had received 18,181 votes in defeating Lois Duggan.

Republican state Senator Jeff Wentworth also got 18,181 votes in Comal County in beating Democrat Joseph Sullivan and Libertarian Rex Black.

And Republican Carter Casteel got 18,181 votes in Comal County in her victory over Democrat Virgil Yanta in the race for state House District 73 race…. Rest of Article

WASHINGTON Ñ If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:

Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend Ñ all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as “a virtual, centralized grand database.”

To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you Ñ passport application, driver’s license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance Ñ and you have the supersnoop’s dream: a “Total Information Awareness” about every U.S. citizen.

This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks…. Rest of Article

THE Royal FamilyÕs attempts to halt the tide of lurid allegations that have followed the collapse of the Paul Burrell trial rebounded on them last night when an internal inquiry into the affair was denounced as a cover-up and fresh questions were raised about whether the Queen could have stopped the trial ever taking place. … Rest of Article

Federal agents will begin randomly stopping traffic today, looking for illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug or weapon smugglers.

Cars will be stopped at unannounced, rotating checkpoints within Michigan, including metro Detroit. U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoints will ask passengers their citizenship and will have leeway to ask a host of follow-up questions. … Rest of Article

They are angry over the way the US ambassador handled both the intelligence-gathering phase of the operation and after the fact, when senior US officials, including Assistant Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, violated a secrecy agreement by taking credit for the Hellfire strike.

“This is why is it so difficult to make deals with the United States,” says Brig. Gen. Yahya M. Al Mutawakel, the deputy secretary general for the ruling People’s Congress party in Yemen, who broke his country’s official silence on the issue in an exclusive interview. “This is why we are reluctant to work closely with them. They don’t consider the internal circumstances in Yemen. In security matters, you don’t want to alert the enemy.”
… Rest of Article

Michael Terrence Meiring’s strange tail Rest of Article

While Democrats talked a lot about the need to remember what happened two years ago, it was the Republicans who formed a “legal response team” of 350 lawyers, stationed in every county in Florida.

They researched the political ties of local election officials. They prepared legal briefs that could be filed instantly in any courthouse in Florida. Then they waited for Democrats to make the first move.

The goal was to make sure that Gov. Jeb Bush ’s re-election would not be threatened by lawsuits or recounts. … Rest of Article

Attorney General John Ashcroft dictates the news to the stenographers at the New York Times and Washington Post.