| Vol.
I, No. 7 | May
Day / Mother's Day | Apr.
20th, 2001 |
Puzzling
Evidence . Puzzling
Evidence: True Stories ... Give
Us a Tax Break? ... A Texas Retrospective | "It's
always easy in retrospect to come in and say it would've
been nice if we had kept some of those
dollars available. But I think if we had all known two years ago
at this time where the state of Texas would
stand today, none of us would have voted for the tax cuts."
Texas
Republican State Senator Chris Harris, Dallas "We
have money that the federal government would be happy to give us to help
cover our poor kids who don't have health insurance, and we can't afford
to put the state money on the table to force the federal government to
give us the match."
Dick Levine, Sr.Analyst,
Center for Public Policy Priorities, Austin | from
"Texas
Taxes," an NPR report by John Burnett
19 April 2001 |
Ad
astra per astrum ...
Last month, the NY Times ran a story
about a food service worker with a plan. ... It seems an
enterprising fellow named Fausto Estrada, a waiter & bartender with the
catering company that serves MasterCard International headquarters over in
Purchase, NY, came upon an interesting document one day while he was
cleaning up after a power luncheon. Mr. Estrada apparently had been
building up quite a collection of such things, coming upon papers, budget
reports, and even CD-ROM's full of info which the MasterCard execs would
leave lying about after lunch..
.
The
document from this particular day's find outlined an as-yet undisclosed plan
for a $1-billion alliance between Disney Corp. and MasterCard. Upon
realizing what he'd found, Estrada decided that the document might actually
be better than a Platinum Card. He contacted MasterCard's main rival
-- VISA.
.
Obviously, Estrada knew there
could be serious repercussions if things went wrong, so he took pains to
conceal his identity. He adopted the alias of Cagliostro, an
18th-century Italian mystic particularly noted for his mastery at deception,
and with that name, contacted VISA to see if they might be interested in
purchasing the info. His initial asking price was somewhat modest, a
mere $100,000. It appears he was trying to bait VISA for a longer-term
arrangement, promising them that he could deliver other, similarly
interesting documents from 1999 to the present. VISA contacted the FBI
almost immediately.
.
Long story
short: The FBI nabbed Mr. Estrada when he was about to make a delivery
of the pilfered material to an undercover agent and was charged with under
the new 1996 Economic Espionage Act, which requires the direct approval of
the attorney general. ... But even if he hadn't been caught in the act
of delivery, Estrada would have been found anyway. ...
Why? Because on all his letters to VISA but one, he used the name of
his inspirational figure, Cagliostro ... but he used his own return address.
.. He
comes highly recommended ... from the Mounties, no less
The following
ad appeared in the Toronto Financial Post on Friday, Feb. 23rd., and
was submitted by Ted Buxton of Bristol. ...  |
In
a tight labor market, the business of finding qualified candidates to fill
positions can become difficult. This ad {at right} was placed by a
would-be employee:
.
Former Marijuana Smuggler
Having successfully completed a
ten year sentence, incident free, for importing 75 tons of marijuana into
the United States, I am now seeking a legal and legitimate means to support
myself and my family.
.
Business
Experience - Owned and operated a successful fishing business -
multi-vessel, one airplane, one island and processing facility.
Simultaneously owned and operated a fleet of tractor-trailer trucks
conducting business in the western United States. During this time I
also co-owned and participated in the executive level management of 120
people worldwide in as successful pot smuggling venture with revenues in
excess of $US100 million annually. I took responsibility for my own
actions, and received a ten year sentence in the United States while others
walked free for their cooperation.
.
Attributes
- I am an expert in all levels of security; I have extensive computer
skills, am personable, outgoing, well-educated, reliable, clean and
sober. I have spoken in schools to thousands of kids and parent groups
over the past ten years on "the consequences of choice",
and received public recognition from the RCMP for community service. I
am well-traveled and speak English, French and Spanish. References
available from friends, family, the U.S. District Attorney, etc. ...
.
What
more can he say? ...
. And
in honor of Mothers Day ... 
It
all depends on
your point of view
...
| | If
you're one of those guys who's ever been tempted to think that 'all
women are alike', bite your tongue. ... As these two images
show, such chauvinism can be easily disproved. ... The
image above is from the web site of the Million Mom March, an
organization seeking to change gun laws that put 750,000 moms on the
Mall in D.C. last Mothers Day. The other is from Second
Amendment Sisters, Inc., a pro-guns group that will be holding
Mothers Day rallies in at least 16 states around the nation,
including Maine, New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut,
Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, and more. |  |
. *******
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