Fun Facts From Zach's Almanac: Hitting spammers where they live...I declare there's been no declaration...Budget "Newspeak"... and a mea culpa

I learned from CNNMoney today that plans might be in the works for AOL and Yahoo to begin charging for business emails.
The headline does imply a blanket type of charging structure. But further reading points out that the charge, if ever put into place would be on a $2 or $3 dollar per 1000 message scale and would exclude many of the billing and banking services in use by we little guys.
Naturally, there's a big stink about it from marketers. %$&^# em' if they can't take a joke!
Anything that can shut down my daily flow of emails on a wide range of subjects that I'm not interested in, embarrassed by, intimidated by, inundated with or simply tired of rifling through just to get to the one or two genuine messages I might receive from familiy or friends each day, and I'm a happy camper!
People have been looking for a way to unclutter the spam flow that grows larger every month…I think they may have finally found it.
Do us all a favor? Make it $100 per 1000 messages, just to make spamming a little less attractive to these guys.

I spent a little time today listening to the live coverage of the Senate Intelligence Committee (talk about oxymoronic!) hearings on eavesdropping. It was particularly interesting to hear how often the committee and the Attorney General mentioned how we are in a state of declared war, somehow justifying any and all extremes put in place, met or exceeded to gather intelligence. More interesting was the oft mentioned need to keep these operations in effect as long as there was an Al Qaida or less specifically "terrorism" in general.
This would imply that it's going to be a long, long, long time before any of these alleged indignities to our constitution are pulled back.
It's sure nice to know that "the American way of life" hasn't been changed and we're not going to let the fear of "terrorism" alter the way we run our government.
But quickly, can anyone remember what they were doing on the day Congress voted in the affirmative to declare war on either Afghanistan or Iraq? Or maybe when Congress voted to officially declare war on Al Qaida in particular or terrorism in general?
Simple. You can't. War, as historically defined in our country has never officially been declared on the two above mentioned countries. More so, it would be virtually impossible to have anyone sign a declaration of war on Al Queada, because it's not a state. And harder still to do so on terrorism, because you can't declare war on a noun!
The spin continues however. And if you listen to our legislators and leadership they will have you believing we are in a state of declared war. Actually, the President was given the right to use "whatever force he felt necessary to fight terrorism", which is not a declaration of war. But hey…maybe I'm just a nit picker. What the hell did the founding fathers know, anyway?

The budget figures came out today heralding a whooping $2.77 trillion dollars worth of spending and pushes the deficit to an all time high of $423 billion. Of the 141 government programs facing reductions or(many of which will wield an impact on social programs such as Medicare, reducing inflation adjustments for hospitals, nursing homes, home health care providers and hospices and slice interest allowances for educational loans...all of which, what this administration euphemistically calls) "reformed", the Iraq war effort and the military will experience marked increases in spending. So too is a provision for $4 billion earmarked for the drilling of oil in A.N.W.A.R., which has yet to meet congressional approval…or so we are led to believe.
In yet another brilliant piece of this admin's Orwellian newspeak, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Joshua B. Bolten told the press, "These are not cuts," Bolten said of the Medicare plans. "These are modest reductions in the rate of growth."
Well ya gotta give the Bush administration this much…they are creating smaller government. Unfortunately they're just going to turn the whole damned shooting match into something called a military junta!

Ok. So even if I am the founding Pope of The Church of the Eternal Silver Lining, it hasn't slipped my notice, that I may come off as a gloomy Gus in this and most of my blogs. My sincere apologies to all who visit here. There are some positively super things going on too. The Steelers managed to pull a Super Bowl win! There's a great two-fer sale going on at the local supermarket. And a super spring is already peeking around the corner.
Oh yeah, sure, I'd like to spend a little more time writing about light, happy music and such. Really. And as soon as I hear some, I'll be sure to pass it along.
Unfortunately, there's precious little of it to be found in current events these days.