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At least they apologize for any inconvenience
JAMES LOUIS
Account #: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-1238
Address changes can no longer be performed online
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act. The purpose of the Patriot Act is to help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities. The Federal government is relying on all financial institutions to take reasonable steps to know the true identity of every customer who wishes to open an account. There are individuals that use banking relationships to finance terrorism and other criminal activity. The effort to identify and verify our customers is one way to further prevent, detect and prosecute international money laundering and terrorist financing.
As part of this effort, Federal law now requires that all financial institutions maintain a physical street address on file for customers. Therefore, address changes can no longer be performed online. To change your address, please call 1-800-xxx-xxxx to speak with a Customer Relations associate.
(Major Credit Card) respects your privacy and maintains its commitment to protecting your personal information. We apologize for any inconvenience.
(no link--too lazy) House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco offered her strongest condemnation yet of President Bush on Wednesday, assailing him as incompetent and declaring that the only way for the United States to triumph in Iraq is to replace him as commander in chief.
Triumph? How about "get the fuck out?"
he'll never make another invalid assumption. (why is all my news two days old today?)
I am a bit embarrassed at being so surprised by this chart showing where U.S. oil comes from.
So this Firefox browser works great and since Microsoft Word seemed like maybe its been removed from this machine I downloaded a free word processor called Abidword and it works pretty well and earlier I got the notion to spend twenty bucks to get a year of dictionary.coms deluxe version because I find the out loud pronounciation key a nice feature. I have a dictionary software that does it but it's all the way down at my house, which is still occupied for awhile longer by my hippie replacement, and anyway a web based out loud pronounciation key is something a person who believes in good clean fun should have. This little Vaio laptop keyboard is ok, easier to type than I would have thought, in case you're wondering when I'm going to wrap up, I'm just practicing so....
IRR being called up. Drum and Kos have threads.
Is it not bad enough that we have to endure the Repulican National Convention (103 days and counting)?
New Yorkers beware, now maybe the Olympics too:
New York City joined four European capitals — Paris, London, Madrid and Moscow — as the five cities unanimously selected today to advance to the final bidding round for the 2012 Olympic Summer Games.
the gray zone
Profile of Brown University's semiotics program: "How an obscure Brown concentration trained graduates to crack the codes of American culture -- and infiltrated the mainstream."
Rumor has it that the success of HBO's Deadwood has led to a greenlight for an even more obscene and depraved series about another patch of land utterly beyond the reach of the law -- Gitmo.
Sunday May 16th at 8:00 PM, Channel 13 airs Pale Male, the movie about the famous Fifth Avenue Red-tailed Hawk.
On the subject of whether Nick Berg was a you-know-what for the you-know-what or the you-know-what, here's an interesting tidbit:
Meanwhile, the family said Berg had been questioned by the FBI more than a year ago about a contact he had with a terrorism suspect in 1999, while he was a student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.Maybe working und3rc0ver in the US at that time?A senior law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the terror suspect appears to have been acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaida adherent now in federal custody and awaiting trial on conspiracy charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks.
The official said an e-mail address traced to Berg had been used by the unidentified individual with purported terror connections, but a 2002 investigation showed Berg had never met the individual and had not given the e-mail address to that person.
Michael Berg told reporters Thursday that his son was cleared of any wrongdoing. He said Nicholas Berg met the suspect while riding the bus to classes, and had allowed the suspect to use his computer.
Very bad news in Najaf:
Four holes, about 12 inches (30 centimeters) by eight, are visible on the [Imam Ali] shrine's dome, AP cited one of reporters as saying. They appeared to have been caused by machinegun fire, it said.I would not be surprised if Bush had never heard of this shrine.
The Rites of Spring (click on rites of spring procession) pageant creates and presents 8 hours of performance, dance, music, art, and poetry throughout the network of Lower East Side gardens. The spectacular day-long pilgrimmage features giant puppets, mobile sculptures, ceremonial art objects, costumed garden characters, and Brazilian, African, and Dominican bands, weaving throughout the neighborhood to visit the network of gardens. The diverse cultural traditions and history of the neighborhood gardens are honored with collaborative presentations by the gardeners and artists at each garden site.
Throughout the day a mythic drama is enacted, in which Gaia(who represetns the gardens) is born, married, kidnapped, and then saved at the end of the day. The closing ceremony at the Green Oasis Garden celebrates the victory of the community and the preservation of the gardens with music, poetry and the release of 50 live butterflies for the protection of the gardens.
"but I was wrong" "I'm a little slow" "...I assumed"
Democratic challenger John Kerry said on Wednesday his first choice as defense secretary would be Republican Sen. John McCain.
Setting aside my personal opinions of these two men, which obviously don't mean much, I think this is a brilliant move by Kerry (in terms of winning the election.)
Beautiful aerial photo of a single cab driving through a snowed in Brooklyn. More aerial NYC shots here. (via kottke)
"No dates, no numbers, no money. This is a nonprofit organization."
It's funny, I saw this man yesterday and was wondering what was going on. Yet another question answered...
Good reminiscence by Tony Hendra, via cursor.org, about the rise and fall of the National Lampoon.