Gadsen Flag

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About a week or so ago, a question was asked on "The Forum" about flying the flag. Some responses stated they fly the Gadsen flag. Where can I purchase a Gadsen flag? Thanks!

-- A.J. Pintor (Snoopy@portup.com), October 20, 2000

Answers

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/allflags/betros3x5995.html is one place to order online. I got this from a quick yahoo search. You can also find patriot sites that sell them through their site, which would probably help finance them. The going rate is $9.95 Good luck!

-- Epona (staceyb@myway.com), October 21, 2000.

Here is yet another reason why I feel that I can't fly "ole Glory". Maybe this is why I often have so many problems with phone lines! I haunt government sites to tryto figure out what the next thing they intend to do is.

Federal Web sites secretly tracking users (from NewsMaxx) Reprinted for info only.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (October 21, 2000 12:37 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Despite a White House prohibition, 13 government agencies are using technology that tracks the Internet habits of people visiting their Web sites, and in at least one case, provides the information to a private company, a congressional review has found.

The agencies range from the Federal Aviation Administration to the federal offices that provide disaster relief and administer Medicare, the General Accounting Office found in a study obtained by The Associated Press.

"How can this administration talk about protecting privacy when its own agencies jeopardize some of the public's most private information?" asked Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

Thompson's committee has jurisdiction over the 1974 Privacy Act and other laws that dictate the government's privacy practices.

At issue is the use by the 13 government Web sites of small text files called "cookies" that record information about an Internet user's browsing habits when they visit a site.

In June, the White House Office of Management and Budget advised all federal agencies that they are not allowed to use such text files without approval from the agency head. If they are used, the OMB directive said, Web site visitors must be given "clear and conspicuous notice" of such use.

But the GAO, the investigatory arm of Congress, found that 13 agencies were using the technology to track visitors, although their formal Internet policy claimed they weren't doing so, and none of the Web site visitors were advised the technology was being used.

The study found all 13 tracked consumers' path during their visit to the site, and some were employing "persistent" text files that could be read for years after the initial visit.

In addition, the U.S. Forest Service's International Programs site was found to be using so-called "third-party cookies" that transmit the visitors' activities to a private company which had been hired to compile reports for the agency.

Such a practice is not mentioned in the Forest Service site's privacy policy.

Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said he was unaware of the use of the tracking technology until contacted for comment Friday. "We're looking into it," Walsh said. "We take this very seriously."

The other agencies found to be using the "cookies" software were the U.S. Customs Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Bureau of Land Management, Central Federal Lands Highway Division, the Energy Department's Ames Laboratory, National Park Service, Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Health Care Financing Administration, which runs Medicare.

In June, the White House confirmed that its drug policy office operated a Web site using the "cookies" technology. The discovery prompted the directive from the White House budget office.

But the GAO concluded the drug office continues to use the technology, despite having a privacy policy that prohibits its use.

The drug policy office did not return a call for comment.

Congress has begun to weigh in more heavily on the issue of government privacy.

A provision sent to the president last week as part of the Defense Department spending bill Congress approved directs the government to develop policies to increase computer security at all federal agencies.

In past months, the GAO has reported that several federal agency networks, including those of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency, are easily prone to hacking

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), October 21, 2000.


Hi Doreen,

The government agencies are only struggling to catch up with private enterprise. ANY web site you visit has the potential of gathering information about you and tracking your habits. When I log into HOTMAIL.COM to check my email, I only have to acknowledge with a mouse click my login name and password. Why? Because Microsoft knows EXACTLY who I am as soon as I connect. Like Caller ID. And their servers know where my email goes and where it comes from. And so does Amazon.com, CDNow, Toys-r-us. etc. etc.

The genie is out of the bottle, the horse is out of the barn and the cat is out of the bag. As incredible as it may sound, the goverment and the law suit are our major lines of defence. When the government passes a privacy law, you can use it to attack an offending private company. And who's watching the government? HA!

But don't rely on private enterpise to police themselves. You don't happen to have Firestone tires, do you? Despite the fact that the Internet is public domain, it is serviced by private companies.

Welcome to the Wild Wild Web. And that 14-year-old geek in Xenia, Ohio with a web server in his bedroom is also collecting your email addresses, credit card and telephone numbers. Or it may be Brussels, or Tokyo or New Delhi. That virus about love came from private individuals in the Phillipines.

Of course, you could just shut off your PC and write letters by hand and make all your purchases with cash in local establishments. But then, if a local merchant greets you by name, knows what you want when you want it, and suggests products or services he knows you may like...why that sounds very much like "data collection" to me. And yet you trust him, don't you.

Frustrating, isn't it.

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), October 22, 2000.


I have my browser set to show all cookies before i accept them, which really doesn't do all that much in the defensive aspect, but it is something. The government sites have no cookies. However, I am not even going to the Goat She an msn. community anymore because it hits you with a hundred cookies or more now, and I resent that! Also, at my hotmail account, I used to get all sorts of porn stuff, which is weird as I have never even been to a porn site, but you must ake the cookies to check mail, so there ya have it.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), October 22, 2000.

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