On the other hand, maybe Federal felony conspiracy penalties aren't all that excessive.

One way or another, I'd like to see you run out of road in mid-air.

I don't get how it's so hip to take the cynical stance and slight the actions of anyone trying to elevate the situation of their community with real heart and integrity, simply because of the supposed intractable difficulty and doomed futility of the effort. (In the absence of a effective nationwide remedy to unplug the illegal employment opportunities and underground economy entrenched by Prohibition-generated criminalized drug profiteering- I think you know what I'm talking about- let's just say it's a steep uphill struggle. It's a political economy thing. You gotta understand.)

It's also the principal criticism I've heard directed at the homespun idealist faction of the hippie subculture of the 1960s, for their anti-materialism, opposition to hard drugs, pacifism, social justice and tolerance, universal brotherhood and sisterhood, and ecological sanity- they failed, corrupt and mercenary attitudes prevailed, and therefore they're pathetic (if not outright contemptible.) And quaint. You know, sort of naive and nerdy. Like Cory Booker.

In actuality, the only "problem" there's ever been with positive, kind, uplifting leaders and social pioneers who pay their dues and walk their talk is that there are so few of them.

To be sure- counterfeits abound in that regard, and always have. But their existence indicates the presence of the genuine article.

So when are we going to get legislation making predatory Internet commercial spam like yours subject to Federal felony conspiracy statutes?

Just sayin'.

Okay, maybe that's a bit excessive...crippling civil penalites should be sufficient.

In the meantime, I'd like to see Salon get a cyber-gnome or two on the case...an alphanumeric code recognition system is generally able to confound the spaminators, and solve the problem.

that accounts for how it is that I'm still giving Obama some slack on achieving the goals I wanted him to accomplish when I voted for him. He's started off farther into the rough than any other President in my lifetime (despite the protests of those who would blame him for a $9 trillion debt, $8 trillion of which was run up by his predecessors, with at least $4-$5 trillion of that total added on by the president immediately preceding him.)

It's just my subjective impression, but I think that's a much more apt employment of the parable.