I also guess it is unfair on the part of Google just to ban adsense accounts with no scope of appeal. The publishers have put significant amount of effort in promoting their sites and that need to be recognized.
You were mean! you tried making fast money!. You tried cheating on google and that is why your account got banned. $3000? holy crap! you think google is stupid? You continued clicking on your own ads from 2 or 3 computers and thought nobody sees you. even cnn and fox can't make that much from adsense. Just forget about it because you will never ever get your account back. That is the rule! period!