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The GSA is a prime example of why raising taxes on anyone I don't care what class is beyond stupid.

Congratulations, you're drawing the exact conclusion you're being lead to by all the hype. Forget the fact that the Las Vegas conference cost the same as 3 minutes of the Iraq war. Forget the fact that the same and worse is standard in private industry, except the executives in those cases also make tens of millions of dollars per year in takehome pay. Just make a simple emotional association, draw a kneejerk conclusion, and you're all done! So easily lead.

Just another case of patriotic fervour and artificial fear being used to paint the world as a scarier and more dangerous place than I believe it is.

OK so reassure us. Tell us why it's not possible for terrorists to deploy these same said techniques against populations.

Your comment implies that you know things people in the fields of microbiology and law enforcement aren't aware of or are thinking about wrongly, since they spend a lot of time worrying about just this topic:

http://armscontrolcenter.org/policy/biochem/scientists_working_group/

http://www.spusa.org/pubs/peace_security/biologicalstudies/biostudies_interviews.html

http://www.cdc.gov/ncpdcid/dbpr/about.html/

Sorry but the you let the terrorist win meme is being strongly misapplied in this case given the potential downside.

Don't get me wrong, terrorists could kill a few thousand people a year in the US and I wouldn't approve the curtailment of one civil liberty one iota as a response.

But the level of destruction we're talking about here is unsurvivable, both as a nation and as for all intents and purposes as a species .

Have you ever considered what would be the fate of those left behind if 2/3 of the population just disappeared? Do you really think the other 1/3 would be able to fill the jobs, understand the technology they're left with so as to prevent nuclear meltdowns, keep the lights and all the safety systems that are at all the labs and facilities going?

Security isn't designed to keep going unmanned indefinitely. The remaining population would be subject to repeated Chernobyls , release of every kind of pathogen and pollutant into the environment, etc. etc.

Sorry but the first organizing principle of any society is mere brute survival. After that comes civil liberties and civil society. If we have constructed a civil society which permits a self-inflicted death sentence to be imposed by the will of just a few individuals, then our civil society has failed to keep up with the changing technological landscape. This has to be categorized as failure of civil society through refusal to face reality. Failure at the hands of just another form of religious fundamentalism if you think about it.

I'll suggest the Cuban Missile Crisis to get your list started.

I'll give you that. The intelligence community can spot Russia moving giant missile deployments 90 miles off of our border in 1961. Forget, conveniently, that the Soviets did so after we placed nuclear missile installations in England, Italy, and Turkey within range of Moscow. How about the intelligence decisions that led to us overthrowing or invading every marxist leaning country from 1950 to 1990? Yeah, Vietnam and Nicaragua still have me quaking in my boots.

We invaded a virtually unarmed Iraq in retribution for 9/11 -- I mean, to remove WMD -- I mean, to remove Saddam Hussein for Freedom and Liberty and end his reign of terror, but the torturing and murdering has already started again in the same prisons. The Shi'ites aren't going to stop killing the Sunnis until sometime in 2050 if they are trying to get even, and not only will we have bank rolled both sides of the atrocity, but we also managed to give Iran - another failed intelligence project - the whole region on a golden platter.

So, yes, American Intelligence is an oxymoron. This whole case is absolute proof of it. There are 100 copies already out there. They are redacting and re-releasing the book, so you can see what they took out, and that'll make it pretty easy to see what they think should be classified, right? In the grand scheme of things, drawing attention to this book is a side show. When you are hard core fucking up every intelligence decision, and a book comes out explaining how bureaucracy and intelligence failures are hurting the war effort, censoring it after approving it is just proving the point.

And the 250,000 is nothing. It's literally one minute of spending in Iraq and Afghanistan according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. The real issue is that the whole intelligence enchilada is filled with dogshit and spray painted gold. The point of intelligence used to be gathering information and taking steps to reduce animosity and prevent war, not pretending like you can slap a saddle on a tiger and end up where you'd like. Intelligence has been mutated into Homeland Security, and that's just a blank check to bankrupt our government while they piss on the Constitution and tell us it's raining.

I also really hate the notion that Americans are war-mongers.

Perhaps not the American people, but the American government (with the consent of the people) certainly seem to be war mongers.

Look how much money they US spends on war compared to the rest of the world (more than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined!)

Have a look at the number of countries with a US army base (willing hosts or otherwise).

These is not really the actions of a peaceful country.

The US is no better or worse than the majority of nations in history, past or present. We are amongst good company... if you don't believe me, go to your local library and checkout a history book.

In terms of the US as war mongers, I don't know if I completely disagree with you. I will say that the American government has only been operating with the consent of a slim majority for the last 8 years.

It is too bad that that slim majority happens to represent the worst of America.

I also really hate the notion that Americans are war-mongers.

Perhaps not the American people, but the American government (with the consent of the people) certainly seem to be war mongers.

Look how much money they US spends on war compared to the rest of the world (more than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined!)

Have a look at the number of countries with a US army base (willing hosts or otherwise).

These is not really the actions of a peaceful country.

To summarize, I believe in the right to bear arms, but lets do away with the fiction that legal firearms will protect us against a government that spends more than every other nation combined on defense.

I think you mean "against a government that spends over twice as much as the rest of the world combined."

I would rather not have the technology, and spend the $1 Trillian (with a Capital T) on something more useful for American citizens.

Right now the system is dubious at best, and if technology exists that can defeat it, all that money was wasted.

So you are right on one point, this will take care of one small threat. But then we won't have any money left to address the big ones! That's not where I'd like to be.

(Source for figure: http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/nmd/fullcost.html )

Wrong.

The FY2006 U.S. Military budget is projected to be 419.3 billion according to:

http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/archives/001203.p hp

Being 120 billion LESS than the Social Security Ponzi Scheme, it is hardly "more than every other program combined"

And a nitpick which will hopefully bring this post back on topic - the average literacy you mentioned is wrong. It is 64.8% according to the 2001 census. The number you gave was for 1991. 14 years can make a lot of difference in a country like India, even given its huge population.

Evidence of nuclear tests in space :
http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/nmd/briefbook02/c hapt5.html

http://www.digitalnpq.org/archive/2004_spring/prim akov_box.html

http://spacescience.spaceref.com/newhome/headlines /ast19sep97_2.htm

http://www.munuc.org/pdfs/DISEC_A.pdf