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And according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E..., that part of it dates back to Reagan.

That appears to be false. If you read the article and the Wikipedia entry it seems pretty clear that those are different streams of government effort with diferent goals (intelligence vs law enforcement), scope, and methodologies. Then there is this gem from the artilce linked in the summary:

Agents said that when the data collection began, they sought to limit its use mainly to drug investigations and turned away requests for access from the FBI and the NSA.

As far as presidents "whose hands are clean," I think that depends on some points of clarification. The Church Committee was addressing actual abusive conduct or misuse of law enforcement or intelligence. What is abusive in one context or set of facts may be perfectly legitimate in another. As a practical matter, for intelligence agencies or law enforcement to be useful they have to have the ability to do things that would be abusive if misused. One of the difficulties comes in drawing the lines. The US has at times gotten it wrong at times by drawing poorly chosen lines. Signs of 9/11 were missed because of that.

And lets not forget there is a flip side to this:

The Technology Secrets of Cocaine Inc.

Colombian cartels have spent billions of dollars to build one of the world's most sophisticated IT infrastructures. It's helping them smuggle more dope than ever before.

The Technology Secrets of Cocaine Inc.

The cali cartel set up their own version of this database in Colombia and used it to sniff out any of their people who were talking to law enforcement.

Interesting. Hezbollah also used a cell phone database to track down informers. They searched for anomalies, such as cell phones that were only used for a short period of time or from specific locations. Apparently spies used dedicated cell phones to call their handlers.

http://seattletimes.com/html/politics/2016817370_apushezbollahcia.html
Hezbollah unravels CIA spy network in Lebanon

Backed by Iran, Hezbollah has built a professional counterintelligence apparatus that Nasrallah - whom the U.S. government designated an international terrorist a decade ago - proudly describes as the "spy combat unit." U.S. intelligence officials believe the unit, which is considered formidable and ruthless, went operational around 2004.

Using the latest commercial software, Nasrallah's spy-hunters unit began methodically searching for traitors in Hezbollah's midst. To find them, U.S. officials said, Hezbollah examined cellphone data looking for anomalies. The analysis identified cellphones that, for instance, were used rarely or always from specific locations and only for a short period of time. Then it came down to old-fashioned, shoe-leather detective work: Who in that area had information that might be worth selling to the enemy?

The effort took years but eventually Hezbollah, and later the Lebanese government, began making arrests. By one estimate, 100 Israeli assets were apprehended as the news made headlines across the region in 2009. Some of those suspected Israeli spies worked for telecommunications companies and served in the military.

There's a difference between just giving every call ever to the government for the fun of it, and having an agent show up with papers in order, asking for the calls to/from a certain number and getting only that.

The NSA has a warrant for everything they do to. The problem is not the warrants, the problem is the existence of the database. It is begging for abuse, perhaps by the government, perhaps by AT&T, perhaps by criminals that have infiltrated either.

The cali cartel set up their own version of this database in Colombia and used it to sniff out any of their people who were talking to law enforcement.

If you think that's bad, did you hear about the guy who injected cocaine into his urethra? It had the intended effect initially, but it ended with him losing both his legs, nearly all his fingers, and his member falling off!

http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1993-04.html

http://www.cocaine.org/health/dangers.html

Think of more a NSA Room 641A intercept facility operated with a need to track any clean DEA/CIA/FBI contacts.
You don't get to sell drugs for long without a total understanding of your local and international telco networks.
You need to know who is calling from within your group, so you NSA it up and sort everything.
If a $1.5 million IBM AS400 mainframe was used before 2000, what do you think can be done many years later?
http://cocaine.org/cokecrime/
So expect that kind of skill at a local level around South America- in use or for rent.

the cartels don't have a server farm

Well, the Colombians had an AS/400 so who knows?

http://cocaine.org/cokecrime/index.html

Ok so now you're being even more sensational with your hypothetical pure situations.

An "e-cigarette" is a device for the delivery of small amounts of pure nicotine. There is nothing "hypothetical" under discussion here.

Do you honestly believe cocaine is safer than nicotine?

Cocaine is less toxic than nicotine. That is not a matter of belief, it is a matter of well-established fact.

Whether one thing is "safer" than another, depends largely on circumstance. Reading a book is safer than bungee jumping -- but reading a book while you're driving is more dangerous than bungee jumping. So if you're going to ask "is cocaine safer than nicotine", I need to ask, in what circumstance?

If you mean cocaine administered by chewing coca versus nicotine administered by smoking or chewing tobacco, or if you mean an device that administers very small controlled amounts of pure nicotine -- an nicotine gum, perhaps, or an e-cigarette -- versus a similar device that might administer very small controlled amounts of pure cocaine (like, say, cocaine chewing gum), yes, based on the available evidence, cocaine is safer than nicotine in either of these scenarios.

They're nigger billions - lots of ice and rock 'n' shit on them planets.

I thought that deserved a citation. I found one: http://cocaine.org/cokemoney/drugmoney.html
"More than £15 million worth of banknotes are being destroyed each year because they are so heavily contaminated with cocaine, heroin or ecstasy that they cannot be put back into circulation." "in several recent cases the levels of contamination have been so high the money has been considered a health hazard." "According to forensic experts, around 80 per cent of all banknotes in circulation are contaminated with drugs, a figure that rises to 99 per cent in the London area."

"In a bank counting machine, one banknote can easily contaminate half a million others."

It's tempting to try it. Cocaine is really cheap in London, and I know plenty of people that have tried it, but... well, it doesn't seem worth the risk. Ecstasy seems less of a risk, and it's cheaper than a pint of beer. But still... somehow it feels like I'd be cheating myself "my body needs help to be happy now".

http://www.cocaine.org/cocainenews/cocaine-rivers. html

The appearance of crack in the '90s had more to do with the discovery of a simpler method of manufacturing freebase (smokable) cocaine, aka crack. Here's a basic description taken from http://cocaine.org/coke.html

"Initially, "free-base" cocaine was typically produced using volatile solvents, usually ether. Unfortunately, this technique is physically dangerous. The solvent tends to ignite. Hence a more convenient method of producing smokeable free-base became popular. Its product is crack. To obtain crack-cocaine, ordinary cocaine hydrochloride is concentrated by heating the drug in a solution of baking soda until the water evaporates. This type of base-cocaine makes a cracking sound when heated; hence the name "crack". Base-cocaine vaporises at a low temperature, so it can be easily inhaled via a heated pipe."

That said, I agree that the "Just say no" campaign was a total failure, and that addiction was completely ignored. It just wasn't the only factor in this case.

http://cocaine.org/cokemoney/index.html I hope they can fine tune them since theres trace amounts everywhere...

Uh, I'm sorry. You think it's the crack house that kills addicts, and not being addicted to crack?

I don't do crack, and I don't do crack either. That's why I'm worried about going to the poor house for copyright infringement rather than going to prison for possession of cocaine without a prescription. Did you read the Bright Tunes opinion? If anybody needs to lay off the crack, it's the U.S. Congress *cough*DMCA*cough*Bono Act*cough*.

The .vbs viruses... they seem to have come from Columbia. A look at the source of one of them reveals
rem "Plan Colombia" virus v1.0

As a Columbia student, Columbia resident, Columbia wearer, Columbia listener, Columbia purchaser, and Colombia consumer -- and as an American, patriot, and staunch promoter of all that is good and right in this world -- I beg you to kindly note the small, but significant, difference between Columbia and Colombia.

Think of the children! Otherwise, the terrorists have already won.

Thank you.

can Monkeys be overclocked?

Of course they can!

Patent examiner's essentials

Cocaine on the other hand, is not physiologically addicting. You'll miss and crave the hit it gives you, but you have to go through the sweats and shakes. You might start using it again, you might even take to crime to do it, but you'll do it through conscious choice.

In that respect, EverQuest's nickname of EverCrack is quite appropriate. You'll miss playing it. You'll miss the good feelings and memories that you associate with playing it. But you should be able to come off it quickly, and with no harmful effects in the short or long term, if you want to.