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There are many different tasks and functions for which the military and government agencies use the public/commodity internet. There are also various levels of private networks for more sensitive requirements.

None of that, however stops the NSA from operating under the assumption that its networks are compromised.

Brookings just put out a great paper on a related topic, Cybersecurity and U.S.-China Relations (PDF). It's worth a read.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The leaders and councils are obviously fools, but there are many things the UN actually does well.

No, there are many things the UN does well. Also, the Oil For Food Program did accomplish its humanitarian goal, despite the corruption. The UN had no authority or the resources to stop smuggling, although it did warn about it. The nations responsible for it, among them the US and UK, didn't do much about it at the time, however.

I'm not sure that I'd like men in blue helmets watching the skies, but their incompetence and corrupion is exaggerated.

This is a governor whos administration has been openly hostile to an open and transparent mode of operation. Bill McAllister, her communication director as governor, provides a voice clip here where you can find out just how desperate these people are to make excuses for doing nothing more than finding loopholes in the law to try and disguise what they really are talking about. At the end he says "in fact the final decisions will be public, will be documented and will be substantiated and they always have been."

So basically, shut up and stop trying to listen in on what's going on behind the curtain and be happy with what we decide to show you is the real deal. If she's this disdainful of actually wanting to prove to her constituents in Alaska that she's done no wrong and doesn't want to do anything wrong, then why doesn't she just backtrack and say you know what, you're right, I talked about transparency and open government, let's get right on that.

The fact that anyone can look at all this and not see anything suspicious just goes to show how blindly one can follow a political ideology, regardless of who's "championing" the cause, which she certainly is not as far as what Republicans truly want in office. Is it really enough for you that she wants to drill? That she wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade? What on Earth can people see in this snake? I can understand Alaskans loving her because she's always talked up Alaska first Alaska first but the rest of the nation should be terrified that Palin takes the exact same approach to governing as Bush and Cheney when it comes to divulging information.

P.S. -- Remember that "Bridge to Nowhere"? Still going on. And now there's the completed "Road to nowhere". Oh joy, she's just full of straight talk just like Johnny.

"[The web site] will list federal grants and contracts... except for those classified for national security reasons."

With 20% of the U.S. budget earmarked for "national security" and at least another 5-10% of spending that does not show up in the budget but rather is spent through "supplementals", I rather doubt this will clarify very much how the U.S. Government is spending money. This law leaves more than enough places for people to hide spending if they want to.

The UN has a huge positive effect on the world. Examples:

• They feed 104 million people a year in 80 countries. They feed people in war zones, natural disaster situations, health emergencies, and just plain poor countries.
• There were 17 million asylum-seekers, refugees and the like in 2004 who got help from UNHCR. They both help refugees directly and work to ensure that governments meet their responsibilities to these displacees.
• UNICEF. The UN protects children, everything from immunisation, education, protection against exploitation, AIDS prevention, etc.
• The UN has 16 active peacekeeping missions right now, in places like Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liberia and Burundi. Make no mistake: in most of those places if the UN weren't there, no one else but the marauders would be and the peace or relative peace being kept would have disintegrated long ago.
• The UN is the leader when it comes to the global battle against HIV/AIDS. Between the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria the UN is at the heart of every aspect of dealing with the epidemic, from heightening awareness to raising funds to making sure appropriate programs for prevention and treatment are implemented.
• Were it not for the UN, an awful lot of suffering around the world would go even less noticed and addressed than it does today. Landmine victims, Marburg fever and cholera sufferers, child soldiers, modern-day slaves, lepers and thousands of other populations beleagured by one or another either visible or obscure plight have a place to turn at the UN.

It strikes me that, of the people who are wholly negative of the UN, the vasty majority are from the USA. It's not surprising, given that the UN are criticising the USA for blocking their torture investigations at the moment.

I don't think you'll find anybody claiming that the UN is a perfect organisation. But only trolls and ignorant people could claim that the UN is not worth supporting.

"I highly recommend that the US resign from the UN and see how long it holds together without our monetary support." The problem is that the US doesn't pay their dues at the UN (unless this has change in the last few years). They have refused to pay the required dues because they feel that they aren't given enough of a say in the operations of the UN. That is why I have always found it quite funny when the US complains that the UN is ineffectual. Maybe if they would pay their dues and give the UN the finances they need to do their job things would get done. Again I must state that I am basing this on old information. A quick search provided these links: http://www.asil.org/insights/insigh21.htm http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2005/06/deja_vu_on _un_d.html http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/18/un.reform/ http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/08/17/12711.htm l If this has changed and the US is now meeting its financial obligation please disreguard this post.