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BBC and Fox often present the same message different ways.

I see this too, in even historic coverage back to the "War in the Crimea" the news was used to stoke sentiment exactly as you describe.

Charge of the Light Brigade indeed

Fox News talking heads are now openly praising Putin:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/09/10/putin-is-one-who-really-deserves-that-nobel-peace-prize/

full analysis: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/09/06/a-right-wing-media-star-is-born-vladimir-putin/195756

The U.S. is recovering from the Bush years, it has to in a way...the question is how much progress can democracy make against colonial-era revenue chains?

Look I'm all for the solution we've now reached but the evidence was pretty solid that the Syrian government committed the atrocity

It's like Americans learned nothing, not a damned thing from the Iraq invasion. At least Bush presented actual evidence that Saddam was pursuing chemical and nuclear weapons. The evidence was made up shit, but it was presented.

Obama hasn't bothered to even go that far. He just makes assertions in a serious sounding voice and people believe him.

I don't know how one can really side with Russia's closed accusations, the demonstrably doctored videos and so forth that supposedly showed the launch, the delay in letting the inspectors out there and so forth. It's pathetic. Russia could tell you anything and you'd believe it.

As opposed to trusting Israel's audio surveillance when they admitted to doctoring audio from their assault on the freedom flotilla all of three years ago? Now, you were saying something about being pathetic?

Don't pretend you like to base your understanding on facts and evidence when you're ignoring the facts and evidence and feeding straight into bullshit with no evidence to back it up.

You first.

White House: Irrefutable Assad link to gas attack lacking, but passes 'common-sense test'

The White House asserted Sunday that a "common-sense test" dictates the Syrian government is responsible for a chemical weapons attack that President Barack Obama says demands a U.S. military response. But Obama's top aide says the administration lacks "irrefutable, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence" that skeptical Americans, including lawmakers who will start voting on military action this week, are seeking.

Do tell us how it's "common sense" that Assad used chemical weapons now when he is winning the war, rather than last year when foreign-armed fighters and rebels were driving back his military.

Do tell us that it would have been "common sense" for Assad to order the use of chemical weapons the day that chemical weapons inspectors arrived.

Do tell us why it would make sense to use chemical weapons in his own capital city, close by his own forces.

Do tell us why he would use chemical weapons when Obama has made it very clear for a year or so now that he would dearly love to bomb Assad, not just arm Al Qaeda rebels, and that the use of CW's would give Obama the excuse to do so.

That said, dancing naked on the hood of a car—presumably in public—violates even America's public morality standards, and can get you jail time for indecent exposure.

You can say that fetuses aren't babies, just like your intellectual forebears said that Negros were only three fifths of a US person, and both sentences could be considered true by definition, because language is very flexible and these are just words. Sometimes society adopts particular language and defines what words mean to suit their own agenda. However, the flexibility of language doesn't change reality. When Dr. Gosnell snipped the necks of those tiny little people (who happened to be black) and threw them in the trash, that was not OK. And when 19th century America denied civil rights to blacks of all ages, that was not OK either. It's easy to claim with postmodernists that morality is relative, but sometimes the gross immorality of our society is encroaching and gaping at us in a way that's really hard to ignore.

The typical approach is "we need more time/money". And Nancy Pelooney says that the cupboards are dry and there are no more cuts to make. Because obviously the government does not wast money.

Riiiiiiiiight...

I'd venture to say 95% of politicians have lost complete respect for taxpayers' money.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57606633/obamacare-website-looks-like-nobody-tested-it-programmer-says/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/some-say-health-care-sites-problems-highlight-flawed-federal-it-policies/2013/10/09/d558da42-30fe-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html?hpid=z3

http://www.elpasotimes.com/politics-national/?third_party=many-tried-to-warn-officials-of-obamacare-website-jam

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/10/09/3-million-obamacare-website-may-face-months-glitches-experts-warn/

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/debbie-wasserman-schultzs-shocking-insufficient-rambling-response-to-msnbc-on-obamacare-enrollees/

I guess that might be considered true,...

... your observation here seems pretty divorced from reality.

Make up your mind, it's either true or it isn't. The police and investigative agencies may use some of the powers they are granted by antiterrorism legislation for investigating other crimes,* but that doesn't mean the criminals they are investigating are then necessarily terrorist.

* You should be clear that terrorist groups often resort to ordinary criminal activity to fund themselves. Examples include bank robbery, kidnapping, extortion, smuggling, and so on. The terrorist group Hezbollah has hundreds of people involved with crime in the US to help provide funding. Cigarette smuggling (.pdf) is a common means.

I think it was more of a reference to things like This, this, this, this, and this.

But most BLM lands near the border are still overrun with cartel members creating staging areas for their drug distribution points. Funny how we have money for Jay-Z at the White House but armed insurgents on American soil are given land to distribute their products and traffic little girls. Oh, and Sinaloa's factory is still there. How about a few cruise missiles for the largest meth factory in the world?

Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel Makes Big Move Into Meth

Lawmaker: NASA broke law with visits by China officials :

Wolf chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA. He's been one of China's loudest critics in Congress, particularly regarding the country's human rights record and its reported proclivity for spying.

Wolf does not want the United States to work with what he's called an "evil" government. He said the White House has bypassed his 2011 national security measure by using federal money to pay for joint space and technology ventures with China.

Last month, Wolf and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller expressing concerns about the possible leak of highly sensitive technological information to China from the NASA Ames Research Center in California.

Lawmakers accuse Obama prosecutors of lying about espionage probe at NASA :

Congressional leaders are challenging a U.S. Attorney's denial that the Justice Department shut down a federal espionage investigation involving the illegal transfer of U.S. space defense weapons technology to foreign countries, including China, The Washington Examiner has learned.

Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for Northern California, also denied that she had ever requested authority to prosecute anybody as a result of the espionage investigation.

But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-IA, and Representatives Lamar Smith, R-TX, and Frank Wolf, R-VA, say Haag's denials don't square with evidence they've reviewed and they wonder if Justice Department or White House officials interfered with a potentially explosive espionage investigation or if "politics played a role in the prosecutorial decisions made in this case."

NASA locks out foreigners, orders security review following concerns of Chinese spying :

Perhaps it’s the ambitions of the space agency that make it such a target for espionage. Wolf told Discovery News earlier this week that “the Chinese have the most comprehensive spying program in Washington that has ever been. They make the KGB look like they were the junior varsity or freshman team.”

Uh-huh. Nice monument there. It would be a shame if someone barricaded it off. The shutdown is revealing government's true nature - a bunch of petty extortionists. Give us money, or we'll shut down things that you like. Not because we can't afford it - it will actually cost us money - but because we can.

This whole argument seems like political grandstanding to me.

Oh, the government shut down a monument? You mean you can't look at it? Oh you can, you just can't go up and touch it. Because that never ends badly...
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/30/woman-found-with-can-green-paint-may-have-defaced-lincoln-memorial-prosecutors/

Like it or not, physical access to monuments needs to be secured. If you don't have to money to secure the monument on the inside, you've got to keep people out. For an extreme example, see the Cairo Museum during the Egyptian Revolution.

And regardless, I'm surprised so many conservatives were planning to go to national parks this weekend! Who knew?

It's not arbitrary, it's calculated to cause pain as a political move.

Obama Forcing Shut Down of Parks the Feds Don't Even Fund

Private Air Show Stopped Due to Government Shutdown

Obama Illegally Furloughing Civilian Defense Employees at STRATCOM

PRUDEN: The cheap tricks of the game

Monuments and memorials remained open during previous shutdown

Republicans press Obama to back FEMA funding bill as storm nears

There is plenty more.

The Senate isn't being useful, but at least they did vote on something today: "... the Senate also unanimously approved a measure deeming next week as National Chess Week."

What on earth are you talking about?
MASS PANIC': Car chase from White House to Capitol ends in gunfire

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/06/18/chrysler-agrees-to-recall-jeeps-at-risk-fire/

You mean they now have a new very expensive medical device to destroy by forcing you and it into a THz scanner despite you showing a doctors note saying otherwise.
http://nation.foxnews.com/tsa/2012/05/09/tsa-agents-destroy-teens-10k-insulin-pump

Given that their behaviour is grossly inconsistent with their other political views, one is forced to the conclusion that the NSA has got some means of coercion to get them to propose this.

There is another possibility you are overlooking. That is that their views may be informed by facts of various sorts, and they aren't totally forgetful.

I think DARE might be an indication of why this program might just backfire.

Honestly, has DARE even succeeded in any of its goals? The younger generations just seem to use drugs even more. I remember as a teenager it was generally just cool to do things just because you were told not to. So you're told not to pirate, and not pirating would be the goodie goodie thing to do...so, lets pirate!

One of those videos is full of shit though; it paints a narrative of somebody's mom being laid off because too many people pirated her game. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever been laid off due to piracy, especially game developers. It's always because of other issues like their title sucks or its release was botched (came out way late and over budget, buggy as hell, etc.)

That's Hollywood for you though. Got to admit they're pretty effective at what they do, I mean they practically own the current president, and they already have a sneaky little plan to get their way on SOPA.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/06/chris-dodd-confident-obama-administration-working-on-next-sopa/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/19/exclusive-hollywood-lobbyist-threatens-to-cut-off-obama-2012-money-over-anti/

You better tell the folks at Edwards Air Force Base that they shouldn't be testing stealth drones there, then. Oh, and maybe you should shoot an email over to Lockheed Martin's Skunkworks complaining about the RQ-170 Sentinal development. And I suppose the folks at White Sands Missile base should be chastised for testing the new stealth cruise missile in US skies.

Bottom line: The Air Force is not going to test stealth technologies or anti-stealth technologies in foreign airspace, and they're certainly not going to wait until wartime to develop these technologies, because by then it will be too late.

When Qwest refused the NSA’s illegal request that it hand over its customers’ data without a warrant, the NSA wasn’t happy. According to former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio, the government hit back for the telecom’s refusal by denying them lucrative contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/10/qwest-ceo-nsa-punished-qwest-refusing-participate-illegal-surveillance-pre-9-11

Here's the thing: when there is competition, the government can play favorites with whoever does their bidding best. Remember the whole Yahoo-China thing? China could kick Yahoo out of China so Yahoo had to roll-over so that they could keep their marketshare. And Yahoo fought against the NSA in court as well, but they lost. What did Marissa Mayer say about that again?

"Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer said she feared winding up in prison for treason if she refused to comply with U.S. spy demands for data. Her comments came after being asked what she is doing to protect Yahoo users from "tyrannical government" during an on-stage interview Wednesday afternoon at a TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/09/12/yahoo-ceo-fears-defying-nsa-could-mean-prison/

* Congrats, Cory. You've gotten on Slashdot several times in the past few weeks. Remember: it's important to keep your name in the news so that you can sell more books. Too bad your analysis is overly simplistic.

"Are you nuts? Tell that to the over 30,000,000 people in the US alone with HPV. Yeah they say they have a vaccine now for it, but that's for younger kids who haven't had much, if any sex. "

First, I wrote NEARLY. I didn't write "all".

Second: [A] HPV often goes away by itself. [B] While it isn't curable (yet) it *IS* treatable. And [C] as you mentioned, vaccines are available so it will only be less of a problem in the future. That isn't an argument against my point, it is an argument for it.

It's getting better. A cure for herpes is probably right around the corner (shingles "vaccine" being an example of a treatment for people who are already infected with a different but just as nasty form of herpes). And there are treatments for people who are currently infected (encyclovir, for example).

And even AIDS is falling to medical technology. A number of people have been CURED.

So yes, it's getting better. Far better than ever before.

I think you missed something:

Chinese protest at planned chemical plant over pollution fears

A similar protest earlier this month in Chengdu, the capital of adjacent Sichuan province, was suppressed by police.

Sometimes the party is willing, but the police are weak.

On the other hand, the Chinese government has been liberalizing in various aspects. I think this incident was quite remarkable:

Chinese Villagers Under Siege Mourn Man Who Died

Of course, then there are these two items:
China's Leader Embraces Mao as He Tightens Grip on Country
China Takes Aim at Western Ideas

I think I now have enough hands to be an economist.

There's the stealth snowmobiles, but you never see them out there.

My God! He's right

(Looks nervously northward)

If it makes you feel better, there are hundreds of Hezbollah agents running loose in the US. Iran is looking to recruit new agents to infiltrate the US from the Southern border to prepare for terrorist attacks. There are countless thousands for foreign spies in the US. Many people in foreign countries use Hotmail, Gmail, and other services.

Tobacco and Terror: How Cigarette Smuggling is Funding our Enemies Abroad

About the "ex-wives" thing - it is only 1 person per year, on average, that breaks the rules to check out a love interest and gets disciplined / canned.

http://www.mexicogulfreporter.com/2013/04/us-national-sentenced-to-13-years-in.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,539944,00.html
But but but.... Those crimes were committed in the country they were extradited to. I'm all for that, no problem.
The issue is when someone commits a crime while in their own country against a foreign country and gets extradited (or at least threatened).
Example: Kim DotCom or is it KimDot Com? Whatever.

OMG, talk about an something Obvious. Shit, the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Russians, hell every country on Earth is trying to get their people into the CIA, and if they can't do that I'm sure they'll find some agency they can get into. If that fails there's always Industrial Espionage as well. Even a ex-CIA official thinks it's worse than in the cold war.

It's time to realize that a) we spy on the world and b) they spy on us and Industrial Espionage is probably more common than you think, even when the spies are employed to spy on companies in the same country!. http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20110919/famous-cases-of-corporate-espionage#slide6

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/01/progress-made-against-yosemite-wildfire-but-smoke-spreads/

heh.
Should I be watching the BBC or PBS?

We're left with trying to news from multiple sources and trying to piece together the truth. Yes, Russia Today is a propaganda outfit. Do they do propagandize any more than Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN? The BBC? PBS?

I guess the question then is did Turkish police really find 2kg of sarin gas and arrest the Syrian rebels who were transporting it?
We may never really know the truth on that. English-language sources:
http://rt.com/news/sarin-gas-turkey-al-nusra-021/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22720647
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/30/us-syria-crisis-turkey-idUSBRE94T0YO20130530

Spanish media did pick it up, so if you can read Spanish - http://www.abc.es/internacional/20130531/abci-sarin-siria-201305301816.html
Apparently Fox News also reports on this stuff, but only in Spanish:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/espanol/2013/05/30/detienen-en-turquia-con-gas-sarin-doce-islamistas-radicales-segun-la-prensa/

I have a serious problem with calling it child abuse to not follow a doctor's advice regarding medical care. While not getting the MMR vaccine is probably a poor choice, the parents are ultimately responsible for the well being of their child and we should not take that responsibility away from them. We also should not take away their power to make decisions regarding their children's upbringing. Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't make it abusive. Abuse should involve the intent to harm or actions that had no outcome other than harm. Most people in the US who are unvaccinated do not get sick. It's a calculated risk, just like getting in a car or going boating. It is not generally child abuse to drive your child to the grocery store even though there is a high risk that you will die on the journey. There is also a high risk that you will kill someone else's child while driving to the grocery store.

If you as a parent truly believe that the doctors treating your sick child are incompetent and stop seeing them, is that child abuse? This year a hospital in Kentucky? shut down it's neo-natal surgery unit because it had insanely high mortality rates. Were the parents who moved their children out of that hospital wrong? Was it right to take this child from his parents?

June wasn't *that* long ago. Although you do have to go way, way back to 2001 for an annual surplus (though some dispute that and say it was a $16B deficit instead).

I know! That's why we never heard of Constitution on Chest Guy, Little White Boy with Terrorist's Name & Friends, Veteran with Too Much Implanted Metal or TSA Pen. Tester Guy. The media just isn't interested in the plight of the white man.

retraction:

But I incorrectly stated that the chief difference between the U.S. and Germany's success with solar installations had to do with climate differences on a "Fox and Friends" appearance on Feb. 7. In fact, the difference come down more to subsidies and political priorities and has nothing to with sunshine.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/02/08/germany-isnt-all-that-sunny-and-case-for-diversified-energy-world/

I completely support someone who kidnaps 3 women, makes those women his slaves, rapes and abuses them over the course of 10 years getting the death penalty. If that person's organs save lives, then even better.

There are categories of crimes that the general population finds especially heinous, and I would rather the offenders of those crimes get a needle in the arm, and their organs save the lives of others, than pay $70,000 a year for them to live in a cell with cable TV, microwave, and free college courses.

By assorted bad guys, I mean capitol offenses. Like murder, severe cases of rape (say where the victim is permanently disabled, injured, or subjected to torture), genocide, etc. And including the people responsible for arranging said crimes, like Cartels and terrorist leaders.

The alternative formulation replaces StryRofoam with steel.)

- reread this again. Just in case I put it in bold, capitalised and italicised it. That's not semantics, that's an extra letter where there shouldn't be one.

As a side note, now I know that you are not paying very close attention to what you are reading and still, you are able to read it. So it is much more likely that you are a human or a very advanced AI, capable of passing the Turing test by reading scrambled, misspelled words.

Wow. I expected to find something interesting at that link, but I was blown away with the level of delusion and ignorance. Turns out the left may really be as bat shit crazy as the right wing radio hosts all say.

Yeah, those same right-wing radio hosts clearly have a great grip on reality...

Hillary has done little to warrant being President.

Maybe you're eying a different metric. Looking at the numbers, she appears more than qualified.

I'd argue that he risks little at this point by apologizing. His supporters should see the apology for what it is, just a symptom of the abuse he's suffered. Propaganda? Please. The propaganda machine doesn't need facts. This only disrupts their narrative of "he's an evil traitor and probably gay." Showing him as remorseful of his crimes takes away the "enemy."

Point of order- trial testimony has revealed that while he's not gay, he suffers from "Gender Dysphoria", and the point of view Fox (and most Conservatives) take is that transgender is gay.

I have a some big issues with what he did. If he had only released material which showed wrongdoing, I'd probably support him a lot more. But he didn't- he just made a mass release of anything and everything he could get his hands on.
I'm sorry if it hurts your pride, but in my personal opinion he wasn't a whistleblower, he was just using his position to get revenge for admittedly shitty policies towards GLBT people. And to be perfectly frank, those policies were no secret- he signed up for service and swore an oath with the full knowledge of what he was getting into. If he was conscripted I'd have a different viewpoint. And while I won't go so far as to call him a Traitor, I do feel he did it almost entirely for personal motivations, not the Altruistic ones his fanboys are claiming.
And no, not all his supports are fanboys. Just the ones who are worshipping him as some sort of hero and refuse to listen to any difference of opinion.

Contrast his actions to those of Snowden. Snowden had no prior knowledge of what the NSA was up to, when he did find out he released information showing they were almost certainly violating the Constitution, and evidence that the NSA was flat out lying to Congress and everyone else about what exactly they were doing. And most importantly, Snowden was a civilian.

I'd argue that he risks little at this point by apologizing. His supporters should see the apology for what it is, just a symptom of the abuse he's suffered. Propaganda? Please. The propaganda machine doesn't need facts. This only disrupts their narrative of "he's an evil traitor and probably gay." Showing him as remorseful of his crimes takes away the "enemy."

Usually news stories on this site have at least a faint aroma of tech relevance.

Certain select stories are of such a high importance that everyone wants to talk about them and they appear on this site despite having no relevance to the major purpose.

That's fine, really it is. But I have to ask, where is the dividing line? Will we be seeing articles on Syria? More than 100 people are killed there on a regular basis. Fourty-four were killed in a mosque in Nigeria the other day. Is that significant? A white-ish guy shot an innocent black kid who was definitely not bashing the white-guy's head into the pavement - is that relevant?

I found this very interesting Third Amendment lawsuit (yes, Third amendment) and didn't submit because it was offtopic.

I'm not saying that world events are not important, and this one is pretty high on the importance scale. It's just that I avoid regular news sites and frequent this one because it saves time. Yes, I can skip articles - but note that I can skip articles in Google News and Reddit as well.

I can't find the link, but I remember a chart of "Slashdot readership" that showed a general decline over the last several years.

This leade to a simple question: Is Slashdot better for reporting generic news items, or should it be more about "News for Nerds"?

Wall Street Journal:Nearly 100 dead.
USA Today: Nearly 100 dead
CNN: 95-200 dead
NBC: At least 95 dead
Fox News: Nearly 100 dead

But don't let reality get in the way of your bizarre conspiracy theory.

No silly, Hawaii is in Asia. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/15/obama-mistakenly-refers-to-hawaii-as-asia-during-summit/

The government now has enough laws and regulations that it can validly suspect practically anybody of being a "nasty criminal" any time it likes. If trial is inconvenient, they can always arrange to have you accidently shot by the arresting SWAT squad.

links:

Minessota [cbslocal] article you mentioned, in 2011.

Texas [foxnews] has one as well in 2009.

Or the LMGTFY [google], if you prefer.

I was gonna say, is Fukushima Springs some new resort or day spa? Hope they fix the water leak so people can use the bathroom while they're waiting for their bird poop facial.

...want to spy on so many people?

Seems they have some psychological handicap as an organization. But since corporation can be considered persons, where is the Psychological institute to provide therapy to such a "person" named the FBI so they may recover from their illness.

But actually what is going on is a government controlled feedback loop and the spying is only a part of the loop. The other part is the controlled medai. So we have the media conditioning the masses and the spying to determine direction of the conditioning. Its not about Terrorism at all, its about ---> http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/30/govt-knows-best-white-house-creates-nudge-squad-to-shape-behavior/

The problem with trying to buy inflence with Inhofe is that he's so stupid, it doesn't work.

My company has been a huge Inhofe supporter for at least the last 16 years I've worked here. We've even held what were essentially big required-attendence Inhofe rallies (arguably illegal). The reason I was told for this is so he'd help support our business in Washington.

So a year or so ago we invite him to speak at the grand opening of our new facility. During his speech he got the name of our company wrong twice, even though it was on a humongous banner right across from him where he could not fail to see it. But yeah, we he goes back to DC and doesn't have that banner to at least get him close, I'm sure he remembers us better. Sure....

OTOH, I guarantee you that if you bankroll an opponent, and made clear why, he'd remember that shit. Going after him personally is the one thing that has been shown to spur him into action.

0111 its getting interesting:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/30/govt-knows-best-white-house-creates-nudge-squad-to-shape-behavior/
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/us-domestic-propaganda-officially-aired-2013-7
Also recall the classic http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
If all that fails:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/petraeus-tv-remote/

Don't forget it took the Democrats to pass Nixon's healthcare plan (minus the liberal parts):

citations:

GOP-centric:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/16/ellen-ratner-obama-health-care-nixon-republicans-liberal/

DNC-centric:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/opinion/31krugman.html?_r=1&

Medical-Industry-centric:
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/September/03/nixon-proposal.aspx

.... for the crime of causing the Surveillance State a little trouble.

NSA chief says leak damage 'irresponsible and irreversible'

National Security Agency chief Keith Alexander said Thursday the damage from recently leaked information is "irresponsible and irreversible" because it has given terrorist groups the intelligence community's "playbook."

Snowden leaks give edge to U.S. rivals, officials say

Among the disclosures from Snowden that were published in the Washington Post and the Guardian was that Skype, the Internet calling service, was among the systems that provided data to the NSA's secret PRISM database. That disclosure contradicted a widespread belief that calls made via Skype were difficult or impossible to intercept.

Some suspected terrorists the NSA was tracking are no longer using Skype, U.S. officials said. Others have stopped using email, said one U.S. official who has been briefed on the damage.

"The Skype thing was really bad," the official said.

You don't think you're downplaying this just a little, do you?

How about we get Linus to bury some code in there so we can spy on the NSA? See how they like it?

The Chinese, Russians, and no doubt other countries are way ahead of you. They love spying on the NSA. They seem to be getting volunteer help these days too. What do you think Linus will bring to the game?

Do you think Linus will be interested in doing anything about people trying to set off car bombs at public ceremonies? Or will we still be stuck with the FBI and NSA? If Linus isn't interested in doing anything, do you think the NSA should be crippled?

FBI: alleged Christmas tree bomber thought 9/11 'was awesome'
Report: Canadian Terrorists Planned Truck Bomb Attack
Suicide truck bomb kills 14 in Russia
3 sought after 2nd car bomb found in London

I know, you're frustrated. There is plenty to be frustrated about from just about every perspective on this. The sad part is that the only people likely to really benefit are the people that want to set of the bombs to kill innocents.

Both of the numbers we listed are correct: about half from membership dues, and 3.2% from corporate donations. The NRA also gets money from advertisements in its publications, payouts from its endowments, donations from members, donations from state-level gun-rights groups, etc. The point I'm trying to make is that there simply isn't a logical case to be made that gun companies control the NRA when they don't provide even close to half of its funding, while gun-owning members provide more than half.

Indeed, that would be inefficient when they can get members to do their dirty work for them.

You're literally saying that people acting in what they've each determined to be their own best interest, is in fact a giant behavioral control conspiracy. If the NRA's policies really were so out of line with the membership's desires, we wouldn't see the membership continue to increase. Your whole argument relies on the pretentious fallacy that people don't know what is best for themselves, but you do.

The judicious use of outright lies, such as the "they're coming to get your guns" narrative, also helps.

All but the last one of these is from THIS YEAR.

Hawaii legislature proposes gun confiscation
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/its-hawaiis-proposed-guns-laws-that-are-criminal/123

New York Assemblyman asks colleague not to mention that original proposed SAFE Act included confiscation
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/01/20/NY-Assemblyman-exposes-gun-confiscation-agenda-of-Democrats

Missouri Democrats introduce legislation to confiscate guns
http://nation.foxnews.com/gun-control/2013/02/14/missouri-democrats-introduce-legislation-confiscate-firearms-gives-gun-owners-90-days-turn-weapons

VA has veterans who cannot manage their own financial affairs declared prohibited persons unable to own firearms
http://www.humanevents.com/2013/04/15/va-targeting-veterans-for-gun-confiscation/

NJ State Senator "We needed a bill that was going to confiscate confiscate confiscate."
http://www.politickernj.com/back_room/confiscate-confiscate-confiscate#

Oregon Legislator calls fears of gun confiscation a "paranoid delusion" and then states he is in favor of gun confiscation
http://www.examiner.com/article/gun-grabber-has-meltdown-flees-public-affairs-forum-anger

Governor Cuomo says, "confiscation could be an option."
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336373/cuomo-confiscation-could-be-option-eliana-johnson

Feinstein suggests "compulsory buyback."
http://washingtonexaminer.com/sen.-feinstein-suggests-national-buyback-of-guns/article/2516648

CA assembly proposes confiscating 166,000 legally registered guns.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22544460/californias-state-senate-democrats-roll-out-big-gun

And the classic from 1995:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoWE8v9QTOY

It's not difficult; The concern is that these government organizations are blantantly, deliberately, and willing violating said law(s), and going ahead with mass spying on the public.

At least Google tell you up front that they're going to collect data on you in some form or another.. At no point do they ever state otherwise.

With the CIA and NSA, all we have is some dodged questions and weak promises that they're actually holding up to the letter of the law. We have no way to properly audit them to ensure that they're actually in compliance, and their congressional admissions are rather concerning that they in all likelihood aren't.