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Mrs. Clinton is an icon of cultural liberalism. How many millions of conservatives do you know?

Traditionally, Republicans are for LESS government control and Democrats for MORE government control.

Liberalism has to do with things like like being pro-choice, against the death penalty, and combating the evil discrimination of a Christian bookstore owner who refuses to employ a transvestite in drag. Conservatism is pretty much the opposite.

So you're pretty much backwards where you're not inside-out.

The summary asks, "how long do you think until we see similar measures in high-crime American cities?" Didn't I read about surveillance blimps already in the air over Washington DC, several years ago? Google says, YES!

It was from this I guess.. back in 06. I'm sure it's not a total number, and it isn't even comical. I was just trying to make light of the situation, rather than flame you.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/5/29/13270 6.shtml
Even if... http://mediamatters.org/items/200611300002

Here is an article that talks about some of the differences in crime rates between the US and Europe.

Some murders aren't reported as such and some are counted differently. We had the same problems in the US when comparing crime statistics between different states which eventually lead to a single federal rules of reporting and tabulation. Without taking these differences into consideration and accurate comparison cannot be made.

It was underway before he got in the Whitehouse - which doesn't excuse him being a champion of the project.

Remember, he was in a good position to kill it and instead pushed it forward as best he could with mighty effort.

You talk like there's only a possibility of cheating on one side of the aisle. To do so is to ignore evidence that Democrats are in fact also cheating. In my home state of Wisconsin, there's extensive evidence that fraud is taking place, and the culprits are Democrats:

• Five paid Democratic campaign workers slashed hundreds of tires on rented GOP get-out-the-vote vans the day before the 2004 election.
• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel discovered multiple-thousand-vote discrepancies in the number of people who voted and the number of ballots cast in a number of Wisconsin municipalities in the 2004 election.
• In the 2000 election, the FBI was called in to investigate thousands of votes from invalid addresses cast in Milwaukee.
• In 2004, the GOP challenged thousands of invalid addresses [The article plays the race card -- good reporting there, Washington Post] based on undeliverable mail from the voter registration rolls in Wisconsin and Ohio. Their challenges were all struck down.
• In 2000, two illegal aliens went to Racine, WI, told the registrar they were illegal aliens, and then were allowed to register anyways.
• Recently, state Senate candidate Donovan Riley was fined and had his bar license revoked for voting twice in the 2004 election: first in the morning at his vacation house in Oconomowoc, WI and then later in the afternoon at his main residence in Chicago. The only reason he was discovered was his candidacy for state Senate -- which makes me wonder seriously how often this sort of thing takes place. There is no checking between neighboring states, and with a big chunk of Wisconsin's population just a couple hours' drive from Chicago and Minneapolis, it would even be theoretically possible to vote in Minneapolis in the morning, Madison in the afternoon and Rockford in the evening -- would anybody know?
• In 2000, a wealthy DNC donor was caught giving cigarettes to homeless people in exchange for their votes. While not demonstrably illegal, it certainly represents shady tactics.
• Governor Jim doyle has repeatedly vetoed voter ID propositions proposed by the Republican-controlled state assembly. I don't understand opposition to such a reasonable requirement that could go a long way towards improving election integrity.

Kerry won Wisconsin by just .38% of votes cast; before him, Gore took the state by just .22%. If improper voter registration, people voting with nonexistent addresses, and illegal aliens casting votes, a few thosuand fake votes for were cast -- the state may have gone a different way; extrapolated to a national scale, and all of a sudden our election integrity is in big trouble.

This guy seems to have about as much credibility as Newsmax.

No, you didn't say Microsoft broke any laws. You said Microsoft does not pay any taxes. So far the only support you've provided is a bunch of articles written over 6 years ago referring to the late 90s. On the other hand, there are the financial statements that are on file with the SEC claiming an average of $4.7 B over the last 3 years.

By your logic, Bill Clinton is the President of the United States

Skepticism is not the "lazy person's default position." Skepticism is the result of actually looking at the claims of global warming proponents and looking at simple, readily-available data and determining that the two are incompatible. If human CO2 emissions are the cause of climate change, then explain why global temperatures dropped from the mid 40s to the mid 70s. Or even better, explain why, according to statistics compiled by the same research group that compiled the statistics for the graph linked to above, there was no measurable increase in global temperatures from 1998 to 2005. There was no concurrent decrease in human CO2 emissions during either of those two time periods. In fact, CO2 emissions rose steadily during both. And yet global temperatures did not follow suit. This is not conjecture, this is fact, and this information is available to anyone who takes the time to look. But it is the lazy people who took the time to look. Sure.

As to the consensus amongst scientists, this is simply not true. There are plenty of respected researchers who disagree with the panicked conclusion that human CO2 emissions are about to destroy us all.

One final subject on which I'd like to touch, and that is how the proponents and skeptics of global warming relate to one another. Search for information on the views and opinions of the global warming skeptics, and you'll find that they (for the most part, there are always exceptions) deal in data. When they attempt to refute claims by the proponents, they use research, they use statistics, they use facts. The proponents, on the other hand, seemingly have no problem resorting to personal attacks and skirting the issues entirely. For example, Michael Mann (creator of the infamous hockey stick graph) versus McIntyre and McKitrick. For those unfamiliar (shame on you!) with the hockey stick graph and the controversy surrounding it, a brief primer. The hockey stick graph is the result of research by one Michael Mann, purporting to show historical global temperatures over the past 1000 years. The graph shows a stable, steady temperature until the beginning of the 20th century, when temperatures spike. This was the impetus behind the Kyoto Protocol. McIntyre and McKitrick performed research debunking this graph and the statistical methods used in its creation. They point out any number of flaws, such as the absence of the so-called "little ice age", and its general incompatibility with known historical temperatures. To debunk this bad science, they used facts, they used reality, and they did not resort to attacking Mann's character and credibility. Do a quick google search about their research, and you'll see that they stick to the science. Now, do a search about those who disagree with them. It's full of personal attacks, irrelevant statements, and some claims that border on libel. It should say something that the skeptics are sticking to the science, and their opponents are, in return, attacking them like this was a political campaign (which, in many ways, it has become). Hell, just read how Gore, the poster boy for the global warming crowd, characterizes the skeptics. Came right out and said that they are in the same category as people who think the moon landing was staged. Scientists don't need to attack the character of other scientists. They stick to research, and the facts.

Is global climate changing? Yes, of course it is. The history of this planet's climate is a history of dramatic changes, from i

With the recent events at Los Alamos such as classifed infromation being leaked and other security problems. There needs to be some level of proection on our nations secrets - if scientists can't handle the pressure of a polygraph then what chance do they stand if they were kidnapped by a forigen entity. If polygraphs help expose leaks in the system, then they serve their purpose. Serving our country requires not only bright minds, but the ability to protect information that is vital to our national interests. There are plenty of other positions for scientists that don't require polygraphs - so, if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

That said, having taken a polygraph, I think the true value lies in the "good-cop/bad-cop" environment that it creates.

You forgot this one:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/1/24 /213349.shtml

Slashing tires to keep people from voting.

Or John Murtha:

http://news.netscape.com/story/2006/11/15/democrat ic-culture-of-corruption-john-murtha-bribe-video

Or William Jefferson:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/21/jefferson.s earch/

Or Teddy Kennedy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick

Or "Voted for the War before I voted against it" :

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/29/politics /main646435.shtml

Or Hiz Honor,Richard Daley:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Daley

Or Boss Tweed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_Tweed

Please, politicians by default are dishonest, not just Republicans. So just remember who's dog food you are eating when shilling for one side or the other.

Beijing refuses to help. The pirate engineers are rolling in money and hookers.

Even Donald Trump agrees that the Chinese gov't is playing dirty:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/10/9/23075 5.shtml?s=icp

Why we continue to give away jobs to a big communist cheater and run up a big bubble-risky trade deficit with them, I'll never know.

Atheist governments have killed more people than all the wars and diseases in history. So that is a very untenable position. Not counting casualties of the war (which would include at least 20 million Russians from WW2 at least, not to mention the U.S., U.K. etc.)

Pol Pot (killing fields): 2 million+
Stalin (gulags, starvation): 20 million+
Hitler (death camps): 11 million+
Che Guavara (pistol shots to back of the head): 2-4000

And that's just the numbers I could find in a short Google search.

Found an interesting article on Che here:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/6/24 /212049.shtml

An excerpt:

Che's true legacy is simply one of terror and murder. That dreaded midnight knock. Wives and daughters screaming in rage and panic as Che's goons drag off their dads and husbands - that's the real Che legacy.

Desperate crowds of weeping daughters and shrieking mothers clubbed with rifle butts outside La Cabana as Che's firing squads murder their dads and sons inside - that's the real Che legacy.

Thousands of heroes yelling "Viva Cuba Libre!" and "Viva Christo Rey!" before firing squads of murderous drunks whom they'd have stomped in open battle - that's the real Che legacy.

Secret graves and crude boxes with bullet-riddled corpses delivered to ashen-faced loved ones - that's the real Che legacy.

Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by "consensus". Certainly not all qualified scientists believe "human caused global warming" is a dominant factor in current climate change. You might check this 2002 article (for instance): http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/14 /161152.shtml

The one tangible thing that's been done to try and address global warming is the Kyoto Protocol. It is quite flawed, though, in that it gives exemptions to the countries which are most likely to be big polluters in coming decades.

It would also impose economic penalties on countries like the US which are already doing quite a lot to reduce their environmental impact.

The US has done and is doing virtually nothing to reduce your carbon footprint, and ought, by rights, be penalised. The average US person has a carbon footprint 20 times the size of the average Indian. Someone has to pay for your indulgence - it should be you.

If /.ers want to rally around a single approach that would be beneficial not just to human related global warming if it exists, but also to energy independence and reduced pollution, do whatever you can to advocate constructing new nuclear reactors here in the US. That is the single best thing we could do at this point.

Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by "consensus". Certainly not all qualified scientists believe "human caused global warming" is a dominant factor in current climate change. You might check this 2002 article (for instance):

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/14 /161152.shtml

The one tangible thing that's been done to try and address global warming is the Kyoto Protocol. It is quite flawed, though, in that it gives exemptions to the countries which are most likely to be big polluters in coming decades. It would also impose economic penalties on countries like the US which are already doing quite a lot to reduce their environmental impact.

If /.ers want to rally around a single approach that would be beneficial not just to human related global warming if it exists, but also to energy independence and reduced pollution, do whatever you can to advocate constructing new nuclear reactors here in the US. That is the single best thing we could do at this point.

Those who can plug in hybrids or electric cars to charge would then be running nuclear powered vehicles...sweet! :-)

You make it sound like punching holes in a card is supposed to be easy. Have you ever tried it with the tools voters are supposed to use? You're basically given a round tool and asked to make a square hole, yet somehow it's the voter that is "retarded" when this arrangement doesn't work. The system has been used for 40 years, and there have always been hanging chads, and they were always counted as a vote, it only suddenly became a Major Problem in 2000 when Gore wanted to have ballots count where only one corner of the square was knocked out, or where the square had been poked but the perforations had failed to tear, when the standard for decades was to allow hanging chads when one or two corners were still connected.

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/ca t_silence_of_the_cheese.php

Talks about Wisconsin Democrat voter fraud

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/10/19/8533 1.shtml

Talks about using crack to register voters.

Iran had submitted a draft resolution asking the U.N. to condemn Iraq's chemical weapons use. The U.S. delegate to the U.N. was instructed to lobby friendly delegations in order to obtain a general motion of "no decision" on the resolution. If this was not achievable, the U.S. delegate was to abstain on the issue. Iraq's ambassador met with the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Jeane Kirkpatrick, and asked for "restraint" in responding to the issue - as did the representatives of both France and Britain.

But the agency quickly moved into action. Noting that the Baath Party was hunting down Iraq's communist, the CIA provided the submachine gun-toting Iraqi National Guardsmen with lists of suspected communists who were then jailed, interrogated, and summarily gunned down, according to former U.S. intelligence officials with intimate knowledge of the executions.

Many suspected communists were killed outright, these sources said. Darwish told UPI that the mass killings, presided over by Saddam, took place at Qasr al-Nehayat, literally, the Palace of the End.

I was waiting for somebody to come along and set the record straight. The fact is that this administration's energy program amounts to opening up the artic for drilling and extending daylight savings time (a useless concept to begin with).

The fact is that this last congressional session seemed to me to be the most do nothing congress in history. And you're right about it all being dogma. Everybody talks about the enviroment but nobody is willing to lift a finger to get rid of our oil dependence. As so much as Kerry is concerned, he will flap whatever way is neededd to get elected. But even Kerry would have a hard time matching the incompetence we seem to have now.

Perhaps while it is the responsibility of the congress, the fact remains that bush put the final nail in the coffin. I think that it is accepted fact that the enviroment doesn't even cross this administrations mind.

So yea it's all dogma. I feel bad that nothing is around that seems to be able to change it.

Not quite in the US, but in Venezuela you had an election machine manufacturer so under question that "the European Union (EU) refused to play an observer's role".

As that story indicates that very company now owns Sequoia Voting Systems, which supplies some of the voting systems Florida uses.

So basically you had a past vote swung in a very liberal direction, the makers of said system now own some US voting computers. Makes you wonder if the miscalibration was miscalibrated, if you must look at crazy theories along those lines...

If you are going to play the "Follow the money" game, look first at this Wired article which states:

"Both Broward and Miami-Dade counties use machines made by Election Systems & Software, while Palm Beach county uses machines made by Sequoia Voting Systems. No Florida counties used touch-screen machines made by Diebold Election Systems, the company whose machines have received the most scrutiny over the last year."

Huh, no Diebold. But they do use Sequoia... now where have I heard that name before?

Oh yeah, they are owned by Smartmatic, a Venezuelan company under examination for rigging the Chavez election!

Do you think Chavez is out to help Bush? Is it possible he "likes the smell of sulfur in the morning", so to speak? Using good old Occam's Razor, I say that's pretty damn unlikely.

I miss the time when crackpot theories were based on bits of actual truth instead of being dead in the water out of the gate due to the most basic lack of research. You'd never make it in the anti-gravity field, my friend.

If you are going to play the "Follow the money" game, look first at this Wired article which states:

"Both Broward and Miami-Dade counties use machines made by Election Systems & Software, while Palm Beach county uses machines made by Sequoia Voting Systems. No Florida counties used touch-screen machines made by Diebold Election Systems, the company whose machines have received the most scrutiny over the last year."

Huh, no Diebold. But they do use Sequoia... now where have I heard that name before?

Oh yeah, they are owned by Smartmatic, a Venezuelan company under examination for rigging the Chavez election!

Do you think Chavez is out to help Bush? Is it possible he "likes the smell of sulfur in the morning", so to speak? Using good old Occam's Razor, I say that's pretty damn unlikely.

I miss the time when crackpot theories were based on bits of actual truth instead of being dead in the water out of the gate due to the most basic lack of research. You'd never make it in the anti-gravity field, my friend.

Indeed, the votes which have been corrected to vote Republican are just making up for reality's well known liberal bias.

I didn't know you could spell Hugo Chavez as "reality"...

In other words, the corrections are to offset the pre-programmed pro-liberal "glitches" from Smartmatic.

You're right! in fact, its also safer to live in Washington, DC than to live in iraq! http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/5/29/13270 6.shtml

No, you totally miss the point. This isn't about failing to recognize a face you are looking for becuase someone uses a disguise, although that is a perfectly valid reason to despise police and gevernment use of this technology. This is about the absurdly high number of false positives you get. So next time you are walking through the airport, get pulled into a back room, falsly identified as a terrorist (after all if the computer says you're him, you must be traveling with false identification), secretly deported to another country and "questioned", then let loose in a completely different country with no passport, ID, or documentation, just because the computer thought you resembled a potential terrorist. You might re-think your position on this.

And if we're just going to throw web pages at each other, then how about this one discussing the increase in alcoholism in the UK.

MDMA? Was abuse of it ever that widespread, compared to say heroin, ecstasy and cocaine? Can't say I've heard about it in years, even though I tend to read The Guardian and don't allow tabloid rubbish papers into my house. But while we're discussing the increase in drug abuse, have a look at this article supporting my statement.

Since you're obviously so good at Googling for articles, how about looking for stats on "Slashdot readers with their heads obviously stuck up their backsides"... because I know of at least one.

I think you meant that headline to say "Bush administration secretly tells N. Korea to announce that they have conducted their first nuclear test before the November election".

Try again. If you want to do conspiracy theories, you ought to do them right.

MSNBC, via Daily Kos:

On Sept. 19, 2005, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Pyongyang pledged to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs." [...] Four days later, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sweeping financial sanctions against North Korea designed to cut off the country's access to the international banking system, branding it a "criminal state" guilty of counterfeiting, money laundering and trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

In the past week, Karl Rove has been promising Republican insiders an "October surprise" to help win the November congressional elections.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt talks about a service which can give the probability of the accuracy of statements made by politicians, among other things.

GORE: CIGARETTE SMOKING 'SIGNIFICANT' CONTRIBUTOR TO GLOBAL WARMING
Fri Sep 29 2006 09:04:05 ET

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore warned hundreds of U.N. diplomats and staff on Thursday evening about the perils of climate change, claiming: Cigarette smoking is a "significant contributor to global warming!"

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash6.htm http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/28/19443 4.shtml

Elton John helps raise money for Gore
September 20, 2000
Web posted at: 9:40 AM EDT (1340 GMT)

ATHERTON, Calif. (Reuters) - Flamboyant rock star Elton John, making his first foray into American politics after three decades of performing in the United States, endorsed Vice President Al Gore at a ritzy Silicon Valley fund-raiser.

John, the entertainer at a $10,000-a-plate dinner Tuesday, began his set with "Your Song." But before his next number, he showed his political stripes to the business leaders of America's technological mecca...

The fund-raiser, at the home of Novell Corp. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, raised $3.25 million for the Democratic National Committee...

http://edition.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/09 /20/campaign.gore.john.reut/

Secondly, while the Slashdot crowd is particularly left liberal and you might see anti-Bush sentiments, that is not necessarily so throughout the country. You might be surprised to know that most of the US actually supports President Bush, and leans towards the Republican ideology.

Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006 9:05 a.m. EDT

Bush Approval Rating Up to 42 Percent

President George W. Bush enjoyed a modest rise in public approval after his recent political offensive on Iraq and national security, but voters still favor Democrats in the November 7 congressional election, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released Thursday.

Zogby said Republicans could benefit from the climb in Bush's approval, sparked by increased support among his base voters. The poll found 42 percent of voters thought Bush's job performance was excellent or good, up from 39 percent two weeks ago and 34 percent in mid-August. ...

Six weeks before voters decide which party controls the U.S. Congress, a majority thinks the country is on the wrong track and nearly three-quarters give the Republican-led Congress negative marks for its job performance.

The Chinese can launch satelites : Thanks to Clinton, http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/1/14 /143258.shtml

put men into orbit : http://www.google.com/search?hs=Xcu&hl=en&lr=&clie nt=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q= space+technology+stolen+by+china&btnG=Search

have nuclear weapons: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=fire fox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=nuclear +weapons%2C+technology+stolen+by+china&btnG=Search

are financing most of our balance or payments thanks to Bush : U.S. Treasury statistics indicate that, at the end of 2004, foreigners held 44% of federal debt held by the public. : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._public_debt

I'd make some spiffy comment here, regarding how FOS you are, but it's just not worth any more time.

they could get a head start by bribing a sitting president to grant them access to some of "this century's tech leader" http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/9/29 /25139.shtml and then copy all else they could by rev. engineering... but i'm making generalities, so never mind.

We can't deny that the various religious fundamentalists are somewhat responsible. They have successfully lobbied the US government to reduce its financial support to NASA and other scientific bodies. They have even taken the "battle" to the classroom.

We can't deny that the various religious fundamentalists are somewhat responsible. They have successfully lobbied the US government to reduce its financial support to NASA and other scientific bodies. They have even taken the "battle" to the classroom.

We can't deny that the various religious fundamentalists are somewhat responsible. They have successfully lobbied the US government to reduce its financial support to NASA and other scientific bodies. They have even taken the "battle" to the classroom.

Sided with Congress to force prolonging Terri Schiavo's life, against her and her husband's wishes.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/27/21395 5.shtml

Voted for Attorney General Gonzalez, who thinks the Geneva Conventions are "quaint" and supports torturing detainees who are held indefinitely without trial or access to attorneys
http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_keyvote_member.php ?vote_id=3452
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4000679.stm

Voted to stop debate/prevent filibuster so Alito could be added to the Supreme Court
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_li sts/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2& vote=00001

• This (scroll down to "Other breaches revealed")
• This (keep your stick safe!)
• This (Yeah, I still hate the NYT... but even a bad example can be of some use...)
• This (which has possible tie-in's to the previous...)
• And, of course, this (just to close with a "catch-all"...)

Terry woke up three years ago, and the story was rather widely reported back then. In fact, Terri Schiavo has, in her time, often been compared to Terry - in fact, their medical cases share almost no similarities.

The story itself has woken up in 2006, for reasons unknown. You can find a better article than the one of the front page at http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060703/full/060703 -5.html

This everything2 article is probably the best I found about Terry, including updates from 2004: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=147582 5

Also, some updates on the family's fight with health services, from 2005: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/6/21 /143438.shtml

Speaking of anthrax..... What ever did happen about all that anthrax floating round after 9/11 ?

The media suddenly went stone dead silent on it....

Funny that.....

Last I heard they were analysing the DNA of the anthrax sent to two Democrat senators and found that they matched strains used by the US military.
Hmmm....

Anyhow back to minefields... to all you complete idiots who think a new type of mine is a great thing, you should understand that these things have been banned by most of the civlised world, and the thought that research is still being put into weapons such as these, and lauded on a web site like slashdot only reaffirms my complete lack of faith in the sanity of the human race as a collective body.

By the way, where are those famous WMD Irak was supposed to produce en masse ?

In Russia.

ECHELON was a Clinton era problem, don't blame W for this intrusion because you don't like his politics. Dems and Pubs have reduced your freedom for years.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/12/19/1148 07.shtml

And what some call prosecution of whistle blowers, others call revealing state secrets or treasonous behavior. The spy program you say was "above the law" was briefed to congressmen of both parties and nobody raised the issue. Dems came out against spying on terrorists only after the news broke, although many new of the program earlier.

The Clinton Administration "Chinese Wall" prevented intelligence operatives from informing domestic law enforcement, however.

I think the Able Danger fiasco PROVES why lily-livered "civil libertarians" should get the h*ll out of the peoples' business.

How many "civil liberties" have you left, when you're dead?

Your news source of choice is what, Newswmax>
Do you still blame liberal media for your pitiful babelessness existence?
(a long running ad on Newsmax)

Anyways, this creates a very unstable situation, since the Administration can leak (I mean, "selectively declassify") information any old time they feel like it in order to make political points.

What's weird is that all the best information we have about what's being done in our name with our tax money is due to leaks. It doesn't feel like democracy to me.

Just so we could get past the vague, liar thing, could you be more specific? Exactly what actual liberties do you think people are trying to take from you? Voting? Free speech? Free association? Freedom of religion? Any suggestion of quartering troops in your house?

As to the terrorism thing, the news there seems to be rather concrete, even if not well known, and at times disturbing. There is nothing vague about this at all.

Ah, that would explain those ancient Mayan predictions of something terrible happening to the human race in 2012.

The POPEs, don't forget the POPEs !

For that matter, the administration might find it interesting to datamine another certain social network you may have heard about, the Democratic Party. Oh how sweet it is to blow the lid off your opponent's marital infidelity or his brother's shady business dealings a couple weeks before an election.

So, are you saying that is what this was about?

Only 4 of the 535 members were briefed on the domestic/international warrant-less wiretaps.

This isn't unusual.

Highly classified information is often only revealed to select members of Congressional committees. It helps meet the dual goal of keeping Congress informed (the select members represent Congress, and have to use their judgment) while helping to keep classified information secret. That is difficult in a large, diverse body of people that make up Congress. That is especially so when some of them don't honor their responsibility to keep classified information secret, like Senator Leahy.

There is nothing sinister in that

That's it!

The real threat isn't coming from the tens of thousands Islamist extremist terrorists trained in Afghanistan by Al Qaeda, in Saddam's Iraq, and their associates (minus the captured ones). No!

The 9/11 attacks, the attack on the USS Cole, the Bali bombings, the Madrid bombings, the London bombings, the shoe bomb attempt, the US embassy bombings in Africa, the attacks and bombings in Saudi Arabia, the bombing in Jordan, the attacks in the Philippines, the Beslan attack, the dirty bomb plan, the plan to attack the soccer stadium in the UK, the plan to attack Heathrow, the 19 person ring just broken in Michigan, the hundreds of Hezbollah operatives in the US, including the recent Hezbollah Mexican border smuggling ring broken, and the rest all show its not the terrorists that are the problem!!

The real threat is that *cough* fantasy *cough* cabal in the White House which the "insiders" on Slashnut know are secretly planning to ignore the next election with mass destraction. (How this will actually work, nobody explains. The Constitution limits the term in office and provides for succession.) Meanwhile, outside Mom's basement (or with more meds), the rest of us see them trying to detect and stop the next terrorist attack, prefereably before they can use a salvaged anthrax or chemical weapon from Saddam's discards, or maybe even start a nuclear Jihad with a little help, or simply send a suicide bomber to a crowded mall.

Lets reach over into one of the Evolution v. Creation debates and grab Occam's Razor. Which way do you think it cuts here?

I think I understand the impulse behind William F. Buckley's statement that he would rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. It seems to require a certain degree of sophistication to engage in certain forms of idiocy.