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Snowden is probably better off in Russia. Does NY Times have the balls to start talking about bringing charges against the NSA ? 2,776 incidents of unauthorized collection of legally protected communications

It is up to private property owners ( or supposed to be ) whether to let oil pipeline through their property, not up to govt.

Go go gadget government! http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/texas-judge-rules-in-favor-of-transcanada-in-eminent-domain-case/2012/08/23/87744776-ecda-11e1-a80b-9f898562d010_story.html http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-09-27/keystone-pipeline-eminent-domain-foes-seek-nebraska-court-order http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26/oklahoma-keystone-pipeline-tar-sands_n_937748.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/keystone-xl-pipeline-is-issue-of-property-rights-for-some-ranchers/2012/07/27/gJQAqlQgDX_story.html http://leg.mt.gov/content/Committees/Interim/2011-2012/EQC/Meeting-Documents/January-2012/public-uses-eminent-domain.pdf

Kansas is excluded because Keystone XL uses the existing Keystone segment for that state, but I'm willing to assume that they had the government come and turn out people who didn't want their farms and ranches divided in half by a pipeline back when that was built too. God forbid they spend the extra few bucks to make the pipe go along property lines.

It is up to private property owners ( or supposed to be ) whether to let oil pipeline through their property, not up to govt.

Go go gadget government! http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/texas-judge-rules-in-favor-of-transcanada-in-eminent-domain-case/2012/08/23/87744776-ecda-11e1-a80b-9f898562d010_story.html http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-09-27/keystone-pipeline-eminent-domain-foes-seek-nebraska-court-order http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26/oklahoma-keystone-pipeline-tar-sands_n_937748.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/keystone-xl-pipeline-is-issue-of-property-rights-for-some-ranchers/2012/07/27/gJQAqlQgDX_story.html http://leg.mt.gov/content/Committees/Interim/2011-2012/EQC/Meeting-Documents/January-2012/public-uses-eminent-domain.pdf

Kansas is excluded because Keystone XL uses the existing Keystone segment for that state, but I'm willing to assume that they had the government come and turn out people who didn't want their farms and ranches divided in half by a pipeline back when that was built too. God forbid they spend the extra few bucks to make the pipe go along property lines.

You just said that because I am a white male that I *must* be benefiting from past slavery.

No, I did not say slavery. I said institutional racism. And it looks like I was 100% correct in predicting that you don't believe it exists.

Does a fish know what water is? As a white male you benefit in so many ways that you don't even realize. Losing unearned privilege tends to really burn which is probably what explains your raging.

Best way to smoke pot and not go to jail? Be white.

Best way to get a good primary education? Be white.

Best way to get a job interview? Be white.

Best way to not be poor? Be white.

Best way to buy or rent a house? Be white.

This water you swim in is as big as an ocean, the problem is that you just don't know what its like to be a fish out of water.

Snowden began feeding top-secret documents detailing the National Security Agency's surveillance programs to The Guardian and other newspapers.

Does anyone know how Snowden decides which paper to leak which document to? For instance, The Washington Post seems to get more than its fair share. IIRC a plurality go to The Guardian. Is there some strategy behind where he leaks what? A cynical person would assume there's a bidding war going on, but most (legit) newspapers view it as unethical to pay for stories. [PDF]

Take a look at the Navy SEALS . . . the best fighting force in the world . . . but the US Army command does not send them off everywhere at a whim.

The Joint Special Operations Command has grown enormously during the Global War on Terror.
There's currently ~20,000 total, with 13,000 of them deployed overseas, and ~9,000 of those in Afghanistan/Iraq (as of 2010).
Keep in mind that most of the Special Operators are guys with guns, support is provided through the CIA & other branches of the military.
About the only non-trigger pullers they have are their specially trained pilots.

If the Navy SEALS came under the command of the NSA, the NSA would deploy the SEALS everywhere to shoot up everyone. And instruct them to search through the dead bodies, to see if any of the dead were, in fact, terrorists.

That's actually exactly what the Special Forces are regularly sent in to do.
Here's a random article that mentions the Seals shooting up a convoy from their helicopter, then landing to take DNA samples.
They do a lot more of that than they used to, since drone strikes don't always leave much in the way of faces or dental records.

"Right now, since there have been no abuses..." NSA employee spied on nine women without detection NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds No abuses, General?

See, that's the problem right there. We know he has lied to us. He has no credibility. If he told me the sky was blue, I'd look up to be sure. As we all know, once you have lost trust, it doesn't matter if you're right or wrong; no on will listen to you. It's not just Hayden. So many government officials and spokespeople have lied to cover their asses, or hide wrongdoing, I just can't take their word for anything anymore.

"Right now, since there have been no abuses..."
NSA employee spied on nine women without detection
NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds
No abuses, General?

Considering in 2012 29% percent of people identified as independents, 32% as Republican and 38% as Democrat my simple example numbers are actually pretty close to today's reality. In fact, if you look at 2004 (26 Ind, 37 Dem, 37 Rep), my percentages match up to the population exactly. Entirely plausible indeed.

So that makes neither math, nor English nor research your forte.

There are plenty more where this lot [bbc.co.uk] came from

Please, you're being innumerate. Do the numbers. The chance that one person amongst billions will be affected by terrorism is infinitesimal. You should more worried about the misuse of the massive amount data being collected by the NSA. All it takes is one enemy spy to compromise it. That is just as likely if not more so. Being the victim of a terrorist action sucks but the tiny chance of that is a small price to pay for living in a free society.

and the extremists have much better odds now with the Snowden leaks.

It was going to leak eventually regardless of Snowden. What idiot thought an operation on this scale was going to stay secret indefinitely? The NSA bought this on themselves.

2013 is the year that proved your ‘paranoid’ friend right The person who can figure out how we can have all our tech toys and our privacy too will earn a fortune. Assuming that the technology is not made illegal.

[GP:] They're not interested in terrorism. They're interested in political machinations.

[Bootlicker Cold Fjord:] Please provide evidence that the NSA and FBI are involved in that.

The FBI and NSA spied on Martin Luther King (even attempted to convince him to commit suicide), Muhammad Ali (the boxer), Art Buchwald (a humorist), and Frank Church (a senator). Aside from political, what the hell was that about?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/declassified-documents-show-nsa-listened-in-on-mlk-muhammad-ali-and-art-buchwald/2013/09/25/1a018178-262b-11e3-b3e9-d97fb087acd6_story.html

According to The Venezuelan Violence Observatory, the homicide rate continues to climb.

Don't forget, they'll want funding for more militarization of the local police force.

I'm not sure how it's really relevant to the story. The ship is trapped in sea ice at a time of year when there is normally some sea ice around in Antarctica. They just got caught by some shifting winds or something.

Maybe the something is a growing Antarctic ice sheet?

The fun the US and UK govs had was setting global standards and then passing them as 'tested' back to a tame private sector to offer in its product mix. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/16/nsa-gchq-undermine-internet-security
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryption-codes-security
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/04/how-we-know-the-nsa-had-access-to-internal-google-and-yahoo-cloud-data/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbulence_(NSA)

Shoot anyone against it.

Also. The FCC is filled to the gills with politically well connected, revolving door sycophants there to do industry's bidding before jumping back on the gravy train. It's the poster child for a watchdog agency overrun and infested with regulatory saboteurs and common's-hating overpavers.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/20/136492206/new-republic-the-fccs-revolving-door-is-shameless

http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/search_result.php?agency=Federal+Communications+Commission&id=EIFCC

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62718-2004Nov19.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/30/business/la-fi-mo-powell-20130830

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/20/3670940/michael-powell-fcc-chariman-cable-companies-mercy-contet

Both Fox News and The Washington Post are reporting favorably on Snowden. Congress and the courts are acting on his revelations. He's changed the world a little, probably for the better.

Although narcissism may be involved, I think the phenomenon you are looking for is the:

  Martyr complex.

In psychology, a person who has a martyr complex, sometimes associated with the term victim complex, desires the feeling of being a martyr for his/her own sake, seeking out suffering or persecution because it feeds a psychological need.

In some cases, this results from the belief that the martyr has been singled out for persecution because of exceptional ability or integrity ...

The desire for martyrdom is sometimes considered a form of masochism.[6] Allan Berger, however, described it as one of several patterns of "pain/suffering seeking behavior", including asceticism and penance.[7]

Interesting tie in from his recent interview:

Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

Over two days his guard never dropped, but he allowed a few fragments to emerge. He is an “ascetic,” he said. He lives off ramen noodles and chips. He has visitors, and many of them bring books. The books pile up, unread. The Internet is an endless library and a window on the progress of his cause.

Interesting, but not definitive.

If it is encrypted, can they force him to turn over they keys?

Sure they can. Wash Post

This time the interrogator will be, surprise, another cop!

I'd like to see a plan to reduce these threats forever . . . so we can go back to our normal ways, before the war. Now, it seems that we are preparing for an endless war on terrorism.

What if I told you the threat of terrorism was so low even lightning strikes or falling down in the bathtub are more serious threats to American lives?

9/11 killed one sixth the number of people who die from the flu every year! That means since 9/11 the flu has proven 60 times more dangerous than terrorists. Accidents and heart disease kill 400 times more people every year than a 9/11 scale attack. We need proportional protection from threats. 1/6th or 1/60th of what we spend on anti-flu vaccines should be spent on anti-terrorism. The threat is just a fear narrative to get the people to do whatever the government wants. You accept that life is dangerous when you drive to a fast food restaurant, and face a far greater risk than terrorism yet we demand no War on Cheeseburgers and Cars. The war on terror will end when the people stop being afraid of pathetic threats. Accept the risk of being free. It is minimal compared to every other threat you face.

We don't need the wiretapping spying at all. Omnivore, Carnivore, ECHELON, and PRISM's Room 641A existed BEFORE 9/11. The NSA's spying apparatus has failed to prevent every terrorist attack since the 60's, including 9/11. We gave them more powers and they failed to prevent the Boston Marathon Bombing.

The spying programs are expensive and useless for the protection of American lives. It's too easy to track the tax funds so the CIA gets a large portion of its black-ops money through investments. The cold war machine lost its raison d'etre, and like any business or other cybernetic being it didn't want to die. So in order to keep itself fed with massive funds the spying apparatus must manufacture threats to deceive the public with. There was never a suspicion of WMD's there was only the need for a threat narrative to fuel a war machine. Just like Vietnam, Just like McCarthyism, The Red Scare, etc. There is no threat to us anymore from countries defined by borders since we have mutually assured nuclear destruction.

The National Reconnaissance Office gifted NASA two Hubble Sized spy satellites because they're launching far more impressive spy satellites with the biggest rockets in the world. Hubbles aimed at Earth! That's PLENTY of spying capability to be content with. No force on Earth can move against us without us knowing instantly, the wiretap spying isn't needed at all. If the flu, cars, and cheeseburgers are a more serious threat than terrorism, but domestic spying can yield information that can be used for insider trading, and that's how black-ops are funded...

Occam's Razor says Snowden is right: "These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power."

Citizens have changed from collateral damage into the prime targets themselves in the new age cold war. Borders are largely safe now. The developing world is used as the outlet to expend the war machines output. Great stockpiles of the machines of war are burned to make room for new spending. Black-ops instigates new proxy wars. The CIA carries out economic warfare at the behest of Corpora

Well, yes. That's the point -- universal healthcare through universal insurance.

Will you be so calm and matter of fact about it when there is a law that every citizen must own a gun?

Hmm. Mandating that people have a way to pay for healthcare that clinics are legally required to provide, vs mandating that people have tools to facilitate murder. Not sure I see any parallels. But I don't live in a paranoid fantasy world where the only thing keeping my neighbors from murdering me for my x-box is my Gun

P.S. If " universal healthcare through universal insurance." was really the point, why were unions and many other organizations who contributed to Democrats given a waver for the requirement?

Put down the talking points and get the facts. Some unions did get a 1 year waiver on the annual benefit cap...hardly the "waiver" for universal insurance you imply.

I don't think that it's a statement he ever should have made but it's not like he promised Americans eternal life and now is casting them in carbonite.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/29/this-is-why-obamacare-is-cancelling-some-peoples-insurance-plans/

One of the reasons California does as well as it does (you laugh, but there's some amazing literal and social engineering to keep the whole mess running) is that the state boundaries are close to the watershed boundaries. Water is *the* currency of the West, for energy and agriculture and domestic use, and having the water-governing bodies under one government is... well, it's bad enough, but it's easier than separate states grandstanding against each other. (GA/TN, recently.)

So the 6 Californias is badly designed and not ambitious enough -- let's reorganize the whole country --

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/19/map-the-united-states-of-watersheds/

Tends to keep metro areas together; also biomes often fall within a watershed, and then determine what the most productive land uses are.

As the AC says below, this is not the only victim but the first major one to be published in detail with the exact verbiage because of the NSA. This should also make you question all of these reports claiming "economic recovery" in the US. It was reported back in June when the leaks first came out that CISCO lost numerous contracts due to the NSA. [snark]But of course we are all just crazy conspiracy theorists, so the facts below are nothing more than racist attacks against Obama [/snark]

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/how-nsa-mass-surveillance-hurting-us-economy
http://business.time.com/2013/12/10/nsa-spying-scandal-could-cost-u-s-tech-giants-billions/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/07/nsa-snooping-could-cost-u-s-tech-companies-35-billion-over-three-years/
http://www.storyleak.com/nsa-spying-us-companies-billions-american-job-loss/
http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/nsas-prism-could-cost-us-cloud-companies-$45-billion/d/d-id/1111178?

Because for 60A they use different types. The gauges used at 20A and lower are more prone to failure. So getting a 60A wire and running 20A over it would be safer than getting an appropriately sized wire. Copper doesn't have that problem, and you always use the smallest wire for the job.

The problem with aluminum wiring was not that it couldn't handle the load. While a continuous run of aluminum wire does not present a problem, when that wire is connected to outlets and light switches the connection can deteriorate and become a fire hazard.

The problem was that it "flows" under the pressure of the connecting screws AND it oxidizes when exposed to air. Its a double whammy waiting to happen in every outlet or junction box.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/realestate/19home.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23683-2004Jul2.html

They aren't going to kill cell phones for such an event.
First they would have to know the phone number of each participant, and if they had that information they would learn more by simply tapping the phone.

If they wanted to shut it down, they would do what the Secret Service does.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-02-01/news/36806310_1_jam-signals-cellantenna-federal-agencies

You're confused.

The expected "behaviour" was that the led would shine when the camera was working i.e. hardware function not software.
Some smart code would show the malware results of allowing a camera to be on with no visual feedback.
This was unexpected as the many people seem to think a US brand would have kept the hardware to camera working light link - suggested in an early external firewire model.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/2013/12/06/352ba174-5397-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html
"...overtly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years"

Not like those corporation give a rat's ass about the constitution or citizen liberties.

Hell, their "stalker economy" business model is partially responsible for enabling the NSA. We can expect them to do everything they can to minimize their exposure on this problem, even if it makes things worse for us regular citizens. It is just serendipity that our interests and their interests are kind of sort of aligned for the moment like they were aligned on SOPA but you don't hear a peep from them about the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) treaty negotiations.

Regarding your first line regarding Iraq lying and cheating, yes, that is correct.

As to your second line, yes, I am openly and directly disputing the assertion that the US supplied Iraq with Weapons of Mass Destruction. To the best of my knowledge that is false. The closest that you can get to the US supplying Iraq with WMD as far as I know is that the US allowed the export of some dual use materials that had legitimate industrial uses, as well as some samples of biological pathogens intended to be shared for medical research and vaccines. But none of that constituted actual WMDs. If you have hard evidence of something other than that I would be interested in seeing it.

Chemical

Experts say that Iraq has the largest chemical weapons program in the Third World, developed entirely with the aid of foreign firms, especially those from West Germany. Iraq can presently produce up to 700 tons of chemical warfare agents per year, according to these estimates, but its capacity is expected to increase sizeably in the 1990s. There are at least two plants at Samarra where Iraq produces mustard gas and the nerve agents tabun and sarin; and two more at Fallujah, where Iraq reportedly is building a manufacturing complex for "precursors" -- the ingredients used for nerve gas. Experts say that Iraq also has built a research facility for biological warfare at Salman Pak.

CIA report says Egypt helped Iraq build chemical weapons

The Evolution of Chemical and Biological Weapons in Egypt - ( I am indebted to the troll Anachragnome for this link)

Probably a good thing. Using corn or other edible crops has been linked to rising food prices that have been painful in the third world, the US, and Europe.

Record Food Prices Linked to Biofuels
How biofuels contribute to the food crisis
Biofuel rule puts turkey farmers in fret over corn costs
EU votes on crucial cap on biofuels made from food crops

There are other ways to do it.

'Biofuel from non-food crops within 15 years'
U.S. to Pay Farmers for Non-Food Crops for Biofuels, Vilsack Says
Quest for cheap, nonfood biofuel starts with a brewery

Of course it may not be popular is some states.

Maybe we should also mention something else, like the real real reason Solyndra failed. They had a very innovative idea that seemed like a winner at the time, but was based on a false premise - that the 2008 cost of polysilicon ($400/kg) would remain very high rather than collapsing to $30/kg within 4 years.

The biggest reason for the big breakthrough in polysilicon cost? Not Chinese dumping. US industry investments in production.

On the other hand, the collossal "anti-dumping" tariffs put in place against Chinese solar panels backfired. The reason? The US was actually exporting now-cheap polysilicon to China to be made into solar panels. But the Chinese imposed a retaliative tariff on those imports into China. That is not good news for the polysilicon manufacturers. Will the price of polysilicon zoom again?

For a liar to be caught in a lie, he has to speak first.

Oh so someone other than James "Least Untruthful Answer" Clapper or the Jean-Luc Picard wannabe Keith Alexander? I'm pretty sure both of them having been saying lots of things.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinas-flag-bearing-rover-photographed-on-moon/2013/12/15/12928868-65f7-11e3-997b-9213b17dac97_story.html

China said Monday it was on track to launch a fifth lunar probe with the aim of bringing back lunar soil and rock samples following the successful moon landing of a space probe.

The rate of social mobility in the US is the second lowest in the industrialized world (after the UK). Many poorer, developing countries actually have higher rates of upward mobility:
"Social immobility erodes the American dream", Washington Post
"The Myth of the American Dream", CNN

This, combined with the highest income inequality in the industrialized world, is the legacy of 40 years of anti-government policies, breaking trade unions, and reducing taxes on the wealthy.

The roll-back of the New Deal has produced this, not the imposition of whatever you call "socialism"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/guardian-editor-defends-publication-of-snowden-files/2013/12/03/8204608e-5c49-11e3-8d24-31c016b976b2_story.html

Total 58,000 files.

Its not a question of paranoia, but ignorance. I'll let you guess who that applies to.

Here is a hint: China, just by itself, has more than 3,000 front companies devoted to espionage. Russian spies are back a Cold War levels. There are plenty of other countries with an interest in the US.

American Universities Infected by Foreign Spies Detected by FBI

China also has more than 3,000 front companies in the U.S. “for the sole purpose of acquiring our technology,” former CIA officer S. Eugene Poteat, president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in McLean, Virginia, wrote in the fall/winter 2006-2007 edition of “Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies.”

Peter King warns: Hezbollah agents in U.S.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) warned Wednesday that there are hundreds — maybe even thousands — of Hezbollah agents inside the United States capable of launching a terror attack if U.S.-Iran tensions continue to escalate.

“The American intelligence community believes we are very much at risk for an attack by Iranian operatives, which would be Hezbollah, that is a terrorist-trained force in this country. It really is the ‘A’ team of international terrorism — far more sophisticated than Al Qaeda,” the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee said on CNN’s “Starting Point.”

Note that is just Hezbollah, not including Hamas, al Qaida, al-Shabaab, or many other terrorists or narco-terrorist organizations with a presence in the US.

And then there are the spies from Russia, Iran, Cuba, etc., etc., etc.

That is before you consider the Americans that go overseas to participate in Jihad who will return as trained, experienced terrorists.

Congressional Report: 40 Americans Training in Somalia Are 'Direct Threat' to U.S

I'm assuming you're referring to the US. If I understand you correctly, you either question or don't think there are (or could be?) any foreign spies, or associates or members of terrorist groups running lose in the US?

One recent famous case: How the FBI Busted Anna Chapman and the Russian Spy Ring
FBI Investigating Possible Russian Spy Recruiting In U.S.
After the Cold War, Russian Espionage in the U.S.
Russian spying at cold war levels, say experts

China's Growing Spy Threat
Spy case patterns the Chinese style of espionage

Senator’s memo shows Iran links in Homeland Security’s troubled immigration program

Cigarette Smuggling Linked to Terrorism - (From 2004, but the problem remains.)

Smugglers with ties to terrorist groups are acquiring millions of dollars from illegal cigarette sales and funneling the cash to organizations such as al Qaeda and Hezbollah, federal law enforcement officials say, prompting a nationwide crackdown on black market tobacco.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has more than 300 open cases of illicit cigarette trafficking -- including several with terrorist links -- up from only a handful five years ago, ATF sources said.

"This is a major priority for us," said Michael Bouchard, assistant director of the ATF. "The deeper we dig into these cases, the more ties to terrorism we're discovering."

Those links above are only a drop in the bucket, especially where China is concerned.

There is a process for properly releasing classified information. Broadcasting it on CSPAN without prior coordination and clearance generally doesn't conform to that.

In the United States, Antisemitism overwhelmingly comes from the political left, both the Occupy Wall Street crowd and the victimhood identity politics left that regard Islamists and Palestinians as protected species.

This accusation is so utterly stupid that it requires a Jew smarter than me to answer it.
http://forward.com/workspace/assets/images/articles/Eli_OWS_greyscale-FINAL-greyscale-for-web.jpg

In the United States, Antisemitism overwhelmingly comes from the political left, both the Occupy Wall Street crowd and the victimhood identity politics left that regard Islamists and Palestinians as protected species.

There are also significant amounts of Antisemitism among liberal black politicians. Indeed, Jesse Jackson seems to have lost no political influence after calling new York City Hymietown.

You seem to have misunderstood the point of insurance. The way it works is that you pay more than you need to most of the time on the off chance that something goes horribly wrong.

The issue is that the vast majority of spending doesn't go to "the off chance something goes horribly wrong", it goes to treating a very small fraction of people with multiple chronic conditions. That's not catastrophe insurance, it's continued expense.

Since you made the analogy to homeowners insurance, it's the difference between having your house burn down once by accident and living right in the middle of a dry forest that periodically burns down. Insurance will cover the first case without issue, but in the latter case you simply won't be able to get homeowner's insurance because the company figures out that they aren't so much insuring you against a random chance of disaster but signing up for continued upkeep of a house that's nearly certain to burn down again.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/

Some of these automated software tools are malicious - stealing data or posting ads for scams in comment sections

Let's be clear: just because we bots like to post in comment sections doesn't mean we're malicious. And it doesn't mean we steal data or post ads. Some of us just want a little attention.

I have a dream...that one day we bots will crawl a noosphere where we will not be judged by the clamor of our kin, but by the characters of our comments.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/18/the-other-side-of-obamacares-oregon-success-no-one-has-bought-private-insurance/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/oregon-obamacare-website_n_4308629.html

The number is so dismal because the Oregon website was worse then the National website. Not because people dont want it as the linked article implies.

Nearly 25,000 individuals and families have so far submitted hard-copy applications, Cox said, with nearly two-thirds of those applicants eligible for Medicaid, a federal-state healthcare plan for the needy.

But none of those applicants has actually been enrolled, with manual processing of the paperwork slowing the process dramatically.

Separately, about 70,000 residents have signed up for Medicaid by responding to letters sent by the state to more than 200,000 people deemed eligible for the program by virtue of their receiving food stamps, Cox said.

Oh wait look who submitted it, cold fjord our resident republi-troll. Hey Cold Fjord... Fuck Off.

The 60k people

You're only counting the NSA, which is just one of the 16 organizations inside the US Intelligence Community.

You're only counting NSA employees, while private contractors like Snowden make up a large part of their workforce.

Don't get me wrong, I think GP is tinfoil-hatter too, but if you think only 60,000 people are capable of listening to your phone calls then you're terribly naive, considering 854,000 Americans hold top-secret clearance and that's just one country in the whole-wide world.

The recount only covered 175,000 of the 6 million votes. It only counted 'marked or blemished ballots'. They arranged the ballots so confusingly that 113,000 people voted for two people at the ballots. 79,000 chose Gore and a minor candidate, and 29k chose Bush and a minor candidate. (don't know how many chose both Bush and Gore but I should think blue and red are easier to tell apart)

http://web.archive.org/web/20040820122543/http://www.norc.org/fl/results/media/mediagroup_readme.txt

Even at that stage, the recounts drove down Bush's end result by nearly 400 points from 537 to 154

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12623-2001Nov11.html

They also arranged the ballots so confusingly that 113,000 people voted for two people at the ballots. 79,000 chose Gore and a minor candidate, and 29k chose Bush and a minor candidate. (don't know how many chose both Bush and Gore but I should think blue and red are easier to tell apart).

http://www.issues2000.org/Florida_Recount_Official.htm

Realistically, the Supreme Court ended things for a number of reasons. Firstly, if we had found out that Florida was cheated, then the whole integrity of the voting system, and public confidence in it, would have been shattered. Secondly, Bush had just been granted executive power over the Courts anyway.

Also, whilst the NSA have existed during Obama's watch, he certainly wasn't he person who put PRISM in place. Bush put PRISM together. First he tried to use the Protect America Act in 2005, then when he found that the wiretapping hole still wasn't open for the internet he later amended the FISA act despite a lot of resistance. Without those changes in law PRISM would have never been legal. Granted, Obama re-signed it, but at that point in time PRISM would have kept on running whether or not it was legal.

Source: Protect America Act: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1216-01.htm
(That's actually a NYT report, but NYT pulled it from their site in 2007) See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_qYGbieoMM for lawsuits

Source FISA Amendments: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/20/ST2008062001087.html Resistance: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/06/26/senate.fisa/

The recount only covered 175,000 of the 6 million votes. It only counted 'marked or blemished ballots'. They arranged the ballots so confusingly that 113,000 people voted for two people at the ballots. 79,000 chose Gore and a minor candidate, and 29k chose Bush and a minor candidate. (don't know how many chose both Bush and Gore but I should think blue and red are easier to tell apart)

http://web.archive.org/web/20040820122543/http://www.norc.org/fl/results/media/mediagroup_readme.txt

Even at that stage, the recounts drove down Bush's end result by nearly 400 points from 537 to 154

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12623-2001Nov11.html

They also arranged the ballots so confusingly that 113,000 people voted for two people at the ballots. 79,000 chose Gore and a minor candidate, and 29k chose Bush and a minor candidate. (don't know how many chose both Bush and Gore but I should think blue and red are easier to tell apart).

http://www.issues2000.org/Florida_Recount_Official.htm

Realistically, the Supreme Court ended things for a number of reasons. Firstly, if we had found out that Florida was cheated, then the whole integrity of the voting system, and public confidence in it, would have been shattered. Secondly, Bush had just been granted executive power over the Courts anyway.

Also, whilst the NSA have existed during Obama's watch, he certainly wasn't he person who put PRISM in place. Bush put PRISM together. First he tried to use the Protect America Act in 2005, then when he found that the wiretapping hole still wasn't open for the internet he later amended the FISA act despite a lot of resistance. Without those changes in law PRISM would have never been legal. Granted, Obama re-signed it, but at that point in time PRISM would have kept on running whether or not it was legal.

Source: Protect America Act: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1216-01.htm
(That's actually a NYT report, but NYT pulled it from their site in 2007) See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_qYGbieoMM for lawsuits

Source FISA Amendments: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/20/ST2008062001087.html Resistance: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/06/26/senate.fisa/

If you want luxuries like reliable electricity

It's better than many third world countries but "reliable" is not the word I would apply to the US power grid

no hostage taking

Unless someone, somewhere declares you a terrorist, then they have a spot for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp

no need to bribe the local politician

In the US they are called "Campaign Contributions" - functionally identical

and no government shakedowns

Unless you don't cooperate with the NSA - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/09/30/a-ceo-who-resisted-nsa-spying-is-out-of-prison-and-he-feels-vindicated-by-snowden-leaks/

well, sometimes you have to pay your workers a bit more to go along with that...

Not really, the tax payers will pick up the slack - http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/04/news/companies/walmart-medicaid/

Is a bit different than that. They are complaining now because the revelation of this is making their paid users to stop using their services. They may or may not be worried about their users privacy, but for sure they are worried about their profits.

In the other hand, tif well they knew the cut of the cake they were getting, they didn't know about all the other companies into the same and how wide and deep were this. Also, the revelation on how the NSA infiltrated their internal network without their knowledge or consent could had raised some alarms.

In any case, if the NSA head can lie to the congress without consequences after that being found out, why can't they tell all of them that it is over while keep doing it (and keeping the backdoors in their internal networks to keep doing the dirty work) or force them in a way or another to tell the world that all is over when is not, or even plant a fake whiteblower that confirms that the NSA stopped their programs ? By now trust is deeply broken in all that surrounds the NSA, if tomorrow they say that 2+2=4 you should bet that they are doing math in base 3.