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I usually object to government interference, but for once I think they're really on track here. If you read the draft document, available here, you'll see that the government really wants to keep its hands off as much as possible, but also realizes the fundamental need for central control for security.

It's nice to see they also want to work with a strong public/private partnership, not solely one with private organizations. I'll try and be listening in for sure!

Here's the link for the pdf file for those who didn't read the whitehouse page far enough to read the reference to it.

Then the times didn't look very hard.

It's right here At the White House

I read it several days ago after actually reading the story that was reference by slash dot on Because Only Terrorists Use 802.11

Try and keep up, hold the hand of the person in front of you and keep a tight grip on the hand person behind you.

Personally, it looks to me like there are 2 very different sides of the story to this.

On one hand you have the "Pro-Life" advocates saying that you can't justify the research since it might play a part in the death of an unborn embryo. You can read a few of those types of articles here and here to get a feel for that side of the story.

On the flip side the AAAS has a very compelling document here in PDF format. Also CAMR has a nice little diddy about their stance here.

Bush and the Senate seem to have made their stance on the matter known as well...so enjoy!

There is alot of discussion, and alot remains to be seen, but I thought I'd toss out some links to help everyone form their own opinion on the matter.

Not to point fingers here (especially considering that I am guilty as well), but instead of sitting around complaining, whining, and making sarcastic comments, why don't we actually do something? Day after day, I see a lot of really well thought out points made here. But exactly how many of them are pointed towards the people that need to hear them? (The President, Congress, etc.) Granted these people (esp. the president) rank among the most powerful in the world, so they don't fear much and sound reasoning obviously isn't their strong suit. But, we all know the one thing they really fear: Not Being Re-elected. Yes, Bush is obviously stubborn and hard headed, but I'm betting that even he wouldn't be able to ignore several thousand emails per day telling him to back off of us and go after the real bad guys. So, if we really want to have a chance at making a difference, don't just post all of this stuff here. Fire some of it at president@whitehouse.gov, too!

Let's see, a few Bush administration critics with top secret clearance that know EXACTLY what intelligence the American government has on Iraq. $5 says that if you were to have a conversation with Dr. Rice, your opinion would change. Heck, read her biography and tell me you have no respect for a person with those achievements.

One person comparing me to a senator that thinks segregation was a good idea. This comparison is based on my distaste for a woman that exploits her heritage and gender. Pathetic jab, buddy.

Now that's true, but in Soviet Russia, conferences arrest you. They called the conferences soviets, you damned trolls.

We know what you said, and we won't forget it!

The agenda of Yahoo is the same as it is for all the giant corporations, ie Microsoft, WalMart, AT&T, Sam Adams, AOL Time Warner, etc; it's to turn you into a wage earning slave exploiting your production on one hand, while controlling what you spend with the pitiful money they give you.

This quagmire of big business and big gubmint working together to exploit you must end. But it will not happen by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator, or to the Bush Family Evil Empire at the White House. Tell them that personal freedom and privacy combined with decent working conditions, a fair wage for a fair day's work, and decent, affordable, universal health care, are important to you - that you should have the rightt to control that that you store on your own disks. Tell them that you are appalled at Yahoo!'s and the pResident's efforts in this area, but that in the absense of full disclosure, you will have to find a less secure and intelligently run country to live in. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how a corporate state run for greed's sake that exploits the workers destroys all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on the rights of ordinary, hard working, people.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

Now let's look at how they are getting there. This is what they have to say for themselves on their little page of horors. First You are not too small to matter. Good, the argument "no one is interested in the particulars of your mundane life so don't worry about security" is both false and misleading and is going to be killed. Lip service is given to user education but takes the form of consumer awareness of comercial products which won't work and will be filled with DRM.

What we need to do is take their message and run with it. Those parts that are true back free software. The government must be made aware that only free software is secure, that they must use it to protect themselves and should not stifle it. They have understood the scale of economic harm that can occur if things don't work right. You are aware of the raid the White House ordered on ptech
and worried in part that ptech had put in backdoors?

The company's software code was checked by the government to determine if outsiders could read or steal any sensitive data from the government, or embed the code with something destructive, officials said. Those checks began months ago, when the probe of Ptech started.

One of the many ways terrorists and their cells/hierarchy communicate is through the net as briefly touched on here. Even CyberCafes are probably going to be hit with new regulations from HomeLand Security and they're all pretty much landline.
It's a "War on Terrorism" and however terrorists use the net and access it, we all have to sacrifice a little right now so maybe we save lives or even end the "war" sooner, rather than later... "war" inconveniences everyone, bitching won't help. Don't get your undies all in a wad over it. The sacrifices made by our parents and grandparents during WWII was certainly at least as bad as anything we can foresee for ourselves. This too is a global war because terrorism is global. Whatever it takes is just enough, so suck it up. Besides, there's no reason most if not all the "inconvenient" new regulations can't be lifted or adjusted if and when this war ends. We have the Democrats making sure of this as much as they can before they even begin fully debating new legislation and implementing it. Republicans are onboard with that philosophy as well, for the most part. But we'll all have to cross that bridge when we get to it.

The Department[of Homeland Security]--in cooperation with the Department of Transportation, state and local governments, and the private sector--would develop additional inspection procedures and detection systems throughout our national transportation structure to detect the movement of nuclear materials within the United States. It will also initiate and sustain research and development efforts aimed at new and better passive and active detection systems.

From THE NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY which can be found on the White House's own web pages.

Myers was one of several consultants for President Bush's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, which is finalizing its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace.

Last time I checked, cyberspace was not the property of the United States or Bush. How do they expect to secure something that is ment to be used by all people? Is anyone ever going to stand up to this?

Actually, that would be http://www.whitehouse.gov/, NOT whitehouse.org. Did you do that on purpose?

If a druglord were to donate an exorbitant amount of money to a TV campaign against drugs, would the campaign be any less valuable?

We can't focus on the cause, in this case.. we need to appreciate the effect. As well, we need to thank the people who brought the appreciation of a movie like this to the forefront of mainstream America.

Say hello to a whole new set of rules.
The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

You honestly believe that the current administration is totally distinct to those of the past? Christ on a bike, Daddy Bush was head of the CIA, Cheney was Ford's assistant and Chief of Staff. Your current administration is chock-a-block with the same crooks and cronies as Bush Sr's 10 years ago, which was stuffed with Regan-era and earlier muppets. And now, to top it off, here comes Poindexter eager to set up his new Stasi. It's unbelievable.

Bush got what he wanted after all. No investigation into the security failures of Sept 11.

from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/11/20 021114-2.html

Q Scott, earlier you said that there's still some issues that remain on the 9/11 commission. Several families -- several vocal families of some of the victims say that they had a deal, and that's what's happening right now is essentially a deal-breaker. But in particular, they go on to say that the White House right now is actively trying to recruit less vocal victims' families to support a watered-down version of a commission. Could I just get your comment, either one way or the other whether that is, in fact, true, that the White House is trying to reach out to some of the families at this point?

MR. MCCLELLAN: I disagree with the characterization or the premise of what you're saying. We have been working not only with members of Congress, as I pointed out, but we've been working closely with family members, as well, who want to see a strong bipartisan commission. It's important to look at a broad range of issues related to the September 11th attacks. And we will continue talking with members of Congress. We will continue talking with the families of victims, as well, so that we can move this forward. We want to get this going as quickly as possible. And the President remains firmly committed to a strong bipartisan commission.

Q Just to make sure I understand, so you're saying that the passage of the House bill yesterday is not tantamount to a deal-breaker, in your opinion?

MR. MCCLELLAN: The passage of the department of homeland security bill?

Q Exactly. The fact that the commission was stripped from it.

MR. MCCLELLAN: Well, we're continuing to work with members to get this done. There are other ways to get that commission up and running.

Q If I can follow up, because that brings up a very good point.

MR. MCCLELLAN: Last one.

Q Senators Lieberman and McCain have introduced an amendment in the Senate that would restore the 9/11 commission to the homeland security legislation. Does the White House support that?

MR. MCCLELLAN: As I said, there are other ways to get it down.... we need to resolve these issues that will make sure that this is a truly bipartisan commission.

If you want to read a real joke, click here.

Name a similarity between censorware.org and whitehouse.com?

Answer:They're both run by a dirty squatter to lure people in instead of the real sites.

Name a difference between the two sites mentioned in the beginning?

Well, at least whitehouse.com gives me a hard-on...

Name a similarity between censorware.org and whitehouse.com?

Answer:They're both run by a dirty squatter to lure people in instead of the real sites.

Name a difference between the two sites mentioned in the beginning?

Well, at least whitehouse.com excites me...

Name a similarity between censorware.org and whitehouse.com?

Answer:They're both run by a dirty squatter to lure people in instead of the real sites.

Name a difference between the two sites mentioned in the beginning?

Well, at least whitehouse.com gives me a hard-on...

yes he is indeed

The UN Human Development Report ranks Sweden second behind Norway in its Human Development Index. The U.S. is ranked sixth. The index looks at factors such as economic justice, peace, health, education, and the robustness of democratic instititutions.

The "news" story these others are talking about seems like spin.

The notion that your average Swede is worse off than your average U.S. Black would be laughable if it weren't so outrageous. Median houselhold income for Black Americans has dropped below $30 000 this year--but that's not a good basis for comparison to the Europeans. The number that really counts is "Real Disposible Personal Income," and that's far less. (I can't find BEA data that breaks it down by race, but overall rdpi per capita is roughly 3/5 of median household, so you can make an educated guess.)

You can get the census data from census.gov or via the Whitehouse's pretty nifty economic stats page

The main point about Democrats is that they appear to be doing more that encourages terrorism than that which prevents it. They appear to view conservatives as greater enemies than terrorists whose primary goal in life is to destroy us. True, my statement about the solidarity rally with Saddam was a little over the top (I'm glad you laughed), but the effect of what Democrats are doing really does help Saddam's regime at our expense.

For all we know attacking Iraq could be the downfall of the United States.

Restraint is a sign of weakness and is a big, bright GREEN LIGHT for groups waiting to attack. Cowardice to use our own weapons is akin to self-disarmament. It does nothing but embolden our enemies. Based on what we know, a more accurate prediction would be that failing to attack Iraq would lead to the downfall of the United States. "The history, the logic, and the facts lead to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence."

The preceding quote is from the Bush speech to the U.N. two months ago. Click on the link above, and you can read the transcript, listen to the audio, or watch the video. It was all over the news. This is what I mean by common knowledge. I don't have time to deal with willful ignorance or categorical disbelief of information that you don't want to believe. A Slashdot post is just a Slashdot post. I don't have the time to compose a comprehensive dissertation on National Security & Terrorism complete with footnotes and full bibliography section. When I say things like I did in my previous post, I'm expecting readers to recall information that they should already have stored in their memory. If you don't have that store of knowledge to pull up, then you're not getting (or refusing to receive) all the facts. I didn't state any opinions that aren't in the mainstream, so there was no pressing need to direct you to supporting information.

The main point about Democrats is that they appear to be doing more that encourages terrorism than that which prevents it. They appear to view conservatives as greater enemies than terrorists whose primary goal in life is to destroy us. True, my statement about the solidarity rally with Saddam was a little over the top (I'm glad you laughed), but the effect of what Democrats are doing really does help Saddam's regime at our expense.

For all we know attacking Iraq could be the downfall of the United States.

Restraint is a sign of weakness and is a big, bright GREEN LIGHT for groups waiting to attack. Cowardice to use our own weapons is akin to self-disarmament. It does nothing but embolden our enemies. Based on what we know, a more accurate prediction would be that failing to attack Iraq would lead to the downfall of the United States. "The history, the logic, and the facts lead to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence."

The preceding quote is from the Bush speech to the U.N. two months ago. Click on the link above, and you can read the transcript, listen to the audio, or watch the video. It was all over the news. This is what I mean by common knowledge. I don't have time to deal with willful ignorance or categorical disbelief of information that you don't want to believe. A Slashdot post is just a Slashdot post. I don't have the time to compose a comprehensive dissertation on National Security & Terrorism complete with footnotes and full bibliography section. When I say things like I did in my previous post, I'm expecting readers to recall information that they should already have stored in their memory. If you don't have that store of knowledge to pull up, then you're not getting (or refusing to receive) all the facts. I didn't state any opinions that aren't in the mainstream, so there was no pressing need to direct you to supporting information.

I wonder where you are getting your information from. The OMB figures state that only 17% ($368 billion out of total $2.128 Trillion)of the fiscal year 2003 budget is allocated to defense spending.

While the jab at dubya is something of a troll (though you should read this and this before you dismiss the sentiment outright), the part about collecting the tax is fairly insightful. Exactly how do you set up a system for tracking this sort of thing? Or do they just plan to dump the burden on merchants everywhere, and sock it to them if they don't comply?

The jurisdiction issues also make my head spin. I can't see any reason why, if I sell from California, Conneticut has any business regulating how I do business....

A site which makes it easier to kill somebody by giving private information like home adress,... should be banned IMHO.

Oh, you mean like this page?

And they aren't the only one to violate and / or try to sabotage international treaties. (Not that I'm defending North Korea, it is probably one of the most horrible places to be on this earth.)

Answers?

George W. Bush will take sanctions against Ari Fleischer for giving everyone the impression the White House were interested in Regime Change in Iraq...

I think you mean, it plays jokes on you. ;P

Answers?

The problem is expecting the government to help them out with special laws to cram it down everybody's throats.

Right now there are more important things to take care of, like trying to convince our fearless leader not to piss off the rest of the world any more than is actually neccessary.

"mosch is an abrasive asshole"

I'd suggest you make mosch a link to this page, so they can see what an asshole I am. Or maybe you could just link to a specifically chosen post, such as this one, or maybe this anti-rationalization comment whichgot a few people to mark me as an enemy. And this comment speaks of drug use, which clearly allies me with the axis of evil.

Love ya you sexy thang,
MWAH

and when was Russia admitted to NATO

Russia was never fully admitted to NATO. That's why I put "admitted" in scare-quotes. I was talking about the NATO-Russia Council.

All I'm saying is: If you don't want to be accused of being a duck, don't quack like one. If this statement makes you angry, maybe it's because you're quacking.

I am not a citizen of a country which the rest of the world generally looks upon with disdain at this point.

Well, I'm not from Iraq either. I guess we have that in common. ;-)

Seriously, given the context, I assume you mean the US. Yes, a lot of coutries have disdain for us. How could I forget the HUGE international protest in front of the White House? ;-)

In fact, quite a lot of folks like the US. Maybe you didn't get the memo. Or the updated memo.

The only people expressing disdain for the US are socialists/communists in Europe and Canada, Neo-Nazis, militant Islamists, Saddam Hussein, and assorted terrorist groups around the world. The day that America is adored by these people is the day that America ceases to exist.

This from a guy with jesus in his .sig, can you say right-wing.

What's your point? (seriously)

All I'm saying is: If you don't want to be accused of being a duck, don't quack like one. If this statement makes you angry, maybe it's because you're quacking.

I am not a citizen of a country which the rest of the world generally looks upon with disdain at this point.

Well, I'm not from Iraq either. I guess we have that in common. ;-)

Seriously, given the context, I assume you mean the US. Yes, a lot of coutries have disdain for us. How could I forget the HUGE international protest in front of the White House? ;-)

In fact, quite a lot of folks like the US. Maybe you didn't get the memo. Or the updated memo.

The only people expressing disdain for the US are socialists/communists in Europe and Canada, Neo-Nazis, militant Islamists, Saddam Hussein, and assorted terrorist groups around the world. The day that America is adored by these people is the day that America ceases to exist.

This from a guy with jesus in his .sig, can you say right-wing.

What's your point? (seriously)

All I'm saying is: If you don't want to be accused of being a duck, don't quack like one. If this statement makes you angry, maybe it's because you're quacking.

I am not a citizen of a country which the rest of the world generally looks upon with disdain at this point.

Well, I'm not from Iraq either. I guess we have that in common. ;-)

Seriously, given the context, I assume you mean the US. Yes, a lot of coutries have disdain for us. How could I forget the HUGE international protest in front of the White House? ;-)

In fact, quite a lot of folks like the US. Maybe you didn't get the memo. Or the updated memo.

The only people expressing disdain for the US are socialists/communists in Europe and Canada, Neo-Nazis, militant Islamists, Saddam Hussein, and assorted terrorist groups around the world. The day that America is adored by these people is the day that America ceases to exist.

This from a guy with jesus in his .sig, can you say right-wing.

What's your point? (seriously)

This is just the first step in the great battle for our Constitutional online rights, but it's a good one. As long as I have something to keep them from tying all my information together in a giant government database and crossreferencing them to steal my organs when I die, I can sleep at night.

Dear Sir,

We don't give a flying fuck about your rights. But what we do care about is being able to fuck you in the ass. Turn around and spread, please.

Yours sincerely,

The White House Crew

It is the hunch that usually leads scientists to study the phenomena/theories in question in the first place. The hard part is devising an experiment to prove/disprove what you're looking for without too many intervening factors that can get in the way. In fact, sometimes just coming up with the experiment itself is worthy of a Nobel Prize.

But scientists should NEVER EVER fake data, no matter HOW STRONGLY they believe they are right. If they're that sure, then they can publish all the theoretical articles they want. But NEVER publish fraudulent data as true. Science is about truth, truth is about absolute, not about hunches. That's why scientists do (or should, if they don't shy away from it) report estimated uncertainties for all experimentally-determined values and data points. If scientists didn't adhere to these lofty expectations, one wouldn't be able to believe any of the journals, which would be a major setback for all fields of science. If you had inherent mistrust of scientists, then science would become just like politics.

I dont know what he was working on, but I would like to give the guy the benifit of the doubt until I can read the report and experimental data.

Sorry, this guy WAS given the benefit of the doubt for many years. His results were irreproducible, which as you know, is one of the main characteristics of science. Everything must be reproducible. He claimed to grow Aluminum Oxide films that could withstand far greater electric fields before breaking down than anyone else on the planet, which is odd considering people mimicked his exact sputtering/growth techniques. For years nobody could reproduce any of his experiments. Much of the discord boiled down to a specific sputtering chamber Schon had back in Germany, where he claimed he was able to grow his thin films. Eventually Schon tried to regrow some films again in this chamber, and said he was unable to repeat his earlier work.

I worked in a physics lab this past summer where nearly every day at lunchtime the professor (Dr. Michael Tinkham, who's rather reknowned in superconductivity circles) would hold up a copy of Physics Today with a picture of Schon and warn us of the consequences of abandoning truth in favor of increased publications.

What Prof. Tinkham pointed out to us is that Schon became something of a minor deity in the realm of experimental physics, getting significant publications, usually quite often in the top physics journals such as Nature, Science, Physical Review, etc. The problem was that he soon had a reputation of greatness to maintain, so he may have gotten a little clumsy regarding data acquisition and analysis, in favor of keeping his astonishing rate of publications steady.

Eventually, things caught up to him. I'm not sure how much of his questionable work was little details that slipped though his fingers, how much was semi-conscious oversight, and how much was flat-out fabrication and fraud. But after he was caught then all his work became suspect.

The worst thing he did was re-use a dataset entirely, claiming it was a plot of something else, and left the exact same noise spurs and other anomalies.

Usually it's rare to find such blatant scientific fraud, but there was another recent fraud.

At least he's not moving the Lab's money into offshore shell companies to show earnings.

Sure, and at least he's also not killing people. But in the realm of science, what he's done is destroy the credibility that scientists strive for, and even NEED to be respected for. It's great that he's been caught, and hopefully it'll be a lesson to any up-and-coming experimentalists that no matter how much you believe in your theories, you have a committment to truth.

Maybe there should be some kind of hippocratic oath for scientists, that would be cool.

From banky's bio:

Student, Unix freak, musician, diplomat, Jedi Knight, 43rd President Of The United States, etc

OMG! George W. Bush is a low-UID Slashdotter!?! Who knew?

He is still pushing to attack Iraq, even though they accepted his original demands.

First off, they're not his demands, they're the UN's demands, articulated in a dozen UN resolutions which Mr. Hussein has flaunted for a decade. If the UN won't enforce them, though, we will be forced to, as we're the ones in danger when Mr. Hussein starts handing out nuclear devices at meetings of the bin Laden booster club.

Second, he hasn't met them, at any rate -- while he initially stated that he would allow `unfettered' inspections, the Saudi representative at the Arab League, who brokered the deal, has already admitted that Mr. Hussein only promised `unfettered' access to military bases -- the one place we can be quite sure he is not hiding his weapons of mass destruction.

Besides, allowing a resumption of inspections is only one of Mr. Hussein's promises to the UN which he has broken, and which we are now enforcing. See the text of the President's speech to the UN for details.

Actually, according to the transcript at whitehouse.gov, the actual quote is:

There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.

I cannot believe they actually post a word-for-word transcript in a press release on the white house website. It cracks me up. We elected a fucking rocket scientist didn't we?

Think about it. If we Yanks did things by popular vote and majority rule, why would smaller states even bother with the Union. You'd have states seceding left and right. You may not like the outcome, but you've gotta love the system. It worked.

Check out Federalist Papers #39 and #68. The fruits of this debate from over two hundred years ago can be found in the text of our Constitution's Twelfth Amendment.

Still wanna gripe? Consider the fallibility of majority rule. 60% of adults surveyed, agreed or strongly agreed that some people possess extrasensory powers. Does that instantly prove that ESP, telekinesis, and clairvoyance are in fact real? Get a load of this one: 60% of adults surveyed support specific requirements that broadcasters air an hour of educational programming -- or more -- for children each day. They think it should be "required."

There's more to this argument, but a rational observer or participant of the political process should volunteer that the American republic with its electoral college is the best system of government the world over.

As for being the worst leader in our nation's history, I can think of a few others without even thinking of this clown.

Think about it. If we Yanks did things by popular vote and majority rule, why would smaller states even bother with the Union. You'd have states seceding left and right. You may not like the outcome, but you've gotta love the system. It worked.

Check out Federalist Papers #39 and #68. The fruits of this debate from over two hundred years ago can be found in the text of our Constitution's Twelfth Amendment.

Still wanna gripe? Consider the fallibility of majority rule. 60% of adults surveyed, agreed or strongly agreed that some people possess extrasensory powers. Does that instantly prove that ESP, telekinesis, and clairvoyance are in fact real? Get a load of this one: 60% of adults surveyed support specific requirements that broadcasters air an hour of educational programming -- or more -- for children each day. They think it should be "required."

There's more to this argument, but a rational observer or participant of the political process should volunteer that the American republic with its electoral college is the best system of government the world over.

As for being the worst leader in our nation's history, I can think of a few others without even thinking of this clown.

Think about it. If we Yanks did things by popular vote and majority rule, why would smaller states even bother with the Union. You'd have states seceding left and right. You may not like the outcome, but you've gotta love the system. It worked.

Check out Federalist Papers #39 and #68. The fruits of this debate from over two hundred years ago can be found in the text of our Constitution's Twelfth Amendment.

Still wanna gripe? Consider the fallibility of majority rule. 60% of adults surveyed, agreed or strongly agreed that some people possess extrasensory powers. Does that instantly prove that ESP, telekinesis, and clairvoyance are in fact real? Get a load of this one: 60% of adults surveyed support specific requirements that broadcasters air an hour of educational programming -- or more -- for children each day. They think it should be "required."

There's more to this argument, but a rational observer or participant of the political process should volunteer that the American republic with its electoral college is the best system of government the world over.

As for being the worst leader in our nation's history, I can think of a few others without even thinking of this clown.

Think about it. If we Yanks did things by popular vote and majority rule, why would smaller states even bother with the Union. You'd have states seceding left and right. You may not like the outcome, but you've gotta love the system. It worked.

Check out Federalist Papers #39 and #68. The fruits of this debate from over two hundred years ago can be found in the text of our Constitution's Twelfth Amendment.

Still wanna gripe? Consider the fallibility of majority rule. 60% of adults surveyed, agreed or strongly agreed that some people possess extrasensory powers. Does that instantly prove that ESP, telekinesis, and clairvoyance are in fact real? Get a load of this one: 60% of adults surveyed support specific requirements that broadcasters air an hour of educational programming -- or more -- for children each day. They think it should be "required."

There's more to this argument, but a rational observer or participant of the political process should volunteer that the American republic with its electoral college is the best system of government the world over.

As for being the worst leader in our nation's history, I can think of a few others without even thinking of this clown.

And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident.

But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack."
-- President Bush

Anyway, I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff -- well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane, or -- anyway, I'm sitting there, listening to the briefing, and Andy Card came and said, "America is under attack."
-- President Bush

And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident.

But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack."
-- President Bush

Anyway, I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff -- well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane, or -- anyway, I'm sitting there, listening to the briefing, and Andy Card came and said, "America is under attack."
-- President Bush

This is an excellent point. For those accusing the United States of "dragging the whole world into war," please take note. This is the way it always is. If there is a true accusation of evil against the U.S., it is that we have not acted swiftly and thoroughly enough in going to war against terrorists (i.e. Hitler, Hussein, bin Laden).

War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.

President George W. Bush, The National Cathedral, Remarks at National Day of Prayer and Remembrance, September 14, 2001