The last episode has one of the characters threatening to open a new newspaper to report Hearst's view of history. Look at the view of the press expressed in Deadwood; it is hillariously true in a dark, sick way.

On Saturday I saw the NewsHours "debate" on the wiretapping bill. As someone who is/will be subject to wiretapping I have an interest in this subject. As someone who lives abroad I don't have the opportunity to often listen to US elected leaders very often. In my view you are omitting a very important aspect of the FISA debate.

I remember watching parts of the Sept. 11th comission with great interest. I remember quite clearly Tenant "running around with his hair on fire" trying to warn Condi and Bush about unknown plots. I remember agents describing the 21st hijacker as being in their cross hairs, but they didn't quite have a trail of facts against him. The point is we had alot of information on these guys but lacked the "smarts" to put it all together. In my view revamping FISA can't help us address those issues. Futhermore I think FISA won't help make us more secure.

And so we have a new "s"election in Pakistan. Wow. More "creative chaos" in middle-east etc. Just to keep all of us safe. Contrast that with an increase in funding of middle eastern studies programs so people could understand the intelligence they are collecting. But that understanding won't come because middle-eastern studies programs will be closed because of the uncomfortable truths some people will be forced to confront.

But FISA will make us safer. Or so the narrative will go. By way did you see the new smart bomb that the AirForce is contracting out. I's real precision and only kills bad guys. The test I saw hit a traffic come on top of a truck. But the bomb wasn't armed, so we were spared from seeing the real explosion and only saw the cab of the truck explode.

Our tax dollars hard at in the war on terror.

I have a co-worker who was in Pakistan during Bhuto's assasination. His reaction was interesting after he came back. He commented that Pakistan was reduced to anarchy within hours of Bhuto's death and that the army and police were kept off the streets. He described a country of 200 million people reduced to chaos in a couple of hours by organized gangs; he wondered who would have the logistical power to pull it off ... he thinks it is the CIA doing the neocons bidding. This, he feels, in an effort to convince Middle-Easterners that this chaos will be visited on those country's populations that refuse to do U.S.'s bidding.

I hope it's not true.

Point two, wasn't an anti-US government just elected into the Palistinian territories? What has happened? Will anything really change? It will be interesting to see how our client state will handle this situation.

I am an American working in an Australian governmental agency. I have abandoned defending American foreign policy long ago, for in the eyes on many it is patently defenseless. If the situation weren't so sick it would be the subject of high comedy. Just yesterday provides a rich example.

Yesterday it is reported President Bush called the Chineese President to protest recent Chineese activities in Tibet. just imagine, if you will, some of the things that probably went through the Chineese leader's head:

1) Tibet is ours and we're not invading it.

2) We'd have to kill a whole lot of people to catch up with you

3) just exactly what are you going to do to us. we can stop exporting stuff through Walmart and cause real problems

4) Let's completely stop financing your war and finish off the US economy

In the real world people who act like Bush in making the phone call would be called delusional and would be referred for treatment. Today he and his merry band of idiots run the country while the press looks on in blind subservience.

Hi,

1) Have you read the current issue of National Geographic? It is devoted to the ecnomic progress in China as well as China's ecological destruction. It makes for interesting reading/viewing.

2) Maybe the same thing is happening in US science. My partner was at last year's AGU and was talking to a NSF funding agent. The funding agent mentioned he was being forced to choose between supporting one of two researchers. Both researchers have records that span years. The US scientific funding situation is looking very grim.

3) Here in Australia we are looking for hydrologists because we see the need for water resource planning. Despite what Camille Paglia has written we Aussies are having a slight break in a very serious draught. Parts of our largest river system, the Murray-Darling, have the acidity of battery acid because of draught related chemical reactions. During a recent recruiting drive the BOM got over 300 appications for 85 jobs. Most of those applications were from abroad. I wonder how many are from the US?

4) The state of science education in China? So far I'm not impressed. I'm sure that China has some excellent students, but so far the 3 students I have seen haven't been exactly great. Maybe my expectations were too high, but if I were a Chineese taxpayer and I saw these 3 in operation I would feel the program they had participated in was a boondoggle. This is tragic because 21st century China is going to need top notch scientific leadership, and in my small, unscientific sample their educational resources are being wasted. I am speaking from the point of view of an observer of a Uni that has an active, ongoing student exchange program with a Chineese University.