These are not modern conveniences. The idea that we have to retrieve paper money from a system, that we have decided, should "hold" our money for us, and that we would pay to retrieve our money...is more antiquated and riddiculous than carrying chickens around under our arms for barter. Instead of being incensed that the free market brings us fees for transactions, we should question the design of the whole system.

I foresee a future in which cash is no longer used. Our cellphones will wirelessly transmit authorization of purchase. Our funds will be held in money producing floating accounts around the world that take advantage of fluctuating currency rates and full time operation. Take a guess on which spectrum all this will happen? You can now pay for music purchases wirelessly in any Starbucks with your iphone or ipod. How long before you can also pay for your coffee? Google, Apple, Amazon, and other companies that have established themselves as digital marketplaces will boom when the real world becomes interconnected to the network. Just a matter of time. You'll look back on the days of paying to retrieve your "cash" and chuckle.

If you don't color within the lines, and attempt a protest outside the established parameters of protest, this is exactly what you get. This is, and has been, the state of America for the last 50 years. We are just seeing it revealed more often because we live in a video era. If this had happened 15 years ago, the news paper headlines would read "Unruly deranged man removed from forum after threatening Senator, charges are pending." This is more than an issue of the bizarre Orwellian tactics of the police/state to quash dissent, it is what Noam Chomsky points out is the typical reaction of any manufactured authority, to anyone who raises his head out of the sand and questions that authority.

Mitt's response is also telling. Why is it considered normal, in a two way discussion, for a questioner to be given a time limit and the questioned not? Why is a questioner that covers many topics and goes over the time limit considered "crazy," rambling," or "unruly" and the same behavior is typical in most politician's responses to questions?

Shouldn't this been written four years ago when the Blackwater employees were hung from a bridge in Fallujah? Why is your reporting so reactionary? Questions should be asked the minute our government unconstitutionally uses our tax dollars to fund a mercenary military that in turn lobbies our elected officials and contributes to their campaign coiffures. Not only are they not responsible for their actions, they are also not in any chain of command. Any military general, like Petraeus, should question the need for heavily armed quasi military troops, operating outside his chain of command and operating inside his theater of war.

Was Brian tapping Rudy on the foot when he posed the question?

"Saddam, if he didn't have weapons of mass destruction, would move quickly to try and obtain them."

Someone please ask him, and others who use this new justification, what information he has to support this statement. Saddam himself stated that the sanctions had worked and that he had expended all of his money and treasure on 10 years of war with Iran and that the only reason he continually rattled his sabers was because he could not let his neighbors know how weak he really was.

"...nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself..."

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures..."

We have more to loose than what we gain by having the government spy on its citizens (even bridge building Senators from Alaska.)

I was on an airplane that had to emergency land at Boston Logan airport because one of the two engines exploded and was on fire. A real explosion, with a real threat to life. After we disembarked the Delta Airlines flight (that was emergency diverted to Logan) we were met by...no one. No police, no emergency personnel, no representatives of Boston Logan Airport, no firefighters......nobody. Delta misreported the incident in the media as a routine technical problem, and the media reported it as such. I had to call the media myself to let them know what had really happened. I also called the NTSB and informed them of the truth about the incident. A real threat to human life goes unreported, a false threat gets national attention.

News.

I thank you Glenn for a well written article.

I read this column for news items and letter writer's reactions to news items. I don't appreciate hypothetical scenarios. If you want to suggest that John Edwards' contest may be exploitative then do so. Posting false items lacks journalistic integrity. Now I will have to double read any of your posts to see if they contain untruths, or made up hypotheticals.

Salon,

I don't think this type of post is indicative of good journalistic practice. As you can see by the letter writer's responses, many people were confused into thinking that the Rudy Guiliani contest scenario was real.

What happens when the mission of American forces are at odds with the mission of the Blackwater corporation? What happens in the future when the government of Israel or Pakistan hire Blackwater employees? Do they take all their intelligence with them? What if we are ever in a conflict with this corporation supplying troops to the other side? Haliburton went global, relocating their headquarters to the middle east, it is only a matter of time before Blackwater does as well. If they are capitalists, they will certainly be looking to supply their services to other countries in the event of American peace time.

Fuck all these free speech quashing quislings. Throw out of office anyone democrat or republican who signs anything criticizing anyone for speaking.