And more people die in the US of kidney disease than in terror attacks -- by several orders of magnitude -- every year, including 2001.

This message was brought to you by the Department of Useless Statistics.

Let the War on Nephritis begin!

Sure.

Jesus fucking Christ, Shooter, just spit it out.

Shooter, kindly read the post again.

Steyn is not saying that Greenwald "has a point" that he (Steyn) is part of a "right-wing bloggers who can't sleep at night," rather that he "has a point" which is not, and never has been, that "[i]t's psychologically exhausting being on permanent Orange Alert."

Glenn's point is that 9/11 has been cynically and "endless[ly] exploit[ed] to secure more and more unchecked power." Steyn's is that "strategic challenge it exposed has not been accepted by much of the electorate."

There is no offer of "relenting," explicit or otherwise, in the piece.

It sure looks a concession that "fearmongering" is passe' to me.

You may think that's Steyn's point (I don't), but it's certainly not Greenwald's.

"Da-shiang bao-tza shr duh lah doo-tze"

The explosive diarrhoea of an elephant

I wanted to share something I just read... the riposte I had been looking for when one of our authoritarian trolls mocks our delusion of being so important that the government would actually care about our private conversations. As usual, Arthur Silber says it better than I ever could:

It's not that I think the government is keeping tabs on me in particular. I'm not that arrogant. I'm sure I'm of no importance to the government whatsoever, being a minor blogger with a small readership and all. That's not the point [...] it's not that the government is actually spying on me, or you, or anyone else; it's that the government can spy on any of us, if it wants to -- if it decides to cause us trouble for any reason, or for no reason, or if it decides to make an example of us.

Please click my sig to read the post in full... and I urge you to leave him a little PayPal love if you like what you read. If ten people gave $5, that's groceries for the week. The man is that close to the edge.

Thanks for reading this.

I wanted to share something I just read... the riposte I had been looking for when one of our authoritarian trolls mocks our delusion of being so important that the government would actually care about our private conversations. As usual, Arthur Silber says it better than I ever could:

It's not that I think the government is keeping tabs on me in particular. I'm not that arrogant. I'm sure I'm of no importance to the government whatsoever, being a minor blogger with a small readership and all. That's not the point [...] it's not that the government is actually spying on me, or you, or anyone else; it's that the government can spy on any of us, if it wants to -- if it decides to cause us trouble for any reason, or for no reason, or if it decides to make an example of us.

Please click my sig to read the post in full... and I urge you to leave him a little PayPal love if you like what you read. If ten people gave $5, that's groceries for the week. The man is that close to the edge.

Thanks for reading this.

Your interpretation of a piece may vary greatly from someone else's interpretation.

I can't disagree with you there. You have one interpretation, Greenwald has another, never the twain shall meet, and de gustibus non est disputandum.

Was there anything else, or can you take your petard and go now?

In just a few months, we'll have investigations and judicial inquiries galore, just as soon as a Democratic administration takes over.

There have been a few posts to this effect today - I get that they're intended as wry humour, but I hope no one is fooled that the Republicans will do any better of a job dismantling the authoritarian surveillance infrastructure than the Democrats have done. We'll get a few bullshit investigations of Obama's home sale or Clinton's investment portfolio, stuff of that nature, but nothing substantive.

Of course, I hope along with many Americans, that a President Obama would move swiftly to restore accountability to our Nation's business. I also want the pony he gives me to be brown.

it's going to be difficult to be outraged about information gathering and examination

At some point, it'd be nice if you stopped repeating the same thing over and over again, and explained why you think illegal wiretapping is exactly the same as the government knowing your AGI from 2005.

But I won't hold my breath...

Please, for the love of God, stop with this mindless insistence that we're talking about datamining and keyword searches. Unless you think President Bush was lying when he said

I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051217.html

Maybe it was this:

DS:bs

Unless you can provide some evidence it was done illegally, I'll stick to the data mining and keyword aspects of the issue.

Then-Attorney General Gonzales admitted, in a letter to Congress that, absent additional authority from Congress, the electronic surveillance conducted by the Program requires a court order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. § 1801 et seq.):

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20060117gonzales_Letter.pdf

I have quoted ultra-liberal President George Bush and objectively-pro-terrorist AG Alberto Gonzales at you. If you can't believe them in their own words, I think you're no longer drinking the Kool-Aid but snorting straight rails of the stuff off a Dick Cheney mirror.

Sorry, bud.

Google is your friend.

http://i12.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/d0/26/b508_1.JPG

(click my sig for one to keep)