No, physical, bodily protesting is too radical.

...there's that "crap cannon" to worry about. "1-2-3-4s, I just soiled my f***ing drawers!"

There was a reason everybody's mom used to say things like "if Bobby jumped off the Empire State Building, would you jump off the Empire State Building?"

Even if everybody here venerated Scandinavian social democracies as much as you say we do (hint: we don't), surveillance without oversight has no place in a free society, and is wrong whether committed by the left or right.

Shorter me: nice tu quoque.

The Great Uprising of 1877!

referencing only those events and persons whom he personally came into contact with or witnessed

LOLs. I know WT lives in Arizona, but he'd have to be well into his second century to have been contemporary to most of the events/peeps he referenced.

A lot of us history geeks forget this stuff isn't well known. Goddess knows ut certainly should be. The history of this country - like every other one - is a history of class conflict.

I thought it was sarcasm. Unless Omar was being sarcastic...

When did this place get so meta...?

clinton backers are republcains. YOU STILL LOSE. You can't even sabotage correctly. You people are worthless. Crawl back in yoru holes for 30 years.

(Spock eyebrow-raise)

Andy Kaufman lives.

If the people who would be prosecuting you are telling you it's OK, why should you be expected to doubt them? Don't you expect that they, who are charged with seeing that the laws be faithfully executed, would know the legal ramifications and have accounted for them before asking you to supply the information?

This is Verizon and AT&T we're talking about here, not Mom and Pop Telecom. They've got more lawyers than I've got gray hairs (and that's a lot because I've got my share). They know exactly what the law is.

Whatever their reason for cooperating, it was not due to ignorance of the law... and as the old saying goes, that's not an excuse.

I'm starting to think you're actually a troll here

You're kidding. What was your first clue?

...there is glue in it

Word.

Maybe we can organize the Strangebedfellows dudes into a Pirate Party coalition. It's obviously going to be needed regardless of who wins, fair or not, in November.

And a side note in re: anger, to comrade Jelperman -- rufus is a spoof troll. The spellnig and rEVERSE cAPS are a sort of code. In other words, you're getting pissed off at the online equivalent of a pro wrestler.

a pleasant night to all

n/t

Seriously, if you don't have anything to hide then you don't have anything to worry about do you?

Good point. Because it's totally impossible that an innocent citizen named, say, "Bucks4McCain" might be, through normal human error, confused with a suspected terrorist named "Bucks4BinLaden."

As we all know, the United States Government is wise and infallible - except, of course, in matters such as taxation and the regulation of tailpipe emissions - and thus there is no danger in vesting it with vast, sweeping powers.

That is, after all, what our forefathers fought and died for.

God Bless America.

petition for this particular bill to be included on the ballot in November

I'm curious what you think this means.

Maybe you live in California, as I do, but no matter how many people with petitions lay in wait for voters outside Targets in, say, Peoria, this bill will never be "included on the ballot" in Iowa.

Well, one would hope!

Hey man... adnoto's yanking your chain.

Between rufus and adnoto it's getting like Swampland around here. I think i need to go drink some lunch...

You are obviously anti-military

...enough with the self-hatred!

by only allowing McCain to really fuck things up and his successor and their successor will we be rid of this infestation, this fetid disease, this cancer called 'conservatism'.

If the last seven years haven't given the lie to that silly, silly idea, do we really have to go through another eight to finally disprove it?

Siegfried: How do I know you're not from CONTROL?

Maxwell Smart: If I were from CONTROL, you'd already be dead.

Siegfried: If you were from CONTROL, YOU'D already be dead.

Maxwell Smart: Neither of us is dead, so I'm obviously not from CONTROL.

[long pause]

Shtarker: That actually makes sense.

There is a movie quote that covers every situation, by the way...

Nobody gives a shit about abortion anymore.

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880530131

figure out the way to spend it that creates the largest impact

I am probably the last person to be able to answer this question (how to spend money for political advertising effectively). I do wonder, though, if there were any way to start a meaningful campaign to try and educate the American people as to what's going on... with the idea/hope/fantasy that they'll start applying their own pressure.

I guess, though, we'd be talking about tens (hundreds?) of millions rather than hundreds of thousands...

(h/t Kitt for headline)

We're you listening to the Dude's story?

I grew up - literally - with Carlin. He was the father figure I never had... which explains a lot about me, I guess.

All I have right now is "shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits."

a moment of silence, please.

then, more outrage