If McConnell and Congress are so scared, let them go live in Israel. It's a police state with a great big wall and plenty of gun toting thugs, I mean soldiers.

We were mistaken to assume what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption we could trust the government, that they would not be peeping-creeps.

With certainty,

greed and pride,

dominates for now.

But woe unto neocons.

good night. TY-sysprog!

Many in these pages and elsewhere have been speculating on Congress-critters' motives vis-a-vis FISA, throwing out varied ideas like blackmail, payoffs, election-conscious fear of being branded "soft-on-terror," etc.

Seems reasonable to consider rejecting all that in favor of: they're just stupid. Really. Unable to grasp higher level concepts. It makes sense: how much above average intelligence can you get in a population sample of 535? What reason is there to discern a correlation between 1) the desire and ability to get elected and 2) higher-level intellect.

They're idiots?

[I realize there are likely multiple intersecting reasons for Congress' behavior... just enjoying focusing on this one for now]

;-)

... I will be sure to bring up this posting and rub it in your face, Glenn, as well as all the others that pooh-pooh the very real terrorist threat we face.

I will then ask you to write a well-reasoned excuse to all that attack's victims.

We don't "pooh-pooh" on the terrorist threat.

We think Bush's and Congress' methods are completely ineffective and too invasive on US citizens to be worthwhile.

Get a grip, man. Your panic is undignified.

Sol Invictus (why do s-o-o-o-o many of these little pussy-boys use faux Imperial Romanesque Sounding Titles???) whines: "And when the next terrorist attack happens ... I will be sure to bring up this posting and rub it in your face, Glenn, as well as all the others that pooh-pooh the very real terrorist threat we face. I will then ask you to write a well-reasoned excuse to all that attack's victims."

Sigh, I know your usual position is supine (ie. cowering, or kneeling), or offering your puckered little butthole to the big, bad daddy authorian figures, but do you have to be so danged prissy about it?? What will the other kids think?

Get a'hold of yourself, chile.

You're completely missing the point. The boy who cried wolf endangered himself and everyone in the village, if you recall Aesop.

Remember the first Orange Alert? Remember the second? and the third? Does anyone even know (or care) what colour the alert is now?

In addition to manipulating people's fears for partisan gain, Bush has degraded the nation's preparedness. How much you wanna bet there's not going to be an apology from the Decider when al-Qa'ida blows up a mall?

If they're right and Omaha burns, it's a punchline. If they're wrong, it's still a punchline.

Insolent. Shamelessness. Not noble. Not honorable. Who don't feel a Evil reading your vile back-letters?

O, Rove? O, we people see this dang ignorance.

O, arrogance. Haughtiness. Malice. O, and worst!

~ You are fully deluded too...You are real scum.

And not smart, or not very darn-damn very clever!

How debauched will goo-you'd-ilk further become,

huh, eh?

O, Fools.

You seen constipated.

Yet more severely dissipated.

I can ask you right now to explain to all those who have been killed, injured, imprisoned, tortured, fled their communities and country why this fear you possess justifies all the horror that has been imposed by the people you support. If you can explain that to them, I will be glad to write an explanation if we are attacked in any significant way.

Are you paranoid? Probably a little bit. I mean, you have no evidence that the DNC convention will be bombed. You have merely deduced that it would be an excellent target from the GOP's point of view. Plenty of predictions have been made on such a basis, and they have failed to come true.

But you are well within your rights, I think, to expect something to happen. It's a tough call right now to say whether a new 9/11 would help or hurt the Rethuglicans. Likely hurt more than help, I think. And remember, unless you think the CIA pulled off 9/11 themselves, rather than security having been stood down, there's no reason to think anyone thinks the DNC is a target but you and the GOP.

The GOP is under the ashes,

under the ashes fire burns.

O, hypocrites. Fire burns.

Terrified? O, wait a bit!

Hear anything? Influential?

O, falsification of facts?

O, any false accusations?

O, the phony self-control?

O, sorry. Fake shield ends!

Why do you act so haughty?

(to only discus-Anonymous)

It's too moody and dark for him to be watching the clouds.

Are you just gazing at the Big Dipper? Ya' wood cutter.

If you are not around, we worry you out on the wild town?

William Timberman? Hark! Sing us a song of O herald's sing?

Cheers,

Arne?

Cheese.

Russian Lawyer Seeking US Asylum

Feb 5th, 2008 | MOSCOW -- Boris Kuznetsov, a lawyer who challenged the Russian security services' wiretapping of his client, has applied for political asylum in the United States, his Moscow attorney said Tuesday.

Kuznetsov fled Russia in July after authorities accused him of divulging state secrets by providing evidence of the wiretapping to the Constitutional Court.

The lawyer has taken part in an array of high-profile cases, including representing the family of murdered journalist Anna Politikovskaya, a fierce Kremlin critic, and the families of sailors who died in the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster in 2000.

By seeking asylum, Kuznetsov is "striving to secure himself from lasting and steadfast criminal prosecution," his lawyer Robert Zinoviev told The Associated Press.

Kuznetsov is one of many Russian lawyers to face official pressure after or while working on sensitive high-profile cases or on behalf of clients whom the government perceives as its opponents.

Kuznetsov had appealed to the court to rule on whether the Federal Security Service, the successor of the KGB, violated the rights of his client, a former member of the upper house of parliament, by tapping his phone conversations without court authorization.

His client, Levon Chakhmakhchyan, was arrested in February on suspicion of accepting a $300,000 bribe. Security service agents claim to have caught him in a sting operation.