Every administration water carrier should be asked publicly why they trust Big Government to protect them from identity theft forever and ever if they can't trust Big Government to spend their 2007 tax contribution reasonably. After all, this world of information will certainly be abused by common thieves after it gets abused by political insiders.

Count on it. It's called human nature.

-- malcontent

Private firms do, and they make a good profit at it. It's mostly hype. Incidents of ID theft are relatively small and on the decrease. You wouldn't know that if you watch cable TV, would you? Fearmongering. And internet predators are under your bed with the Islamofascists.

That the Time story was datelined Friday. This of course suggests that it was prepared in an effort to influence the FISA debate as opposed to being a reaction to it.

It might as well have been directly adressed to the Blue Dogs telling them not to worry about those pesky Civil Libertarians. After all, Time and Dentist-waiting-room readers everywhere are already on record as not caring.

Am I right in assuming the next Time Man of the Year is Baron Münchhausen?

"they" have something on Calabresi &/or Time's management?

While the right hand of Time Warner(Time Mag) cheerfully aids and abets the extinction of civil liberties, the left (HBO) offers a stirring paenan to John Adams and his fellow founders, who valued civil liberties and the rule of law above all, and sacrificed personal comfort and safety to seek them.

Privatize profits. Socialize debt. All you need to know.

All Republicans do it. Even Ron Paul.

Fearmongering. And internet predators are under your bed with the Islamofascists.

GAH! I thought that ululating this morning was just my alarm clock!!

*jettisons civil liberties*

Actually, I pulled one of those M$M deceptions out of you know where and exaggerated a little. The truth is that my subscription needed to be renewed and I didn’t renew it. Thanks Yellow Dog for catching my yellow journalism. We need attack dogs like you to keep us honest.

GG:

More importantly, ever since it was revealed that the Bush administration has been spying on Americans without the warrants required by law, polls have consistently shown that huge numbers of Americans -- usually majorities -- oppose warrantless spying, exactly the opposite of what Time just claimed.

In my interactions with people on this issue, I've found that the more informed they are about it, the unhappier they are. It's too bad Calabresi has (apparently) determined that the solution to this problem is to just misinform his readers. You'd think his editors, at least, would have found not credible the claim that people really don't care about being spied on, and asked him a few pointed questions before publishing his fiction. The good news is, I suppose, that as informed people stumble across this article in doctors' and dentists' offices across the land, TIME's credibility will erode even further, and they'll slip more and more into irrelevance.

They think we're all stupid...

GG...Have Calabresi and his editors been on vacation for the last four months?

“I was surprised to hear what Calabresi said about interacting with the public after leaving Yale,” said Paul Broomfield, father of Liz Broomfield ‘08. “Basically, he was saying that outside Yale, everyone is pretty stupid.”

-- L.W.M.

...how do they explain George W. Bush?

Check out the expression on Treasury Secretary Paulson's face this morning as Bush is explaining why we don't need to worry about the economy:

http://tinyurl.com/33cvty

If you really want to get your message across, you might return the mag to Stengel in some other form, e.g., shredded, or with the stories or ads you object to torn out and marked with exclamations, etc. (along with a copy of your request to cancel and for your balance to be returned).

You might even hear from the retention department.

Time, Inc. NewsCorp. Clear Channel.

Everything you need to know.

Just roll Time up and swat a horse fly this summer. Dirigo will "Thank Time for the fly swatter."

Swensker, no go to Bermuda. Stay in America. Drink a dark Guiness Beer for Saint Patty Day?

The Dublin Ireland port city "needs American business" and RMP gives good sysprog advice?

Let's not get extra "weird" and trade Lawyer jokes today. I'm really aiming for my farm and barn departure any moment.

apologies. Buy guineas?

A post-grief-syndrome?

Maybe it's a beer I once downed in a Styrofoam cup, post-drink with Pedinska condition? Who knows? Don't go to The New Guineas for protection. Drink green Guiness. The guineas bird do make good substitutes for watchdogs.

The Press is supposed to serve that role.

Why is there No faithful friend, watchdog protecter, of the citizenry.

Re: ID Theft.

I looked into it and as I expected it is not really as big of a problem as you might expect. It peaked in 2006 and has tapered off. The fear of it means big money in fees for the crooks in high finance and thecredit industry, which are the "innocent people" Ron Paul is talking about, so it gets hyped, you freak, pay 40 bucks a month for something you probably don't need.

Apologies to Glenn. I just can't let that crap slide. It's not possible.

Happy St. Paddy's. I'm going to get drunk.

Macgupta,

Find the innocent guys:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notable_cases_of_Attorney_General_Eliot_Spitzer

High finance isn't burglary or obtaining money by false pretenses, but rather a judicious selection from the best features of those fine arts.

Finley Peter Dunne

Even NBC reported previously:

A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.

A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a "threat" and one of more than 1,500 "suspicious incidents" across the country over a recent 10-month period. . . .

The Defense Department document is the first inside look at how the U.S. military has stepped up intelligence collection inside this country since 9/11, which now includes the monitoring of peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups.

Are Time reporters and editors just blissfully ignorant of these incidents or do they conceal them because they negate their clean, crisp storyline?

Intentionally obtuse, I'd say.

FWIW, it was precisely this kind of spying on domestic "targets" in the infamous COINTELPRO program that, in part, resulted in outrage and the enactment of the FISA laws in the first place.

COINTELPRO included warrantless spying as well as infiltration with agent provocateurs to either discredit anti-war groups or egg them into illegal activities.

This is -- or SHOULD BE -- well-known history for anyone who wants to write about FISA intelligently.

Cheers,