So then the fourth amendment is un-American to you? STOP your blubbering cowardice. Those who would give up freedom for temporary security deserve neither freedom nor security. That is you. You dont DESERVE freedom because you are too much of a coward to risk being free. So chain yourself in your basement and leave MY freedoms alone. I LIKE the fourth amendment. I LIKE being free. You cant WAIT for your chains because you are gutless

I realize Obama has been office three whole months and most of this belongs to Bush, but it’s a sad refrain.

He don’t speak up often but when he does.

And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant….

The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be determined, was in contact — as part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 — with an extremist who had possible terrorist ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency THEN sought to EAVESDROP on the congressman’s conversations, the official said.(the tar baby school of legal jurisprudence)

The official said the plan was ultimately blocked because of CONCERNS from some intelligence officials about using the N.S.A., WITHOUT COURT OVERSIGHT, to spy on a member of Congress.

So…who needs the FISA court, when we have Concerned intelligence officials looking out for our Liberties???

Or Daniel Quinn: “Ishmael”

I think Quinn owes more to Paul Shepard than to Malthus, but they’re complementary sources, imho…

Orin Hatch is a Republican. Even when he says this or that is bad, he never fails to vote with his party. The only reason this is even up for talk, is some senators and members of congress wonder what NSA might have heard them say. It is their own privacy not ours.

Read Thomas Malthus.

Or Daniel Quinn: “Ishmael”

Like Evo Morales, of Bolivia, say?

Just for a moment, imagine what it would be like to have a president who actually possessed (positive) core, non-negotiable convictions, and for whom going on a hunger strike was well within the range of sacrifices they were willing to make to fight for those convictions. While you’re at it, imagine what it would be like to have a populace that demanded this level of conviction in exchange for their support—and refused to settle for less. And finally, imagine how far short of those goals we could fall and still be light years beyond where we are today.

It’s no surprise that we’re constantly told the most we have a right to expect is tiny incremental steps toward positive change, but what’s tragic is that so many people have not only accepted that but have internalized it as though it’s some sort of immutable law of nature. They never seem to notice that those same restrictions don’t apply to negative changes—like (say) massive restructuring of the entire system of world trade, radical financial deregulation, or the repurposing of a “defensive” military organization as a weapon of U.S. foreign policy, to name just a few. They end up excusing and rationalizing the most craven compromises (and even outright betrayals) with carefully-inculcated arguments about pragmatism and political feasibility and the need to lower their expectations.

As a great philosopher once said: you get what you settle for.

As soon as you’d get close, the population would boom out of control again. In fact, it would happen well before the problem had been dealt with.

So it could never happen, without stringent regulations governing human reproduction: e.g., PRC regs on the number of kids…

Why?

Read Thomas Malthus.

No it’s not in their charter. In fact, its explicitly forbidden.

But it’s not illegal when the President does it…Right?

$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.

$550 billion: U.S. Defense budget.

(source: borgenproject.org.)

It’s said a million times- grassroots pressure on the President is what’s needed now and for his entire time in office. No one’s job was done in November.

Not absurd words, but looking at evidence.

With all of this spying going on you’d think that Osama Bin Laden would’ve been located by now?!

Osama Bin Laden was a CIA agent and had nothing to do with 9/11, which was an inside job, a false flag operation.