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With all due respect, what is your "libertarian paranoia alert system" up to here in the US in light of revelations that President Bush believes he has the power to spy on US citizens without a court order? The Patriot Act is one thing, but this would move me up to orange at least...
Mike McKain | 12.22.05 - 10:38 am | #

If I had a decent graphics editor, I could make one, but I think we're still at Yellow, if only because I suspected ths was going on on some level, and it isn't indiscriminate in the way that the U.K. thing is. Pre-9/11, we were on Blue, though.
Ryan S. | Homepage | 12.22.05 - 10:53 am | #

hmm, I suppose you could actually make the case that its slightly less creepy now that its exposed, in that it is no longer "secret" spying on American citizens. Still not something I'm comfortable accepting and I remain doubtful about its legality.
Mike McKain | 12.22.05 - 3:07 pm | #

Mike: Is anyone really comfortable with it? And was it a revelation about Bush authorizing what he did? After all, if you've been following the news, Bill Clinton argued just what Bush has done -- even Clinton deputy AG Jaime Gorelick -- former 9/11 commissioner -- argued such back in 1994! "60 Minutes" did an exposé back in 2000 on the NSA monitoring all communications in the USA (nay, everywhere) called ECHELON. Jimmy Carter argued same, too!

Is it right? I don't know, yet. But the people saying "revelation," and the hooting and hollering like we've all been short of raped is just laughable. Of course, if the terrorists nailed us again, Pelosi and Reid and Dean and everyone else would call for Bush to be impeached for negligence or whatever else they'd want to call it.
Hube | Homepage | 12.22.05 - 6:30 pm | #

True, this did not really come as a surprise to me - I think I was also quite shocked that he came out and fessed up the way he did, but then turned around and made claims of its legality, when few have rallied around him to support that claim thus far. It will be interesting to see if his attempt to avoid the "coverup worse than the crime" trap helps him out or if he still gets stung.
Mike McKain | 12.23.05 - 2:49 am | #

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