Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of U.S.
Interesting headline, what the software is going to do is monitor overseas(for now) newspapers and other publications, to perform “sentiment analysis,” to identify potential threats to the nation. In other words, if someone is saying we started a war based solely on lies (Iraq), then they must be plotting against us, and so on.

Researchers at institutions including Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Utah intend to test the system on hundreds of articles published in 2001 and 2002 on topics like President Bush’s use of the term “axis of evil,” the handling of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the debate over global warming and the coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
This far oversteps the original mission of the DHS.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, said the effort recalled the aborted 2002 push by a Defense Department agency to develop a tracking system called Total Information Awareness that was intended to detect terrorists by analyzing troves of information.
“It is just creepy and Orwellian,” said Lucy Dalglish, a lawyer and former editor who is executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Of course, it used to be, that we at least had the appearence of rights, now, in the name of security, we are spied upon, and occasionally locked up, without evidence, or the commission of a crime, “I arrest you for the future murder of…,”
simply because, of the inability, of the so-called “Intelligence community,” to actually act or report, without considering the expectations of the politicians they’re reporting to and the unwillingness of law enforcement to investigate when something is reported, I feel certain that we are less safe now, than we were before 9-11.
(Hey boss, we’ve got a known terror suspect taking flying lessons, do you think we should look at him? Oh, Ok, we’ve got to get to work reading some politicians dirty email. Yes, of course, I agree, that’s far more important.)
The base problem is, we have too many bureaucrats, to many political appointees, too much in-house politics, (it’s better to play golf with the deputy director, than it is to be good at your job.), and too many layers of folks appointed on the friends and family plan, to jobs created just for them, or to jobs that should be done by experts.
Have you ever played telephone? That’s where a bunch of people line up and the first one whispers a phrase in the second one’s ear, the second one repeats it to the third one and so-on. The results are invariably funny.
Now, add politics and personal agendas to the mix, put a few thousand lives on the line, and it’s no longer amusing.

Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for this past year was a lump sum of $20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation’s capital “for commemoration of success” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lt. Col. Brian Maka, a Pentagon spokesman, said late Tuesday that the event was envisioned as an opportunity for “honoring returning U.S. forces at the conclusion” of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. “As the funds were not used in F.Y. 2006,” the official said, using the initials for fiscal year, “the authorization was rolled over into F.Y. 2007.”
“If the Bush administration had spent more time planning for the postwar occupation of Iraq, and less time planning ‘mission accomplished’ victory celebrations, America would be closer to finishing the job in Iraq,” said Rebecca M. Kirszner, communications director for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader.

According to his lawyer, David Roth, Representative Mark Foley Was Sexually Abused as a Youth.
OK, and this excuses his behaviour how?
“Based upon the experts that I’ve spoken to,” Mr. Roth said, “the combination of alcohol, mental illness can result in inappropriate conduct, which Mark Foley has fully accepted responsibility for.” “Inappropriate conduct,” read, it makes you too stupid to avoid putting it in writing.
He said Mr. Foley, who was raised a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools in Lake Worth, had wanted to identify the person he said had molested him from ages 13 to 15. But his civil lawyers had advised him not to do so until he had completed treatment, Mr. Roth said. He even refused to identify the man’s religious affiliation.
“I cannot comment on whether the clergyman was a priest, a minister, an imam or a rabbi,” he said.
Right, Foley was “raised a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools,” but, we won’t tell that yet another Catholic clergyman has a weakness for young boys.

Sid Dinerstein, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, said he and other Republicans intended to trumpet the story of Mel Reynolds, the former Democratic congressman from Chicago who was imprisoned for corruption and for having sex with an under-age campaign worker. Former President Bill Clinton pardoned Mr. Reynolds before he left office. (Yet another, “Old boys network,” get out of jail free card.)
“If the Democrats want to fight on the issue of who’s protecting the public and the children and all that,” Mr. Dinerstein said, “God bless them, because two weeks from now Mel Reynolds will be a household name.”
Remember Gerald Ford saying “I won’t pardon Richard Nixon,” followed closely by, “Hey, Tricky Dicky, I know you haven’t been convicted of anything, but here’s your pardon anyway.”

Some things will never change, J. Edgar Hoover, not only used the Bureau to spy on people, he used the information to blackmail them.
McCarthy, waved handfulls of blank paper, claiming to have a list of so people who were communists or fellow travelers, he put enough pressure on people with his lies, that they lied about their friends, he invented charges and ruined lives.
All of this was done in the name of “the security of our nation.”

I’ve got to quit reading the news, and find a place to hide.