I'm so angry about the NSA data mining news that I can't see straight. Even now, even after all the lies we've seen in the past 5 years, I couldn't imagine that Bush could stand up in public and lie through his teeth about it with a straight face. Not that I think for an instant that he understands anything about "data mining", or that he could tell it from copper mining. No, I think it's another round of their own special sort of lying: they don't set out to tell an untruth, they just say whatever they want to be true at the moment with absolutely no regard as to what the truth actually is.

Ever played "six degrees of Kevin Bacon"? Now imagine that instead of Kevin Bacon, it's anyone the government thinks might be a terrorist. And they haven't exactly established a sterling record on accuracy with that, either. How many degrees do you suppose you are from anybody who might be on a "terrorist watch list"? Pretty soon, everybody will be under suspicion. Voila, police state. Brought to you by Diebold, the Patriot Act, and the letters G-O-P.

I'm joining the chorus of people who think there's exactly one critical issue in this fall's elections, one question that anyone running for office ought to answer: What are you going to do to restore Constitutional government in the United States?