Also, the stat in the show that only 8% of Russians have internet is, well, wrong, it has to be. Use of the internet is wide spread, and growing. The stat must be old, and the internet is growing in leaps and bounds here. Here in Moscow they have the beginings of city wi-fi.. it’s for pay, but costs less then Verizon, and it currently covers the center, and now even some outlying regions, including my remote Uzni-Izmaylovo.

Here’s a map of coverage: http://www.goldenwifi.ru/en/where/

DSL and cable internet are also available everywhere in the city, it’s exploding, and don’t underestimate it or the ability of the Russians to grab hold of it. Take for example the fact that the Russians have taken to the cell phone like a fish to water. Little children have cell phones, I saw a bum stealing half eaten burgers off of empty tables at McDonalds who had a cell phone! I can’t prove it worked, but he was using it.

More commonly referred to as the ‘freak show’.

If Ann Coulter doesn’t wind up in an institution soon….

Hey look at new topic !

Legal Limbo at Guantanamo?

“unlawful enemy combatants” can be imprisoned indefinitely with no legal recourse.

Sourly,

N

Huge evidentiary and the right-to-redress problem:

///He claimed that “many of the detainees at the prison are actually innocent of any acts against the coalition and are being held until the bureaucracy there can go through their cases and verify their need to be released.” – Torin Nelson, who served as a military intelligence officer at Guantánamo Bay before moving to Abu Ghraib as a private contractor last year.\\\

Regardless of her over-the-top assertions, I have to say that I laud peggysue’s activist role in our society.

No one has been jailed for supporting environment friendly policies.People have been arrested for destroying private property, arson, vandalism, and spikeing trees in an attempt to injure and kill loggers. These things are commonly refered to as crimes.

Yes suspected terrorists and people who have tried to kill US citizens have been rounded up and jailed. I see no problem with this.

My favorite silly comment was peggysues post where she hoped the 2008 elections( assuming they would be held) will be more than a theatre to part the curtain for the next phase of Americas further desent into fascism.

Do you know something the rest of us dont? What leads you to believe there will be no elections? Next phase of Fascism–Please ! What are you talking about? Do you really know what fascism is?

Interesting comment, but, quite predictably, not totally honest. “Roobak roobaka vedi’t azdelikah”. Good luck … your gonna need it!

Yes, I did mean to imply that.

By all means … paint! What I’m sayin is when midgets play basketball it just looks funny.

That’s all that’s on your mind? “Pepper spray” LOL Wow! What do you need to protest for anyway? You have some kind of itch that you can’t scratch?

Re: Believe that I live in a country that does not torture (OK, we funded torturers before 9-11 but now we just do it ourselves with impunity).

Just because ‘you’ don’t like it or have the stomach for it, don’t ask others to roll over and play dead. Talk about judging others by ones own standards. Geeze!

Re: Be an environmentalist without being labled the “No 1 domestic terrorist threat”.

That’s because you don’t understand what the label means.

Re: Claim that a person is innocent until proven guilty. (again, there were violations of this prior to 9-11 but now it is done without apology as if it were OK)

Now there’s a statement.

“Squash”? I am Godzilla! More like squisshh! No offence Sutter. I’m just letting off steam because of that scumbag Putin. At a time like this when global tensions are high and terrorists are running around, sometimes I just get pissed because people think that their individual privacy is more important than the safety of the country. Something tells me that after a few minutes of listening to your phone calls the FBI will understand that you are an American civilian who means no harm, and not a terrorist. Then they will squelch you and continue combing for “chatter” and linguistic probability elsewhere. You are not offended that some people take a proactive approach in defending the country – are you?

Re: Take books out from the library without wondering who is going to label me a subversive for doing so.

Well, are you a subversive? I own a copy of Catcher in the Rye. (I couldn’t read more than 15-20 pages it was so damned boring, but that’s beside the point). You don’t have to worry about stuff like that. Now, if you also happen to be purchasing large quantities of bullets and potassium nitrate while borrowing Catcher in the Rye from the library, then, Houston, we may have a problem! It isn’t any “one factor” that draws suspicion. It is usually a combination.

Re: I do, however, loathe people who attempt to squash dissent and criticism of that country with grandiose attacks on those try to make sure it lives up to its aspirations.

When you say “Attempt to squash”, you should really be more careful with your words. Dirt bag Putin ‘squashes’, Saddam Hussein was a ‘squasher’. To me it looks like you are confused about where you live. It is as if you can’t tell the difference between the United States Constitution and the Communist Manifesto.

As I have said elsewhere on this site (in so many words) I encourage criticism and dissent. I am not going to get into it now, but there is a legitimate and illegitimate political left. However, when you say things like “Question authority and have that questioning be viewed by those in power as strengthening, not weakening, democracy” and “…Those [people who] try to make sure it lives up to its aspirations”. Running a democracy includes much more than the lopsided spewing of “right to privacy” clichés and anti-establishment rhetoric. This isn’t “fresh stuff” that you regurgitate. You are just saying it because it gives you a lift and makes you sound more important than you are.

It sounds (now maybe I’m wrong, and please correct me if I am) but it ‘sounds’ as if you have discovered some secret about running a democracy that us lower IQ types never understood. Could it be that these things you speak of are so abstract that people like me just can’t get a handle on it? Would you please light the path for me? Perhaps we should give everyone in the country an IQ test, and whoever scores above a certain percentile will be eligible for the presidency. Would ya like that Sutter? Would you like to meditate over your uninformed and counterintuitive “buzz-phrased” opinions on the one hand, and who is patrolling the land, air, and sea, to see to it that human garbage like Vladimir Putin doesn’t walk in and take away your dreams on the other? Let me know what you come up with Sutter. I’m all ears.