[techweenie]

7. TSA = Gestapo.
The TSA has the right to come to your house and take you into custody. They don't have to charge you with a crime. They don't have to tell you why they are taking you. They don't have to admit, afterward, that they have you in custody. You will have no right to an attorney or review by a court. The rules they use to hold you do not have to be written down anywhere, and are not subject to public or legal review. The rules they apply to you can be unique to your situation and might not apply to anyone else, ever. They can hold you indefinitely. This is the law. We’re all tired of the ‘Reichstag decree’ and Hitler references. Problem is, they are accurate.

8. Money has been squandered in Iraq at an unprecedented rate.
Nearly $9 billion in cash is unaccounted for in Iraq from the rebuilding funds. The police training center built by Parsons at a cost of $75 million has never been usable and will have to be torn down at a cost of additional millions. In a recent inspection, seven out of eight building projects are falling apart — mostly from shoddy construction techniques and materials. Contractors working for the U.S. brought in labor from neighboring countries instead of employing Iraqis, whose unemployment rate is as high as 60% in some areas.

It is intriguing because Mr. Cheney was once Haliburton's CEO and the company has had brilliant financial success since the mantle of the vice-presidency was placed upon his shoulders by the Supreme Court. Lots of people wonder if the reason H has done so well is because Mr. Cheney, while hiding out from real and imagined terrorists, spent his time peddling influence in Haliburton's behalf. Mr. Cheney denies it. He not only doesn't like being called an influence peddler but says the decision to hire Halliburton to rebuild Iraq and pay it more than $1 billion was made by government career procurement specialists with no involvement by senior political appointees. That was, as is much of what Mr. Cheney says, a lie. A Pentagon report released June 14, 2004 said the Pentagon got the assent of senior Bush administration officials before hiring Haliburton to develop secret plans for restoring Iraq's oil facilities. The vice president's chief of staff was one of those officials. Confronted with the contradiction between Mr. Cheney and the Pentagon report, Kevin Kellems, a spokesman for Mr. Cheney said: "We stand by our earlier statements on this matter." That's as good an answer as there is when you've been caught lying.