[OT] RE: [thelist] Call your U.S. representative and senators - B ill of Rights

Thanks for the heads-up wolf.

Unfortunately, this is how things are done in the U.S. goverment.
Sometimes just to get a bill passed millions of dollars of "pork barrel"
spending are inserted into otherwise unrelated bills.  It's an
ephemeral notion that something could get done in Washington
without a whole lot of reciprocative back-scratching.

There is an upside though.  Organizations like the ACLU have a
bunch of money, volunteers, and grit.  They'll back up someone
in litigation with the goverment over First Amendment and other
Constitutional rights.  Eventually, these cases end up in front of
the Supreme Court and many times the law is struck down.

Unfortunately, the process of arguing a case all the way to the
Supreme Court takes a long time and lots of money.  Enough
time, that is, to provide a window for the goverment to install
"legal" bugs, wiretaps, and software.  IANAL, but I'm fairly 
certain that they would not be required to remove those devices
and software if the law was struck down, but they would be
required to prove they were established beforehand.

In any event, it is a nasty thing.  There seems to be this
constant spiral in the U.S. where we give up liberties for security
from each other...  The same powers afforded to the government
to spy on terrorists are the ones that let the government spy
on us normal people.

1984
Farenheit 451
Gramscian politic

Anyone who doesn't think that there is something to be
concerned about probably doesn't vote either...

<tip type="planning">
Never under-estimate the power of diagrams.  With time-to-market
being one of the lead indicators of success these days, we sometimes
just jump in with both feet and modicum of thought.

Once you've got your requirments nailed down, spend some time
thinking about implementation.  Share your thoughts with others,
discuss the consequences of various approaches, create quick'n'dirty
models of interfaces.  When you decide how something should work,
behave, or be presented, write it down.  When you're all done writing
the code should be a breeze and you've got some great documentation.
</tip>