yemen mail bomb could have detonated over eastern US

[Heracles 417]

I've never very been personally worried about terrorism in this country because the terrorists have thing for airports and a couple of cities but because I don't frequent those places, I'm more likely to struck by lightning living in the boonies. The amount of money we spend to defend ourselves against terrorism seems out of line with a real threat a la WWII axis powers, the Soviets or the Chinese. Modern terrorist spend $20 at a Radio Shack in Aden to build mail bombs and we spend billions trying to defeat these losers.

That's how you stay ahead of the game. 9/11 almost cost them nothing, yet the cost to the US of A was in the hundreds of billions.

What's a waste of money is the $1 trillion wasted annually on the military, considering no army is going to attack the US. Not to mention cutting it in half and spending $500 billion, is still more than enough, five times #2 actually.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I could have sworn someone scandalous was bitching about wiretapping the other day.

Had the US not been tipped off, this person would have very likely succeeded. It's only a matter of time before these guys get though and don't screw up. Just the other day it was released that nuclear material has found its way into the black market. How long do you think before these guys realize that they can literally walk it over the unmanned Mexican - US border?

I'm not against wiretaps! I'm very much in favor of them, when conducted by our Law Enforcement agencies in compliance with our Laws and Constitution. The wiretaps during 2001-2006 were violating the FISA law and the 4th Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure. Starting in 2007 still during the Bush administration and continuing till today in the Obama administration we have broadened the FISA provisions to give our government the increased powers they need to LEGALLY pursue terrorist threats via wiretaps. I'm 100% in favor of that.