Those "things" are called bees. And they are not toys. They are livestock, raised for their output just like dairy cows and chickens.

I am a beekeeper and your statement remains meaningless. I might disagree with "requires almost no interaction with the bees" but the GP's basic point remains.

Then you should keep reading because you've obviously missed some details.

The fact that they essentially thumbed their noses at the FBI, NSA, and federal courts without legal ramification tells a thinking man that their attorneys were very much engaged in making sure they toed the line without crossing it. Believe it or not, there are actual attorneys out there who are willing to operate on the edges of a broken system in the fight for what's right.

Then you should think again. The difference is the willingness of a small company to stand up for their values versus a large company's desire to continue making money. Yahoo! challenged the so-called "Protect America Act" in 2008, arguing that the broad, warrantless Internet surveillance (in which they were required to participate) was unconstitutional. The case was sent to the FISA Court, which rejected their arguments. They were allowed to appeal to the FISA Court of Review (one of only two meetings of the court in 33 years), where they also lost. The ruling included this gem: "...efforts to protect national security should not be frustrated by the courts."

Wrong again. A good deal of the data collected and stored by the NSA's PRISM program didn't even require a warrant. Other items were obtained with overly broad and legally unsound "warrants". For example, Verizon has been providing detailed telephone records to the NSA on every call in its systems for months.

The FISA Court is accountable to no one. The FISA Court meets in secret and only one side is represented, so there is no possibility of appeal for those whose rights are trampled. The FISA Court has denied only 11 of 33,942 requests in its 33 years of operation and the FISA Court of Review has met a total of twice in that time period. The design and operation of the FISA Court provides no path for accountability to the Supreme Court. Even if the telecom companies that were required to provide customer data to the government wanted to appeal, there is no requirement that their arguments are considered (the FISA Court allowed Yahoo! to appeal in 2008 so that the law in question could be ruled okay and a heavily redacted ruling released to make sure no one else bothers to try). No FISA-related case has ever gone to the Supreme Court and it isn't clear how one could.

Congress has no oversight of the judges. Each judge is appointed by the Supreme Court Chief Justice with no oversight or confirmation by anyone else, including Congress. In the 33 years of FISA, we've had three chief justices, all conservative Republicans. John Roberts appointed every single FISA Court judge currently serving.

Your dishonesty regarding FISA is troubling. Either you are ignorant of something you strongly support or you are lying in hopes of deceiving others.

Why do you assume that Lavabit did not say "no", provide the reasons, and engage lawyers? When you are told by a judge that your arguments do not matter and you must compromise both your values and your core business model, creatively dragging your feet can be the only option left.

Pretending Joe Lieberman was an Independent is laughable. He was a hair's breadth from being the nation's Vice President as a Democrat and was supported by the Republicans in his campaign as an "independent". He lost the support of the local Democrats because of his war hawk and neo-con positions. Bernie is indeed outside the mainstream and a legitimate independent politician. He's also an anomaly. 1 out of 535. Let's talk when he's one of 30 or 40.

I said that? I said nothing about the Tea Party because I had no interest in that part of your comment. Of course they've had an impact. But they're also a movement within the GOP that is shaping the GOP's platform from within. They are not a third party.

You are aware that this block of independent seats does not exist, right? The House of Representatives hasn't had a non-R/D in almost a decade and hasn't had more than 2 (out of 435) since WWII. The Senate has a single Independent (Bernie Sanders, who considers himself a democratic socialist) who caucuses with the Democrats. Joe Lieberman also was considered an Independent for his last term in office because he lost the Democratic primary but won the general election with support from the national Republican party.

Your post in no way actually supported this conclusion.

You can disagree but you're wrong. When Perot made a reasonable showing in 1992, the R/D party changed the rules to virtually eliminate third parties from all future televised debates. At the national level, there is no means for someone outside the R/D power structure to get elected.

The guy who installed my septic system used to help his father-in-law drill water wells. A guy wanted a well and fancied himself a water witcher. He told them where to drill. When the first hole came up dry he claimed they drilled off of his mark. When the second hole came up dry he said they were drilling slightly crooked. When the third hole came up dry the driller made the guy an offer - let him pick his own spot to drill the next hole: if it comes up dry too the guy doesn't owe him a dime but if he hits water he has pay for all four holes. They agreed and the well driller hit water on his first try.

Experience > magic sticks

How exactly is this blatant protectionism? Japan is the world's sixth largest importer of wheat and one of the US's largest customers. Japan's domestic wheat market accounts for 10% of their usage and there isn't much they can do to increase that. Your statement makes no sense.

Not even the US has approved GMO wheat. Despite Monsanto's press release claiming that this particular gene has been tested and approved, this is not true in the organism in which it was found in Oregon. Monsanto's GMO wheat trials were canceled largely due to the world's largest wheat importers making clear that they would not accept GMO wheat.The EU has said it will begin testing US wheat and will reject any found to contain GMOs. Many nations still refuse to accept any GMO food imports.

Now you're starting to get it. You just agreed that the grant team for the State failed dramatically.

There is zero plausible deniability for those truly at fault. Read the auditor's report. Politics kept the report from recommending any action against Jimmy and his group, but the report makes it clear who failed, how, and why.

Then you should look closer. The head of Homeland Security, Jimmy Gianato, was the grant administrator and this is but one of several gross abuses of the federal money. OT didn't even know about the purchase until the last second. They initially resisted then the head of the department suddenly signed off on it despite objections from the staff, meaning political pressure was brought to bear.

Read the auditor's report - they don't exist. Most of his work was based on two days of meetings. The spec was what he produced from those meetings and the state signed off on it. Why would you think it is his responsibility to maintain this, even if he had it?

If I meet with an architect, describe my dream home, then sign off on the blueprint he creates, would you later say he cheated me because he has no detailed documentation of my original request? I accepted the blueprint. I said it is what I asked him to do. I own it now.

I'm not saying I support Cisco in this, but I can't say I blame them much.

How was their quote inflated? They didn't overcharge for the equipment provided and they provided the equipment the customer wanted.

I agree completely that the equipment is oversized and inappropriate. That the money could have been better spent on a mixture of bandwidth and lower-tier equipment. That the State and the US taxpayers got a raw deal on how the money was spent. However, it was the grant administrator in the state's Homeland Security department that decided to spent $X on Cisco equipment instead of bandwidth or other things. He decided that there was no need to consult those who would know the state's needs. He decided to use Cisco and Verizon rather than go through the legal purchasing process. He decided to just get the same oversized model for every single location.

I'd love to see Cisco help improve the situation by providing the appropriate equipment and taking the other stuff back for trade-in. But before anyone considers a punitive action against them, and particularly the engineer caught up in this mess, I expect to see terminations and prosecutions of the political appointees that caused it.

No, it is exactly nothing like that. The perpetrator was the State's group charged with spending the federal stimulus money, and Jimmy Gianato specifically. The victim is the US taxpayer who's money was given to politically-connected companies (the boondoggle is much bigger than this router purchase). The State employees charged with managing the grant did not do any needs assessments or verification that the equipment they were purchasing would be useful. They went to Cisco with a dollar amount that they needed to spend and a few ideas of what they might want. They got what they wanted - money disbursed, a bunch of it going to the state CTO's previous employeer (Verizon), and some toys for the state if they can figure out what to do with them.