The health care industry was the employer. Did you really think that it was just a major coincidence that only those patients who were also doctors had their SSNs leaked?

Yeah, like that is really verified. Just google "voter registration" to find out why that can't really be considered valid in the US. Yes, we really do have a major political party that has dedicated itself to the notion of allowing anyone to vote, regardless of eligibility (citizenship).

Exactly how can you steal someone's identity? Aren't they still there? Don't their friends still know them? This just makes no sense.

Oh, we could go even further and mention programming and IT work. We'd get even closer if we mentioned basement dwelling as an occupation.

Yup, win a prize worth more than $600 from the radio and such and you won't receive it until you've filled out the 1099 related paperwork that requires you to give yuour SSN. Win more than $600 at the casino or in something like a dart tournament and the same thing happens?

Oh, and as far as end-of-year payments... Coming up quite short on all that excess income will result in some penalties, the least of which is requiring you to file quarterly estimated payments. In other words, if you have a lot of taxable income not subject to withholding, you better be making some mid-year payments or adjusting the withholdings to account for it or you will be required to file and remit quarterly payments the following year.

But what he did were also crimes in Russia and were partially committed within the US.

We did not indict him for being a politician's son. We indicted him for committing crimes. Personally, I find it ridiculous that diplomats get blanket immunity from prosecution but I fully understand the reasoning behind it. Now we have people suggesting that not only do accredited diplomats get immunity, but any politician? Seriously?

because America... Therefore, bad.

And another Executive Branch agency just went to the Maldives to protect American (and other states') commerce (very much related to shipping as the purpose of said shipping was to engage in commerce. So how is his analogy "very tenuous"?

"Actually a kidnapping"... I guess in an ideal world, nobody would ever break laws so we wouldn't need such unpleasant things as extradition treaties and such. However, we live in this reality and the situation is pretty simple. Mr. Seleznev was in Russia suing international communications media to commit crimes against American corporations and citizens. Had his activities been targeted against Russian corporations and citizens, he would still have been committing crimes; the same crimes. If Russia was unwilling to extradite him, then that makes the Russian government an accomplice to his crimes. One of the main purposes of countries having militaries is to protect their citizens and their citizen's legitimate business interests. This is because countries have decided that engaging in commerce with each other is a good thing and no country can afford to not protect its interests.

Attila, we are probably in agreement. I was merely trying to point out that the Civil Service Act does not protect everybody on the federal payroll as the top few levels are considered political and not career.

Oh that's rational debate right there, that is.

Surprising that "Mother Jones" would distort the truth, isn't it? What is even more surprising is that people have ever viewed them as a credible source of anything.

Seeing as where I am sitting was at one time under tens or hundreds of feet of ice for thousands of years but seems to have had people living here for thousands of years after the ice disappeared, I'd guess that maybe we've been in a warming period since before the industrial revolution.

They have the power to fire the policy makers and that is where the problems start. For instance, Lois Lerner could easily have been fired by Obama. Eric Holder could easily be fired by Obama.