That others engage in cronyism doesn't make Jesse Jackson's actions not cronyism.

You are probably correctly assessing the reliability of Wikipedia, but I think you are grossly overestimating the reliability of Encyclopedia Britannica. Also, you apparently have no idea what the hell a blog is..

keep that in mind, but don't forget that this is nothing new. We've had hoaxes pick up steam for a long time.

No, from the letter of the law, this is bunk. The relevant tests make the claims an absolute joke. They are just hoping to cash in, and if they get anything close to their claims, it would probably be more money than the AHRA has brought in in it's entire lifetime.

Because parallel construction would arguably make the information fall under the 'fruit of the poisonous tree' because the anonymous tip is coming form the government or someone effectively in their employ. If we allowed that, it would effectively be a complete end-around to the fourth amendment.

I'm not aware of any group within the Americas that typically identifies themselves as American other than residents of the USA. It's also worth remembering that Mexico is technically the United States of Mexico (Estado Unidos Mexicanos), so USians could also apply to Mexicans.

You act as if there is no relationship between the two, when it's quite clear that both sides are complicit with each other. The militarization of local police is due to all of this war on terror crap, and much of the gear they get is from military surplus. And the lying about evidence is at least partially because the NSA is feeding them tips or something similar (like the business the NSA undoubtedly throws towards stingray manufacturers to local PDs)

Plus, the DEA has no legitimate function, and the NSA doesn't appear to actually perform any of theirs.

The threat of losing their job is moot if the employer won't fire them for it, and admitting that you used drugs bears no legal consequences outside of the statute of limitations, nevermind that there probably isn't enough evidence even if it wasn't,and you'd have to get a DA to prosecute someone with a security clearance.

Furthermore, that line of reasoning only works on people that could be blackmailed, which would suggest the best candidates are those that are openly deviants.

Someone who has used ketamine is not necessarily a drug addict, and it's the teetotalers you need to be wary of.

Yes, polygraphs aren't baseless pseudoscience, but basically all of their practical usage is baseless pseudoscience.

They are better than chance if the individual is untrained at countermeasures and has no other conditions that might affect the test. Countermeasures are pretty easy to learn and widely available, with killing the placebo effect being a pretty good way to tip the scales by itself. Since a security clearance exists to prevent exactly that kind of person from having access to state secrets, they are useless to the point that giving them any kind of trust is a bigger threat to national security than most of the people we drone strike, not to mention the reality of excluding possible skilled candidates.

You also left out people who were raped, and a fair number of hospital staff. Not to mention, that if you forcibly relocate people, they are going to be even less honest about having HIV, which means more people will catch it and possibly spread it before they find out they have it.

I do know that TVshack was legal in the UK, which was why US extradition was sought. I'm not sure exactly under which legal umbrella they put TPB, but it probably boils down to being pressured so much by the BPI that they ignore what the law actually says.

Looking at the site itself, it appears to be a term, a link, and a source on the removal. It's incredibly sparse.

If it's just the link he's providing he'll probably be okay (though has libel even been tested in the face of wilfully linking without regard for the truth? - the piracy argument was lost on this one, but what about libel?), but if he's including the descriptions he's fucked if it goes to court

Was it actually lost? I'm not aware of anything actually holding up in court. ICE has seized domain names, but all of those are just cowboy operations where they shoot from the hip and don't let questions be asked because of national security. I know in Spain and the UK, linking sites have been explicitly declared legal, and I believe the US government is trying to avoid any precedent on this matter.

It doesn't appear that the site is making any claims about accuracy or anything, so there's not really a risk of libel The site just links to the stricken results, nothing else.