FredThompson - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Terrible reporting. A little perspective... (Score 1) 222

by FredThompson on Friday October 10, 2008 @12:00PM (#25328605) Attached to: NSA Whistleblowers Reveal Extent of Eavesdropping

Being an American citizen doesn't exempt surveillance in all cases. Conversation WITH known targets and being outside US land change the conditions. The basis goes back to separation of intel agencies where the NSA wasn't supposed to do stuff inside US lands. That was possible when phone numbers were trackable to physical locations because they used wires. US citizenship is not lifetime immunity.

Also, there's a 70-year gag agreement when you leave NSA. These "leakers" just broke that.

This is a non-story that stinks of pre-election "mud on a wall."

Is An Uninformed Vote Better Than No Vote? 1048

Posted by Cliff on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @05:33PM from the voter-responsibility dept.

ras_b asks: "I don't pay attention to politics at all, and so I will not be voting in today's elections. My family has been telling me that this is a mistake and I should vote anyway, partly because I have slightly conservative views which agrees with their political outlook. My reasoning is that since I am totally uninformed, I shouldn't vote. I don't want to vote Republican or Democrat, only to find out later I totally disagree with something a candidate stands for. So, here's my dilemma and my question: Is an uninformed vote better than no vote?" This issue is touched upon in a posting by Ezra Klein, of the The American Prospect, who disagrees, arguing against a similar assertion by Greg Mankiw, from a suppressed Fortune article. Greg says: "Sometimes...the most responsible thing a person can do on election day is stay at home ... If you really don't know enough to cast an intelligent vote, you should be eager to let your more informed neighbors make the decision." What do you think?

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