Heck, they could earn some goodwill by using all those resources to shut down the whole "Rachel from Card Services" operation.

Yep. Government salaries are just hopelessly uncompetitive for any position requiring high-level skills. They try to paper over the problem with flag-pin symbolism, but that doesn't work now that the mystique has been replaced by stench.
 

It's a good idea. It's been tried, though: http://www.flir.com/legacy/vie...

One of the problems with this idea is that it gives rise to the "superman" complex. Namely, that the wearer would charge into a zero visibility situation and loose situational awareness. When the unit failed/went dead/malfunctioned/leaked/whatever, you were thoroughly screwed, as it was like being plunged into a world of black ink.

I say "when" for unit failure because it really is a matter of when. Electronics exposed to the brutal conditions of firefighting will work....for a while.

it is unclear what level of name recognition she enjoys

"Bad news, Ms Fiorina. According to the latest polls, some of the voters still remember who you are...."

It boils down to two simple facts:

1. The default option is a mix of informed choice and lazy inertia.
2. The non-default options are pure informed choice.

The "informed choice" component of the former blunts the contrast, but doesn't eliminate it.

Last time I got one of these calls, it went something like this:

"I need you to open your Windows."
"Can you call me back later when it's not raining?"
*click*

Because suppression of fraud is one of the basic responsibilities of a government.

I don't know why ISDN has such a bad rap.

It's stable as hell, offers a guaranteed bit rate (albeit not that fast by modern standards), and is available just about anywhere in the USA. Mind you, what's a full T1: One form of it is 24(?) ISDN lines bonded together. I was on a 128k ISDN when I lived with the 'folks, as there was no DSL/Cable/Whatever. I torrented the hell out of that connection. Sure, it took some serious time to pull down a .iso of a movie. But it worked. It *always* worked.

Awww, they're so cute when they still believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and politicians' honesty....

Not Eliza -- more like PARRY:

The Feds' insistence on sweeping up all the innocent-communication "noise" is drowning out the signals. (e.g. "Hey, you might want to keep an eye on those Tsarnaev brothers -- see attached description of the stuff they were doing while they were still here in Russia.")

Indeed. This proves beyond any sane doubt that the targets are not foreigners (who for obvious reasons would ignore any "legal framework" and avoid using defective-by-design NSA-approved encryption). The targets are domestic.

And yet that is precisely what the government is pissing and moaning and setting its hair on fire about. Showing that sort of contempt for citizens' private prerogatives is what caused them to forfeit our trust in the first place.

Actually, "both of the above" (foolish and malicious) fits the available evidence best. For instance, Rogers' answers at Monday's cybersecurity forum were both pathetically lame (foolish) and contemptuous of American values (malicious).

And their fruits are rotten and infested with vermin.