I have a LG refrigerator and drive a Kia. (The NSA already knew that) Both of those Korean companies have websites that are made specifically for IE. When you log on they specify IE is the only browser supported and I can attest that Fire Fox does not properly render some pages. As I use a Mac, I have limited access to the web sites.

And if they are doing industrial espionage, do you not think that they are using the political data they amass to influence elections here at home too. Please understand that the NSA reports directly to the Executive branch and the big boss is the President of The United States. I find it hard to believe that the NSA is not feeding the Prez private emails from the Congress and the Judges. The NSA also now has all the contact information from all journalists so all sources are know also. Of course the President doesn't want the program stopped, it's his keys to the kingdom. And if a Republican get elected, he will want to continue it also. To stop the NSA turns Superman into an ordinary human male.

Is there anyone who believes that the U.S. Government hasn't become a huge banana republic? We need to find a way to get term limits and get rid of the cancer that Congress has become. That includes the politically driven Supreme Court also. This is why big government is not good.

However, two of the five people on that committee had no problem with the program. What do schools teach anymore that 40% of the people on this committee and at least that percentage of the population and people in Congress believe it's not unconstitutional?

It does work that way sometimes. Here in Arizona, APS used to provide both electric power and natural gas. They replaced a bunch of gas pipe with a material that was supposed to be superior. I guess it was never tested in the extreme heat because it started cracking and leaking. The leaks caused a couple of explosions and when a local Phoenix TV reporter was killed by an explosion things started happening. APS replaced all that new pipe with a proper heat resistant pipe and the sold the entire gas operation for ten cents on the dollar to South West Gas in Nevada. For profit corporations do do the right thing at times. They just need some prodding from some more powerful entity.

Yes, and this morning I saw a beautiful flock of pigs flying in a vee formation. It was breath taking. You can always tell when a politician is lying... his lips are moving. Double down, change the subject, find another crisis and the press will cover our butts.

I look at it as the Democrats are the Socialist, spread the wealth and tax the working people party and the Republicans are the American Taliban. Kill all the gays and jam some version of the Christian religion down everyone's throat. Neither of them represent the values I have.

Except no one read it. Remember " you have to pass it to find out what's in it"?

You have to be kidding. Have you not seen the cost so far the the American economy? Cisco, Boeing, all the cloud services have lost millions to billions because foreign customers will no longer buy American technology. You think that doesn't hurt every one of us?

There was, once upon a time, a Constitution with a 4th amendment. I don't trust my government anymore. They lie like rugs. The sample doesn't have to be anonymous. They have your vehicle license number. It's probably also a way to help fill the national Police DNA database. No, sorry.

This never would have happened when the Constitution was in effect. None of the three branches of government actually do what they were designed to do in the Constitution. We have the Executive branch making laws, such as declaring changes in the health care law without going through Congess. Clearly a violation of law. We have Congress not passing budgets which is their job and giving away powers like controlling the money supple to the Federal Reserve. The Supreme court won't touch any of this and they pretty much just decide what they personally feel rather than the law. Example; corporations can spend huge sums of money to buy corrupt Congress people and Senators because corporations are people. If corporations are people, why aren't they limited to the same spending limits people are?

That's the way it is in some parts of the world. When I was in the Peace Corps in the Ivory Coast West Africa, I taught at the University of Abidjan. My best friend also taught there. My friend was British and I'm American. The University labeled his classes as "English" and mine as "American". I sometimes still slip and spell color as colour.

I'm one of you, too. I'm in my 70s and I feel fortunate that to have lived in this country when we were indeed free and had no nanny state to look over our shoulders. Why do I have to pay more for a plastic bucket because there is someone so dumb they don't keep their babies out if it. How much money, in time and manpower did it cost to mandate that all buckets have safety labels on them. Just one instance of the Nanny State. It never stops. My mantra has been for many years; Every day the city makes new laws, the county makes new laws, the State makes new laws and the Congress makes new laws. Every one of those laws is something you could do yesterday but can not do tomorrow. Old laws are never removed. At what point are all of our freedoms gone? Throw mission creep into the mix and you end up with out of control organizations like the NSA. The poeple who claim "I have nothing to hide are precisely the people who allow this to happen. They throw away their rights to say no to searching their homes and vehicles and don't believe the 5th amendment is needed. These were and are rights that were given to all of us and I am saddened to see how they are thrown away by uneducated people and stolen by power hungry politicians of both parties.

No you can't. The reason we are stuck with the crappy politicians we have is because the left and the right are so far apart that no red State would ever vote for a Democrat and no blue State would ever vote for a Republican. The politician in office is usually not challenged by others in his/her party so they basically have a job for life no matter how crappy they are. That is what we have now. Senators are especially difficult to pry out of their seats.

When I was in the Peace Corps (American) in Africa, I met several Dutch Peace Corps volunteers. They were all multilingual and their English was almost perfect. They told me that when you come from a small country surrounded larger countries that speak other languages, you learn their languages. They were all great people. The world could use more people like the Dutch.