In other news, the UK PM Sir Mortimer Chris (played by David Cameron) said:
"It's all because of the invisible leprechauns. It's true, because I saw it in a film. We have to be much tougher on everything and everybody in order to eradicate this terrible pest. The Snooper's Charter is just the beginning; I'm now working on the draft Wear Your Underpants On The Outside For Hygiene Law (WYUOTOFH law).

Most of my cabinet ministers have agreed with me, and those who haven't (because the leprechauns subverted them) have agreed to be publicly crucified in Wembley stadium to atone for their weirdness and sins.

I have instructed our nuclear submarines to go to code Red. Death to leprechauns. God will save us!"

I thought GM was in dire straits due to the financial crisis of 2008, and had to think of ways to sell *more* cars to the public, rather than *less*.

Yes Stenvar, you're exactly right. Oh and for your own safety and well-being, be sure to never ever visit Europe. Thanks! ;-)

You're doing it wrong.. Of course the car will only be able to drive *as long as it keeps receiving the official "you're allowed" signal*.

Reminds me of FlexLM license manager program in the '90s. Look at it wrong, and it decides you're trying to tamper with its functions, and kills all legitimate paid for use of the licensed program.

That reminds me of the U.S.A.'s use of treaties and trade agreements.

Heh "sorry, we'll just all have to harmonize our copyright law with Mexico. Oh! they have 100 years post mortem auctoris instead of 70?!? Gosh.. we didn't know"
(That's TPP I believe)

newspaper article:

"In other news, this morning during rush hour there was a random glitch in the Car Safety System, not caused by anything like blackmail at all (how dare you suggest such a thing!) which stopped every other car on the autobahn until .. the situation was resolved. Spokespeople said the CSS is very safe, and such glitches will not happen very often again. Possibly."

Just imagine: the police are surveilling you and all you do is push a button and your car's RFID tag says it's an undercover police vehicle with the <do_not_track> flag set. This is not the car you're looking for.

You have got to be kidding... I like conspiracy theories, but I don't believe THAT, [citation needed].

There was IIRC one senator or somebody who called for W. Bush to be impeached; I think his name was Kuchinich(sp?). It was on the news (in Europe).
I was a bit surprised that there didn't seem to be any actual impeachment process, almost like
"yeah, but Congress is not *really* going to impeach the president for starting a war--that was just for laughs! silly rabbit! Impeachment is only for shoving your <[censored]> in immoral places"

Earth is already a spaceship. The problem is, we have no control over where it's going.

The famous inventor and architect R. Buckminster Fuller has already written a (sufficiently loony) essay/book about this in 1968:
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.

It has pirates in it, too. And the original coining of the word "synergy". But it is much weirder than you may think (IMHO).

I've been thinking about it, and I think even more punishment needs to be dealt out:
The senators or whatever on the security services oversight committee have done the American public a great disservice by increasing Clapper's budget instead of starting an impeachment against him; therefore, they're clearly not up to their task, and their seats at the oversight committee should be given to different senators (probably replace each senator by another one from the same political party is easiest).

No.. I'm a bit unclear about American politics, but I thought that Clapper was an *appointed* official, not an *elected* official. The *elected* officials are supposed to have more power, including the power of oversight and supervision of the *appointed* officials (directors of government organs).

I could be wrong though.. maybe it's different in the USA. Please correct.

I thought the American Way (TM) was to offer him a plea bargain of reduced sentence if he blabs on Keith Alexander's shenanigans
I though the American Way (TM) was to offer Keith Alexander a plea bargain of reduced sentence if he blabs on <his underlings>' shenanigans
(recursive)

In fact, at this point it looks like the vast majority of congress, regardless of aisle position, and the white house didn't really know the extent of what was going on.

That means, that in the USA there's an organization (NSA) with a budget of billions, with no effective oversight, that specializes in (industrial) espionage on everyone in the world.

As a European, I feel so much safer now!

You're right, but that is not the issue here.
The official mechanism consists of "sneaky and devious three-letter-organization" together with "independent oversight committee of important US congress members".
The surprise is, that when the oversight committee was publicly shown (by Snowden) to have been lied to, they didn't immediately start impeachment procedure against Clapper (because he embarrassed their oversight powers; not because of anything particularly devious that the NSA did) but rather INCREASED THE NSA BUDGET. THAT's a surprise.