July 15, 2008, America
Well, the U.S. of A. has hit another great milestone... our terrorist watch list has hit one million names, and counting, according to the ACLU, which monitors government reports. This 1,000,000 number-- which is actually used for the express purpose of hassling people for having the audacity to appear at airports with paid tickets expecting to go anywhere-- is a far "harder" number than, say the 8,000,000 of "Main Core"-- and will have much more immediate real world impact for the lucky duckies poor bastards whose names are on it... which might include you and me, for all we know (seeing as the whole thing is a bloody secret... until you're mysteriously presented from boarding; "the program" might actually be effective at fighting actual terrorism, on "the stopped clock is right twice a day" theory... or more likely, like everything else this Administration does, is completely ineffective at it... but one never knows when things are a complete secret; and with this government, if it had anything good to say, you know it would tell us.)
The good news, at least, is that Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson appear to be good at their jobs, amidst some really challenging economic and financial times. The bad news is that they only run the Fed and Treasury respectively... every other instrument of government is in the hands more typical Bush II Administration apparatchiks. You know: morons. Which explains the whole terrorist watch list, now at around 3/10 of one per cent of the population, and growing every day.
Like I said: morons.