Peaceful protests, holy con men, and paid informants - oh my!

I've got a lot of links saved since I've been under the weather that are still worth reading, so here's a few short takes.

Newly released documents from the Talon domestic surveillance programs provide new proofs that our government was compiling terrorist related dossiers on peaceful Americans.

The latest Talon documents showed that the military used a variety of sources to collect intelligence leads on antiwar protests, including an agent in the Department of Homeland Security, Google searches on the Internet and e-mail messages forwarded by apparent informants with ties to protest groups.

“Veterans for Peace is a peaceful organization,” [one] entry said, but added there was potential that future protests “could become violent.”

Right. There's also a possibility that the next PTA meeting in Louisville will become violent but it's not likely. What does seem likely however, is that our government is continuing with the practice despite promises to purge the lists of those files.

You wonder why we have such an uninformed electorate? Maybe it's because local news stations showed more paid ads than they spent on covering the elections. They spent under two minutes on actual news coverage. That about says it all about the dismal state of our media as an information source.

And I loved this one. James Dobson would love to cure the disgraced Rev. Haggard of teh gay that afflicts him, but says it would take about five years and he doesn't have the time, what with all his board meetings and everything. Where was that bible passage that said - thou shalt put money ahead of salvation? Probably the Book of Revelations.