The Senate has now approved an increase in the limit of U.S. national debt. The House approved the increase a while back. Our limit is now $9.815 trillion. (Reuters) While this is shocking enough, a look at the recent history is really interesting. When Ronald Reagan took office, the national debt was $935,100,000,000. By 1987 the debt limit had... Read More

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Oregon shot down 2 parts of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. She said the amendments to FISA allowed the government to conduct searches and monitor American citizens without probable cause, a violation of the U.S. Constitution's 4th Amendment. In her ruling she said that the U.S. government "is asking this court to, in essence,... Read More

Senators Joe Lieberman (I, CT) and Jon Kyl (R, AZ) have offered an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that "accuses Iran of fighting 'a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq' and threatens to 'combat, contain and [stop]' Iran. The right wing has quickly latched onto the amendment, claiming it 'unflinchingly . . .... Read More

Mike McConnell, director of National Intelligence, told the House Judiciary Committee that since he took office last February, they have not conducted any wire-tapping without warrants on American citizens. His testimony was part of the big push by the Bush administration to make the new surveillance law passed in August permanent and to change the... Read More

Are you interested in getting access to the inside scoop on the presidential race and who is making the grade and falling short? Treat yourself to what may be the fastest and most up to date subscription service for breaking news on what you need to know. The Issue Wonk makes delivery of the news you want easy to access and reference. Yes, this means... Read More

If you are or have done any traveling outside the U.S. you know for sure you've been under surveillance. The U.S. government has been collecting electronic records about American travel habits since the mid-1990s but the program has been greatly expanded since 2002. They collect information like with whom you travel or plan to stay and personal items... Read More

The University of Florida had an open forum for students with Senator John Kerry. One student had 3 questions for Kerry: Knowing the election problems, why did you concede so early? If you're against a war with Iran, why don't you impeach Bush to stop it? Are you, like George W. Bush, a member of the Skull & Bones Society? Apparently he used his... Read More

Are you overloaded with news and information that does not mean a lot to you? I have heard of the free subscription services for the news and with these you end up getting overloaded with news to the degree that you can not keep up. The other thing that I find challenging is sorting through all the Google search engine results to find relevant... Read More

According to USA Today, “Five advanced cruise missiles were mistakenly loaded on a B-52 bomber that flew from a base in North Dakota to one in Louisiana. The missiles, set to be decommissioned, should have been removed from the plane. Instead they were mounted on the bomber’s wings.” [Emphasis added.] Now, there are lots of things about this that don’t... Read More

Fact or fiction, good news or bad, how much of what we read in a government news article can be believed? A US government news article out of Washington states "Government secrecy by almost any measure is expanding and little is being done to stop it". Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, compiled the report from the government's... Read More