You can offer the ability to citizens to choose from one of the two parties and elect their leaders as much as you want. But "democracy" is an illusion - a sham - if the most significant acts taken by those leaders are kept concealed from the citizenry.

A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes a compliant and fearful one.

[I]f you want instant, reflexive support for the US government's police and military powers, MSNBC is the place to turn these days.

To permit surveillance to take root on the Internet would mean subjecting virtually all forms of human interaction, planning, and even thought itself to comprehensive state examination.

Transparency is for those who carry out public duties and exercise public power. Privacy is for everyone else.

One should be weary of drawing too many inferences from a single poll. You can find wildly disparate results with two different polls. There is no question that American Muslims remain one of the most marginalized and demonized groups in United States. There has been a sustained propaganda campaign against Muslims for over a decade and it doesn't disappear over night. Those attitudes are hardened. But one of the things that polling often doesn't measure is the intensity of opinions.

You can't have a pristine house with ten dogs, and I'd rather have the ten dogs.