I caught a brief twitter message by @codinghorror mentioning the new GI Joe movie that will be promoted during the superbowl. Fabulous, I'm saying in my head as I click through. Another mediocre adaptation of an 80s cartoon given the big Hollywood treatment. Isn't what they did to Bumblebee enough? if only they would--

I... yeah, sorry, I can't remember what I was saying anymore. My inner 11 year old is at the controls right now, and he just keeps saying, "OH MY GOD DID YOU SEE THAT SNAKE EYES TOTALLY JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE WITH A SWORD AND FLIPPED A CAR OVER AND FOUGHT STORMSHADOW, THAT WAS RADICAL!"

Now you know.

So, it's all over the news wires that the US knew the identities of the 9/11 hijackers before they did the deed. Apparently, we had a crack team of data miners working as early as 1999 on ways to ferret out Al Qaeda cell groups based on legal, publically available information. The cell that orchestrated and carried out the 9/11 attack was spotted by the group, and the names of those involved were kicked up to superiors to alert the FBI and other authorities.

They dismissed the reports, because the soon-to-be terrorists had proper documentation.

To my mind, this is a great example of why the Patriot Act, and other measures designed to 'untie the hands of law enforcement officials' are not only unecessary, but dangerous. Using means that were available and legal in the 90's, we were able to spot the terrorists before they did anything. We ignored it. Blaming missteps like that on 'too many civil liberties' strikes me as disingenuous, lazy, and dangerous.

Even if you trust today's government, and believe they don't abuse the holes in our civil liberties, do you trust the good intentions of every future administration? It seems to me that the Founding Fathers understood that The System had to be built to stop the bad guys from abusing power. Building it to Give Good Guys All The Power They Need was asking for abuse.