And I have confidence in my ability to hide it.

I don't neccesarily believe that anything I wish to hide would survive having the full investigatory resources of the US Government brought to bear against it. But I know that if everyone wishing to do harm to the US took the same precautions I take to keep my pecadillos relatively secure, our information arms race would hit the average Joe Citizen alot harder.

The corrolary to that is that I'm pretty certain that we're only seeing the careless ones. The ones with a long-term investment in conducting antiamerican activities are better at this than I'll ever be. The average citizen may not stand a chance at keeping the .gov out of their bedroom, but a smart criminal, of any sort, has a fighting chance. A smart criminal with organized pals in it for the long haul isn't going to go down because they got careless with their email or their credit card transactions.

Does this mean Ashcroft and his ilk are wrong in their actions? Maybe, maybe not. I'll say this -- many of you armchair attorneys general out there might not be so quick to fault the measures being taken now if you suddenly found yourself saddled with the responsibility of securing the lives of millions of your fellow citizens. Knowing that every measure you took to safeguard their lives would be met with criticism from someone somewhere, but that the second those measures failed, you'd be blasted for not having done more.

As someone who does things that are illegal, I'd rather not have increased scrutiny. But I know I have a good chance of ducking increased scrutiny, too. However, it's a no-win for a decision maker like Ashcroft. I don't know what I'd do if I were him. Neither do any of you. You *don't know* what you'd do in someone elses shoes until you actually have to face their decisions. Moralization is easy. Making decisions that may save or cost lives is hard. There's no way around that.

I don't know if I have a point here. If I do, it's a point that I make alot. I'm really just perpetuating my habit of defending people that are doing the best they can in their given time, doing what they think they ought to do, under broad criticism from folks that never took a real chance in their life. I've defended people here under these same terms, and I've defended them elsewhere. Maybe it doesn't matter, truth may not set anyone free in this place, but my defense of them would be lessened if I didn't extend that same consideration to John Ashcroft.

Godspeed.

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