watching the holder atty general confirmation hearings. i'm a bit disturbed that he defined the first and most important task of the justice department as "keepings americans safe from terrorism." that was the first thing out of his mouth. i would have thought it would be the protection of civil rights and liberties.or even, god help us, federal law enforcement. after all, we have separate defense, state, and intelligence agencies. this is a testimoney (literally) to the permanent mutation of the u.s. into a security or military state in almost every aspect. even the idea that we would cast global warming as a national security issue shows the transformation. pretty soon, education, say, will be a security operation. can't keep america safe without, for example, outeducating the chinese, and without, you know, shaping the minds of our future citizens etc.