Steve Lopez writes a column for the LA Times, recently a semi-tongue-in-cheek piece about the Democrats not being able to get their message out (temporary link, the Times only posts articles for a couple of weeks and then you have to pay). Most of it describes the trouble that’s been causes by Shrubya’s policies.

One part I especially liked:

Dangerous men in charge:

Remember the Iran-Contra scandal? Remember John “Mr. Buck Stops Here” Poindexter getting convicted of lying to Congress and slithering free on a technicality?

Dubya loves him.

Poindexter’s the man behind the Homeland Security Act provision that allows government snoops to look at your e-mail, your phone records and virtually everything else about your private life.

Even William Safire was horrified by this guy, and he’s the nation’s preeminent conservative columnist. But I think Safire was even more horrified at the civil liberties abuses of Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft.

I found a fairly brief overview of TIA, which is what the reference to snooping is about. It was harder to find anything brief about Poindexter. For more TIA stuff, go to EPIC’s TIA page.