Your "You want me to be *more* cynical and pessimistic? Really?" News of the Day.

Color me unsurprised and increasingly distrustful.

Neo-nazi hate blogger paid by FBI to incite, says attorney - Boing Boing:

"David Kravets at Wired Threat Level blog reports that Hal Turner, a notorious shitbag "hate blogger" in New Jersey who was charged two months ago with threatening to kill judges and lawmakers, was secretly an FBI "agent provocateur" paid tens of thousands of dollars by our government to broadcast white supremacist rhetoric."

Hit & Run ; New Coward Confirms it: Republicans Politicized Terrorism! - Reason Magazine:

"Here's a report that, if the story behind it is true, is both totally unsurprising and worthy of our notice and contempt:

In his new book, the first Homeland Security chief, Tom Ridge, accuses top aides to President George W. Bush of pressing him to raise the terror alert level to influence the 2004 presidential election.

Ridge, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, says that he refused the entreaty just before the election from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft...

"After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector...""

More details at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Publisher's blurb here.

You're a true patriot, Tom Ridge. When faced with senior administration officials deliberately trying to scare the crap out of the American people to win an election–a tar-and-featherable offense, at minimum–not only did you decide to eventually quit some day, you rushed out and told citizens about their duplicitous leaders in just five short years! For profit!

A banal point to remember, but foundational: Government is materially incentivized to frighten you, about everything. Power–surprise!–corrupts, no matter which set of angels happens to be exercising it this year. Which is why some of us don't gladly give the stuff over to Washington, D.C.

UPDATE: ...Ridge was telling a similar story to USA Today back in May 2005."

CIA hired mercenary assassins (or assassin trainers) in plan to bump off Qaeda leaders - Boing Boing:

"In 2004, the CIA hired Blackwater USA contractors as part of a covert program to find and kill top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to statements from current and former US officials."