Everybody who puts a cookie on my drive without me knowing about it is spying on me,

Correct.

and should face legal consequences.

FAIK, there's no law against using cookies for surveillance. That's why browsers have cookie-blocking options and why "Internet security" software flies off the store shelves.

And it's worth a newspaper story.

Sure. You probably need to reread what I said about context. Bush has passed his tipping point, and lost the trust of the people, and from here on out every suggestion of impropriety will get extra scrutiny. He's reliving the Nixon Presidency and sticking pretty well to the original script.

How far are you going to haul this one?

I didn't expect to have to haul it even this far. You glossed over the part where I noted that what whitehouse.gov is doing is pretty routine, just to quibble over the meaning of words. It really is a tempest in a teapot.