I can get behind a tech-only tab which hides political/non-technological posts. Watching American software developers/computer scientists making unsubstantiated grand claims on foreign political matters or mathematics/economics proves to be bad for my blood pressure.
I'd rather not. Most political stories get flagged to death unless there's something specifically interesting about them that HNers would find interesting.
Unfortunately, we occasionally end up with something like this, where it _is_ interesting from a public/private policy perspective, but the political aspects are too strong and overcome that.
Perhaps that is not a great idea. It would be nice to have more politically volatile discussions pushed into a corner. Unfortunately, political discussions online among strangers are often less than productive.