Well, another step closer....

"President Bush, keeping his election-year focus on national security, is to sign a bill into law on Tuesday that allows tough interrogation and prosecution of terrorism suspects.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 sets standards for interrogating suspects, but through a complex set of rules that human rights groups say could allow harsh techniques bordering on torture, such as sleep deprivation and induced hypothermia.

With Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales looking on, Bush is to sign the bill which was negotiated in September after senior Republicans rebelled against the president's plan and forced concessions from him.

The new law means Bush can continue a secret CIA program for interrogating terrorism suspects whom he believes have vital i ...

Well, another blow to freedom. Bush signs bill to spend $1.2B (that's our money) to build a fence along PARTS of the Mexican border (not the whole border). How much sense does that make? A few points about fences

1. fences are meant to keep people IN as much as they are to keep people out.

2. people can go around fences, particulary when a majority of the nearly 2,000 mile border will have no fence (that 1.2B will build a fence that is only 700 miles long). That is quite an expensive red herring. Interesting how this is during a key election year where Republicans are struggling to keep power and Democrats are fighting to take it back.

3. It's not that hard to go over or under fences.

4. This is most import ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060811/ts_nm/security_newyork_dc_2

Another blow to civil librerty, freedom and privacy. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with a lower court decision that random bag searches are unconstitutional. Interesting that this reversal happended so soon of the terror plot was shut down in the UK. In fact the court cited this recent event.

The fact is random searches do nothing to deter potential terrorist acts. It does, however, clearly violate the 4th amendment of the US Constitution ( http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am4 ) If you have ever ridden the NY subways you would see why this is ineffective. There are so many people and it is so crowded that it is just way too easy to avoid these random searc ...