Sayonara

Well tomorrow's the day! Tomorrow we leave for adventure and enlightenment in a foreign land. Tomorrow we leave for Japan! I don't know if I'll be blogging while I'm over there, but stay tuned! I just might post a few updates :-) If not, be sure that I'll have a ton of stuff to say once we get back.

Phucking Phishers

It seems I just got a very convincing phishing e-mail trying to get me to give away my Paypal information. The e-mail itself was not that convincing, but the link to the "Paypal site" was very well done, and the site itself was an almost perfect forgery.

This is what it looked like:

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the
PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your
account.We requested information from you for the following reason:

Our system requires further account verification.

Case ID Number: PP-140-076-751

Please confirm your Paypal account,click the URL below:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-submit

This is a second reminder to log in to PayPal as soon as possible. Once
you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account
access.

Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to
restore your account access. We appreciate your understanding as we work to
ensure account safety.

In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement, your account access will
remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if
access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time, it
may result in further limitations or eventual account closure. We
encourage you to log in to your PayPal account as soon as possible to help
avoid this.

To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal
used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the
Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you
seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact
PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us".

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please
understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your
account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

PayPal Email ID PP638

But if look at the email in raw HTTP, you see that the actual site the link directs you too is this:

http://maxipriest.com/loggin/

Yeah, not exactly confidence inspiring. See, they spoof the URL to appear to be the Paypal site in your address bar. This is fairly simple. And if you click the link (I wouldn't recommend it), it takes you to a page that looks EXACTLY like the Paypal page. Here's a comparison:

Left, the real Paypal page; on the right, the fake.

Well done, eh? If you didn't know what to look for, you'd never be able to tell. And that could be disastrous. So how can you tell? It's all in the URL. Take a look at the real page URL here:


If the login page doesn't match what I have here, don't put any login info in. Now the fake page has the wrong URL, but it still looks like it could be legitimate. Ah! But if you view the page source, you see it's actually a frame (sort of a Web page within a Web page). And the page that is being displayed? Well, take a look:


So the address on the left is what the spoofer wants you to see. Notice no "https." On the right, is the actual URL of the spoofed site. And if you put in your login and password? Well, you are definitely SOL then. The wost part of this spoof? The links from the page are the actual links to Paypal stuff! They are essentially copying the PayPal page, and just running their own login script to grab your ID rather than the Paypal system. Insidious, no?

So here's a few simple rules that you can follow that, if you follow them, will give you 100% protection against phishing attacks.

1. First, most legitimate companies will NEVER ask you to update account information by posting a direct link to their site in the e-mail, so become immediately suspicious if they do.
   
2. If an e-mail gives you a link to take regarding your account information, check the URL by copying it (right-click and then choose Copy Link) and pasting it in Notepad or some other text editor. This will give you the real URL that you will be following. If it doesn't match, don't follow it.
3. Legitimate sites will always use secure "https" pages for logins. Phishers will almost never bother with attempting to use secure connections.
4. Never, ever, EVER put any login or personal information directly into any text fields in an e-mail! No one will ever ask for info this way as there is no way to make this secure.
5. If you use Gmail, they have a "Report phishing email" option just like spam reporting. Use it. Even if you think it's real, let the ubbersmart guys at Google take a look just to make sure.
6. If you are even a little bit suspicious about an e-mail, report it and then trash it. If you want to make sure your account is OK, go to the site directly (don't use any links) and login, or even contact customer service and ask if there is anything wrong.
   

Well that's about it. Just thought everyone should be aware of things like this.

Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

Looks like Kevin Rose got his priorities straight:

"But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."



read more | digg story

A day that will live in hilarity

Wow. I've never seen anything like this before. Digg
, (yes that Digg) was HIJACKED! Not by malicious hackers, not by lame-ass script kiddies; no. It was hacked by it's own users. Yes, the very people who make Digg what is it, a user-driven news site, rose up and revolted against the Digg bourgise.

What happened? Well, in the last week or so several stories popped up on Digg about the HD DVD decryption key that has been wandering about the interweb. They were posting the key to protest the force-feeding of DRM-infested media to the public. I've never seen a more twisted relationship between an industry and it's customers that that between the RIAA/MPAA and John Q. Public. They seem to both love and despise, distrust and adore us all at the same time. It's really pathetic.

So what does this have to do with Digg? Well, apparently at the behest of the HD DVD group, all stories showing the decryption key were mysteriously removed from Digg. You can read about it here. As a result, the Digg community revolted and began flooding the Digg servers with hundreds of stories that included the decryption key. And to get them on the front page, the rabid hordes began digging up EVERY HD DVD STORY! So that before long, all the stories on the front page of Digg were, in some form or another, about HD DVD and the key. As you can see, I took a screen shot just to prove how hilarious and awesome this was.

Some of the stories were just commenting on the situation, but others were downright ridiculous. Here are a couple of my favorites:


Yeah, that's right.

Hell, even Wikipedia has an article about this. They are calling it "HDDVD Night". Of course, it's been deleted and then protected to prevent recreation, so that's no good. Nothing like a good old fashioned Wikipedia burning.

Maybe we should call this HDDVDnacht.

Brilliant.

By the way, 09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0. VIVA LA RÉSISTANCE!!!

Fuck Blogspot

Sometimes, free sucks. I guess Blogger.com decided that squidwarrior.blogspot.com was just too full of awesome to be allowed to live, and moved me to squidwarrior4.blogspot.com. Without telling me. However, squidwarrior4.anything contains at least 4 times less awesome than squidwarrior.anythingelse. I mean, I don't mind having my blog shunned to the realm of the unimaginitive Internet denizens that can't think of something original to use for their avatars, so they resort to something painfully dull and attach a string of numbers to the end to make it unique. I just mind that they didn't have the balls to tell me about it. So I updated the address to be the title of my blog.

And all you anti-Harry Potter types can just keep you sarcastic comments to yourselves, thank you very much. I'm a Harry Potter nerd, and damn proud of that fact.

Anyway, sorry to have to make everyone change their links/bookmarks/homepage, but it really was through no fault of my own. And when all the craziness dies down, I'll start posting again. Really. I mean it. Posting. With wit, humor, and vicious, viscous prose. I don't know what vicious viscous prose is exactly, but it was a chance to use the words viscous and vicious in the same sentence. With alliteration no less.

On second thought, go ahead and post your pathetic and feeble attacks on Harry Potter. What do I have to fear? I have vicious, viscous prose at my disposal! Tremble before the vale of my viciously viscous and voluminously viper-like volumes of voluptuous, virile prose.

...

I think I just hurt my brain.

Oh and by the way, my Xbox Gamercard shows up in Japanese and it takes me to the Japanese version of Xbox.com. Stupid Camino browser. Stupid Blogspot.

Update: Fixed the Camino problem. If you use Camino and Xbox.com redirects you to the Japanese site, go to here and click on your country. Fixed it for me.

Anyone checked on Hell lately?

Tucson froze Sunday night. Literally. A cold winter storm blew in and dumped
quite a bit of rain on the city. Then it got REALLY cold, and that rain turned
to ice and snow. I remember Jen and I were sitting in the living room and she
just happened to look out and said "Um...there's snow on my car." To which I
replied "...FTW!"

Going to work the next day was surreal. Everything was coated in anywhere from
0.5-2" of snow and a lot of the trees were completely frozen over. It was quite
beautiful actually. I took some pictures of the Catalina mountains, and some of
the scenery around my office. Enjoy!

Update: Apparently, Josh is not l337 enough to know what FTW means. See my response to his comment. Josh, FTW.

Picacho Peak

Jen, her brother Jeff, her dad Bob, and I hiked Picacho Peak this last Saturday. All the way to the top. Oh. My. God. That is one brutal hike. That was one of the hardest and most challengins hikes I've ever been on. But I hauled my new Pentax all the way to the top, and managed to get some great photos! Check 'em out! Oh and BTW, I'm about 1/3 of the way done with my first book review, Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash". Look for it in about a week or two. :-)

New toy II

Hooray! It's finally here! I got my new digital SLR! For those not in the know, that's a camera. :-P I'm so excited! This is the first camera I've had since high school, and my first digital camera EVER! It's not the top of the line, but it has more than enough for me right now. Plus it's a bit smaller and lighter than the big professional-grade cameras like the Nikon D200 or the Canon 30D so it should travel much better. Which is good for Japan. Expect to see some great shots from over there!

I uploaded my first batch of pictures onto my Flickr account. Just click the little photostream thingy in the sidebar. If you want information about ISO, exposure, shutter speed, etc. let me know and I can pull the metadata from the pics.

Update: Josh pointed out to me that Flickr saves the metadata when you upload the pictures. Sweet!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2007 to all! We had a kick-ass party at my parent's house. Pics to come.

All I can say is, Meghan...for shame. ;-)

Panic! At Jobbing.com Arena

Since I seem to be on a blogging binge lately, I totally forgot about some concerts I've seen/I'm going to see. First off, last week we saw "Panic! At the Disco", along with "Cobra Starship" and "Jack's Manaquinn." Now before I talk about this concert let me repeat something I said in a previous post. "Unwritten Law" is the worst live band I've ever seen. Period. I've seen high-school bands perform better. "Cobra Starship" came in just a little, tiny bit above "Unwritten Law." And that's really all I can say about that. They don't even get a picture. ;-)

"Jack's Mannequin" is a different story. Ok, ok. Their cover of U2's "With or Without You" probably caused cancer in at least 30% of the audience, but the rest of the music was pretty damn good. They had the soulfulness of "Train" without all the whining and touchy-feely lyrics, mixed with the edgier sounds of "Acceptance." If only the lead singer could decide if he wanted to sit or stand while singing and playing the piano. He had a sit-down piano, but he would half-stand to sing and ended up looking like he was having a seizure. When he sat his twitchy, flailing ass down it was much better and less epileptastic. Other than that, their music was quite good.

Which brings me to "Panic! At the Disco." Hands down, one of the best live shows I have ever seen. The sets were amazing! They did this whole circus theme (but dark and Victorian-looking) that was just awesome. They even had dancers that were acrobats and tumblers. Very cool. As for the music, it was stellar. "Panic" is one of the most musically talented bands I've seen in a long time. I can't even describe what their music is like, it's just so unique. Not to mention that have incredible stage presence. They did this really cool percussion number that was part "Stomp" (they had trash can lid cymbals and everything) and part drum-line. After that, they played a sweet cover of Queen's "Killer Queen." Wow. Damn good show indeed.

Today I'm going back to the same place (Glendale Arena, aka Jobbing.com Arena) to see "AFI", "Taking Back Sunday", "Plain White T's", and a few others. Show's called the "How the Edge Stole Chritmas." Should be a good one. I saw "AFI" last year at KFMA day (where I saw the Worst Live Band Ever the previous year) and really enjoyed their show. I've been itching to see them again. Should be fun! Check Josh's blog/Flickr feed for pics. He's into all that "photography" stuff. Wait...I used to be into that too. Damn.

Update: I too seem to be into all that "photography" stuff. I figured out what I hadn't been: I had no camera! Would've thought, eh?

Tremble mortals

Behold the mighty Cylon Snowbot!



Yes that's a sweeping Cylon eye. Yes it also makes scary Cylon sounds. And yes, it's being powered by my Xbox 360. That's right: The Xbox 360 is Cylon technology. w00t.

Now if only I can get it to make me a Number Six...



God I love Battlestar Galactica.

A foreword

I love literature. Ever since I was little I've always be reading something. Be it a book, a magazine, the newspaper, hell even cereal boxes. I liked comic books to a limited degree, but they had too many pictures and not enough words for my taste. Given the choice of "X-men" or "Of Mice and Men", I'd take the latter every time. This love of books was one of the reasons I decided to do an English minor. I figured as long as I enjoy reading and to a certain degree, writing, I might as well get some sort of recognition for doing things I like to do anyway.

My dad once commented that I would probably end up as an English professor one day. I knew that would never happen, but he can be forgiven this flight of fancy for his progeny as I had brought Paradise Lost as my book of choice along with me on a family ski trip. While it wasn't for a class so much as my own enjoyment (in a semi-masochistic way; it is Milton after all), it did have some practical applications: 340-year old poetry about Heaven, Hell, and Satan makes for good taunts for Counter-Strike.

With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire
who durst defy th' omnipotent to arms.

Heh, very Pulp Fiction. Useful for scaring "teh n00bs", or at least distracting them long enough with words like "omnipotent" to stab them in the back.

But I digress. The real reason for this post is this: I'm testing the waters with writing some book reviews. Nothing fancy. Just my thoughts on some books I've read. It'll mostly be stuff that I like, maybe even some commentary on a series as a whole. Maybe I can also get suggestions on new books for me to read. I've been kinda slacking on my reading for awhile, partially because I've just been busy and distracted but mostly because I just haven't branched out in a while. I tend to get really focused on an author I enjoy, and while I find that focus is wonderful for absorbing the whole of an author's works, it also means that once I'm done I have trouble pulling myself out of one dreamworld and plunging into another.

You'll mostly see sci-fi and fantasy books here. That's because I like fantasy and sci-fi. Sure I enjoy the fascinating look at a man's descent into madness in Heart of Darkness or the dark, brooding musings on the nature of crime and suffering in Crime and Punishment as much as the next person, but give me the sweeping battles and rich detail of Lord of the Rings or the mind-blowing dystopian view of the future in the cyberpunk novels like Neuromancer and Snow Crash.

Will I actually manage to review anything? Maybe. But for now, has anyone read any good books lately?

MPAA Press Release -

The following comments (censored for the safety of the viewing public) appeared on a community-driven news site known as Digg.com this afternoon in response to an article outlining the new strategy of the MPAA in combating the growing threat of home theater pirates:

"I violated (CENSORED) at least 5 times (CENSORED) my family...." – mainfr4me

This kind of reprehensible behavior is indicative of what the MPAA has become aware is normal behavior for this new breed of movie pirate. The MPAA will do all in it's power to crackdown on these violations by introducing new legislation to allow the installation of equipment that will monitor all home theater owners.

All movie viewing sessions will record the IDs of all viewers, along with recording their behavior and movements in case of suspicious behavior or defamatory comments about the MPAA, it's members, or the work produced by the member studios. The data will be sent to the MPAA's Special UnderCover Knowledge Enforcement Regimental Service (SUCKERS), which will then dispatch teams to homes in violation of copyrights. Such violations include, but are not limited to, viewing of films by those not owning a licensed copy of the work, including friends, enemies, lovers, teammates, strangers, coworkers, spouses, partners, children between the ages of 6 months and 150 years, family pets (of any type that have eyes, ears, or any other light or sound sensing organs), light-sensitive plants, people from any country containing the letters A, E, I, O, U, or Y or whose name contains any combination of said letters, and pests or insects that are present within 100 yards of the theater.

Any person or object found in violation of copyright laws, will be fined a minimum of $500,000 per movie viewing. Such persons will be labeled “enemy combatants” and will be dealt with accordingly by SUCKERS teams.

The viewing of copyrighted works without obtaining a license via the proper channels is a crime and is a "gateway" to harder violations such as music piracy, removing the "DO NOT REMOVE" tags from mattresses, jaywalking, speeding, walking on the grass, drug use, child molestation, organ harvesting, terrorism, and even full-scale illegal movie downloading and DVD copying for backup purposes.

The MPAA takes these matters very seriously because if such behavior is allowed to grow unchecked, it could threaten the very fabric of society and the family values upon which America is built. Unlicensed viewing of copyrighted works not only funds terrorism (as been proven by the Independent Department In Orthodox Terrorist Studies (IDIOTS)), but actually causes cancer in puppies and is a major contributing factor to global warming.

Original Digg post

HD-DVDland

Picture of my new toy: The Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive. That's right: HD-DVD baby! I can't wait!

The great thing is it will only cost about $100-140, even though the retail price is $199. How? Behold my fuzzy math:

+ $199 -- Price of HD-DVD drive
- $30 -- Discount for getting an Amazon.com credit card
- $30 -- Money from selling the free Universal Remote that is included
- $40 -- Money from selling the free HD-DVD copy of "King Kong" that is included

Total: $99

However I don't know if "King Kong" comes with the one I ordered, so it might only be a savings of $60 rather than $100, but we'll see. Either way it's the cheapest HD-DVD player you can get! Anyone care to join me for a innagural HD movie watching session? Maybe Friday?

OMFGSPLOSION!!!!!!! I'M F*CKING ENGAGED!!!!

That's right, Jen and I are tying the knot! I can't believe I actually proposed! I was so nervous and just kinda blurted it out, but she said YES!!! That's why she's the greatest person on the planet and I love her so much! w00000000t!!!!!!!

Midterms

I hate midterms. They're not as bad as finals 'cause you still have half the semester to make it up, but they suck because they remind you that yeah, you have to do this a second time in 9 weeks. They're also just as hard as finals, but you don't have a week of no class to study for them. So all in all, they blow.

Midterm elections are kinda like that. They're half way between the big elections, they're just as important and complicated, but they just don't have as big a run-up or have the same feel as a presidential election.

So as we near zero hour of the elections, I just thought I would let everyone know which propositions and officials I'm voting for. These two sites-a blog, and a more official site-offer some guidelines and good explanations of each proposition. They blog is definately left-leaning, but still has good information for you red-types. ;)

Propositions - Yes Votes

• 104
• 106
• 200
• 201
• 202
• 203
• 204
• 205
• 302

Senate & Congressional Candidates

• Jim Pederson (despite the crappy TV ads)
• Raúl Grijalva

Governor

• Janet Napolitano

Phew, I don't know about you guys but I'll be taking a cheat sheet in with me! Everyone who is able should get out and vote, but ONLY if you're informed about what you are voting for. Remember, the descriptions on the ballot for each proposition are written by the groups that got it there in the first place, so they always try to make it sound appealing. Your best bet is to get more information so you can make an intelligent decision.

And to finish this little post, a video of my new hero Keith Olbermann. Listen and learn:

Best Dad Ever!!!...Dad gives best gift to son! Read then watch the video

This is an incredible story...and by far makes Dick Hoyt the best dad in the world award!

"I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck."

Read the article first and then watch the video

read more | digg story

Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive shipping November 7 in the US

So sayeth Gamestop at least. Not sure if this is accurate, but it would be nice it true. Now if only we can get it for the same price as Japan...

read more | digg story

We the people

Alright, so I've been studying the new bill, along with the Consitution (i.e. what Bush calls "just a piece of paper"), particularly Article III. From what I can tell it appears that the alarmism everyone is spouting is just that: alarmism. While I find this bill morally wrong and quite frankly disgusting, there really is nothing illegal about it. So here's what I've found.

First, The Supreme Court does have judicial review power (the power to review the legality of a law used to prosecute someone. Established by Marbury v. Madison), but they will only hear a case if it's a matter of law, not matters of fact. The issue has to be that the law that was used to prosecute someone is flawed or possibly unconstitutional. You cannot take your case to the Supreme Court if it's matters of fact, i.e. "That's not my DNA on the victim!"

Also the Supreme Court can only exercise judicial review if the law is challenged by a case. It can come to the Supreme Court in three ways:

1. The Supreme Court decides to exercise original jurisdiction. This can only happen for cases involving ambassadors, or if a state is a party, i.e. Bob v. the state of Arizona. This is very rare and is usually only exercised in state v. state matters.
2. A case is appealed to the Supreme Court from a lower federal court. Not situations allow for the right of appeal. Double jeopardy is one such situation. If someone is accused of murder and is acquitted, the State cannot appeal the ruling and try them again in a higher court.
3. The Supreme Court issues a writ of certiorari. This is is an order by the appellate court to review the lower court's decision for legal error when no right of appeal exists. Four of the nine Supreme Court Justices must agree to issue the writ (known as the "rule of four")

Now, according to section 950g of this new bill, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has sole jurisdiction as the appeals court for this new military court. But in order to send a case to DC court, the convicted party must waive their right to have their case reviewed by appealing to the military court of review. Take a look:

Sec. 950g. Review by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Supreme Court

`(a) Exclusive Appellate Jurisdiction- (1)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine the validity of a final judgment rendered by a military commission (as approved by the convening authority) under this chapter.

`(B) The Court of Appeals may not review the final judgment until all other appeals under this chapter have been waived or exhausted.

`(2) A petition for review must be filed by the accused in the Court of Appeals not later than 20 days after the date on which--

`(A) written notice of the final decision of the Court of Military Commission Review is served on the accused or on defense counsel; or

`(B) the accused submits, in the form prescribed by section 950c of this title, a written notice waiving the right of the accused to review by the Court of Military Commission Review under section 950f of this title.

`(b) Standard for Review- In a case reviewed by it under this section, the Court of Appeals may act only with respect to matters of law.

`(c) Scope of Review- The jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals on an appeal under subsection (a) shall be limited to the consideration of--

`(1) whether the final decision was consistent with the standards and procedures specified in this chapter; and

`(2) to the extent applicable, the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

`(d) Supreme Court- The Supreme Court may review by writ of certiorari the final judgment of the Court of Appeals pursuant to section 1257 of title 28.

Once in the DC court, the case will then be reviewed and if the issue of constitutionality is valid, then the case can be appealed to the Supreme Court where a ruling can be made. Note that at any time either the DC court or the Supreme Court can reject the case. The Supreme Court can also review the case by exercising their power to submit a writ of certiorai. Again, only if this is a matter of law.

Now 950j states that

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter and notwithstanding any other provision of law (including section 2241 of title 28 or any other habeas corpus provision), no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever, including any action pending on or filed after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter, including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military commissions under this chapter.

That first phrase "Except as otherwise provided in this chapter " is critical. What this is saying is that other than the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Supreme Court, no OTHER courts may challenge the decisions of this military court. This is perfectly legal as the federal courts are given power by congress, and congress can limit their scope and jurisdiction. They are simply limiting the appeals to a single court. In other-words, you can't appeal to the court of appeals in California or Washington.

Congress has no power to limit the Supreme Court's jurisdiction, short of passing an amendment to the Constitution (which would never happen). No matter how much Bush flails and whines and complains and makes new courts, the Supreme Court has the power to overturn any lower court, including military courts. This is part of the checks and balances. The check against the Supreme Court is that they can only make rulings if a case is challenged and brought before them.

You can disagree with a law passed by Congress while still agreeing it's perfectly legal. I despise this bill and I'm not sure it's entirely legal, but we will see. Making certain kinds of torture legal and suspending habeus corpus for detainees is wrong. If the US wants to be a world leader, we have to hold ourselves to higher standards than everyone else. Part of that is how we treat our prisoners. By giving even "enemy combatants" the same legal rights as citizens, giving them a fair trial, and treating them as human beings, we can prove to the world that we are truly better than those that hide behind religion as an excuse for killing.

By ordaining torture, suspending the rights of those we capture and continuing a pointless and morally reprehensible war, we are saying that we care more about ourselves then about the rest of the world. And selfish leaders always do more harm than good.

All your rights are belong to us.

This is just getting worse and worse. First there's the wiretapping bill (which thankfully looks like it will die), now this. There's a lot of uninformed opinions on this one, but the gist of it is that Congress has approved military tribunals for "enemy combatants", with no rights of habeus corpus, and no limits on detention length severity of punishment. In fact the bill specifically states that no Federal court has the power to hear habeus corpus cases!

This effectively gives the Executive Branch judical power over anyone they label a terrorist, with no oversight by the 200+ year-old US court system. And US Citizens? Yup, they are also included, though they retain their habeus corpus rights.

We've never done this before. The terrorist that bombed the WTC in 1993 was tried in a Federal Court. The guys behind the Oklahoma City bombing were tried in a Federal court. Now they fall under this new category where everything is controlled by the military, which is part of the Executive Branch and answers to the President. Which means one branch is now judge, jury, and executioner.

I hate the current state of this country. Every day the people of American let more and more of their rights be eroded and taken away, all in the name of security. You know what's really frightening? This has happened before. In the 1940s. In Germany. Care to take a guess of whom I am speaking? Correct. Hitler set up the People's Court to handle those accused of political criminal offences. It was established after a terrorist attack on Germany known as the Reichstag fire. It had the appearance of a court, but it nothing more than a facade to facilitate the elimination of people that Hitler deemed troublesome. Most were executed or imprisoned, including people as young as 17 and college students who distributed anti-war material.

How long before a direct attack on the Bill of Rights itself? "We can't have 'terrorists' pleading the 5th, so we better get rid of that one." Or "If we have a public trial, it might be a terrorist target so we better have the trials in secret." Or even "Ah hell! We KNOW their guilty! They're TERRORISTS after all! So let's just skip the whole trial thing and kill 'em."



read more | digg story