Here we go...war...ready...or....not
I admit that I am disappointed in the leaders of the U.S. and how the only way to manage this conflict with Iraq appears to be brute force. The UN failed, the U.S. failed, the people of Iraq failed and now I fear there can be no winners, no matter how quickly the U.S.-led military defeats Saddam's troops...

Pentagon's spy agency funding for Total Information Awareness
Pentagon spy database funding revealed
Millions of dollars are going to 26 research projects linked to the Total Information Awareness program, which aims to compile electronic dossiers on Americans. [CNET News.com]

Is there an environmental law that Bush won't try to kill?
While the obsession to rush to war abroad continues, it is impossible to listen to the news these days without hearing about the efforts of the Bush Administration to completely rewrite environmental laws across the country. Clean air, clean water, forestry laws...they are all under attack. Today's local news on NPR offers items about a reconsideration of listing for the Northern Spotted Owl and Marbled Murrelet as threatened species. Such a delisting would help revive logging of old growth forests if the species are suddenly found to have recovered. Part of the justification offered for reconsidering the status of Spotted Owls is a report by a forest industry administrator that he once saw a Spotted Owl in his back yard in Olympia, Wash.

Odd...I know people who have been birding for years who have not seen a Spotted Owl, and those who do want to see Spotted Owls know that they have to go to specific locations in the old growth forests of the Olympic Peninsula to find the reclusive birds. Of course, a logging industry exec wouldn't have any ulterior motive for claiming he saw a Spotted Owl in his suburban yard, and of course he would be an expert at identifying owl species and he would have no problem telling the difference between the much more likely Barred Owl and the reclusive Spotted Owl. Of course...

For the record, I have been birding for many years and last year I drove more than 16,000 mailes and spent countless hours in the wild while doing research for our upcoming book, Birding Washington. In all, I saw 264 species of birds in Washington state last year. I have never seen a Northern Spotted Owl...

Wired News takes a look at Patriot II
From reading through the latest article about Patriot II in Wired News, it looks like the government is trying to cover its bases with denials that they have formulated a final plan for what to include in the new rights grab. But there are some interesting quotes in this piece...

Salon adds it voice on the DSEA
More secret arrests, more power to spy
Despite official denials, Attorney General John Ashcroft has grand plans for new anti-terror legislation. Critics -- on the left and the right -- are worried. [Salon]

Where's the economic policy?
Writing in his blog on Salon, Scott Rosenberg quips:

Yes, a year is a long time, and a lot can happen between now and New Hampshire 2004. But we've had three years of George Bush, and three years ought to be enough time to get an economic policy together. Bush's is MIA. Unless there's a major turnaround in the next six to nine months, the Democrats ought to be able to make something of that. If they can't, they don't deserve to govern.

And yet rumblings of war loom and threaten to make the currently crappy economy look like a walk in the park once the bombs start falling in Iraq and the increased terrorist fears hit home...

Transcript: Bill Moyers helps reveal the Son of the Patriot Act
Since it is one of the top links on Daypop today, webloggers at least are pointing out the revelations about the leaked documents in the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, since they are pointing to a Bill Moyers interview with Chuck Lewis, Executive Director of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, that reveals details of the plan.

But it is going to take more than talk to wipe this draconian civil rights grab from being pushed through once the Shrub gets the war he is dead set on creating in Iraq. It is time to start lobbying your representatives and senators now, before the war starts and before government officials pass this thing in the fear that follows...

The Domestic Security Enhancement Act
It looks like it is time to start paying even more dilligent attention to what the crazies in the Bush Administration are planning to force down the throats of the American people.

Bush Wants Secret Arrests
Here I am preparing for terrorist attacks and what do I get? I get news that the Bush White House is asking for secret arrests in the form of a Domestic Security Enhancement Act. He doesn't have my permission, and he's got a lot of nerve asking. This has gone too far. I'm flying the Gadsden flag, and I hope every American does. I am not so afraid of terrorists that I am willing to approve this usurpation of power and shortcutting of the judicial branch of American government. No way. [Kuro5hin.org]

Rumblings about a new power grab to add to the uprecedented powers taken in the USA Patriot Act were also written about yesterday on Slashdot.
Is there any truth to this? Is it just a hoax to deflect attention from other matters? With the current state of things in the U.S. it is hard to tell. But it is clear that after giving up so many of our rights in the knee-jerk reaction to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, those of us in the U.S. cannot afford to sit idly by while Bush and Ashcroft create their own Orwellian world...