remember when the FBI and other law enforcment groups
were asking Congress' permission to torture during
interrogations? I remember hearing it just 3 or 4 days
after September 11th.
This should bother us a lot more than it has, I think.
The real discussion was NOT whether the police state would
begin torturing, but whether it would be accepted. Currently
if law enforcement uses torture to get say, a confession or
information about someone else, the torturer risks internal
affairs investigations, bad press, loss of job, etc., if
s/he gets caught.
Had that part of the bills passed right after 9-11, then
this kind of sadistic behaviour would quickly become the
norm. Internal affairs will no longer bat an eyelash, the
press will of course just ask "tell us what to write, and
how to write it, and when," and no one will lose their
job for being criminals themselves.
A sick, sleazy, corrupt form of immunity for anyone with
a gun and a badge. No, really sick, sleazy and corrupt.
You think things are bad NOW...

marco