A tip to the wiseass

If you fucking beat this prick long enough, he'll tell you he started the goddamn Chicago fire, now that don't necessarily make it fucking so! - Reservoir Dogs

Top of the news: Information retrieved by torture is now admissible in courts of law. Prisoners who have been held in prison for three years (and still going strong) were held because of evidence given from prisoners in Guantanemo Bay, where "misconduct" happened. (Actually, depending on the woman, I wouldn't mind being the prisoner who got flashed for information).

While everybody knew that torture had to happen somewhere in the system for the protection of our country (hell, we're one of the most hated countries, its probably not that easy to get information against us), this is the first time its use in courts to imprison people is acceptable in about 70 years. Part of the reason they stopped allowing duressed evidence: unreliability (see above quote).

While I am definately for the use of extreme conditions to gain information regarding the safety of the nation, I am against it being used to imprison people. Why? Because, as somebody else put it, "giving up your freedom is the harshest punishment around." Taking away freedom indefinately on circumstantial evidence is a bit lacadaisical, in my opinion. In addition, while it is a crime to conspire to overthrow the government (which seems rather unpatriotic to me, given that our nation was founded by overthrowing a government *whistles*), it is much harder to convict people on conspiracy to commit a crime.

But, we're on our way to convictions of the 9-11 prisoners. Yay law!

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In other news: Tom Ridge, director of Homeland Security, has stepped down. Another one bites the dust (and another one's gone...Hey, he's gonna get you too). I wonder if all these people were hoping that Bush would not get re-elected.