"Nothing could be further from... American values... than the Military Commissions Act"

No word yet on whether Shrubby made any signing statements to the it, but he signed it. This bill, described by the ACLU as "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history," is the latest in the effort to build the imperial presidency.

While civil libertarian groups and some Democrats have decried this law, Americans are strangely quiet about the trampling of their rights. No matter the original targets, such laws are almost always more broadly applied than originally pitched.

"The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero.

The intended targets are supposedly Islamic terrorists, but there is absolutely nothing in the law to keep them from applying it to you.

This quote from Benjamin Franklin cannot be repeated too often:

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.