A provision in the "PATRIOT Act" creates a new federal police force with the power to violate the Bill of Rights. You might think that this cannot be true, as you have not read about it in newspapers or heard it discussed by talking heads on TV.

Go to House Report 109-333 USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and check it out for yourself. Sec. 605 reads:

"There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division.'"

This new federal police force is "subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security."

The new police are empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony."

I can report that Decatur Woods Park was beautiful and that the frogs sounded quite happy with their new ponds.

From UPI:

"NEW YORK, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- It took more than six hours for anyone to realize that a 64-year-old Brooklyn man had died on a New York City subway train.

Eugene Reilly, who died of a heart attack, likely got onto a Brooklyn-bound Q train just before 1 a.m. Thursday. He wasn't found until 7:15 a.m. when a curious commuter touched his shoulder, trying to wake him, the New York Daily News reported."

Continued

I just wrote several comments in response to others, I'm going to go ahead and make this into a post also.

Many of us did apply non violent principles. Many. I should get myself a drum to accompany myself and others on this message. I was all over town yesterday. I saw faith communities able to express their wishes and engage in coalition building. I heard songs. I heard folks express what was in their hearts with passion and peaceful hopes.

I saw a church protected. I saw communities learning that they were respected by the rest of us and that we would stand with them if they were targetted.

More...

Toronto teenager Jane Creba was gunned down on Boxing Day On a crisp winter Saturday afternoon, shoppers throng Yonge Street in central Toronto, Ontario, as the temperature reaches an unseasonably warm 0C (32F).
...
The makeshift shrine is gone, but they need no sign to tell them that this is where 15-year-old Jane Creba was shot while shopping with her family on Boxing Day.

This information is also included in the story:

GUN-RELATED DEATHS 2002

UK: 81
Canada: 816
US: 30,242

(Figures do not distinguish between crime-related and accidental or self-inflicted deaths)

What's wrong with this picture?

BY KATHERINE TAM

THE OLYMPIAN

Volunteers will hit the streets, shelters, food banks, wooded areas and schools across the county Thursday in the annual homeless count.

The census is key, officials say, because it helps them better understand why people become homeless and how to get them off of the streets. It also helps secure federal and state money to fund solutions.

Read the rest here.

Tom Phillips in Sao Paulo
Monday January 23, 2006
The Guardian

Every day at 4am, 18-year-old Julienne Cunha wakes to fetch water for her family. She climbs from her bed in the poky, plywood shack she shares with six relatives and collects her bucket.

Read the rest here.

We don't all agree here. Tempers even flare occasionally. Sometimes I am saddened, frustrated, upset, inspired, cheered up by what I read here.

But we keep conversing. We keep communicating. We each have to pick and choose our own battles and issues, conversations may not be tidy and may not ever complete. But we are talking and sometimes we even hear each other. Bravo!

[Evidence]

In the Zone

Posted on Monday, January 23, 2006. From the transcript of radio communication among Israeli soldiers near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The recording was submitted in January 2005 in the trial of the company commander, whose name has been withheld due to a military court order. He faces a maximum of three years in prison. Translated from the Hebrew by Nomi Friedman. Originally from Harper's Magazine, May 2005.

SENTRY: We spotted an Arab female about 100 meters below our emplacement, near the light armored vehicle gate.

HEADQUARTERS: Observation post “Spain,