I saw this movie once...

In it terrorists destroyed a major building, which burned to the ground. The government responded by passing laws that overrode the civil liberties of the country, and established a new agency to execute the new laws. A little while later the country ended up in a major war that lasted years.

The movie ends there, but I'm assured by various history teachers that the Allies won the war. Somehow they neglected to mention the other stuff.

In a bit lighter news, I read the military tribunal act (well, most of it), it's not near as bad as the opponents have made it out to be. In fact it explicitly requires humane treatment of the accused, that they have proper counsel, and most of the other stuff you're supposed to do for people on trial (no jury of peers though, instead you get a tribunal of officers). Really, all they want to do is allow hearsay evidence in death penalty cases.

Wait...

Almost more disturbing, is in the preamble, where they state that they recognize a need to comply with article 3 of the geneva convention, except section 1, part b and d. Now b is the part about proper trial, which given the nature of the bill, isn't suprising. But d says no taking hostages. Why would that one even be under discussion?