I think this whole “foiled bombing plot” in London is bullshit. I think that it is not coincidental that this happened just days after Joe Lieberman’s primary defeat and Tony Blair’s visit to shrub last week. The I think that this going to turn out to be like all the other losers that they have busted in the last few years, the guys in Miami a few months ago, the Tonawanda Six and Jose Padilla. Every few months they bust some losers who have no real chance of being able to defend themselves against the power of the federal government. The bush crew want to keep everyone scared. They do do this so that they can ram through their demolition of freedom. Now they want people to afraid of everyone carrying a bottle of water and an ipod or cell phone. Dave Winer points to an excellent summary of what this is all about from Ze Frank. The video is less than 2 minutes long.

I say if you’re going to be afraid forget about Al Queda and be afraid of George Bush and his crew. This is only going to get a lot worse between now and the November elections. The Republicans are terrified that they are going to lose big in the house and senate this year because they have done nothing good in power. The only way that they think they can win again is to keep the American people afraid of their own shadows. Don’t believe anything that this government says. They have proved conclusively in the past 5 years that they cannot be trusted.

update: Doc Searls has a partial transcription of the Ze Frank video

The strategy of terrorism is to use isolated acts of violence to instill fear and confusion into the population at large. A small number of people can incapacitate a society by leveraging our inability to understand risk.
London’s police deputy commissioner Paul Stevenson said that the plot was “intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale.” No, it is imaginable: between three and ten flights out of thousands would have resulted in the terrible loss of human life.
Bush today said this country is safer today than it was prior to 9/11. Personally, I don’t think he knows. Whether we like it or not, terrorist attacks on Americans are now part of the global reality. They will continue to happen. Many places around the globe have had to deal with a similar reality for years. India, Ireland, England, Spain, Russia, to name a few. In many cases, these societies have pulled together and not allowed isolated acts of violence to tear at their fiber. Like disease and the forces of nature, it’s a risk that we have to rationally come to terms with. The government’s responsibility is to make sure that fear and terror are not disproportionate to the reality of the situation.
Today the President said, “This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom to hurt our nation.” Generalized statements like this which instill nebulous fear without specific information are exactly in line with the goals of terrorism.

I’m just glad I don’t have to travel anywhere right now. I don’t want to fly because of fear, because I am not afraid of terrorists. The TSA and airlines have just made flying such a miserable experience that it is more hassle than it is worth.

The US Supreme Court today declared illegal the military commissions being run by the Bush administration at the Guantanamo Bay Prison. The white house wanted to hold military trials of some of the prisoners held there on war crimes charges. In a 5-3 decision the court ruled this illegal. Demonstrating his continued ignorance Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a strongly worded dissent in which he said

to second-guess the determination of the political branches that these conspirators must be brought to justice is both unprecedented and dangerous

Actually it is precisely the job of the supreme court to second guess the determination of the political branches and not to be a rubber stamp. Secondly, there was no determination of “the political branches” to hold these mock trials. This was a dictate from the white house and congress never approved it. In fact congress declined to approve the trials. Maybe Thomas should read Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion where he wrote

Concentration of power (in the executive branch) puts personal liberty in peril of arbitrary action by officials, an incursion the Constitution’s three-part system is designed to avoid.

Kennedy is exactly right on this point and it is well past time for both court and congress to stand up to this would be dictator and do their job.

Update: From Americablog I saw this link to the ScotusBlog. The actual decision is really huge. In the decision the court stated that the Geneva Conventions of prisoners of war do apply to these prisoners! This essentially means that most of the tactics being used by the Bush administration are illegal and in fact are War Crimes! Time to bring on the articles of impeachment!