The "State of Emergency" was not declared for the entire state. It was, in fact declared locally and then reinforced by the Governor in order to allow state assistance to flow more freely into Blacksburg and areas adjacent who were recieving victims of the shooting. A declaration of this nature simply allows localities to by-pass the normal "red tape" in making purchases and requesting aid during a natural disaster or a large on-going emergency event of this nature.

IIRC it is possible to go straight to the Supreme Court. I think it was about some election results.

Unique circumstances. Election issues at the national level go straight to the Supreme Court.

Something like this, where is it is a civil rights issue, would generally have to start in a state court or lower down the ranks in the federal system. And as backed up as that is,it might be years before anything moves. I don't know of anything that would block the Justices from inviting a case out of a lower court, but I can't think of any cases.

I don't either but I agree it would be almost unheard of. If they did go after a case rather than waiting for it to come to them I think it would cause problems with the Court looking more political than judicial.

If you wanted to speed things up add a charge of denying you your right to a speedy trial to the filing.

Been tried. It's hard to show at this point. Most of the federal court system is back logged a couple of years at this point.

Oh, we have our recent anti-terrorist laws. They are pretty bad. Terrorism is such a dreadful thing that the mere suspicion of it seems (to the government) to justify the loss of civil liberties.

ASBOs work at the other end of the scale, in that they address minor annoyances - the kind of "offence" that would just get you a clip around the ear in the good old days. ASBOs attempt to formalise that, with the best of intentions. However, they can turn just about any action into an arrestable offence, which is again worrying from civil liberties point of view.

I don't agree about Guantanamo but I'm not going to debate that here.

Wildman,

Are these the trailer parks like the "Renaisance Village" set up in Baker, LA?

That's the one here that FEMA had guards preventing the local media from going in and interviewing the "residents", basically blocking any information getting to the outside community about who was in there and what was going on in there.

The local news was run off from even interviewing the people from outside the chain link fence.

I'm not a fan of competative(read sensationalistic) media but in a democracy it is necessary.

NO! What I am referring to, according to the photos I've seen from Michigan, look amazingly like the POW camps that we set up for German POW's, the Concentration Camps like we set up for Japanese-American Internees, like the British and German militaries set up as POW camps, in Europe.

Raw wood clapboard construction sitting on top of Dragon's Teeth. FEMA is trying to build one in Adams County, Miss, outside of Natchez, and the locals are fighting it "tooth and nail".

On the web, find "The Natchez PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER." website and look through Feb and Mar 07 news stories.

1 news story I read about the UK earthquake had a statement to the effect: that local "potential troublemakers" had already been rounded up.

Quite frankly, That statement scares the hell out of me!!! I wonder where the "potential troublemakers" have been stashed??

The "Colonial Warriors" want to know.....