<a href="http://www.wired.com">WiredNews</a> <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47522,00.html">reports</a> that the USA (Uniting and Strengthening America) or "Terror" Bill has passed the Senate. Presumably it will not have more trouble passing Congress. Included measures granted to policing organizations are: <span class="quote"><q>...allow[s] police to perform "roving wiretaps" and listen in on any telephone that a subject of an investigation might use. ... expands police's ability to access any type of stored or "tangible" information...such as medical or educational data ... [provides] that system administrators [of universities, libraries and employers] should be able to monitor anyone they deem a "computer trespasser."... [provides for] police obtaining a court order, sneaking into a suspect's home, and not notifiying that person they had been there....</q></span> And that's not all! You also get: <span class="quote"><q>... allows police to conduct Internet eavesdropping without a court order in some circumstances, lets federal prosecutors imprison non-citizens for extended periods, and expands the duration of an electronic surveillance order issued by a secret court from 90 to 120 days</q></span> On the bright(ish) side: <span class="quote"><q>It expands the jurisdiction of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court, but not as much as Bush wanted; it requires warrants before voice mail can be seized; it does not permit tax return information to be shared with other federal agencies.</q></span> Go freedom! Oh, and terror legislation is addressing <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47518,00.html">online gambling</a> as well.