I get all the Posse Comitatus I need at home.

Okay, I'm sorry.  You try to make a pun on Posse Comitatus and see what you come up with.  It's harder than it looks.

That said, it looks like we won't need to worry about making puns about the Posse Comitatus act for long, since apparently it's not in effect anymore.

Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.

He also called in a Predator B drone.

As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.

But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.

Good to know they're only using it against the backward hillbilly types.  Surely they won't come after good ole red blooded, blue blood americans, right?  Rest easy, big brother's looking out for you.




Not all of us can be as sanguine about this as you, Butthead.  Unless by sanguine we mean "bloody." In that case, I assume that most of the nation will be "sanguine" fairly soon.