It has been posited that the fed's would allow the states to form a compact with respect to sharing data between states, basically because the Republicans believe in states rights. This doesn't hold water. When one speaks of 'states rights' it references the ability of the state to act autonamously and decide their own policies INTERNALLY; not to act as a parallel federal agency. This is clearly not an internal issue. Further, a considerable percentage of Congress and the President have come out (lukewarmly) against the idea. When coupled with the growing concern over the abandonment by the executive of current legal process (eg military trials for civilian crimes) and the fact that Congress has not declared war the Executive/Congress will find it harder in coming days to see 'eye to eye'. This will make it even harder for an agreement to be reached. [ Personal prediction: Ashcroft will be history within 12-24 months. He will either step down because of a 'or else' situation or he will be found in contempt of Congress for refusing to provide the requested information and justification. The Executive is NOT the primary authority at the federal level, the Congress is. The Executive seems to have forgotten that. It would not surprise me if within 5-10 years we don't see a new Amendment better defining these relationships. Last nite on PBS there was a show where a congressman and an executive representative discussed the current situation. The congressman actually quoted the 6th. The reaction of the executive rep was stone faced silent anger. The congressman basically ripped him a new butthole. I only got to see about 10 minutes of it and I don't know the shows name. ] -- ____________________________________________________________________ Day by day the Penguins are making me lose my mind. Bumper Sticker The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------