the bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, cia officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to u.s. officials and a copy of the amendments.

officials say the amendments would alter a u.s. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the geneva conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. the conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean.

the draft u.s. amendments to the war crimes act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking.

left off the list would be what the geneva conventions refer to as "outrages upon [the] personal dignity" of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating acts -- such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of women's underwear seen at the u.s.-run abu ghraib prison in iraq -- that fall short of torture.

"people have gotten worried, thinking that it's quite likely they might be under a microscope," said a u.s. official. foreigners are using accusations of unlawful u.s. behavior as a way to rein in american power, the official said, and the amendments are partly meant to fend this off.

ron and val ives (with additional child labor provided by olivia) made these boards for my associations as a gimmick to promote our industry "team building night" for the regional construction specifiers conference and trade show. (even though i realize that cornhole is barely a team sport which is why it took some real pitch work to get it approved as the game/giveaway for the exhibit)

they were a huge hit (which i totally knew they would be) and we were far and away the most popular booth in the entire place. (except with our neighbors whose exhibits kept being hit by errant throws - by a miracle no one was injured)

i wanted to make sure they got posted so val and ron could see how great they looked after they were lettered and everything. when i called fastsigns to have them lettered i told him i had something weird for him to do, and after hearing what i wanted, he told me that they letter those boards all the time. evidently, i'm behind the curve, again. but not too far behind since scads of folks told me last night that they had seen it, but never played.

the set now has a new home with an association membership prospect and many more were converted to the game having tried it on such awesome boards! - great job, ives!

columbus, ohio -- police said they used mace and a taser gun to arrest former ohio state running back maurice clarett wednesday morning after they found an arsenal of weapons inside an suv he was driving.

clarett was taken into custody at about 3 a.m. in a restaurant's parking lot off brice road following a brief chase, nbc 4's david wayne reported.

..."(clarett) was resisting to the point that they felt it was necessary to try to use a taser," said columbus police sgt. mike woods. "he had a bulletproof vest on and the tasers would not penetrate that, so they used mace. it took several officers to get his arms behind his back and get him under control and handcuffed."

police then found an arsenal of weapons inside the suv, including a loaded assault rifle and three loaded handguns. a hatchet, clothing and an open bottle of vodka were also taken from the vehicle, wayne reported.