Never underestimate the power of the internet   The web is changing how politics works – but not in the ways you might expect, says Matt Warman. Read Article  

 The secrets next door Fort Meade, Md., is the capital of Top Secret America -- an alternative geography of the United States defined by the concentration of top-secret government organizations and the companies that do work for them. It is the largest of a dozen such clusters across the United States that are the nerve centers of Top Secret America and its 854,000 workers.                     Read Latest in Series Here.     

 Tiger Woods cancels on cops again On his Web site, the world's No. 1 golfer says the incident is "embarrassing" but he plans to keep it a private matter. He calls his wife "courageous."  

  'We pity the Brits': the view from the Marines US troops in Afghanistan are shocked by the standard of equipment their British counterparts have to use. Terri Judd reports from Helmand
Saturday, 5 September 2009   "The biggest thing I noticed was the vehicles they drive. Your guys are friggin' gutsy. I wouldn't get shot at in one of those," said Corporal Aaron Helvig, 21, from Arizona.    

Bush Commutes Sentences of Former Border Agents
By Dan Eggen and Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 19, 2009; 2:37 PM Acting on his last full day in office, President Bush commuted the sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents who were convicted of shooting a Mexican drug runner three years ago. The convictions of Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos had become a cause celebre among many conservatives, who argued the pair were just doing their jobs. Compean had been sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Ramos had received 11 years. Bush's commutation means the pair will walk out of federal prison March 20. The pair were sentenced in connection with the shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who was shot in the buttocks while trying to flee along the border in Texas. He admitted smuggling several hundred pounds of marijuana on the day he was shot and pleaded guilty last year to drug charges related to two other cases. A president has the unfettered power to shorten, or commute, a sentence or to forgive a crime entirely through a pardon. Bush has exercised his clemency power more sparingly than many of his predecessors, however, so far granting 189 pardons and 11 commutations. Bill Clinton, by contrast, granted 396 pardons and 61 commutations, including dozens on his last day in office that prompted an enduring political scandal. A long list of prominent felons have requested pardons from Bush, including former GOP congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards (D), and former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who already had his sentence commuted by Bush. T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, today praised the president's decision on the two guards. The council had been lobbying for more than two…