[sjkted]

One thing to think about is that martial law does not necessarily mean troops in the streets and a police state. Really, all that it means is that the legal system is overburdened and that the normal laws are being abandoned in favor of a military tribunal-type system. The US is already in a declared state of emergency over swine flu. If there is some large act of civil disobedience or mayhem, martial law only means that people are denied due process (i.e. habeus corpus, miranda rights, access to an attorney, etc.).

--sjkted