CB: Certainly Bush and Ashcroft drift into verbal/theoretical dictatorship and don't seem to know it, or do they just have cunning ? And see John Mage's latest requiem for the 4th Amendment. When does the gradual quantitative diminution of the Bill of Rights make a qualitative leap into the abyss ?
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That is the big question, isn't it. I don't know. I keep not believing that these legal and institutional foundations are simply swept away like so much trivia, in the name of more important issues. It's that quality of easy dismissal that evokes my worst thoughts.
As for cunning or drift, are we lucky they seem merely ignorant, self-righteous, and arrogant? I don't know if that is luck or not.
It seems to me, this is a waiting game on the question of how far will they go? Bush and company are already armed to the teeth and paranoid. They seem to be suffering from violent and psychotic breaks. Escaping to the jungles of Mindanao seems like a hopeful sign, since it avoids confronting Iraq while still apparent doing something about `terrorism'.
Let's pray they get lost there and don't kill too many people. Talk about the heart of darkness.
Chuck Grimes