A horrid thought as I muse over the well-crafted information and proofs establishing that we are indeed economically stripped and bereft of Constitutional protections on this 3-3-09 historical placemark.

Imagine this sorry state of global calamity awareness having been acquired WITHOUT the aid of worldwide web communication.

The perpetuation of lies, spin and diffuse propaganda these post 9-11 years would be have captivated the weakest along with the strongest minds. Still, the ignorance and denial among us is great despite the internet forum of ideas.

We thank thee Gore and internet visionaries.

If the US is now the expansive battlefield to justify all encroachments of rights, of perpetual detainments without due process such as the niceities of clear evidence and equal disclosure for all litigants-- the accused are putty in the hands of any President.

The rush to "protect" America with the paranoia of "enemy combatants" at every mosque and airport gave rise to the expansion of Executive powers inherent in the Patriot Act I and II--where the "law abiding" citizens are always suspect and the deified President is endowed with the omniscience, judicious wisdom and pragmatism to dispense with Constitutional barriers that might interfere politically with an agenda that the American rabble are not privileged and deserving to know.

IOW--a mouthful of legal contortions that delay, obfuscate or ignore what would-be kings like Lincoln, Bush, or Obama could rely upon to wage war against those "evil-doers" without accountability.

"...I would choose the fact that it is America's journalists -- who claim to be devoted to serving as a check on Government and exposing its secrets -- who are, instead, leading the way in demanding that the Government's actions of the last eight years be concealed; in trying to quash efforts to investigate and expose those actions; and in demanding immunity for government lawbreakers." GG

Week upon week at these bewitching hours of reverential, Sabbath interlude we are breakfasted with paid shills who disseminate the aggregious lies about the collapsing economy.

We hear from an purposely, unrepresentative, and ideological unbalanced, panel spout untruths about the stimulus proposals. The facts from economists and architects who would endeavor to show a way out of the mess are distorted and maligned with the same, old, conservative philosophy of pander-the-well-off to feed some morsel to the poorer working class.

N. Gingrich frames the discussion in terms of the lower classes declaring war on the $250K plus. Donahue, head of the US Chamber of Commerce and his ilk repeat the fear tactic of trying to convince the audience that someone making $350K would be financially harmed to our detriment if their 4% tax hike of $1500 was reinstated.

This regular, festive roundtable of rich, entitled politicians, pundits and make-believe journalist is as traditional now as the expected 12-3 radio hours of derision spewed forth daily on radio from the king of spin, himself--the kingmaker of conservative politics.

"Who besides blind tribalists like Fred Hiatt could possibly believe -- as we actively conceal our own war crimes, immunize the lawbreakers in the name of Secrecy, and refuse to comply with our treaty obligation to investigate -- that our human rights lectures to the world are going to be taken even the slightest bit seriously?"--GG

The seriousness of our human rights lectures is in proportion to our comedy of errors in choosing security over principled protection of citizens' rights.

We're so serious about Iraqi peoples' rights we actually kill them while destroying their country to convince them.

Now onto China--maybe they'll lie down passively while we try to convince them with invasions and bombs we're as serious as a heart attack that we will make them respect human rights, too.

Glenn's post enumerates the ways our diplomatic and journalistic core have helped to extinguish what most nations valued about the US--our somewhat endeavor to hold human rights above the state.

Now, the lectures to China, Russia, N. Korea, Venezuela and other nations go unheeded. In fact they look to us for rationalizations to perpetuate what we once said we detested. Our actions speak well to our new-found diplomacy of war.

How very quaint were the days of yore--where Presidents and senators could stand before NBC cameras and lecture the ilk of Kruschev, Breshnev, Pol Pot and Mao and not be laughed at by the likes of Noriega or Chevez.

The problem as some have consistently pointed out--how can any "evidence", or "information" ever be trusted as valid?

Who knows what "confessions" are reliable anymore?

The US has negated/voided any information obtained through torture since we cannot know anymore whether it has been contrived.

The new anxiety we all feel over what is truth or fiction in the press or from government information outlets--that is the consequence of falling prey to using brutal coercion instead of noble principles.

We act like desperate, scared victims in our various promotion of violence for the sake of safety and it shows how puny we have become to defeat our foes. The foes we exponentially create from this are our fuel for more lawless deeds.

"The sheer lawlessness that exists in the rest of the world is so very upsetting." GG

The fear and anxiety some felt when Bush decreed that we were in for a perpetual WOT is "upsetting" for its scope and severity has properly belittled us.

It was insane then to think that our laws, treaties and justice would survive as it is now knowing what we are not allowed to know of the Abu Ghraibs, military suicides and Fallujahs.

"Although I'd prefer to live in a world..." Bill_H

This is living?

I'd prefer to live in a world where hypocrites of all stripes are boiled in the sauce of their own delusion--the billions of us are ready to be served as dinner.

Where are the Tony Perkins and Falwells to stop the renditions while they defend the "babies"?

Where are the Massachusetts defenders of "going green" who say no windmill near my beach?