The old cliche is in reality more what we WISH were true, rather than what really is the case.

The Supreme Court's recent Hamdan ruling that slapped down the Bush Administration's extra-legal practices regarding detainees and enemy combatants, while encouraging on its face, was razor-thin -- as many of us noted at the time. The 5-to-3 ruling would have certainly been 5-to-4, had Chief Justice Roberts not recused himself; obviously, it would take only the departure of one member of that 5-person majority to have flipped this important ruling to the "dark side."

Similarly, if Sen. Johnson leaves office and is replaced as expected by a Republican, look at the huge implications for control of the Senate! We should all pray HARD that Sen. Johnson recovers, not only for the purely human reason that mandates concern for another's health and welfare, but for the larger good of this country.

A 50-50 split in the Senate would be a horrible prospect, considering how control of that body would revert to the GOP.

After all, who really thinks that Dubya is Cheney's boss? At best, they've operated as co-Presidents, and at worst (gosh, hasn't there been LOTS of "worst" with this administration?), he's clearly had a free hand to do whatever he wants.

It's always been that way -- remember how Cheney headed up an "intensive search" for the best vice presidential candidate in 2000, and SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE -- it turned out to be Dick himself? That alone tells you all you need to know about the real power structure in this White House...

Guess this must fall into the category of collateral damage, huh? Gee, nobody WANTS to torture an innocent person, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Too bad, though -- guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Then again, maybe it's more in the vein of "Kill 'em all, and let God sort 'em out!" You know, that MUST be it.

Logically, the only way to be sure you don't miss ensnaring ALL the terrorists, enemy combatants and other assorted evil-doers and bad guys is to sweep up EVERYBODY in a universal net, right? Then, with trivial details like probable cause, warrants, habeas corpus, court appeals, representation by legal counsel and a right to trial wiped out by a compliant Congress and court system, our government has the complete and total latitude it NEEDS to find out what you've done -- and all with NO ACCOUNTABILITY!

DAMN, I feel safer already! Why didn't we think of doing this years ago?

After all, wasn't it Edwin Meese, Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, who said way back in the 1980s if you were indicted, you MUST be guilty? This just takes it to the next logical step -- if you're being held by the federal government and MIGHT be SUSPECTED of something, you MUST BE GUILTY of something -- right? Can't take any chances, now can we -- and what took us so long to realize this?

Damn Bill of Rights -- must have been written by a bunch of Communists...

...sadly, though, way too many people simply dismiss the very real fear of a true American police state as just overblown TALK -- after all, these dimwits say, if you haven't DONE anything, what have you got to hide? (I'm related to more than few such dimwits, which is also sad.)

Such bizarre thinking ignores the evident fact that it really doesn't MATTER that you haven't done anything -- you may never even get the chance to have a neutral third party hear your valid claim of innocence. How much more un-American does it get than that?

Talk about a weapon of mass destruction! Could al Qaeda EVER have conceived that their horrendous attack on the Twin Towers would directly result in our country consuming itself from within? That we would destroy what much of what makes the United States special ON OUR OWN?

It's shocking how willingly our Congress signed away many of our hard-fought human rights, dating back to the Magna Carta, in a vain attempt to "feel secure" within our borders. Ben Franklin said it just right: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

George Will once famously advised people who disliked any particular U.S. President to remember that very little long-term damage could be done in four years, given the governmental inertia that makes major change difficult.

Wow, was HE wrong! He obviously never conceived of anyone as ignorant, stubborn and dangerous as Dubya occupying the White House, or anyone as compliant as recent GOP Congresses. This pretender occupying the position once held by giants like FDR and Lincoln is utterly nauseating. The damage to people all over the world, and to the world itself, from the deceptive, dishonest and politically motivated policies of this administration ought to sicken everyone.