I couldn't agree more with Sen Byrd, but my fear is that somehow we have indeed been lulled into such complacency that the nation will not hold the President accountable for these abuses. And accountable he should be, indeed. I am not sure that even a mea culpa on TV, such as the one he delivered earlier this week with respect to the Iraq War, is sufficient at this point.

Meanwhile, I think we should consider that if we read in the papers about a country whose secret service was listening in on citizen's conversations without legal permission to do so we would be outraged. I am astounded to find we are at this point. My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was a child from a country where it was understood that the government did indeed look into every aspect of a person's life - I was raised, even here, to be careful about what I said on the telephone or in email. The habit of being circumspect was heavily ingrained in my parents. Growing up I felt sorry for them, that they didn't know that in America, this would not happen - that they were finally safe. I guess I was wrong. This is exactly the kind of government behavior we are allegedly at war in Iraq to prevent. Or was the whole argument about bringing freedom and democracy to an oppressed people just another little white lie we shouldn't discuss?

Ho Hum. Another scandal and this administration uses the same old arguments and the people of this country accept whatever Bush says... yawn.

If I had a dollar for every illegal act this President has commited I wouldn't be looking for a job because I could retire in style!

This administration and its leaders, Bush and Cheney, will continue rolling over the civil liberties of the people of this country and the people of other countries as well because no one cares. United States citizens are so enamoured with Bush and are so convinced that he is God's chosen that they'll forgive anything he does, except maybe having sex with someone besides his wife.

No amount of scandal and no number of crimes can bring him down because the people decided a long time ago that he is "strong", "honest", "virtuous", "upstanding", "refreshing", and worse that what he says is legal actually is legal regardless of how illegal it is.

The only way I can rationalize this blindness of the citizens to the crimes this man has committed is to admit that Bush is so charimatic to most people that they cannot see how evil he is.

In addition, the Republicans own the U.S. government and will continue to do so for many, many years to come because: 1) No Republican will ever go aganist Bush's wishes because they know he is their ticket to a one-Party country, 2) The Democrats are more disliked than the Republicans, 3) The Democrats won't make a real effort to tell the people what Bush is actually doing and what is actually happening in this country (They'd rather fuss and bluster about Roe v. Wade) 4) The SC belongs to the far right wing and just as they made an election law to install Bush they'll continue to make laws to protect him.

I'd like nothing more than to see this crook, and that is all he is, impeached but it won't happen because a combination of the people's love affair with Bush, the Democrat's unpopularity, the fact that all Republicans, no matter how they may try to varnish it, are going to support him when push comes to shove, and the fact that the Republicans own all three facets of government as well as the voting machines means he'll do what he wants when he wants and no one can or will even try to stop him.

Apparently, the people in this country are ready for a dictator and they are going to get one.

It certainly seems extraordinary that the President would bypass the normal process of obtaining a permit to wiretap, when that permission is very easily obtained. Bush seems to be saying that if he had sought court orders, then the people whose communications were monitored would in some way be alerted, but to me it seems unlikely that this is so.

Bush's legal advisors seems to be claiming that martial law is in effect because the country is at war, but this seems dubious because while the United States is invariably at war, with Drugs if nothing else, there has been no formal declaration of war or of a state of wartime emergency.

I think one can see quite clearly now why Harriet Myers withdrew from Supreme Court consideration rather than answer questions on legal advice she had given the White House.

Only a few years ago it seemed that American democracy was stable and almost eternally self perpetuating. Now with a one-party state starting to look a distinct possibility, one has to wonder if the American Revolution is finally falling in on itself.

Sen. Byrd may "continue to be shocked and astounded by the breadth with which the administration undermines the constitutional protections afforded to the people, and the arrogance with which it rebukes the powers held by the legislative and judicial branches", but I continue to be shocked and astounded that all the Democrats do is sit on their butts and whine about Bush and Company's never-ending assault and war on every freedom and value that once made this country the hope and pride of the world. Now all this country is is an embarrassing shadow of the strong Democracy its Founding Fathers envisioned and created.

All Clinton ultimately did was to get a little on the side and lie about it --- but he was impeached for that by the House of Republicans, I mean, the House of Representatives. What about what Bush has done? Take any one of the "dirty little secrets" Byrd refers to in his article and it should provide more than sufficient justification for initiating an impeachment process against Bush --- and Cheney as well as far as I'm concerned.

There have been and continue to be real crimes committed against the people and institutions of this country and against the people and institutions in other countries and against the international community as well. Why no cry for Impeachment for real crimes? I don't think Sen. Byrd, or the DNC for that matter, is sufficiently outraged by this administration's actions if all his outrage makes him want to do is to "ask hard questions." Asking hard questions is a start, but, at this point of the game, asking questions is not going to stop anyone in the administration from doing what they've been doing for several years now.

I've got a hard question for Sen. Byrd (and Gov. Dean, head of the DNC): When are you going to throw aside your own personal agendas and vested-interests and start fighting to save this country from becoming a complete Police State? At what point do you wake up and realize that what Sinclair Lewis said "can't happen here" has and continues to happen here? At what point do you become a true Patriot instead of a Partisan Parrot? Leadership is not about waiting for your constituency to make a call for Impeachment. Leadership is seeing that an Impeachment is long overdue and making up for lost time by intiating the process.

Enough is enough. Spare me your outrage and hard questions. Either stand-up and fight for the heart and soul of this country or sit down and idly watch it be gutted by the flames of its own ignorance and apathy.