Now is the time for direct citizen action. The compromised, corporate owned Congress is not going to do anything about the wholesale transfer of public trust to private hands, so it is time for patriots to act.

Here's one example where patriots of conscience performed useful citizen action.

Iowa City woman, others arrested for attempting citizen's arrest of Rove.

DES MOINES Police here arrested four Iowans Friday after they attempted a citizen's arrest of former White House adviser Karl Rove, who was in Des Moines to speak at a fundraiser.

Retired Methodist minister Rev. Chet Guinn, 80, and three Des Moines Catholic Workers, Edward Bloomer, 61, Kirk Brown, 25 and Mona Shaw, 57, who lives in Iowa City, were cited for trespassing and released, according to a news release.

Citing the Iowa Code, which allows citizen's arrests, the four accused Rove of election fraud; conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States in the time before the Iraq war; and treason, sedition and subversive activities for fraudulent acts leading to the deaths of 300,000 Iraqi civilians and 4,000 U.S. Military personnel, according to their arrest complaint.

Brown and Shaw attempted a similar arrest last March when Rove spoke at the University of Iowa. They were arrested and released without charges.

Citizens and patriots must make the public utterances and appearances the theatre they really are. The suppression of free speech and denial of right to assemble are actions of a fascist regime. Non-violent assertion of our rights is the proper way to bring attention to this hijacking of the constitution, shredding of the constitution, and sneering disregard for the rule of law.

Elephantman reminds me that no matter how much things may or may not change after the election, they aren't really going to feel that much different as long as conservatives continue to buy into the FOX version of reality.

we're America and we're the good guys. They're the former Soviet Union, they're the bad guys. When the good guys do it then it is inherently good and noble but when they do it, it is violations of domestic and international law. See how easy that is? This way, they don't ever have to think or answer to these glaring contradictions. Very simple actually.

How can they? Well, they own it, so they can do pretty much whatever they want, so long as the advertising revenue doesn't drop too much.

Why do they? First, US democracy has come to resemble an "illiberal" democracy (a claim I suspect many on the right would be happy to agree with) (tinyurl.com/5q4x8v):

Democracies may be considered authoritarian. An illiberal democracy (or procedural democracy) is distinguished from liberal democracy (or substantive democracy) in that illiberal democracies lack some democratic features, such as the rule of law, an independent judiciary, separation of powers, civilian control of the military, freedom of expression and assembly, and freedom from censorship. The central characteristic of an illiberal democracy is that institutional political processes are skewed in favor of the incumbent regime. Opposition may be dealt with by means of onerous regulations on political organizations in civil society, unfair electoral processes (such as barriers to ballot access or extensive gerrymandering), manipulation of the media (either by ignoring or distorting opposition, or by biased coverage of opposition, often in the state-owned press). Illiberal democracy has also been termed "electoralism" or "soft authoritarianism."

OK, in the US, it's not the "state owned press", but rather the press owned by those with some of the most influential connections in government.

Second, people like Diehl and Hiatt who are deeply authoritarian themselves (by their own admission no less) exhibit all the standard characteristics of cognition that are associated with authoritarian personality: illogical thinking, compartmentalized thinking, double standards & hypocrisy, and, most relevant to today's blog, blindness to themselves:

In fact, despite their own belief that they are quite honest with themselves, authoritarians tend to be highly defensive, and run away from unpleasant truths about themselves more than most people do.

That second quote is from Altermeyer's work on authoritarianism (relevant chapter linked at sig). It's based on reliable and internally/externally valid research and it has stood up to challenge. The research indicates that authoritarianism is universal--there is no utopia where authoritarian individuals don't exist. However, what is not inevitable is the taking-over of institutional and societal systems by authoritarian movements. And that is exactly what has happened, over a 40 year gestation period, in the US. The problem with the Washington Post editorial page is one example of the larger problem with the mainstream media, and of a kin to the conduct of the Bush/Cheney administrations: it is permeated with a culture of authoritarianism that is deeply un-American, e.g., anti-freedom, anti-civil liberties, extremely deferential to authority, etc. It will continue on its course until it is challenged and defeated and/or until its consequences create the conditions for its own collapse.

I think it likely to expect the most absurd behaviours from that movement to come as it sees the end coming. Expect some more quality punditry in the coming months. Hopefully enough of the public has become immune to it and will take Diehl's column and others as conclusive proof that the "conservative" movement is intellectually craven, professionally incompetent and morally bankrupt.

Glenn asks: : "What mental process allows a person like Jackson Diehl or Fred Hiatt to declare that their own Government is exempt for the rule and the most basic international norms, yet still believe they are in a position to condemn other governments for insufficient regard for the rule of the law and human rights."

It's called "exceptionalism", and apart from being a ubiquitous, largely American, mental process that dares not speak its name, it also has the singularly grating property of being utterly unrecognised by those who display its (il)logic most floridly.

When the US breaks the rule of law in al those "minor" ways you have listed it does so out of neccessity in order to protect the freedom of all the good countries in the world and to destroy those terrorists who are threatening civilization. When Russia does it it is of course only for crass political gain or selfish economic or nationalistic reasons. But what can you expect from all those godless ex communists.

Certainly all those god fearing neocons operate with only the best motives.

Ah, the lonely feeling when you know you are right and no one else can see it.