"Staff attorneys will no longer be allowed to make recommendations." What a great idea. All important decisions will only be made by political appointees that way no one will ever actually have to figure out if an issue has merits or makes sense as long as it is in line with the political desires of those in charge. You just have to love this administration.

I feel a profanity laden rant coming, but I'll do my best to repress it. (I'm sure the effect the Bush administration has on my blood pressure is hastening my development of cardiovascular problems. Yet another means by which they make the health care crisis in our country worse.)

Here at Salon and in the blogosphere, I've managed to stay informed of the Bush administration's implementation of their plans by underhanded means--don't like what scientific data are telling you, defund the work that provides the data; don't like staff at the justice department offering legal opinions contrary to your intent, forbid them to comment on dubious tactics; don't like insiders making the public aware of your flawed decision-making processes, smear them--but most Americans are largely unaware of their shenanigans. With the media largely consolidated and full of co-opted, highly paid "reporters" that know which side their bread is buttered on, I despair that things like what is reported in this War Room item will ever penetrate the public conciousness.

I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist. The world is usually too big and too complex for any one person or group to entirely control what we see and hear, but we're awfully close to that state now thanks to our toothless media. Comedy is often our only outlet for speaking truth to power, e.g., the Daily Show. We seem more and more like the old Soviet Union (where humor was an important means of criticizing the communist party), only worse, because at least under that system people were mostly aware of the lies of the ruling elite. Here in the U.S. too many of us just seem stupified or can't be bothered to spend the time to figure out what's going on.

Once the system is so badly broken, how do you fix it without a revolution? I wish I had some answers as we seem to spiral further from a just and equitable society.

Did the Supreme Court agree to review the Perrymandering because four justices thought there was sufficient problem with it, or because they want to overthrow the Voting Rights Act? (Remember, it isn't paranoia if they really are out to get you.)

Who wants to listen to the help anyway, unless they're telling you what you want to hear?

This is so characteristic of the ruling party's mentality. Witness what's about to happen in Ohio regarding recounts and other election-related issues. Just make rules that say no one can challenge, disagree with, or otherwise participate in the decision making process and there you go! License to do whatever you please.

I think there's a word for this. Hold on, it'll come to me. Oh, yeah. Fascism. That's it.