So this is how democracy dies
by Keith Gottschalk
December 27, 2005
Sorry to interrupt what has been a very entertaining election season in Canada this holiday period, but I regret to inform you that your neighbour's house is on fire.
As reported by Ron Hutcheson of the Knight Ridder new service on Tuesday: A defiant President Bush said he didn't need explicit permission from Congress or the courts to establish a secret domestic surveillance program to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists.
“We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent,” said Bush. “Do I have the legal authority to do so? The answer is, absolutely.”
What this means, I'm afraid, is that a dictatorship is being born on your southern border.
Check this out from the Knight-Ridder article:
Bush bristled when a reporter asked whether a decades-long war against terrorism might lead to “a more or less permanent expansion of the unchecked power of the executive in American society?”
“First of all, I disagree with your assertion of 'unchecked power,'” Bush snapped. “To say 'unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject.”

How Bush's Sick Joke Became Public Policy
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
So declared George W. Bush in July 2001, just weeks prior to 9/11. This was at least the third occasion on which Mr. Bush spoke wistfully, in public and on the record, about exercising dictatorial powers.
Once would be a lame joke; twice, a symptom of a seriously impaired sense of humor. Three times, however, is suggestive of seriously malevolent intentions. In our system of government, which remains in form if not in practice a constitutional republic, chief executives simply do not joke about dictatorial ambitions.
Here's a useful parallel. It is a serious federal offense even to joke about wanting to kill the President of the United States. Doing so even one time is sufficient to provoke a visit from the Secret Service. Were someone to do so three times, he would almost certainly face prosecution, as well as an invasive psychological evaluation.
Bush declares his dictatorial ambitions on CNN.

A vet speaks out about Bush
Tim Abbott is a Vietnam veteran who lives in the Southwestern Virginia town of Hillsville, a conservative, blue-collar community that tends to vote Republican and bleed red, white and blue.
But, like an increasing number of veterans, Abbott is fed up with President George W. Bush.
What kind of man is Bush?
“Bush talks a lot about freedom, courage, transparent government and the rule of law. He talks,” Abbott says. “His speeches are carefully choreographed before audiences of his faithful -- often Christian fundamentalists or, to paraphrase Bush, Christian-fascists -- and they must sign loyalty oaths to Bush. He speaks before audience after audience of soldiers and sailors who cannot speak except as directed by the White House.”
“Bush is of a kind with the dictators; a strutting, sanctimonious buffoon who talks democracy but acts like Saddam Hussein,” Abbott says. “Bush might differ in degree from Hussein, not having been in power as long, but in behavior, with torture and the corruption of government, they are of a kind.
“While al-Qaida is an enemy of the values and principles of the United States and Western civilization and must be confronted, it can do no more than kill people and destroy property.
“Bush can subvert our principles and institutions. He is the greater enemy.”

Do President Bush's actions justify impeachment?
MSNBC
The votes are still pouring in, with 86% of over 180,000 in favor of impeachment.

http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/home.htm
As people in the U.S. readied themselves for Christmas, few were aware that CIA Director Porter Goss was in Ankara, Turkey on Monday, engaged in a meeting that lasted over four hours with Turkish Intelligence officials.
On Tuesday Goss was driven in his armored BMW to a meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Additional dialogue reportedly focused on the intelligence data, with Goss warning Ankara to be ready for a possible U.S. aerial operation against Iran and Syria.