In retrospect, of course, we find none of this information Goldsmith supplies to be at all surprising.

What surprised me, and still boggles my mind to this day, was echoed today by Glenn Greenwald.

Perhaps most infuriating is the fact that, as it turns out, violating these laws in secret was not even necessary -- because Congress was, and still is, more than happy to legalize whatever they wanted to do. Almost immediately after the Supreme Court finally imposed some mild limitations on the President's detention and interrogation powers -- first in Hamdi, then in Hamdan -- Congress, as Goldsmith says, "promptly passed a law that gave him everything he asked for, authorizing many aspects of the military commissions that the Supreme Court had struck down."

Given the actual and rhetorical record of those in the administration who have salivated for this for so long, we certainly cannot be surprised.

But for those on whom rely to be a "check and balance" for the prevention of rampant executive power grabbing, it is truly, truly disturbing that we had such complacent capitulation to the administration's fear-mongering.  And, unfortunately, this tactic is still found by this administration to be an effective tool against the Democratic majority.  Capitulation continues to this day.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

I guess Gen. Franks knew what he was talking about.

Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.

Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men's lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado.

In the magazine's December edition, the former commander of the military's Central Command warned that if terrorists succeeded in using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against the U.S. or one of our allies, it would likely have catastrophic consequences for our cherished republican form of government.

Discussing the hypothetical dangers posed to the U.S. in the wake of Sept. 11, Franks said that "the worst thing that could happen" is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties.

If that happens, Franks said, "... the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."

Franks then offered "in a practical sense" what he thinks would happen in the aftermath of such an attack.

"It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world - it may be in the United States of America - that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important."

Franks didn't speculate about how soon such an event might take place.

l disagree that these statements, made in 2003 [Addington] and 2004 [Franks], can be pointed to as indicative of the prevailing attitude today. l find it extremely difficult to fathom why or how they'd come to the conclusion that another nine one one style attack would be to their benefit at this juncture. lt may have been effective at achieving their goals in 2004, chimpy was, after all, re-elected, but things have changed considerably since those heady days at the beginning of the GWoT. A super-majority of the country has turned on the Iraq misadventure, and impeachment of both chimpy and darth are increasingly preferred by nearly a majority of those polled...in fact, more than 50% for darth.

Given their braggadocio about how they've prevented another similar attack, and their insistence that it is precisely the infringements upon the liberties and constitutional rights that have allowed that to take place. l would posit, that another major catastrophe at this stage would be the final nail in this administrations', and by extension the gop's, coffin. At least l'd like to hope that would be the case.

Even though l have doubts that the somnolent masses would revolt under the yoke of such an overt venture, it seems unlikely that it would be readily accepted, and it's not easy to see how 330 million people could be forcefully subjugated without massive violence and upheaval.

Although l am reminded of H.L. Mencken's quote: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

lTMF'sA

the revolution will not be televised...

about the same time as habeas corpus.  And before the Magna Carta.  

You can talk about it now.  

A false flag operation is on the way.  Another Reichstag fire.  Soon I fear.  Next month?  Within a year.  

The Fates are kind.