Who will keep us safe from the people that claim to be keeping us safe?

Craig sent me this link about the Jose Pedilla case. He compared Bush's grab for power with Lincoln with the exception that Lincoln's America really *was* falling apart around him.

What’s even more disturbing is that Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld, et. al. are all unapologetic, even when it turns out that they were wrong. There is no remorse or regret over these inhumane actions inflicted on a U.S. citizen at the behest of the Bush administration. Not to mention that the White House doesn’t lack defenders or apologists. There are people in the country who have placed their loyalty in a man to such a degree as to be indistinguishable from blind faith. The logic starts with “I trust Bush, he’s a good man” and “Bush is trying to defend the country” to become “Bush wouldn’t do anything that would hurt the country” which leads to “Whatever Bush wants to do must be good for the country”.

They are like buyers of a car-turned-lemon; unwilling to accept that they could make a bad decision so they turn to irrational arguments like conspiracy theories or demonizing the critics. Anything to keep from having to confront reality. The word for their disease is cognitive dissonance. They are vassals who shout "Long live the King" regardless of the atrocities committed in his name. They have become like cult followers; willing to drink the kool-aid because their trusted leader said it would take them to the Promised Land.

As a U.S. citizen, it bothers me to think that I could be held incommunicado in a military brig for years on the word of the President alone. The Constitution was meant to protect us from abuses of power just like this.