One thing I have learned over the last six years is that you can't argue with ignorance. When people just clam up and stick their fingers in their ears and refuse to hear any part of your argument its time to lie down and give up with convincing them. It's like beating a dead horse, no matter how hard you try, you are never going to get them to budge. I seem to have reached that point with many of the Bush supporters I have encountered. Instead of viewing the aspects of my argument and seeing why I feel this way and examining the evidence they blow it off as hogwash. "Our president would never do that", "there are checks and balances in place", and "America is the leading country in the world". Well I have news for you, all of these are lies.

I mean getting judicial approval to wiretap some one is only a short process and there would be no problems if they did it in a legal way. Instead, the executive branch is clearly violating the constitution and going around the whole system of checks and balances in the first place. To say that the checks and balances are still perfectly in place is idiotic. Congress has been clueless on numerous occasions as to what the president was doing. I am shocked that as a whole body, they would not be more outraged as to the fact that the president is doing what he wills with the country with out congressional and judicial approval. Some may argue that he had congressional approval, but when you have little notes such as his social security reform shoved in a huge budget document in an attempt to slide it through congressmen are going to miss things. The Patriot Act was passed by a huge margin and almost all senators and congressmen admitted to not even reading the whole document. Once they got around to it, they were appalled at what they had passed and later forced reforms on it. I tell you the winds of change to fascism are blowing hard here in America, and the world knows it, we just seem to be numb...

To respond to Ed Nicks on my last post of The Brad Side of Things, read the definition of fascism from www.dictionary.com:

A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

I am not saying we are there yet, but the structure is being put into place to form this system of government. Americans are scared, we are scared of terrorists, foreigners, and the truth. Our rights are being taken away one by one in the name of safety and to "protect us". Also have you seen the amount of "patriot pride" bumper stickers going around and blind following of this administration? That seems like belligerent nationalism to me. "We need to go into Iraq to ... uh... protect our freedoms, it's a matter of principle!" Our freedoms and way of life were never in jeopardy with Saddam Hussein, the only became in jeopardy when this administration took over.

Racism, if homosexuals were a race of their own, it would be clear that this country is specifically discriminating against them. There are some people here in the United States who are just plain, ignorant, intolerant, racist bigots. Sadly to say, a lot of them are spawning from Colorado Springs and the whole Focus on the Family campaign whose only goal seems to be focusing on the W.A.S.P. family (White, Anglo, Saxton, and Protestant). All I am going to say on that issue is did Jesus preach the same amount of hate towards fellow man?

All in all I am not here to change people's minds; I would just like these naysayers to give my ideas a chance. Look for trouble in our government and look to see violations in the constitution that this administration is using to move this country in the wrong direction. We need to be ready to take action when the time comes, which seems to be a whole lot sooner than later. We have to be ready to take this country back and restore its former greatness. I hope both Democrats and Republicans alike would be willing and able to accomplish this difficult but important task.