Is America Moving Towards Martial Law?

As I was driving into work this morning, I was listening to Air America as I always do, and enjoying Rachel Maddow's rendition of what she calls "The Underbelly". By the way, if you're not listening to Air America talk radio in your car, you should be. Find a local station that carries it and reserve a button on your radio dial. It's far & away the best method of staying informed and the only place you'll find truth & honesty in non-Internet media.

Anyway, back to Rachel Maddow's 'Underbelly'... This segment is all about exposing right-wing political tactics ("...poking a sharp stick at the soft white underbelly of the right-wing scheme machine, giving you a little peak at their political playbook..."). Today's 'Underbelly' was entitled "Plan B", where she spent several minutes espousing on the failures of George W. Bush to govern our country, and how he turns to 'Plan B' with each failure.


What's 'Plan B'?

'Plan B' involves calling in the man who is essentially the one running our country - Donald Rumsfeld. Sure, he's the Secretary of Defense and as such the one running the war, but what about all these other things?

What happened after George W. Bush thumbed his nose at New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and essentially 'hung it out to dry' (or 'soak' to correct the metaphor)? The National Guard was brought in to pick up the pieces (all under the guise of Donald Rumsfeld, of course).

As I write this, George W. Bush is preparing for his presidential address this evening at which time he's expected to recommend the stationing of National Guard troops on the Mexican border to address the illegal immigration 'problem'.

At the same time, in the wake of Porter Goss' resignation from the top job of the CIA, Bush has nominated a military general to replace Goss. Even some Republican Congressmen have denounced the placement of a military figure as the head of the last bastion of US civilian intelligence gathering.


So, where are we going with this?

Let's think about it...

• We're living in fear, not really from terrorists, but from our government relentlessly barraging us with all derivatives of the word 'terror'.
  
• Our government, which is the most secretive in history, expects our citizens to be more open & less private so they can tap our phones, read our email, and track our every movement.
  
• Our government, through a hastily composed, middle-of-the-night, backdoor tactic, passed a law (the USAPATRIOT act) which essentially decimated our civil liberties and constitutional rights.
  
• And now, our government is using the military to handle just about every problem that they can't control through proper governance.

Gee, I wonder why the poll numbers suggest that our country is MOVING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!