Since 9/11, several major hurdles to martial law inside the United States have been removed by the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress. All that really remains at this point is an excuse.

The first domino on the road to martial law comes in the form of the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by Congress on September 18th, 2001. The Authorization says:

During his January 6th, 1941 State of the Union address, Franklin D. Roosevelt laid out four fundamental freedoms that should be enjoyed "everywhere in the world": Freedom of speech and expression, Freedom of every person to worship in his own way, Freedom from want; and Freedom from fear. It is interesting to contrast these notions given in a speech as America was watching the world become increasingly engulfed in a world war that would draw in the U.S. by years end with the current "war on

Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic point man for steering the successful Democratic Senatorial election efforts in 2006 and the upcoming elections in 2008, believes that they can make the Republicans who talk against the war but vote for it pay with their jobs in the 2008 election.

In another case of the Department of Justice selectively enforcing laws comes a tale of disenfranchisement of voters. The Justice Department's Voting Section is pressuring ten states to purge "ineligible" voters from their rolls. At the same time, the same body refuses to compel the states to enforce new laws that require people applying for social services be given an opportunity to register to vote.

In a world of sound bites, presidential candidate and Democratic Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, is playing a very cynical game. Amidst paragraphs of speech talking about withdrawing troops from Iraq, she buries her intention to keep troops in Iraq if elected.

When asked about the issues raised in the movie 'Sicko', Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, deflected the issue by suggesting that overweight people like Moore are the reason for rising medical costs.

With the stock market booming and the trade deficit with China at an all time high as well, it is strange that the U.S. dollar is headed in a different direction.

Chaplains from various faiths and religions are sometimes invited to provide the opening prayer for the US Senate. While traditionally this has been done by a Christian Chaplain, this Thursday was unique in that it was the first time a Hindu Chaplain was invited to say the opening prayer in front of the US Senate. Unfortunately, this was marked by protests by some religious Christian folks who shouted

After the failure of several contractors to deliver badly needed equipment on time, the U.S. Military's procurement practices have been called into question by the Pentagon's Inspector General.

Speaking in Cleveland yesterday, president George W Bush, took his audience through his warped logic that links Iraq and the September 11th terrorist attacks in his mind.

"al Qaeda is doing most of the spectacular bombings, trying to incite sectarian violence," Bush told a business group in Cleveland, Ohio. "The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims."