=== Having grown up under communism, I'm not really into the whole preventative detention with no probable cause thing. Simple as that.
Duly noted.
Have you any thoughts on whether or not the preponderance of "former communists" now a critical part of our information-sharing, policing actions and confection of wholly new "Homeland Defense" type organizations perhaps have a part in our resembling more each day the "former Soviet Union" we pretend we trounced just because it appeared to collapse overnight like some cheap umbrella?
I don't know if I'd say that's what has given the Homeland Security/Patriot Act regulation it's current shape. There's one way to move from less regulation to more, hence the similarities. (Of course, that's what they are -- echoes. We're a far cry from becoming the USSR still.)
That said, it is kind of ironic to hear Bush talk of victory in the cold war and later praising Kwasniewski, once a commie par excellence. And don't get me started on the Bulgarians...