What an amazing farce this Presidency has been. It has been the Golden era for Haliburton (Pointless war in Iraq with a big juicy contract for H), for the Pharmaceutical Industry (part D of Medicare), the Insurance Industry (allowed to collect premiums while forgetting their basic mission), and Big Oil (no explanation required).

However, those are the minor issues compared with the major crime committed by this administration: allowing a catastrophic event to happen in order to sacrifice elements of our Constitution. One could argue that personal freedoms had to be compromised based on the enormity of the event that was 9-11, or one could argue (as I do now), that sacrificing of personal freedoms required a catastrophic event like 9-11. It is now somehow acceptable for the government to eves-drop, violate personal freedoms, use extraordinary rendition (thank you wordsmiths), torture and other means to achieve their goals. This is a situation, I believe, that was initially and is currently favored by the Bush administration.

Lets consider the mechanics of how 9-11 happened. Islamic fundamentalists come to our country, learn how to fly planes, and somehow, stealthily, sneak onto commercial aircraft, brutally hijack them, crash them, kill people, etc. Since this country has a relatively small population of Muslims (compared to Western Europe), and an even smaller population of fundamentalist Muslims, there is and was a relatively small opportunity for these terrorists to blend into the woodwork. Alternatively, I feel that they were selectively ignored so that this event could happen, allow the Patriot Act (which was previously in the can) to be passed, a sacrifice of personal freedoms, invade two foreign countries, and feed the military industrial complex (Haliburton, et al). Since this occupation will yield little or no results, it will ultimately lead our withdrawal from the region (similar to Vietnam), and the end result will be a logarithmic windfall for our favorite Dubai based company. This country has really got to wake up and realize what has happened. Our Constitution, the great element of American Society and Culture, has been violated. Our country has been tremendously weakened as a result.