I went to sleep in America....

Recently, John Cusack wrote an article criticising the direction of the Obama administration. He quoted Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley:

"Well it can't get any worse: extreme executive privilege arguments in court, withholding of abuse photos, adoptions of indefinite detentions without trial, restarting military commissions, and blocking any torture investigation. Welcome to Bush 2.0..."

That is a nice summary of decision after decision coming out of our current administration that has anyone who cares about the Constitution concerned, to say the least. Let's recap:

1. Sovereign immunity (April 09): The government can spy on you as much they want, as long as they don't tell the public what they got on you.

2. Secrecy law (May 09): If the government did anything illegal between 9/11/01 and 1/22/09, they don't have to tell you, or show anyone the pictures they took.

3. Indefinite preventative detentions (May 21 09): If the government thinks you're dangerous, they can lock you up. Without a trial. Forever.

Now we have the latest:

4. Proposal to allow guilty pleas in capital cases--without a trial. If the government wants to sentence you to death, they can torture you--excuse me, interrogate you intensely--until you confess, and execute you based on that confession.

One comment I read in response to Glen Greenwald's blog on this topic inspired the title to my own blog: "I went to bed in America and woke up in a soviet gulag."

I have one minor disagreement. I think we went to sleep in America, and none of us has woken up yet.