60 Years

2007 Will mark the 60th consecutive year in which Congress approved a budget for the Central Intelligence Agency without knowing what is in that budget.

So, how do you like living under a military dictatorship in which the executive has his own private army, beyond the pale of any legislative restraint (the C.I.A.) and his own private praetorian guard (the Uniformed Secret Service), similar to Hitler's Gestapo or Lenin's Cheka, which can sweep people up on his word alone?

I find it unacceptable.

Our rulers (not "leaders") like to talk about "a shining city upon a hill." This is good rhetoric employed in the service of bad mythology. This country bears no more resemblance to the republic founded by Madison, Franklin, Hamilton, and Jefferson than it does to Liechtenstein.

It's a lot closer to Imperial Rome.