As I said in the original post, I am biased against this administration. The thing about this is that both sides seem to think that they are so obviously correct that they fail to consider the merits of the other side. I have no desire to start a flame war and I don't mean anything personally on what is a very contentious issue.

To reply to a few points.

1) I am tired of hearing the argument that other presidents and administrations did the same thing. Even if that were true, that is a poor argument. Regardless, I have yet to see any evidence that past presidents have engaged in behavior this egregious.

2) I will concede that both political parties are descipable in their non-stop sniping of each other. Yes, the Democrats complain about a lot of things, but the Republicans were bad too when Clinton was in charge. I have no desire to argue which side is nastier other than they are both horrible.

3) Asking me what civil liberties I have lost is a transparent argument. Any American's loss of civil liberties equates to a loss for us all. Since I am a law-abiding citizen, should I not object to other people losing their rights? If people keep justifying all of this, what is to stop my rights from being violated in the future?

4) Please, no more of this "un-patriotic" argument. If I hear this one more time, I will want to vomit. Essentially you are saying I should support everything the president does during wartime. Bush had a time to be basically immune to criticism immediately after 9-11. Questioning those in charge is exactly what makes Democracy work.