Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905"This article from Dow Jones, celebrating that the telecom industry is completely off the hook as a result of this bill, has the full quote from Sen. Bond, which is even better (h/t C_O):

"I'm
not here to say that the government is always right, but when the
government tells you to do something, I'm sure you would all agree that
I think you all recognize that is something you need to do," Bond said.

Even
when the Government is wrong, even when it orders you to do something
illegal, your role is not to question but to obey. That's what he is
saying explicitly."

Americans are now truly a nation of sheep. And you can read all about it in this new book.

"In A NATION OF SHEEP, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
frankly discusses how the federal government has circumvented the
Constitution and is systematically dismantling the rights and freedoms
that are the foundation of American democracy. He challenges Americans
to recognize that they are being led down a very dangerous path and
that the cost of following without challenge is the loss of the basic
freedoms that facilitate our pursuit of happiness and that define us as
a nation.

Judge Napolitano
reminds readers what America is all about, that the purpose of
government is to protect freedom, and freedom is the ability to follow
your own free will and not the will of government bureaucrats. He asks
the simple question, which are YOU, a sheep or a wolf? Do you blindly
follow behind where you are led, or do you challenge the government at
every pass, forcing it to make decisions that will protect our
freedoms?"

The destruction of American democracy as we know it, began over two decades ago in the fevered brains of men like Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz the fathers of the so-called "neo-conservative" movement. As the writings of Marx and Engel and the Weltanschauung
view of National Socialism found true believers in Russia and Germany
respectively, so too the "radical" new approach to political power and
governance took hold among the true believers of the radical right in
America.

If you read the article linked to the neocon movement above, it is some bizarre metamorphosis of political
thought that actually began among left wing liberals from the 50's and
60's. Their primary view of America as the great spreader of democracy
around the globe coupled with the religious element makes plain how the
evolution of this movement has created the America we live in today.

And just like the other radical political philosophies cited above, the goals of the neocon
movement can only be realized through the suppression and elimination
of the democratic form of government and the the corruption of the
Constitution.

Here's the good news. Those other political movements eventually crashed and burned both literally and figuratively
through the opposition and intervention of average men and women who
fought both with pen and sword to restore the Rule of Law and true
democracy to the oppressed.

The destruction of the neocon political
philosophy and practices will not take as long as the other two.
Americans may be slow to awaken but once aroused are quick to act.

Remember the words of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto after his attack on Pearl Harbor, " I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

Bush and Co. have done just that.