It's not so scary that you described Bush so well with the CAPITAL LETTERS. After all, he doesn't know any better and you can't blame him for trying.

What's scary is that this Presidency is so fragile that it's supporters regarding asking it to explain itself is regarded almost as un-American, certainly detrimental to our well-being as a country and undercutting the armed forces. (Shades of Joe McCarthy!)

What's scary is that there are a significant number of people who aren't concerned about secret government in democratic society. What's of concern here to some people isn't that the location is given out, it wasn't, but only that a newspaper has made the country AWARE that there is one. It seems to drive the paranoid ones wild that a paper would just PUBLISH that a secret government exists.

What's scary is that there are a significant number of people (not a majority) who know that many, many good folks died to keep religion out of government buildings, and don't care that the American Taliban is subverting that.

Don't bother ranting back. It won't work. Once a person outgrows that simplistic view of the world, they don't go back. And until one outgrows that simplistic view, it is impossible for them to view the world otherwise.

I think the backlash will be terrible. Read Pat Buchanans book on the changing demographics. (I've only read the reviews.) There was a terrific backlash against Newt after '92 which helped get Clinton elected in '94, and I suspect there will be a similar backlash to such an unrepresentative administration. I don't think Clinton was electable except for the Contract with America.

Arf