“What this decision has done is, it’s hampered our ability to move forward with a tool which we had hoped would be available to the president of the United States in dealing with terrorists.”

— Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the SCOTUS ruling against tribunals

This pretty much sums up how the Bush administration sees the law: as something that gets in the way.

We are supposed to be a nation of laws. The executive branch is supposed to execute those laws. Bush swore an oath to do so. And yet all they do is break them and then whine when anyone objects, calling them traitors or terrorist enablers.

If you’re willing to let the government do whatever they want in the name of public safety, then it is possible for things to be safer (not the way Bush is bungling things, but it’s possible).

There’s only one catch: you will be living in a police state. Police states have the potential for much greater civic safety.

They are also authoritarian, fascist, and lack freedom and civil rights and liberties.

The choice is yours.