Everyone in this story has problems. I can solve none of them.

The details of what was passed is murky, but that's kind of what it says. Bush is leaving office after this term. That's the bottom line. If I have faith in one aspect of the American people, it is that they would never allow a president to refuse to leave office. The damage he can do before then... is anyone's guess.

Well it's about time. Suck it, BS.

Habeus Corpus is always suspended. The executive always takes more power than he's given, and the legislature always lies down, when it comes to a time of war or turmoil.

From the beginning of America this has happened. Adams had the Alien and Sedition Acts, imprisoned newspaper editors. Jackson fucking ignored a direct decision from the Supreme Court on the Cherokee removal ("John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it"). Lincoln suspended habeaus corpus and basically put the Constitution on hold for the Civil War. If not for the supreme court then, military trials would've stayed the norm through the whole Reconstruction. Clinton even attacked Habeaus Corpus too, in 96 Congress lied down for him to make it much harder for appeals and got rid of any petitions that followed a failed attempt.

I am in no way a supporter of the Patriot Act but the precedents are there. Jackson's is most appalling. Do you think George W could ignore and overrule a Supreme Court decision? No fucking way. He doesn't have that power. But we survived when Jackson and Lincoln did these things, and actually those two are commonly called the greatest US presidents of all time.

Oh come on, there are blaring differences between us and the late-era Soviets. Look at our standard of living, for example. As a world power, yeah we're going down, but not into a state of panic if our leadership improves. We have enough food and water, making us much better off than a lot of the world.