America is wimpering, in her death throes. We don't even bother to protest having our phones tapped, e-mail read, internet searches scanned, and elections stolen. All of the great empires throughout history have, right before they died out, tolerated and then embraced fascism. The key symptom of us being on our collective death bed is not the recent disasters of foreign policy - it came before that. In 2000, a brilliant, moral, learned, experienced patriot - one of the most qualified ever to run for president - ran against a stupid, ignorant, lying, drunken, sociopathic ne'er-do-well who couldn't name the 50 states if you spotted him 45 - one of the least qualified ever. The fact that Smirk got more than about 8% of the vote was crystal clear evidence that our nation had terminal cancer. We're not screaming - we're numb from the metaphorical morphine of hate radio, fascist-controleld media, and smiling blond idiots telling us that SMirk "probably has a six-pack".