wither in the light

This kind of sums up the dread I've been feeling the last few days:

TODAY the Pentagon will hold the America Supports You Freedom Walk, ostensibly to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and to show support for members of the armed forces. Nothing could be better contrived to show the high price Americans have paid since that day of infamy.

The Freedom Walk is limited to those who register and submit to being searched. The route of the march will be fenced and lined with police officers. No one can join the march en route. No one can leave it. The press cannot walk along the route. The walk to proclaim Americans' freedom reveals how much freedom we have lost.

This ill-conceived event is but a symbol of larger losses: The Patriot Act reduces Americans' protection from government scrutiny. The U.S. invasion of Iraq, falsely predicated on a hazy connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, has cost almost as many U.S. lives as the terrorist attacks of 9/11, with no end in sight. Whereas most of the world sympathized with Americans in the weeks following 9/11, the nation is now less admired than communist-ruled China.

People dying all over the place and this administration just keeps pretending everything is peachy. I'm not sure who I hate more, Bush or the legions of fuckheads that still support this bullshit.