10 MILLION TERRORISTS DETAINED IN MASSIVE RAIDS ACROSS US

Washington, D.C. (October 30, 2006) A combined force of F.B.I., C.I.A., N.S.A. officers together with Regular Army and National Guard troops conducted simultaneous massive raids across the entire country, detaining over 10 million terrorists accused of plotting to overthrow the government by voting for Democrats in the upcoming elections on Tuesday.

Sorry about that spoof, but I was brooding over the various pieces of news that have come out in the past few days: National guard troops removed from the authority of the state governors and put under presidential authority to patrol the borders in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which prevents use of federal troops for most domestic purposes; active steps by Congress to repeal the Posse Comitatus Act; massive spying on US citizens by government agents; an exponentiation in the use of subpoenas to private corporations for data on their customers, regardless of any connection to terrorism; the nominee for director of the C.I.A. refusing to abjure the use of torture during his nomination hearings; and on and on.

I'm afraid we're not that far from my imaginings above. Of course, we'd have to capture all of Cuba to have enough space to detain the 10 million.