If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next

Naomi Wolf writes an excellent article on how civil liberties are slowly being eroded by the Bush administration

She details the following ten steps that have been taken and asks whether the next president, Republican or Democrat will have the courage to rescind these steps.

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

Its a timely reminder that in these current times, we need to make doubly sure that when governments pass legislation that they are doing it for the right reasons.

In case you're wondering about the title, it comes from the Manic Street Preachers song about the Spanish civil war