>> While I agree that the US government is built to avoid things
>> like Weimar and Nazi germany atrocities, I'd hardly say that
>> "It won't happen here".
Just to provide an historical reminder: it /has/ happenned here. The internment of Japanese-Americans was clearly illegal, but no one in the chain of command had the courage to stop it. And need I even mention the treatment of American Indians? Yes, I'm glad that our government is set up to make certain kinds of tyranny more difficult, but if the public sees something or someone as an enemy (take "drug user" for example, or "illegal alien"), democracy won't get in the way of the people marginalizing or dehumanizing them. It takes individuals with conscience, a loud voice, and the means to back it up to fight such trends.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC