some speech

Check out Marcinkowski's speech from last week (via NO QUARTER). How's this for perspective?

We fought the Soviets and I fought the Soviets because they had a fatally flawed, intolerable system of government where (and think about this):

The government was always right and never apologized; Any dissent was suppressed, ridiculed, banned or worse; Secret prisons were denied and never acknowledged or spoken about; The torture of captives (in Lubyanka) was condoned; State incarceration was not subject to the checks and balances of a legal system; Economic plans, like for oil, were established/determined in closed sessions between politicos, commissars and production managers, far outside public view, and where government claimed privilege in so doing; Wages were set at the lowest common denominator, no matter what Bloc country you were in; Government agents had access to your medical records, your library records, your telephone, and your e-mail. A place where judicial power and judicial review were proclaimed concepts, but simply ignored in application; Where criminal records of young adults were closed to all but the military; Where a Constitution was a mere facade and ignored by state actors. Any dissent, debate and protest were deemed unpatriotic; The public media was bought, paid for, and provided by the state; The military clandestinely and shamelessly influenced the national media and public opinion; A place where wrong was declared right; Where tapping a phone was like tapping a pencil; Where lying was considered a patriotic skill; The extraction of natural resources was paramount to any concern for the environment and the impact on the health of its people; Where the use of “state secrets,” (those things embarrassing to the government) were confused with legitimate issues of “national security”; A place where "secrecy" and "national security" were used to control debate; Where legitimate secrecy, was subject to political use and abuse; Where "legislators" were mere mouthpieces for and rubberstamps of whoever was in power; Where you lived and died with the permission of the government; A place where foreign policy was more important than domestic concerns; Where fear was used as a political weapon and an acceptable means of control; Where the best medical care was reserved for the influential;

Where wealth was concentrated in the top 5%;

A place where there was no middle class - just a small economic and political elite, and the working poor.