Evidently, this is the truth because the Republicans who are in congress go along with anything George says and the Democrats who supposedly are there to keep him in check will not do what it takes to rein him in. It is a shame they are all in on this free-fall from democracy into totalitarianism in our country. The Republicans have abandoned any shred of pretending to follow the constitution and are falling all over themselves to give away the rights that were won at so great a cost to the people who fought the Revolutionary War.

There are some who feel that by going to Washington , marching around the mall and pretending to die to represent the casualties of the demise of democracy is going to make a difference. I do not think this will help as this is a different time than the Sixties and protest marches will not affect those who have no conscience. At least Nixon had enough integrity to resign the presidency when it was obvious he was responsible for what had happened under his watch. The regime we now have has no such intention because they are deliberately eroding the U.S. Constitution and they have planned this for some time. I will be highly surprised if George leaves office in Jan 2009 as is required by our constitution because he has written an executive order that will preclude his leaving if there is a “catastrophic event” in our nation.

The work to turn our nation around will not be easy and it is going to require us to get out of our comfort zone and make some sacrifices if we really believe what we say about wanting to remain a true democracy. We have to be willing to defend our constitution if we want to keep the rights it affords us and right now our constitution is under attack, not by the “insurgents” or al-Quaeda as some would like you to believe. No our constitution is under attack from those here in this country who are drunk with the thought of having power. But their power is weak as it is not gained through hard work and respect but through fear and intimidation.

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday summoned to New York top U.N. officials from a meeting abroad to find out how a potentially lethal chemical warfare agent was stored in U.N. offices in Manhattan .

U.N. weapons inspectors announced on Thursday they had found small amounts of phosgene, a World War I chemical warfare choking agent that attacks the lungs. The vials were brought from Iraq to New York and stored in U.N. offices more than 10 years ago.

Ban's inquiry will examine the circumstances under which the substances were brought to New York from Iraq , the reasons why the items were discovered only in 2007 and "the safety procedures in place at headquarters and in the field offices as well as the extent to which these procedures are followed," said U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe.

Top U.N. officials had been attending or were about to leave for a senior leadership meeting in Turin, Italy , which Ban is chairing. The secretary-general canceled participation in the session of Undersecretaries-General David Veness, in charge of safety and security and Alicia Barcena, in charge of management, as well as Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro and chief of staff Vijay Nambiar.

The FBI on Thursday carted away the materials from the U.N. Monitoring and Verification Commission, known as UNMOVIC, which is closing down its operations and sorting materials in 125 filing cabinets.

'NO MORE SURPRISES' Experts from the commission said the substance, left in a metal container by UNMOVIC’s predecessor, the U.N. Special Commission, were under seal and posed no hazard to the public. The commission's offices are in a separate building, about a block from the main U.N. complex in New York . Brian Mullady, an expert with the U.N. commission, said that since the discovery, a sweep had been made of stored materials "to be sure that we have no more surprises, and we don't."

The inspectors have ended a 16-year effort to destroy Iraq 's weapons of destruction, which apparently had been accomplished by 1998. The Bush administration, in an effort to justify the March 2003 invasion, had said that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein continued to produce unconventional weapons. But U.S. investigators found no weapons.

The phosgene was recovered in 1996 from a former Iraqi chemical weapons facility, al-Muthanna, north of Baghdad . Mullady said artifacts were stored in New York, including a Scud missile engine and gyroscopes, while other materials were held at the commission's offices in Larcana, Cyprus and in Iraq .

Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the commission, said the containers were discovered last Friday but an inventory of the contents was not located until Wednesday. Ban immediately "sought and was given confirmation that the materials in the custody of UNMOVIC posed no risk to the staff or general population," Okabe said. "All necessary safety measures continued to be taken."