From Bob Herbert's Column in today's NYT titled "America the Fearful" . Bob was instrumental in exposing the atrocities in Tulia, Texas. At the time when Texas State Attorney General (now the Junior Senator from Texas in the US Senate) and the Texas Governor (now President Bush) did nothing much to stop the injustices. Here is the conclusion of the op-ed column.

The Bushies will tell you that it is dangerous and even against the law to inquire into these nefarious activities. We just have to trust the king.

Well, I give you fair warning. This is a road map to totalitarianism. Hallmarks of totalitarian regimes have always included an excessive reliance on secrecy, the deliberate stoking of fear in the general population, a preference for military rather than diplomatic solutions in foreign policy, the promotion of blind patriotism, the denial of human rights, the curtailment of the rule of law, hostility to a free press and the systematic invasion of the privacy of ordinary people.

There are not enough pretty words in all the world to cover up the damage that George W. Bush has done to his country. If the United States could look at itself in a mirror, it would be both alarmed and ashamed at what it saw.