Today is the day that America officially stepped away from the ideals that once made it a great country.

Up until now, it was just the administration moving along this path, but with no one to challenge or try to stop them. Today, congress acted with the administration to pass new legislation that appears to undo many protections of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

For what? We have officially sold our freedom to get more a little more "security." The real reason is even worse. The administration, acting with congress, passed this legislation for cold, cynical, political gain. They will use this as a tool to try to influence an election.

Already, the administration has invaded and occupied two countries, formed a string of secret prisons, subjected individuals to indefinite detention without charges or trial, condoned and encouraged torture, spied on American citizens, and allowed the president to unilaterally declare any person an "enemy combatant."

Today's legislation legalizes these crimes.

We are slowly losing our freedom and our place as a member of the civilized world. We are respected now only because of our military might, not as a member of the family of nations.

Welcome to Soviet Russia. We now have our KGB and our NKVD. We have dungeons and torturers. We have gulags. We have corrupt elections. We occupy other countries.

Oh, and didn't Russia invade Afghanistan? Whatever happened with that?