Bellingham Herald oct 21,05

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Characteristics of a corrupt nation
Imagine a country...
...where dissidents and even groups potentially harmful to business interests are surveilled and infiltrated, the reading habits of its citizens are scrutinized, photos and damaging news stories are suppressed or buried by the government and a complacent media, land can be seized for the "common good," citizens are routinely roughed up by a brutal police force.
Imagine a country with questionable elections, a growing myriad of state secrets and outright lies, where citizens are held in jail indefinitely without benefit of trial, a country that invades other countries under pretext to grab natural resources, and practices war crimes in the eyes of most of the world and unbeknownst to its citizens.
Is this a Soviet, totalitarian regime?
No, it is Bush's United States of America.
When a frog is placed in a pot of slowly heating water, it doesn't notice until it boils to death.
It's getting hotter in here.
Diana Conover
Bellingham