American Gestapo. Lovely.

News From Underground: American Gestapo:

"What BushCo wants, according to the fine print (Sec. 605) of the new PATRIOT Act, is a permanent Praetorian Guard, or Cheka, or Gestapo. It's all too easy to come up with apt historical analogies--but not with any from this nation's history.

'A permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division,'' empowered to 'make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence' (what is 'an offense against the United States?), 'or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony'"