here’s a short list the mind-boggling transformations that have become standard operating procedure in the good old USA

Coming of Age in Bush’s America! By Reggie, Contributing Editor, TvNewsLIES.org
...
Really think about these last seven years and recoil at what it actually means to have come of age in Bush’s America,

To assist your reality check, here’s a short list the mind-boggling transformations that have become standard operating procedure in the good old USA. Read them carefully:*
* The outcome of an a presidential election can be decided by a handful of Supreme Court Justices rather than the people.
* A President of the United States need not speak honestly, coherently or intelligibly when not reading from a prepared text. It is acceptable for the President to be reviled around the globe and to be unable to travel anywhere without extraordinary protection from huge protests against his visit and his policies.
* Where it was once highly respected, the United States of America is now the most feared nation on Earth. The US can murder more civilians than all the world’s terrorists combined and claim its actions are meant to liberate people.
* The major tools of executive governance are lies, secrecy and the abuse of executive privilege. These methods are implemented under the guise of national security in order to thwart any and all departmental oversight.
* Voting machines can be privately owned by members of one political party, and need not have paper trails for verifying results. It is irrelevant to the election process that voting machines have been shown to be easily hacked, and that voting irregularities have prevented many thousands of people from voting or having their votes counted.
* Elected leaders and their cohorts can lie with impunity to the American people, to the Congress, to the UN and to the world. There is no oversight; there are no checks and balances, and no mainstream media to act as watchdogs for the people.
* The President can quietly override the will of the people by the use of signing statements. He can claim the authority to disobey hundreds of laws enacted by Congress, thereby asserting the power to set aside any statute when it conflicts with his personal interpretation of the Constitution.
...
* Soldiers can be sent into an immoral and unjust war with little planning and inadequate armor, and unending redeployment. At the same time, veterans’ health care is unimportant and can be shamefully administered.
* Terror threats can be fabricated at will to keep the public in a state of constant fear. Creating an illusory ‘war on terror’ can be used to gain public support for a costly and failing war that reaps huge profits for private contractors.
* Americans and others living in the US can be spied upon without probable cause and without the acquisition of warrants in defiance of existing FISA laws.
* Anyone can be declared an enemy combatant at the whim of the administration and can be confined indefinitely without being charged or having access to counsel.
* Torturing detainees in violation of the Geneva Convention is acceptable, and if in doubt, rendition to countries that will do the torturing is a viable alternative.
* There need be no accountability for anyone in or connected to the White House for inept performance, for disastrous decisions, or for criminal acts such as lying under oath, obstructing justice or revealing the identity of a covert CIA operative.
...
* Empirical science can be invalidated by biblical precepts.. Global warming and evolution are junk science.
…and on and on and on and on.

Do you really need more examples to ponder? I think not.

The distinction is clear: coming of age in Bush’s America means living with a new set of principles and practices that are diametrically opposed to those upon which this nation was founded.