Somewhere in America � perhaps in New York, perhaps in Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Detroit, San Francisco, Cleveland, Atlanta, perhaps in all of them simultaneously � there will be an explosion. A group that cares nothing for the well being of Saddam Hussein will take responsibility, in the name of those thousands of Iraqi Muslims slaughtered in the initial aerial bombardment of Baghdad.

The body bags will come out, here at home and across the sea in Iraq, as Americans begin to die in terrible numbers.

Martial law will be declared, habeas corpus will be suspended, posse comitatus will be left aside, and the strictures outlined by both Patriot Acts will come to full bloom. 227 years of constitutional law in America will draw to a close.

- a prediction from Into the Darkness by William Rivers Pitt, Truthout-

(link stolen from The Wonderchicken)

I am going on the record here as seconding Mr. Pitt's above prediction, or some variation thereof. Martial law is only one tragic and violent event away, my fellow Americans. Bush and his cronies have been working toward this since long before they engineered the 2000 election fiasco. I hope Mr. Pitt and myself are wrong but there is a sick dread blackening my heart that fears we are not.

Unpredictable events do occur, however (quoth the prophet and the weatherman).

In the meantime, and while we here in The States are still allowed to amass in large groups, Sarah and myself are attending another candlelight vigil tonight. Tiny flames pushing back the darkness just a little.