I found this after following some links from the story Christina & Sean linked to. You might want to check out The will to undemocratic power. In it, , Philip Golub writes, “In the US, the scope of the democratic retreat has been breathtaking. Under the guise of an undeclared state of emergency, the Bush administration has been methodically tearing down the constitutional order. As frequent revelations on torture, secret prisons and large-scale domestic spying show, government by secret decree and presidential whim has become normal practice.”