Reply #1: I like this quote from Greenwald's link at the update...

[Luminous Animal]

Considered historically, it will become clear that the job of Republican governments is to invent novel, ad hoc expansions of state power, while the job of Democratic governments is to consolidate and systematize them. Far from repudiating supposed Bush-era "excesses," the Obama regime has sought--usually successfully--to entrench and to codify them. This is just the latest example.

http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2010/05/ratchet-effect-part-infinity.html