The legislation being hammered out in our imperial capital to bail out financial institutions contains a decidedly dictatorial twist. Section 8 relates to review of the Secretary of the Treasury's decisions. It reads as follows:

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

(See http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/09/20/treasurys-financial-bailout-proposal-to-congress/ for the full text)

Bottom line, there is no review of the Secretary's decisions. This essentially makes him the USA's financial dictator. Read the whole proposal. The Secretary may issue regulations, enter into contracts, disperse funds, and designate financial agents of the government at his discretion, not subject to review! This delegation of legislative power to the executive branch is contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution, and violates the principle of the separation of powers. This kind of rule by decree may fly in Chavez's Venezuela, but it isn't acceptable here.

One is reminded of the warnings of the Founders.

James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 47:

‘‘The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive,

and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and

whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.''

Thomas Paine's observation about government:

“…against this species of despotism, proceeding on through an endless labyrinth of office till the source of it is scarcely perceptible, there is no mode of redress. It strengthens itself by assuming the appearance of duty, and tyrannizes under the pretence of obeying.”

The process of turning the USA into a neo-fascist country is nearly complete. The only thing that separates us from out and out fascism is fact that we elect our dictator. The office of the Presidency may have a parade of different occupants, but this doesn't keep us free if they wield dictatorial powers.

This is the culmination of a process begun in the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries . It was then that the idea of federal regulation of the economy began to be implemented. From that era also came the Federal Reserve System, creating a banking cartel. Despite the so-called deregulation of recent years the financial industry remains highly regulated. The mess we're in is a direct result of this intervention. Thank you, progressives, for giving us the regulatory state. Not quite working out the way you thought it would, is it?

The only way out is to implement a system of free banking and private money. We should begin with abolishing the Federal Reserve and repealing the legal tender laws. Then we can repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS. This is an oversimplification that would have to be thoughtfully implemented, but this truly free market approach is the only way to put the economy back on a sound footing.

While it will hurt, we must let the correction run its course. Then we'll have our fundamentals in place (hear that Sen. McCain?) and the economy will recover.

So, no more fascist bail outs!