Guess Who

NO QUARTER has reprinted a speech, National Security: The Attack on the Constitution, given by former CIA officer Jim Marcinkowski, who is running for Congress in Michigan. In his speech, Marcinkowski describes his career serving the country as a Navy Veteran, the FBI, CIA and as a prosecutor. His speech focuses on his concern "an American who is deeply troubled by the direction we are headed as a nation." He describes a fatally flawed, intolerable form of government, where:

The government was always right and never apologized;
Any dissent was suppressed, ridiculed, banned or worse;
Secret prisons were denied and never acknowledged or spoken about;
The torture of captives (in Lubyanka) was condoned;
State incarceration was not subject to the checks and balances of a legal system;
Economic plans, like for oil, were established/determined in closed sessions between politicos, commissars and production managers, far outside public view, and where government claimed privilege in so doing;
Wages were set at the lowest common denominator, no matter what Bloc country you were in;
Government agents had access to your medical records, your library records, your telephone, and your e-mail.

A place where judicial power and judicial review were proclaimed concepts, but simply ignored in application;
Where criminal records of young adults were closed to all but the military;
Where a Constitution was a mere facade and ignored by state actors.

Any dissent, debate and protest were deemed unpatriotic;
The public media was bought, paid for, and provided by the state;
The military clandestinely and shamelessly influenced the national media and public opinion;
A place where wrong was declared right;
Where tapping a phone was like tapping a pencil;
Where lying was considered a patriotic skill;
The extraction of natural resources was paramount to any concern for the environment and the impact on the health of its people;
Where the use of “state secrets,” (those things embarrassing to the government) were confused with legitimate issues of “national security”;
A place where "secrecy" and "national security" were used to control debate;
Where legitimate secrecy, was subject to political use and abuse;
Where "legislators" were mere mouthpieces for and rubberstamps of whoever was in power;
Where you lived and died with the permission of the government;
A place where foreign policy was more important than domestic concerns;
Where fear was used as a political weapon and an acceptable means of control;
Where the best medical care was reserved for the influential;
Where wealth was concentrated in the top 5%;
A place where there was no middle class - just a small economic and political elite, and the working poor.

And now comes the quiz. Which country is he describing:

USA or USSR?

(Via The Washington Note)