This Is Depressing
Atrios pointed out this article from Bushcountry.org, which says it promotes the ideals of conservatism. Here's one of the site's columnist's prescriptions for dealing with the threat of terrorism in our midst, post Beslan (Russia) If the following is what conservatism stands for in our nation today, then I'm very sorry and very scared.

We cannot protect every soft target. There are as many soft targets as there are people in this country. How do we prevent Beslan from occurring in Bedford, Massachusetts or Burlington, Vermont?  Remove the infection before we become Iran.

• Create national ID cards. Include biometric information. Include religion on the ID card.
  
• Any criminals are to be rounded up and locked up the day they are identified.
  
• Any illegals that are identified are to be deported, to be fair to those who wait years in line to get into this country.
  
• Anyone on the terror watch list is put into solitary confinement immediately.
  
• Anyone who registers as Muslim should be required to take a loyalty oath. The U.S. or Islam.
  
• Anyone who chooses the U.S. shall be registered with the government. If they continue to show loyalty to this nation, they may stay.
  
• Anyone who chooses Islam is to be considered a threat to this country and put in confinement. Call it a concentration camp. Guantanomo Bay is more comfortable than Afghanistan, and I’m not suggesting we send them all to Cuba. Old Japanese interment camps work. Remember, extremism is a belief system. If Dad thinks he has a right to blow up Jews for the sake of Jihad, odds are that Junior does, too. Remember: Islamicists are equal opportunity suicide bombers these days. Mom has no qualms about sending her daughter off to school in a suicide bomber belt these days, either. Children tend to inherit the beliefs of their parents. And all children should be interred with the parents. All relatives of those in internment should be interred as well.
  
• Then you send them home. If they have been here several generations, ask which country they wish to go to. Canada is fine. Canada has citizens who have married the royalty of Hezbollah and openly print they wish to send their children out to go blow up infidels.
  
• Secure the border. And don’t let the evil back in.
  

Our choices are simple. Live in fear and continue to risk our parades becoming rains of fire. Or remove the evil from our midst.

On one hand, I'd like to dismiss this as simple wingnuttery, something from the far fringes. But really, it doesn't sound that far off from Ann Coulter (the conservative columnist who recently said in an interview with Amazon, "Peace through strength is an idea that never goes out of style. Also, some people can’t be negotiated with but have to be crushed") or Michelle Malkin (a conservative writer/pundit who just happens to be Japanese-American and who has written In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror).

Today is the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks. I don't have to remind you about that. The reminders will be everywhere, from the newspaper and TV to a jolting of your memory, bringing back a flood of images from the moment you first heard about the attacks.

It's also important to remember that in the days that followed this date three years ago, the world was on our side, expressing sorrow for what had happened and offering support for what we had to do next to deal with the attackers. And we should also remember that the Bush administration, though it put its foot in its mouth from time to time, made overtures to the Muslim community both within the U.S. and outside our borders to ensure that the response that would take place was not a war between religions.

Here we are, three years hence, and our nation, once a beacon to the world with its shining city on a hill example (to use a bit of great Americana rhetoric), has become more and more isolated and fearful because of wayward and wanton policies of imperial hubris set forth by this incompetent and radically ideological administration (two flavors that certainly don't taste great together).

Today, when I think back to September 11, 2001, I'm not only going to mourn for the lives that were lost that day and the families who have had to endure without their loved ones, but also sadly reflect on the course of events that have led us down this path, reminding myself that it could have been so different. The course can still be changed, though there's a lot of work to be done to reverse the course. But I'm ready to help.