I would not think of twisting the words of someone's post to insult them like that. But I will RESPECTFULLY answer the points of your post.
I wasn't aware of being disrespectful, no more than I was of twisting your words. If I interpreted your statements wrongly, then I apologize. It was no intention of mine to personally offend you. My comments were uncharacteristically short because I was attempting to be concise. However, I realize now that brevity is not necessarily interchangeable with lucidness. Allow me to elaborate. Perhaps your philosophies are not similar, but the natures of your uncompromising, absolute support of said philosophies are comparable.

[QUOTE]But a comparison can be made to What Cheney and Bush do. Hitler used some very basic techniques to accomplish his desires. Simplistically, they are, 1)create an enemy to fear (Hitler: Judaism, Bush: Islam), exploit that fear,... [\QUOTE]

The fear of Judaism in Nazi Germany is quite different from the feelings toward Islam in modern day America. Bush isn't running around advocating racist doctrines...he wasn't elected because he played on fears of Islam; he's not drawing his support from fear of Islam. Islamic people are not feared or shunned by Americans - and any such stories are met with sympathy from the press and the public.

...slowly take away the rights of the people, establish yourself as sole leader.
Hitler took over state governments by throwing out office holders and replacing them with Nazi Reich commissioners. Hitler wrestled over the power to make laws, control budgets, and sign foreign treaties. Now, Bush has blundered over a few laws, but he comes nowhere near that.

Perhaps the basic techniques are similar...but the scope of comparison is so large that you might as well compare a snowstorm to an ice age.

THAT was MY comparison to Hitler, not to WWII or the Holocaust.
Hitler's worst and most remembered actions deal with the Holocaust. To make a connection between the two as I did, then, is not completely illogical.

Sorry I do tend to rant sometimes, lol.
Ranting is good. And healthy. Let it all out.

Ayle, I've seen John56's post on these subjects for awhile, and I'm guess (I don't want to put words in his mouth-just my guess) is that he isn't referring to evil as a religious fanatic does, but they way people refer to mass murders or child abusers. A person who hurts others for purely selfish reasons. Without implying demonic possession or supernatural intervention, I refer to people like child murders as evil, and I believe John56 does too.
I'm not sure how religion got played into this, but it wasn't the context I was referring to either - it hardly ever is, since I am an atheist. The concept of evil....is a debate in it of itself. I don't like to label absolutes. The world, I think, isn't black and white, it's shades of grey. And the moment we begin to think otherwise, the world gets dangerous.

On the other hand...

Bush, Cheney and their administration have attempted to change what it means to actually BE an American.
Agree.

A man who has taken the very office he has been elected to and deformed that office and mutated that office into his own petty dictatorship, is reprehensible.
Agree.

I don't compare the last war in America's history that had any nobility at all to Iraq. But the president has, and the Republican pundits have.
Agree.

Iraq is a petty war of choice for monetary gain, cloaked in lies.
And agree.

It's not your direction I'm against, it's the distance.

I've had this debate several times before. It comes out of being friends with a lot of adamantly liberal Bush-haters. To be honest, I don't wish to be embroiled in another heated dispute on the same topic. Therefore, I will politely withdraw my voice from further comments on this thread - that is, unless I feel compelled to answer, or anyone demands a response.