At some point you must realize
That we aren’t dealing with simply a “bad president” or a “corrupt administration”. No, we’re dealing with a handful of people who fancy themselves a king and his court. I came to this conclusion about 10:30 AM on 9/11, YMMV.
These are people who feel no restraint from the rule of law, morality or the will of the people they supposedly govern. Instead, they bully ahead with plans for the domination of oil-rich nations by means of a military presence in any land so blessed- and totally ignore anyone else (So sorry Sudan). They spy on their own population (illegally), torture captives (including children), and unlawfully detain their own citizens under the guise of “wartime”. We aren’t at war, or rather, we’re at eternal war, which amounts to the same thing.
Its been noted that King George has yet to veto any bill put to him. The following might shed some light on why:
Bush using a little-noticed strategy to alter the balance of power
Ron Hutcheson and James Kuhnhenn
WASHINGTON – President Bush agreed with great fanfare last month to accept a ban on torture, but he later quietly reserved the right to ignore it, even as he signed it into law.
Acting from the seclusion of his Texas ranch at the start of New Year’s weekend, Bush said he would interpret the new law in keeping with his expansive view of presidential power. He did it by issuing a bill-signing statement – a little-noticed device that has become a favorite tool of presidential power in the Bush White House.
In fact, Bush has used signing statements to reject, revise or put his spin on more than 500 legislative provisions. Experts say he has been far more aggressive than any previous president in using the statements to claim sweeping executive power – and not just on national security issues.
“It’s nothing short of breath-taking,” said Phillip Cooper, a professor of public administration at Portland State University. “In every case, the White House has interpreted presidential authority as broadly as possible, interpreted legislative authority as narrowly as possible, and pre-empted the judiciary.” </i>
What Bush has done is the old schoolyard trick. He agrees to something to your face, but has his fingers crossed behind his back. And his stooges (Yoo, Gonzales, Ashcroft et al) just keep writing secret memos that provide what they consider to be legal blessings on these actions, far beyond any powers granted the executive branch.
The joke about the fascist regime in Italy was, at least they made the trains run on time. But our cast of clowns can’t even do that. Our infrastructure is gutted (see Katrina or the Sego mining disaster), our military overstretched and undersupported, our economy rests on a bubble of over-valued housing that is beginning to turn to mush. But lordy, the rich get their tax cuts, energy companies skip on taxes, and defense contractors throw 10 million dollar parties for their kids, while Marines are turned into hamburger due to lack of required, requested, and available armor.
The signs for 2006 point to multiple investigations (Plame, Abramoff, etc) that show, for those willing to accept reality (i.e, everyone but that 30% of knuckle-dragging, flag stickering mommas boys who wizz themselves hoping a big bad brown “terraist” isn’t waiting to kill ‘em, and want big daddy Bush to “stay the course” and bring democracy to a bunch of religious fanatics at the point of a gun) the absolute corruption, incompentence and frankly, madness that has taken over our government, and in a larger sense, our concept of our country. But the cynic (realist?) in me doesn’t see there being any legal end to our national nightmare. Bush has shown that he regards the Constitution as nothing more than a “goddamned piece of paper”, breaking any law he finds troublesome, ignoring judical rulings, and lying to cover it up.
These people are not going to go because they are shown to be criminals, which they are, or incompetent, which they demostrate everyday. No, they won’t be voted away either. The simple nature of the vote counting industry assures that. No, sometime before the presidental elections in 08 this nation will suffer another “terrorist” attack, and as governments have done since the dawn of time, Bush and crew will use this as proof that if only they had just a little more power, they would have caught the bad guys, so we’ll get another version of the Patriot Act, or voided elections, or worse.
What will end it? When the structure can no longer support itself. When our economy tanks, and the Chinese or the EU see an opening and essentially buy us for pennies on the dollar. At that point, the Walmarts, the Microsofts, the Exxons will look around, make their best deal, and Bush et al will be tossed aside. That or they attempt to restart the draft, which they have needed to do, but can’t, since making slaves of our children will finally force Mr. and Mrs. Kansas to actually listen to what Fox news blathers, and realize that hey, getting some Iraqi the ability to vote isn’t worth their childs life. Particuarly when its all based on a foundation of lies. At that point the people will revolt- one hopes.
Sorry for the dire New Years greeting. My advice? Ignore them if you can, fight them if you must, and love those around you as if today is your last. Because with this cast of crazies, it just might be.
