While Morphizm and others not on
the continental grift have been trying to tell everyone from the
casual American internet surfer to Nancy Pelosi herself, Bush isn't
playing the power trip for popularity and effect. href="http://www.morphizm.com/politix/interviews/miller_dys.html">He's
playing it to win by any means necessary. Meanwhile, the American
people and the Congress that is supposed to be looking out for their
best interests have treated this administration like a golf partner
who, sure, has made some mistakes on the fairway but is a nice guy
above it all on the green.
Wrong. Totally, incredibly, stupendously wrong.
President Bush has shown more than, say, 100 times that he's in this
to win it. And by win it, I mean consolidate power and influence with
zero concern for where it leads the country, economy or, in the end,
the legislative branch. He's stacked the Supreme Court with
conservative pals, and the Congress confirmed them without a thought.
He's
invented a devastating and crushingly expensive war, and Congress
gave him a blank check and continues to do so. href="http://www.morphizm.com/observations/freeman_physics.html">He's
tortured and imprisoned thousands of innocents and killed millions
of the same, all while spying like a pervert voyeur on the American
people, and Congress has given him the greenlight to do so by taking
impeachment off the table. It's getting harder and harder to figure
out just what Congress needs to wake up and realize that href="http://www.morphizm.com/observations/levine/levine_popes.html">he's
simply a dictator performing href="http://www.morphizm.com/observations/levine/levine_objectiveless.html">a
coup against the very people he has promised to represent.
Here's the fuck-you in a nutshell: His ratings are lower than ever,
yet his power is greater than ever. If that doesn't say dictator, I
sincerely don't know what does.
So it is with bizarro irony that href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dean">we must turn to John
Dean, of all the freaking people, to find a way out of this mess.
The same John Dean who counseled none other than Richard Nixon, a Bush
precursor who, although he was a scumbag of infinite proportions,
simply cannot hold a candle to this administration. The dude resigned,
for the Big Bang's sake. And Bush, no doubt, probably thought that an
act of cowardice, rather than a sign of respect for not just the
American people, but also his office.
The same John Dean that, according to his Wikipedia profile, was
called a "master manipulator of the cover up" by the FBI. The same
John Dean that plead guilty to obstruction of justice during the
Watergate scandal, supervised hush money for the burglars and even
settled a case against G. Gordon Liddy, who fingered him as the
Watergate mastermind in the book style="font-style:italic;">Will.
Yet it is now Dean who speaks with clarity on the subject of executive
corruption, and he should know. href="http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070713.html ">He breaks down
Bush's bid for totalitarian rule quite easily in his latest column for
FindLaw:
By not responding to the subpoena, the President and Ms. Miers all
but invited the House Judiciary Committee and, in turn, the House of
Representatives to vote to deem her in contempt of Congress. It was a
defiant, in-your-face insult to Congress. No president would do this
unless he was quite confident of the outcome. Clearly, Bush's White
House and Justice Department lawyers believe that the solidly
conservative federal judiciary will grant them a favorable ruling, and
that, in the process, they will greatly weaken congressional oversight
powers, to the advantage of the White House.
In short, the Bush White House is not bluffing with this act of
defiance. Rather, the White House truly wants to test, and attempt to
expand, presidential power. Bush's White House is ready, willing, and
able to play hardball. Indeed, the White House may actually be trying
to bait the House Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives
into voting to deem Ms. Miers in contempt of congress."
But he saves the best part for last:
Moreover, the Bush White House clearly believes the law is on its
side. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Justice Department has
provided the White House with a 'broadly worded legal opinion'
advising that 'senior White House officials' can 'ignore subpoenas
from Congress to testify about the U.S. attorneys affair.' This
'three-page opinion,' the L.A. Times says, 'raises questions about
whether the Justice Department would prosecute senior administration
officials if Congress voted to hold them in contempt." The L.A.
Times's article also notes that, under the law, the U.S. Attorney for
the District of Columba decides whether or not to pursue such cases
when they are referred by the House or Senate for prosecution.
So let me translate. We have a president with dismal approval ratings
ignoring the will of the legislative branch because he has href="http://www.morphizm.com/observations/palast/palast_harriet.html">the
Justice Department in his pocket, to go along with all the
corporations, military, and most politicians as well, Republican and
Democrat. (Please don't make me write out the laundry list of ways
Democrats have enabled him. I'd get carpal tunnel just trying.)
In other words, Bush is no president. He is no CEO. He is a dictator,
and the longer we wait to realize that, href=" http://www.morphizm.com/observations/thill/thill_memorialize.html">the
longer the hyperreality will persist. Which one? The Consitution,
a metafiction so obsolete that it may be only Bush who understands
that it has no power in the new American millennium. With the Supreme
Court, the Justice Department and half of Congress in his vice, he can
squeeze the people until he feels satisfied that Exxon and his other
corporate donors have taken all they can.
I would not be surprised in any way if there were a devastating
attack, 9/11 style, headed our way right before election year. Right
before he figures out a way to manufacture a third term. Or install a
proxy. We are through the looking glass in our fabled "democracy." Did
I say looking glass? I meant hourglass. Time's up, people.
It's fight or flight.