Skip to main content

The Imperial Presidency

Americans have always looked to their President as someone almost to be revered no matter what. Commander-in-Chief and all that! However, perhaps changing times sees George Bush much on the nose for a host of reasons, not the least being his obvious untruthfulness in relation to the invasion of Iraq and now the mess in and relating to Iraq. Bush and his cohorts - no doubt aided and abetted by that singularly sinister character VP Cheney - haven't been afraid to see themselves above the law.

This NY Times editorial, "The Imperial Presidency" is therefore interesting as it pulls together, as it were, a number of issues with respect to Bush and his presidency. From afar it is hard to gauge to what extent the editorial reflects wider opinion in the US.

"Observing President Bush in action lately, we have to wonder if he actually watched the election returns in November, or if he was just rerunning the 2002 vote on his TiVo.

That year, the White House used the fear of terrorism to scare American voters into cementing the Republican domination of Congress. Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney then embarked on an expansion of presidential power chilling both in its sweep and in the damage it did to the constitutional system of checks and balances."

Comments

Anonymous said…
the problem is more fundamental than dubya. in 2007, the usa is being directed by a political system devised in medieval times. it has been modified, but the structure remains hopelessly unable to deliver outcomes expected of it by progressive elements of society.

the military machine takes it's orders from one man. this person is not necessarily smart, knowledgeable, wise, or even sane. he(so far)is simply the latest selection of the political process, which doesn't test for any of those qualities.

it's long past time for a second, peaceful, american revolution with resulting constitution that enables just, effective and humane administration of the nation.

this will not happen. just as the roman empire stumbled through rule by monsters like caligula, nero, and commodus, america will continue to empower sociopaths, narcissists and simple incompetents, without any question of social structural failure.

they get "the government they deserve", too bad we get it too.
January 14, 2007 1:53 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Pentagon's eye-popping spending....and waste!

Only a gigantic bureaucracy could get away with spending of such dimensions - and the amazing waste involved in part of that ginormous spend.   Think US Pentagon..... "From spending $150 million on private villas for a handful of personnel in Afghanistan to blowing $2.7 billion on an air surveillance balloon that doesn’t work, the latest revelations of waste at the Pentagon are just the most recent howlers in a long line of similar stories stretching back at least five decades.  Other hot-off-the-presses examples would include the Army’s purchase of helicopter gears worth $500 each for $8,000 each and the accumulation of billions of dollars' worth of weapons components that will never be used. And then there’s the one that would have to be everyone’s favorite Pentagon waste story: the spending of $50,000 to investigate the bomb-detecting capabilities of African elephants. (And here’s a shock: they didn’t turn out to be that great!) The elephant research, of course, represe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Video: Israel demolishing a Bedouin village

From Mondoweiss - Israel's supposed "most moral army in the world", the IDF, engaged in immoral, and according to international law, illegal action.... "Israeli forces have demolished every home in the Bedouin village of Khirbet Taha in the northern West Bank district of Nablus during three separate demolitions since the start of the year. Unlike most Bedouin villages, the residents in Khirbet Taha own their own land. However that land falls in Area C, territory in the occupied West Bank under full Israeli control. The village’s only school was also destroyed, leaving children to study in a dilapidated 100-year-old mosque — the only structure left standing in the village. According the United Nations, Israel has demolished half as many Palestinian buildings in the first few months of 2016, as they had in all of 2015. In February alone, the UN found that more Palestinians homes were destroyed than any other month since 2009, when the organization began its docum...
Post a Comment
Read more

What does a no-fly zone actually mean?

As some countries consider imposing a no-fly zone in relation to Libya, the pertinent question must be what does that mean and entail? FP provides the answers: "It depends on the circumstances. There are two primary types of no-fly zones imposed by air forces. The first is imposed by one military over another, while the two sides are at war. In practice, this type of no-fly zone amounts to a warning from one side that it will engage the other's aircraft if they are spotted in a given territory. The second type, more applicable to the situation in Libya, is when an outside power possessing overwhelming air superiority restricts flights over a given country in order to discourage an internal conflict or humanitarian crisis. This is a relatively recent tactic, which was used most famously in Bosnia and Iraq during the 1990s. No-fly zones are often a compromise in situations where the international community is demanding a response to ongoing violence, but full military interven...
6 comments
Read more