State of the Union 2006

the U.S. Constitution is under a full to-the-death attack from the neo-con fascists, and the matter has reached a critical point, such that we may be living in a dictatorship before another month has passed

• • • the appointment of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court is a travesty, and a disgrace; the danger is obvious from his record, which includes the invention of the principles of 'unitary executive' and 'signing statements' and years of knee-jerk approval of anything that the Executive Branch or Big Business proposes; a filibuster by the Democratic Party seems to be the only route to preserving the Constitution

• • • Dubya's movement toward more & more actions based on the 'unitary executive' principle looks a lot like Germany in 1933: the burning of the Reichstag [27 February] is the equivalent of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center; our Patriot Act removed extant civil liberties as did the Reichstag Fire Decree; and the Democratic Party is removed from participation in the Legislative Branch (Hitler blamed the Reichstag arson on the Communist Party and had its leaders jailed)

• • • laws have no meaning for the Bush Gang, and laws they don't like are just interpreted as not binding on the Executive Branch; torture? war profiteering? malfeasance in office? perjury? bribery? warrantless surveillence?; if Dubya says it is okay, then the Constitution cannot stop him — how is that different from Saddam or Adolf or Stalin or any other dictator?

• • • Dubya stated proudly & publicly that he intends to continue to violate his own Patriot Act by wire-tapping American citizens without bothering to get even rubber-stamp FISO Court warrants — the scary & logical conclusion is that these wire-taps are illegal & indefensible even under FISO

• • • back in December 2004 Bush ordered the Pentagon to construct plans for an invasion of Iran, and Condi & Rumsfeld have recently pounded the war drums on the Sunday talk shows — a pattern: Bush ordered plans for invading Iraq in May of 2002, Condi & Powell & Rumsfeld testified falsely on camera for months, and the justified-by-falsehood invasion of Iraq began in March 2003

• • • America's finances are in disarray; George Dubya took office with a budget surplus and yet has in five years increased the U.S. National Debt by 42.8 percent {see counter on right side of blog homepage for the latest figure}

• • • the U.S. House of Representatives has been in recess since December 17th, an event without precedent in U.S. history for the year-end holiday break; the likely cause is the G.O.P.'s inability to sweep aside the DeLay & Ney & Taft & Abramoff scandals (no Democrats are involved); Republicans are scrambling for a diversion, such as the recent Osama tape, but have found none – the evidence is clear and the G.O.P. is losing credibility and fealty from even members of its own party in Congress

• • • be very alert to what Dubya says in his State of the Union speech on January 31st: Congress re-convenes that day at Noon; in the intervening week, the G.O.P. spin-machine will have a busy time preparing & sowing 'talking points' parsiflage to support Dubya's statements; I will not be surprised if the Bush Gang stages an emergency and declares martial law or some such thing, for there is no other way out of this political box-canyon — except impeachment or resignation

• • • the liberal-American majority does not want impeachment, because the cost to the Country is enormous, both politically and operationally; the other down-side is that Dubya's resignation gives us President Cheney; if both Bush & Cheney are impeached or forced to resign, that gives President Dennis Hastert [GOP-IL]; next in line is President Pro Tempore of the Senate Ted Stevens, the 'pork barrel king' of Alaska; fourth in line is [oh, shudder!!] Secretary of State Condi Rice, followed by Secretary of the Treasury John Snow and Secretary of War Donald 'Who Knows?' Rumsfeld — in all, a motley crew and not much better than King George; if I had to choose, I would cross my fingers and hope that Hastert is merely the Gerald Ford of the XXIst Century

• • • the mid-term elections are, however, a long way off; Hastert may not return to the House in November, and a Democratic majority in either House or Senate could tip the balance back toward democracy; the new Speaker might be Harry Reid [Dem-NV], which will be excellent; 'Bulldog' Patrick Fitzgerald is preparing further TreasonGate indictments, Jack Abramoff is confessing to a grand jury (giving at least 60 G.O.P. Congressmen and -women sleepless nights), and 'Scooter' Libby's trial starts in February – the Bush Gang is in a lot of battles that Dubya is destined to lose

I have said before that 'Freedom exists in the exercise thereof" and that still holds true; but such exercise gets harder and harder as the Bush Gang tightens its grip on the Culture-Structure and chops away further portions of America's unalianable rights and the Rule of Law

the rights that America has in November 2006 will be the ones that YOU do not give up, the ones that YOU stand for preserving

REGIME CHANGE IN NOVEMBER 2006 !!!