In the book IT, Stephen King took a shot at the cliché "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Basically, he wrote "fuck that. the most they change, the more they really fucking change." Well, it's good that George W. Bush doesn't read Stephen King.
This was from slate.com on Jan 5.
The Washginton Post goes inside with President Bush bypassing the Senate and making a raft of recess appointments last night. Among the fine new hires: Julie Myers who will become head of the immigration bureau, despite complaints across the political spectrum that she's unqualified. Another hire will head a preparedness office at the Department of Homeland Security after making a name for herself, as the Post puts it, "demanding that information about racial disparities in police treatment of blacks in traffic cases be deleted from a news release." And a third will head the State Department's office to coordinate emergency relief. She has no experience in emergency management or relief, but, don't fret, she did serve as a state chair of Bush's 2000 campaign.
(Sometimes it's Thank Goodness for other blogs, otherwise I'd have no content.)
Maureen Dowd's column that ran Thursday is yet another sign that there might not be a God, because if there were we'd already be smack dab in the middle of the apocalypse.
"The Post reported that W. had taken advantage of an innovation started years ago by [Supreme Court nominee] Samuel Alito Jr. to shore up executive privilege. As a young Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, Mr. Alito created a strategy that has the president declare what laws mean when he signs them. Mr. Alito wanted the courts to focus as much on the president's interpretation of a law as on what he called 'legislative intent.'
W. has issued at least 108 such statements, The Post said, rejecting 'provisions in bills that the White House regarded as interfering with its powers in national security, intelligence policy and law enforcement.'
And since the imperial presidency is run by the vice president, W. has a lot of free time to do the things he likes to do. Confined with his wife and mother-in-law at the Crawford ranch, he spent his Christmas vacation mountain-biking and clearing brush.
He left the ranch for a brief visit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he kidded in a way that again showed his jarring lack of empathy with the amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan: 'As you can possibly see, I have an injury myself -- not here at the hospital, but in combat with a cedar. I eventually won. The cedar gave me a little scratch. As a matter of fact, the colonel asked if I needed first aid when she first saw me. I was able to avoid any major surgical operations here, but thanks for your compassion, colonel.'
[there are no words in English to express my dismay. i guess it's good that my outrage is still coursing strongly through my veins]
W. also used the occasion to defend the Nixonian eavesdropping program that even made John Ashcroft and his deputy, James Comey, skittish. As The Times reported, Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales had to make an emergency trip to see the reluctant Mr. Ashcroft in the hospital in March 2004 to get the program recertified because Mr. Comey had balked.
You know you're in trouble when John Ashcroft is worried about overreaching."
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