Bush has been a busy man these days. In the span of a week, Bush has gone to Congress and the United Nations with two seemingly divergent yet coinciding requests. First, Bush asked our lawmakers to turn the US into a Totalitarian state, demanding that Presidents should no longer require warrants when spying on their own citizens. Apparently the number of warrants he would need to continue his domestic wiretapping program would be a big pain in the ass, considering that millions of American citizens (I suppose with connections to "Al-Qaida") are already being monitored illegally. Since the NSA ignores the Fourth Amendment regardless, Bush's new wiretapping bill would just be impeachment insurance by providing him retroactive immunity. Changing the laws to immunize himself from crimes he has committed against his own citizens? Haven't we seen this before somewhere? Well, of course Bush doesn't stop there in his quest to become a dictator. In addition to bypassing the Constitution of the United States, Bush is also seeking to wipe his ass with the Geneva Conventions on torture. What Totalitarian leader could be complete without authorizing kidnappings, secret prisons, and unbridled torture? The thought of this torture is very disturbing - not just in trying to imagine what goes on in these black sites that we don't hear about - but that they do it in our name, under our flag. Again, Bush seeks to protect himself and others from prosecution for these horrendous acts and violations of Geneva Conventions in the rare event that Diebold fails him and Democrats win the House and Senate and actually act like a real opposition party. So in light of these bold attempts to legalize violations of the Geneva Conventions, a move which even members of his own party are trying to trim down a bit before rubberstamping, Bush stood days later in front of the United Nations pretending like he cares about human rights in the Middle East. He even had the audacity to mention the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the very acts he had just asked Congress for a free-hand to do to people. But I suppose this is his tortured logic, that as long as the threat from "extremists" exists, then nobody can have freedom: neither our own citizens and nor people in countries we decide to invade. And of course all of this will bring Bush's poll numbers up - in some ironic way it makes Bush appear visionary and presidential to those who haven't figured out that the extremists who truly threaten this country are in our seats of power, currently dismantling our Constitution.

Former Governor of Texas Ann Richards, who died yesterday at 73, was a great American. In her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention, she famously said George Bush Sr. was born with a "Silver Foot in his Mouth". Her speech is one the most articulate expressions of American and Democratic ideals, in addition being witty and hilarious.

Listen to it here.

President Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation, January 17th, 1961:

"....We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."