*Rips out hair*

[pegkerr]

Okay, so President Bush used his year-end news conference yesterday to resume his public relations offensive against his critics, saying he wants the Justice Department to find out who committed the "shameful act" of leaking word that he secretly approved a special program to spy on US citizens, and blasting senators who have blocked the renewal of the Patriot Act.

He accuses others of shameful acts.

He has violated the separation of powers, he is in violation of the Constitution. He is spying on Americans. And yet his poll numbers are rebounding. I saw that and I thought I might spontaneously combust out of sheer political outrage. My god, what is it going to take for this country to wake up and realize it has been taken over by a dictator who is trashing our system of government?

Edited to add: This reminds me of an old Doonesbury cartoon. Two Congressmen are sitting listening to Nixon's lawyers during the Watergate hearings.

"'No impeachable offense. No impeachable offense,'" mimics one. "How can St. John keep spouting that gibberish?"
They lapse into a despondent silence.
"If only" muses the other, "he'd knock over a bank or something."
"By George!" exclaims the first, "We'd have him then!"

Comments

[darkthirty.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Rememeber Sorry Everybody, the website. Now we know how much...

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

I'm convinced the rebound is somewhat artificial — it's Christmas! Also, he had nowhere to go but up.

[charlietudor.livejournal.com]

My god, what is it going to take for this country to wake up and realize it has been taken over by a dictator who is trashing our system of government?

Armageddon. That seems to be what he's trying to bring about, after all.

I saw a post from someone I otherwise like saying "Well, he's the President, after all, he must know more about these things than we do," and I had to walk away from the computer for a few minutes to regain my composure.

[peppersghost.livejournal.com]

I used to think that way, too. And then Sept. 11 happened, and I realized that the government I'd trusted basically knows squat. I saw that post, and I wanted to ask the poster if she understands what the stars and stripes in her icon stand for.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yup. There are people who will give him a pass because he's a "Christian," or because he's rich and therefore smarter than the rest of us, or because He Says What He Thinks and Sticks To His Guns. I also think there's an unfortunately large segment of the population that wants to be told what to do and think and is quite willing to cede rights to a perceived Better. They honestly don't believe their rights have been infringed, and think that anyone who complains must have something to hide.

[silme.livejournal.com]

I turned on Fox News (here in England), seeking news of the NY transit strike. *sigh* I can't watch them for very long without wanting to scream. All three newsreaders were just going on and on about how the President only wants the best for the country and to keep everyone safe.

*sigh* And then they showed Kansas Senator Hutchison basically repeating their words.

What on earth has happened to the US? I moved away to England in August 2000. The US truly seems like a foreign country to me nowadays rather than my native land. :(

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

When I saw that the poll numbers were up, I couldn't believe it. Are Americans really that gullible? Apparently they are, since they elected this clown twice. Well, once, but still... half the voters chose him. I was hoping this latest fiasco would put him so far over the top that even the most die-hard neocons would throw up their hands in disgust, but it seems he has to sink even lower for that to happen.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of an old Doonesbury cartoon. Two Congressmen are sitting listening to Nixon's lawyers.

"'No impeachable offense. No impeachable offense' mimics one. "How can St. John keep spouting that gibberish?"
They lapse into a despondent silence.
"If only" says the other "he'd knock over a bank or something."
"By George!" shouts the first "We'd have him then!"

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

J and I were talking about this last night. I said that although there are a few Republicans in Congress who are backing away, I have yet to hear or read one ordinary everyday American who voted for Bush say that they're sorry they did so. He agreed, he hasn't heard/read it, either.

I don't understand it. I can see why his base in a certain strain of fundamentalist Christianity is sticking with him (notice "a certain strain"), but I can't understand why, for example, real conservatives are doing so. (Here, again, I'm talking about ordinary folks; some bigger-name conservatives have spoken and written about Bush's lack of conservative values.)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

There is an interesting political dynamic here, and it's illustrated in the Patriot Act vote. Congressional debates and votes on these issues -- surveillance, the Patriot Act, torture -- are predicated on the Executive following the law. If the President believes that he does not need to follow the law, what's the point in voting? Even Republican legislators can figure this out, and more then a few of them are really pissed.

B

[zephyrious.livejournal.com]

I've heard from an ordinary person who is sorry he voted for Bush, my dentist. He was quite passionate about his regret and his current lack of faith in the administration. And he also said that he hasn't gone as far as some of his friends who voted for Bush but now consider him actively evil. He may have reached that point now, our conversation was a month ago or thereabouts.

Personally, I was shocked that Sununu, who represents my state, broke with Bush on the Patriot act. I didn't think he had that much integrity; there must be some reason why this is in his self-interest. I suspect he's had an earful from his constituents.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Thanks for letting me know that there are some!

[skg.livejournal.com]

Sounds an awful lot like more execution of the Karl Rove strategy--when put on the defensive go on the offensive.

Redirect, distract, repeat.

[hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com]

"like more execution of the Karl Rove strategy"

Now, if you remove a few words from that sentence you get:

"execution of Karl Rove"

Hey, even with the cost of energy, I'd agree to spend tax dollars on that! ;)

Zap, Recharge, Repeat :-)

[skg.livejournal.com]

Be careful!! (whispers) They may be watching...

[hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com]

Uh....yeah...uh...I didn't mean to say 'I' would execute him...I...uh...it was a typo...yes, that's right...I meant exonerate him....yeah....that's what I meant... :-)

[callunav.livejournal.com]

He's been shifting the blame like that all along. Last I heard, what has just been 'leaked' (maybe 'reported'?) is indeed an impeachable offense, and, indeed, the main person involved in impeaching Clinton has said that Bush should also be impeached. Which, from my point of view, is only sense, but from the point of view of party politics is pretty strong.

I have hope. I think the polls respond most to disasters where people can see suffering they can relate to - wars some, the betrayal of an individual with a name and a face and a history quite a bit, natural disasters much more. I know about the spying and I'm utterly outraged, but I'm not personally scared, hurt, or even enraged. Maybe if there were 'human interest' stories about the people who have been hurt by this new crime, it would affect the polls.

But in the mean time, the law is *slightly* less human-interest oriented than individuals/polls are: whether his polls rise a bit or not, he can and should and I devoutly hope will still be impeached.

If he manages to retain the presidency after being impeached, that's when I'm going to lock myself in a small room and refuse to come out until there's a presidential election I can vote in.

[hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com]

Bush and his law school dropout advisors have done this continually (violate the law - torture, transfering prisoners, illegal use of the Patriot Act, misunderstanding of the Geneva Convention, etc...) for no reason.

In this particular case, he is using the NSA to spy on communications that cross U.S. borders and (he says) only from people that have been found to have some type of contact with Al Qaida. Sounds almost reasonable except that the tired line of "just trust me" is wearing a bit thin. While the NSA's mission is somewhat changed with this directive, they also are obliged to turn over illegal activity information to the proper authorities.

Even that doesn't persuade some (as it's not just terrorists, but criminals as well). However, we have seen from multiple examples of what this administration can and will do and it goes well beyond simple spying on 'criminals'.

Do you think Dick Cheney really cares about your Civil Liberties? Do you think Rummy cares if we fundamentally change the ideals of America because of the possibility of a terrorist attack? Maybe they shouldn't, but we damn well better.

If the Bushites truly cared about such things they first would do more to strengthen our security (borders, airport, trains, food, medicine, nuclear power plants, etc..) than they have rather than spying on Quakers or discerning what book I checked out at my local library. I forgot...they don't have the money to do that as they've been too busy balancing the budget on students and the poor and making sure that that 1% keeps its tax cut...my bad.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm seriously angry about this.

But! John Conyerrs (er, Representative Conyers) has introduced a motion to censure Bush and Cheney over all this.

"The Select Committee seeks to subpoena the President and other members of the administration in hopes of ascertaining if impeachable offenses have been committed."

YEE freakin' HAW.

[cheshyre]

Keep in mind, (a) the poll numbers come from before this story hit the public consciousness. Check the dates: "between last Thursday and Sunday" and the story was reported on Friday. Give it a few more days for the news to sink in. (b) The poll numbers remain astonishingly low. He's not a popular president.