The State of the Union
On Tuesday, Jan 23, at 9pm EST, the Decider will deliver his State of the Union address to Congress and the American people. I’ve read different pieces speculating on the topics our Great Leader will cover in his annual speech. But we all know that the State of the Union is usually just a bunch of hot air. Whatever the Decider says will be carefully crafted to win support for his policies. America’s Worst President has repeatedly shown that when he tries to woo the American people, very little that is true comes out of his mouth — most of what he says being out of touch with reality altogether.
So instead on focusing on what he might lie about this time, I thought it would be interesting to collate some current events that he won’t talk about.
Bush won’t tell the American people how he is using a little known provision that found it’s way into the PATRIOT Act reauthorization last year to appoint US Attorneys at will. Before the PATRIOT Act gave him the authority to do so, US Attorneys were appointed by federal district courts. Now, Bush can bypass them altogether. This is outrageous on two levels. First, some of the attorneys he has replaced to date were investigating Bush administration officials and some Republican lawmakers on corruption charges. By replacing them with friendly attorneys, the investigations are effectively aborted. Second, at least one attorney has clearly been appointed to be well-positioned to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton in the 2008 campaign. USA Tim Griffin replaced US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas Bud Cummins, who was in the middle of his term. Griffin has an extensive background of digging up dirt on the opposition while working for Karl Rove.
Bush also won’t be telling us how he now has even more authority to trample the rights of American citizens, thanks to an addendum by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to a federal spending bill approved by the last Congress. This provision, already signed into law by the Destroyer of Freedom, makes civilian government employees and journalists eligible for trial in military courts. Why is this a bad thing? Because it bypasses the Constitutional guarantee of being tried by a jury of peers.
The Worst President Ever also won’t be commenting on remarks his National Security Adviser made in a recent interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. The remarks were so outrageous that a British national felt infuriated enough to write about it on the Daily Kos. The relevant quote from a New York Times article:
Mr. Bush’s National Security Adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said in an interview on “Meet the Press” on NBC that the White House has sufficient money under its control to deploy the troops as planned, and he suggested that once the troops are in place, Congress would be reluctant to cut off funding.
“I think once they get in harm’s way, Congress’s tradition is to support those troops,” Mr. Hadley said.
Essentially, Hadley is saying that they will use the troops to blackmail Congress. By spending money that was already allocated for purposes other than funding troops, they can get the escalation they want. At that point, Congress will have no choice but to approve continued funding, else they risk putting the troops in even greater danger. This demonstrates that the Bush administration truly cares nothing about the troops they send off to die. Our men and women in the military are nothing more than pawns in the Bush administration’s games.
So when you watch the president’s speech next week, keep in mind everything that he has said and done to date. Remember the lies that got us into the disastrous war in Iraq, the illegal wire-tapping, the tacit approval of torture, the elimination of habeas corpus, the mismanagement of funds in Iraq… Remember that the man sitting in the president’s chair is a liar and a criminal. Don’t be swayed by his new lies. The man has already driven this country into the ground.
One way you can show the Decider that you are sick of his incompetence is to participate in or to support a planned march on Washington, from Jan 27th - 29th. Organized by United For Peace, the demonstration is a protest of the Iraq War. Make your voice heard. Demand that the Worst President Ever get us out of the quagmire he has sent our troops into. We can’t remove Bush from office, but we can at least make him hear our voices.
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