Burn baby, burn

The references to the Reichstag fire began while the ruins of the World Trade Center were still smoking and it was just the worst thing in the world to doubt George Bush's integrity or the "fact" that it was all about Iraq and not about Saudi Arabia's support for international terrorism Against American interests based in Afghanistan and in the United States itself. I have been making sarcastic comments about Bush's ambition ever since and about the chance that he would take matters into his own hands and precipitate some calamity which would justify the suspension of elections and the granting of special emergency powers.


George was able to get himself re-elected with only a few suspicions regarding election tampering and didn't need anything as dramatic as Adolph Hitler's contrived terrorist attack to arrogate unprecedented power, but that was then. If the constitution he reviles is to be obeyed, he may not run again and yet, he sees himself as a messiah and the constitution as an impediment. Will he be content to go quietly and await the judgment of history? My suggestion of another national calamity may remain a thing of cynical speculation, but what do we make of the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive?


Signed two weeks ago with little public fanfare and apparently without Congressional oversight, this document deals with scenarios wherein the President's power becomes dictatorial, unassailable and perhaps permanent. Yes, I am aware of using hyperbole when talking about his megalomaniacal and uncompromising desire to be the world's "commander guy" But the history of his administration is beginning to make the most cynical of us seem prophetic. The mechanism seems to be in place for the transmogrification of the wimpy little ex-cheerleader, ne'er do well of the Bush litter into King George, der Führer George, president for life George, Big Brother George. All that stands between these horrors and reality is the willingness of the man himself to light a fuse. All that stands between the liberty we have enjoyed for over 200 years and an unaccountable dictatorship is the conscience of George W. Bush.

Can we afford to wait for 2008?