Bush and what army?

First off, I'll admit it -- I'm starting to fear for this site.

Yes, there is a lot - a whole metric fuckton of a lot - going on to cause frustration, anger, and alarm. We have an outlaw, rogue administration, breathtaking in its brazen disregard for the laws and the very foundations of our country, dragging our troops into bloody wars purely out of profit motivation while working both openly and covertly and with corporate and social-movement co-conspirators to erode our protections and dampen our voices. For this, they should be impeached, tried, convicted, and removed from office - freakin' yesterday.

But, my god, folks -- this chicken little, "Welcome to the Dictatorship of America" hand wringing that's become so popular here is making this site seem almost as wing-nutty the righty loonjobs are trying to portray it as being.

Hold off on your flames and follow me below the fold, if you will...

First off, know this: The Bush administration is and always has been about looting our treasury. It's a monotary monetary heist, pure and simple. Yes, there have been attempts to instill the Republican party as the permanent party of rule. But look at what a shambles that’s turned out to be: We Dems not only took back Congress in ’06, but we’re going to further cement our majority in the House and Senate in ’08 as more and more Republican members find themselves on thin ice with their constituents. And this administration’s attempts to instill its own pod people throughout the Judicial branch and the various federal agencies is being held to investigative sunlight as Congress exercises oversight and former members are speaking up, appalled at what they have witnessed.

Meanwhile, this administration is sorely lacking in two key items it would need to remain in power beyond 1/20/09: The support of the people, and the support of the military.

To the former, poll after poll shows it clearly enough: Bush/Cheney are the most reviled federal executives since the days of Nixon. Something like eight in ten of us feel our country is headed in the wrong direction. Yes, they have the support of the hardliners, the authoritarians, but these nuts are too small in number and too far dysfunctionally out of the zeitgeist of our times to have the type of influence needed to help usher in a dictatorship.

Yes, unpopular men have taken and do take over countries, but this entails the iron-fist of popular military support. Look at our military today: It’s bogged down in a hot, dusty, bloody civil war half a world away, populated with members so disgusted that those who do choose to contribute to the campaigns of Republicans do so by a majority for those who espouse our immediate withdrawal from this war. Publicly, member after member of Pentagon brass that has left or been pushed out are speaking out against this administration and its disastrous military policies; for every dissenting military voice we hear, many others are nodding silently in agreement.

Meanwhile, here on our soil, we have left but a shell of the National Guard, gutted as it has been by the bleeding of its members and equipment for use in Iraq.

Does this sound like a band of thugs that can strong arm its way to permanent dictatorship? No, I submit, it does not; rather, it shows this administration for what it is: horrifically unpopular, toothless, and cowering in the shadows in hopes it can run out the clock before the next Democratic administration takes the reigns in January of 2009.

Don’t get me wrong, folks – I see many of us here, appalled at what we have been witnessing, have been moved to activism, contacting representatives, corporations, and engaging family, friends, and coworkers, all of which I fully support and encourage. Yes, we should be alarmed. But no, we do not need to plan for the dark days ahead when our army patrols our streets, looking for dissidents to sequester sans habeas corpus. And, frankly, the recent perpetuation of this doomsday scenario is starting to make me wonder about the sanity of this site.

We need to be bigger than succumbing to our darkest fears.

•  Tips - or...

  ...you can troll-rate me to the nethersphere.

  = )

  by Hell Upside Down on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:30:07 AM PDT

  •  I'm giving you mojo and a rec

    Your analysis is spot on, particularly your review of the military's role.  Many times when I've started to get a little freaked out about Bush I remember how the military feels about him and I'm comforted.

    by St Louis Woman on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:37:34 AM PDT

    •  Truth be told...

      ...I've had my moments of "Oh my gawd, we are so skrood," too, but I've heard forceful yet sane lefty voices to calm me down. This site seems to need this sort of assurance right now.

      by Hell Upside Down on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:40:21 AM PDT

      •  Well, to be honest, we really

        ARE "so skrood"; our economy is being exported while we speak, our middle class is evaporating, our energy demand is going hyperbolic while our supplies are shrinking and we're creating a far warmer world than can support humanity.  

        Thinking about it, maybe a Bush putsch isn't the worst thing that could happen...

        by wozzle on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:55:41 AM PDT

        •  All of which we can tackle...

          ...once we elect leaders that appeal to our "can do" sensibilities. We've survived a bloody civil war; we can damn well survive a handful of plutocratic, war-mongering thugs and come out stronger!

          by Hell Upside Down on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:59:25 AM PDT

        •  Honestly

          We are only as skrood as we've allowed ourselves to be. Getting the government we deserve and all that.

          Says the sloth.

          by keirdubois on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:16:37 PM PDT

  •  The Neo Terrorists win

    if you are a-skeered of them.

    by funluvn1 on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:44:07 AM PDT

•  Presidentin' is HARD work;

  George'd rather head on down to his new ranch in Paraguay.  There's LOTS of brush to clear...

  by wozzle on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:37:14 AM PDT

•  Good points

  While we should all potentially be prepared to do what it takes to prevent this tyrranical scenario by legal and constitutional means, it is also key that we keep the campaign against BushCo clean. We have so many battles to choose from, let's not take the Karl Rove fear-mongering road. We ARE better than them, from a patriotic perspective that we value the Constitution and the freedoms that it granted us. We can uphold this vision without doomsday scenarios of a modern civil war.

  by HegLocke on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:39:29 AM PDT

•  I completely agree.

  Chicken little and his gaggle of neo-con's are not hanging around after Jan. 2009.  The more they, in their fear and ignorace, attempt to dismantle the true "American Way", the more Americans find them to be contemptable.  

  It's unfortunate we have to put up with them until 2009, since I figure they will do so much more damage between now and then, but our nation has been forwarned against this happening again any time soon.

  by funluvn1 on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:42:59 AM PDT

•  just wait until the next Democratic

  President tries to assert "Executive Privilege".  There will be so much squawking from the Repug side of the aisle it will sound like a chicken-processing plant.

  Sort of like the filibuster, the Repugs threatened to change Senate rules because the Democrats dared to use it.  Now, those same Repugs suddenly have use for the filibuster.  They will suddenly decide against Executive Privilege as soon as THEY are no longer in control of the executive.

  Total lack of consistency is their mode of operation.

  And the American people won't even REMEMBER. Damn, are Americans smoking Jimson weed or what? Their collective memory sucks.  

  by libertyisliberal on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:43:49 AM PDT

•  There is no time for despair!

  It's time to stand up for our country!

  Iraq Moratorium

  by One Pissed Off Liberal on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:44:42 AM PDT

  •  Damned right! n/t

    by funluvn1 on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:47:46 AM PDT

  •  Now *that's* what I'm talkin' about!

    Everything we do now should be with an eye cast toward the agenda the new Dem administration and soon to be Dem-ier Congress will need to enact for our country once '09 rolls around.

    by Hell Upside Down on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:50:34 AM PDT

•  I think Daily Kos can weather the storm

  of worst fears, if the U.S. can survive the Bush administration.

  You make some very good points. But. Do you ever worry that Bush and Cheney do not see the world from a rational point of view? Perhaps they're not just a couple of lying thieves. Maybe they really are delusional.

  What if they did bypass Congress and order an attack on Iran based on some apparently hostile Iranian action? Or a pre-emptive strike based on keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear power? Isn't there some thought on the neocon side that the President doesn't need an authorization from Congress to order military action?

  Would the military obey an order of questionable legality? That's what we'd be depending on to avert disaster. Once we were in a full out state of war in Iran, who could stop it? That kind of situation would make it even more difficult to control their power grab at home.

  Rational people know that it wouldn't end well for us or them. There are not enough American troops to pacify Iran. Bombing Iraq as we did Germany in WWII would not result in a country that the U.S. could control.

  Are they rational? It scares me that I don't know the answer to that.

  by Cowalker on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:50:39 AM PDT

  •  I share your concern about Iran - BUT...

    ...we are a war-weary nation. I think we can be assured any further military adventures undertaken by this administration would only further box them in, in terms of unpopularity and outright revilement (if that's a word). Yes, they're kooky, but that doesn't make them immune to the consequences once Republican congrescritters get an earful from a hostile constituency.

    by Hell Upside Down on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:55:46 AM PDT

    •  Yes, I agree that it would only

      get them further revilement. But what kind of damage could they inflict on Iran, our military and our future security from terrorism in the meantime?

      That's why I've got my fingers crossed that the military would do the right thing if Bush demanded a spontaneous bombing of Teheran. Heck, maybe they already have by leaking to Seymour Hersh at intervals.

      by Cowalker on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:15:15 PM PDT

•  Thank you for talking sense!

  I bet there are at least seventeen Republican senators who would vote to convict once they realized it was either that or their jobs in 2008. . .and we have what, twenty two up for re-election this time?

  GWB is giving us ample justification for opening impeachment hearings. . .I'd bet we have them by the end of September.

  by Kascade Kat on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:53:26 AM PDT

•  Great diary. Bush has pushed his power way

  past its sustainable limits. He's only powerful as long as people are willing to follow him. People of honor and integrity, be they military, civil servants or ordinary citizens either have or are very close to coming to a conclusion about this guy. It's not going to be pretty.

  My only worry is that he will really lose it and try something externally or internally with the military. I hope he hasn't systematically removed the backbones from the military guys around him.

  by dallasdave on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 11:54:09 AM PDT

•  Yes; fearing Bush right now...

  ...is practically irrational.   He has no credibility left to actually fuck people over with martial law or anything of the sort.

  He can still sign any ridiculous thing he wants.  But just let him try and enforce it.

  by dov12348 on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:03:26 PM PDT

  •  Oops -

    my new comment, below, was intended as a reply to you, dov.

    by Hell Upside Down on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:08:09 PM PDT

•  Exactly!

  We've been seeing his own judicial appointments issue WTF?s from the bench when confronted with his interpretation of new and existing policies.

  by Hell Upside Down on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:06:41 PM PDT

•  Almost correct, but not quite

  I don't think Bush will announce the cancellation of the next election - and nobody else does unless they're wearing the latest in tinfoil fashions.

  Bush has, however, presided over a radical reformulation of what the presidency is. He has seized by fiat so-called "breathtaking new powers" for his office. He has re-defined the relationship between the branches of government.

  Also, lest we forget, he has instituted by personal decree that the wall of separation between domestic intelligence activities and the NSA and CIA be removed, such that these agencies now spy on all Americans and mine our data and communications as a routine part of their normal operations.

  And the recent items about his ability to assert executive privilege and declare martial law just fit neatly into all of that. No, I'm not particularly worried about these things as far as they relate to Bush: I agree with the diarist - this was all about the looting of the Treasury.

  What does bother me is the fact that the next president will inherit this framework and have no particular reason to dismantle it back to what we would recognize as a "usual" executive branch. I firmly believe that Hillary! would love to have this kind of authority and would savor and relish it.

  Thoroughly.

  I don't know what Edwards or Obama would do with it. I can only imagine what a Guiliani or Thompson might do and that really worries me. So you see, it's more a matter of the office of the president itself has become a more dictatorial agency and there are, at present, no suggestions being made about changing that.

  by The Raven on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:08:39 PM PDT

•  Here's hoping Congress...

  ...recognizes this and has this in mind as it executes its oversight authority. We've only been back in charge for half a year, so I'm willing to continue to trust that the slow grind of the wheels will ultimately be a fine grind. But, yeah, they need to get a handle on executive powers before '09, or the damage this administration has done to the office and the balance of the three branches will be much, much harder to correct.

  by Hell Upside Down on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:18:32 PM PDT

•  Voice of sanity

  It becomes easy to assume the worst of ones opposition and the next short step from there is the kind of eliminationist rhetoric the Ann Coulters of the world so enjoy. Please let us work for electoral victory, while also supporting our congressmen in their fight against these extraordinary claims of the executive.

  by Uniter on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:26:20 PM PDT

•  his army = the media

  Bush and Cheney can only go as far as the media will allow. So far it seems like they've gone quite a long way toward dismantling the Constitutional republic most of us thought we lived in, and that's been because of the media's:

  • active cheerleading of Bush and his wars
  • passive non-reporting of stories that would contradict the war narrative
  • felonious stenography - regurgitating government press releases as news
  • repetitive use of right wing frames and terminology in all commentary
  • applying the "kook" label to anyone who talks outside the frame
  • factual inaccuracies in news stories that always make Bush opponents look bad (with rare or unpublicized retractions later)
  • editorializing in headlines that don't match the story content
  • applying labels like "moderate" to rightwing stooges in the Democratic party and "conservative" to radical reactionary Republicans

  If the media decides the next terrorist event should be interpreted as Bush being an inadequate defender of the country, he's sunk. If they interpret it as a 9/11-reprise, with bullhorn Bush as the national warrior hero symbol again, we're sunk.

  by glaser on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:39:27 PM PDT