All hail the king

Graphic courtesy of Truthdig
Sidney Blumenthal over at Salon, has yet again posted a laser-bright, scathing assessment of Chimpy and his cronies who snub their noses at the rule of law and the Constitution.

Loyalty to Bush is the ultimate royal principle of the imperial presidency. The ruler must be unquestioned and those around him unquestioning. Allegiance to Bush's idea of himself as the "war president," "the decider" and "the commander guy" is paramount. But the notion that the ruler is loyal to those loyal to him is no longer necessarily true. While he must be beheld as the absolute incarnation of kingly virtue, his sense of obligation to those paying homage has become perilously relative. [ ] Those who feel compelled to tell the truth rather than stick to the cover story are cast in the dust, like McNulty. Those Bush defends as an extension of his authority but who become too expensive become expendable, like Wolfowitz. And those who exist solely as Bush's creations and whose survival is crucial to his own are shielded, like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Read the rest of Sid's Masterblasting.

More Walter Reed Horror

The unbelievable, shocking repugnance continues at Walter Reed. At the very least, the mainstream media is giving it some light, for which I am grateful. Read "The Hotel Aftermath" at WaPo. When you're done with that give these articles a read, Wounded and Waiting," "The Forgotten Families," "Uninvited." "Hospital Investigates Former Aid Chief" and when you're finished, get angry and write your senator or congressperson a letter. Then seek out anyone who will listen and if they are Republican, all the better, and ask them how they are 'supporting the troops.' Do it. Remember every letter received represents the same opinion being shared by 10,000 other people who feel the same way but didn't write, or so say the marketing pros. Thanks from a Vet.

KIng George

NYT editorial today: The Imperial Presidency 2.0

"In 2006, the voters sent Mr. Bush a powerful message that it was time to rein in his imperial ambitions. But we have yet to see any sign that Mr. Bush understands that — or even realizes that the Democrats are now in control of the Congress. Indeed, he seems to have interpreted his party’s drubbing as a mandate to keep pursuing his fantasy of victory in Iraq and to press ahead undaunted with his assault on civil liberties and the judicial system."