I’m nearing the end of my rope. You may have to forgive me, this could get rambly. In a damn surprising article, The American Conservative printed a rather massive article about Bush’s signing statements. Large block coming.

Getting the Patriot Act renewed was one of the Bush administration’s highest priorities. After months of negotiations and compromises, a bipartisan agreement was finally reached, giving the White House almost everything it wanted. As part of the deal, Bush administration officials agreed to provide Congress with more details on how Patriot Act powers were being used. The Justice Department would be obliged to disclose to Congress how many Americans’ privacy was being violated by FBI subpoenas known as National Security Letters. (The Washington Post reported that the FBI was issuing 30,000 such letters a year). However, Bush reneged in a “signing statement” quietly released after a heavily hyped White House bill-signing ceremony. Bush decreed that he was entitled to deny Congress any information that would “impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive’s constitutional duties.” Bush announced that he would interpret the law “in a manner consistent with the president’s constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information.”

Sigh. The approval of the PATRIOT Act was contingent upon the deal that Bush agree to give up the details. He said he would, then signed his way out of it. I’m at a loss.

And that’s, obviously, not the only instance. In cases across the boards, Bush takes laws that would require oversight and claims that the oversight can be denied in cases that compromise national security. Who decides that? Well Bush himself, of course.

We have a president who will publicly agree to compromises on bills and then turn right around and preclude himself from them via his signing statements. People made fun of Clinton for his line-item veto, this goes far beyond that. Bush has taken this power to exempt himself from whatever laws he wants.

And that goes back to my question. What happened to America?

We’re a country of dissenters. Our legacy is defined by our ability to see injustice within and then do something about it. The Revolutionary War was one created by those who saw the injustice of their leaders and stood up for themselves. That incident should frame our nation in everything we do.

The strongest thing in a country is the ability to dissent. To stand up and oppose the leaders. When we looked at Iraq prior to the invasion, the fact that the Iraqi people were unable to speak out against their leader was a major point in illustrating their oppression. And yet here we have the attitude of the redcoats:

One Republican senator recently told author Elizabeth Drew: “We’ve got to hang with the president because if you start splitting with him or say the president has been abusing power we’ll all go down.”

Now, disagreeing with one side is one thing, but it’s another to suggest that we shouldn’t be allowed to say such things at all. Yet that is where American discourse has gotten. We aren’t able to rationally discuss things because the very IDEA of them is said to be unpatriotic, that simply TALKING about these things hurts America.

That scares me. To think that we simply can’t talk about things because that’s unpatriotic is a sad thing. Bush’s strength after 9/11 has been lauded, but he was anything but. His reaction was adequate, nothing more. Saying “we’re gonna get ‘em” and launching war in Afghanistan was the bare minimum I think we required. Tell us that you’ll get the bad guys and then go do it. That’s all we required.

Bush reacted, politically speaking, like in a cartoon when the character swings at everything with a bat to get the spider. He made us terrified when strength was what we needed. He forced paranoia and fear on us, jumping at the thought of a terrorist attack or a country with a missile. These are the actions of a coward.

And then there’s those signing statements. Aside from dissent, our big strength in America is our lack of totalitarian leadership. We laud our democratic (really republican) system, our checks and balances. Yet, here we have Bush thinking that he’s found a loophole in the system. Frankly, who the hell does this guy think he is?

But we can’t talk about it. We have to stay quiet because questioning Bush in a time of war is giving aid to our enemies. Which is pretty handy since we’re in Iraq until Bush leaves office at the earliest.

So that’s America today. A perpetual war under a leader who refuses to allow any oversight and decides the rules all by himself. Does that sound like a brave man? Unable to admit his mistakes and refusing to allow anyone to see what he’s doing? Does that sound like what America should be? It sure doesn’t to me.

God dammit I want my country back.

I’m nearing the end of my rope. You may have to forgive me, this could get rambly. In a damn surprising article, The American Conservative printed a rather massive article about Bush’s signing statements. Large block coming.

Getting the Patriot Act renewed was one of the Bush administration’s highest priorities. After months of negotiations and compromises, a bipartisan agreement was finally reached, giving the White House almost everything it wanted. As part of the deal, Bush administration officials agreed to provide Congress with more details on how Patriot Act powers were being used. The Justice Department would be obliged to disclose to Congress how many Americans’ privacy was being violated by FBI subpoenas known as National Security Letters. (The Washington Post reported that the FBI was issuing 30,000 such letters a year). However, Bush reneged in a “signing statement” quietly released after a heavily hyped White House bill-signing ceremony. Bush decreed that he was entitled to deny Congress any information that would “impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive’s constitutional duties.” Bush announced that he would interpret the law “in a manner consistent with the president’s constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information.”

Sigh. The approval of the PATRIOT Act was contingent upon the deal that Bush agree to give up the details. He said he would, then signed his way out of it. I’m at a loss.

And that’s, obviously, not the only instance. In cases across the boards, Bush takes laws that would require oversight and claims that the oversight can be denied in cases that compromise national security. Who decides that? Well Bush himself, of course.

We have a president who will publicly agree to compromises on bills and then turn right around and preclude himself from them via his signing statements. People made fun of Clinton for his line-item veto, this goes far beyond that. Bush has taken this power to exempt himself from whatever laws he wants.

And that goes back to my question. What happened to America?

We’re a country of dissenters. Our legacy is defined by our ability to see injustice within and then do something about it. The Revolutionary War was one created by those who saw the injustice of their leaders and stood up for themselves. That incident should frame our nation in everything we do.

The strongest thing in a country is the ability to dissent. To stand up and oppose the leaders. When we looked at Iraq prior to the invasion, the fact that the Iraqi people were unable to speak out against their leader was a major point in illustrating their oppression. And yet here we have the attitude of the redcoats:

One Republican senator recently told author Elizabeth Drew: “We’ve got to hang with the president because if you start splitting with him or say the president has been abusing power we’ll all go down.”

Now, disagreeing with one side is one thing, but it’s another to suggest that we shouldn’t be allowed to say such things at all. Yet that is where American discourse has gotten. We aren’t able to rationally discuss things because the very IDEA of them is said to be unpatriotic, that simply TALKING about these things hurts America.

That scares me. To think that we simply can’t talk about things because that’s unpatriotic is a sad thing. Bush’s strength after 9/11 has been lauded, but he was anything but. His reaction was adequate, nothing more. Saying “we’re gonna get ‘em” and launching war in Afghanistan was the bare minimum I think we required. Tell us that you’ll get the bad guys and then go do it. That’s all we required.

Bush reacted, politically speaking, like in a cartoon when the character swings at everything with a bat to get the spider. He made us terrified when strength was what we needed. He forced paranoia and fear on us, jumping at the thought of a terrorist attack or a country with a missile. These are the actions of a coward.

And then there’s those signing statements. Aside from dissent, our big strength in America is our lack of totalitarian leadership. We laud our democratic (really republican) system, our checks and balances. Yet, here we have Bush thinking that he’s found a loophole in the system. Frankly, who the hell does this guy think he is?

But we can’t talk about it. We have to stay quiet because questioning Bush in a time of war is giving aid to our enemies. Which is pretty handy since we’re in Iraq until Bush leaves office at the earliest.

So that’s America today. A perpetual war under a leader who refuses to allow any oversight and decides the rules all by himself. Does that sound like a brave man? Unable to admit his mistakes and refusing to allow anyone to see what he’s doing? Does that sound like what America should be? It sure doesn’t to me.

God dammit I want my country back.