“The violent twinge of queasy paranoia”

In a 20 April post, Values Australia wrote:

I give America a decade or two before there is some sort of right-wing coup – probably a private-militia-led attempted revolution followed by a military takeover to protect the nation. Restraining freedom and democracy to protect “FreedomandDemocracy”.

This prediction was not to be taken lightly because Values Australia is a government-certified political clairvoyant.

But even Values Australia might have been out by almost two decades. Mark Morford in SFGate reported yesterday on a not funny revelation of Presidential fiats which could result in the unthinkable within the next year and a half. What would you put beyond Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, George Bush and Alberto Gonzalez?

Bush Declares Self ‘Mega Decider’
New documents ensure Dubya will rule America, should calamity strike.

…Unless the violent twinge of queasy paranoia crossed with that uncontrolled bout of colon-clenching sighing you experience is deadly accurate and your radar for all things sinister and Rovean is right on target as you read about the delightfully titled National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51 and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20, wherein it is calmly and furtively revealed that, in essence, George W. Bush owns your sorry ass.

Or, to put it another way, it looks like the Bumbling One just gave himself ever more power. Power to control and dictate the entire government, power to really spread the gospel of happy GOP incompetence, power to command the entire wobbly American universe should some sort of epic — or not so epic, as the case may be — calamity strike the homeland.

It goes something like this: Should any “decapitating event” occur in America that somehow incapacitates the D.C. power structure, should “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions” take place, well then, all power and decision making would devolve to the White House, which would then attempt to orchestrate our very survival and oversee all essential governmental functions with none other than the president himself as, well, Super-Mega Lord Decider. With extra crayons.

You know, a dictator.

…who better to decide who gets to do what to whom when the s– hits the fan than the most secretive, warmongering, never-saw-an-illegal-power-grab-it-didn’t-like administration in American history?

…the vague, nearly useless language of these documents, could mean, why, just about anything at all. Hurricane? Flood? Low polling numbers for Giuliani? A bad tattoo of Alberto Gonzales’ smirky face on Jenna Bush’s sacrum? You bet! Because who gets to decide what constitutes a “catastrophe”? Why, Shrub himself, that’s who. What’s more, the event doesn’t even have to occur in America (see “regardless of location”).

Maybe it’s over-reacting to fear what may happen. Unless you think the Bush administration has no ethics or morals, or any interests beyond its ruthless, insane obsession with power.

You can judge a man (or even John Howard) by the quality of the people he proudly stands beside.

[tags]Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzalez, SFGate, Howard, White House, politics, American politics[/tags]