Life in the Third Layer

Yesterday I signed two more on-line petitions, forwarded one to my friends, and had four more in my inbox that I would have signed if I didn’t have to go to work. I have a word or two to say on the matter, because this has to have some outcome.
George W. Bush will never listen to the voice of the people no matter how many of us speak. He is a bully. He wants to be a dictator.
Only the Congress and the House can stop him, and this must be done while it is possible. Given two more years, who knows what damage he can do? Here is one unthinkable, from The New York Times on January 30th, Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation, by Robert Pear:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 ? President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.
In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president?s priorities.
This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.
The White House said the executive order was not meant to rein in any one agency. But business executives and consumer advocates said the administration was particularly concerned about rules and guidance issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

While he distracts the Congress and the Senate with the Iraq issue, George W. Bush is doing a back-door job on the economy — making sure that corporations retain their clout against workers and the environment — and solidifying his hold on the Federal courts. Look at the people he has asked to resign as U.S. Attorneys. Look at the appointees to the regional courts of appeals. His unconstitutional actions are many and grievous.
How many voices does it take to convince Congress and the Senate that George W. Bush doesn’t hear voices? He hears only his own edicts as the Decider. Members of both houses should be afraid, as I am, of losing representative government altogether. “Eyes on the prize” — whether the prize is stopping the build-up in Iraq or the building of a political war chest for 2008 — will not work. Look around at what Bush is doing! For the sake of our democracy, someone should be keeping score.
I hate the Iraq war. I have known from the beginning it was the means by which Bush and his “base” intend to take power and accumulate wealth. That is why we went to war. No WMD’s, no spreading of democracy, just wealth and power.
The Congress and Senate have to say “No” to George W. Bush. He doesn’t hear the people. That is the point. Help us out here by recognizing that. War is always a political shell game with goals of power and wealth. This one is not different. It is part of a larger plan. We are already not a democracy if our Senators and Congressmen will not stand up and represent us.
My name is on a hundred petitions. I have forwarded most of them to friends who have signed also. Our voices are worth nothing if people we have elected to representative seats will not stand up and declare the will of the people.
Of course I will still sign and forward petitions. But get real. We elect representatives to powerful positions so that they can exercise their Constitutional duties on the issues of the day. Exercise them already, if you still see them. Curb the power of the Executive branch. Stop the erosion of human and civil rights. Stop the War. Raise the minimum wage. Take back government from despotic rule by corporations. Didn’t the electorate already say that?
And somebody watch the back door.

For a clear example of the current administration’s slight-of-hand, check out SFGate.com’s posting of an article titled “Gonzales says the Constitution doesn’t guarantee habeas corpus: Attorney general’s remarks on citizens’ right astound the chair of Senate judiciary panel,” by Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer on Wednesday, January 24, 2007.
And while you are checking it out, look carefully into the tight little corners in current politics. George W. Bush knows that he is the lamest of ducks at this point, so he will keep everyone distracted with the war and his puny and short-sighted suggestions on health care and energy that are all smoke and mirrors. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, he will set up escape routes for cronies and fortifiy protections for their wealth and power. On the front page issues, he is still serving his base:

• His energy proposal is couched in populist language, but it is too little too late with goals too far away. The immediate beneficiaries are still the same elite he has served throughout his presidency. If we double the US Petroleum reserves, the winners will be the oil companies. Consumer investment funds that bought oil futures have been pulling out, so your “privately invested retirement funds” won’t get any money for the additional oil the US government adds to the reserves.
• His health care insurance proposition won’t help anyone but the insurance companies. It will raise taxes on working people who have employer-paid health insurance, but it is not generous enough to help people who can’t afford health insurance. Furthermore, it does not address the abusive system of closed negotiated networks that insurance companies have constructed to squeeze physicians, hospitals, and patients. The “in network/out of network” system is the juicer that makes sure everyone pays the maximum to the insurance company. Either your doctor pays them, or you pay them, or your employer pays them.
• His new initiative in Iraq is business as usual with a new set of generals who have agreed to agree with him. The same people are still getting the government contracts, and as Kerry-him-with-his-foot-in-his-mouth accurately observed, the same young people who are mostly not from the Bush base are deployed and more of the same people are dying.

You can spend a lot of time looking for anything new from this president. He hopes that you will. Meanwhile he will back-door continued Patriot Act abuses of human rights, continue his campaign to stack federal courts and install his supporters as US Attorneys, and move his powers to circumvent law to a less visible level.