HAIL DUBYUS!

An Illustrated Guide to Mendacity and Folly in the Imperium Americanum

I Want To Remind You, You Still Have Two Out Of Three Branches Of The Government, And That Ain’t Bad

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A lot of people out there are singing “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead” but as President Dale said in Mars Attacks! two out of three ain’t bad. Bush and his cronies have used his incumbency well in terms of stuffing the judiciary with far-right judges. He’s shifted the Supreme Court significantly rightward and if there’s another vacancy in the next two years, you know he’ll name a moderate conservative before a liberal or progressive. And there’s at least one very elderly Justice.

Then there are the signing statements. The “unitary executive” has attached statements to over 700 bills passed by Congress, essentially serving the purpose of a non-overturnable veto. Think about it, Bush hasn’t vetoed anything. Why? Because he can just attach a signing statement saying that he’ll interpret these provisions this way and those provisions that way and he won’t pay attention to any of this other nonsense.

Now if he vetoed a bill, Congress could overturn the veto. But by not vetoing anything but covertly saying via a signing statement that he doesn’t have to pay any attention to it, Congress doesn’t have anything to overturn. It’s a line item veto express and SCOTUS already determined the line item veto was unconstitutional for this very reason. The executive’s duty is to execute all laws “faithfully”, not to pick and choose whichever laws he wants to execute. If the Prez doesn’t think a bill is good for any reason, he has a veto. That gives Congress the power to either change things so he’ll sign it or else overturn the veto. That’s how checks and balances work. And that’s just the kind of protection against tyranny the forces who despise democracy want to subvert.

This theory of the unitary executive subverts the Constitution completely and gives us a president with monarchial powers. So before anyone starts thinking the battle to save American democracy is over, just remember, a cornered rat has lots of fight left in him…

(AP) Bush, Pelosi to bury the hatchet

(CQPolitics) Pelosi: Bush Impeachment ‘Off the Table’

So, How Many Can YOU Name–Justices, Not Dwarfs…

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(Reuters) Seven dwarfs better known than high court justices

OK I know it’s a little old, but it’s a slow month and I’m on a reduced schedule LOL and I know there are NINE justices and only SEVEN dwarves (to spell it correctly for a change), but when we get the rubberstamp partisan activist right wing supreme court like we’ll get in a few years–not that it isn’t on the edge right now–will it really matter how many justices there are? In any case, let’s hear it for our informed electorate 🙂

Well, You Didn’t Expect Me To NOT Switch Letters, Did You?

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No new articles on this, it’s just that I think this is a REALLY important issue. We have a strange outlook on things in the US. We HATE poor losers. But we LOVE POOR WINNERS. What’s a poor winner? Someone with no class, who does the brag dance, who thinks he has the right to perform the action of the REAL name of the town in the cartoon on his opponent. It’s just as bad sportsmanship as poor losing, but because we worship winners and demand winning SO much, we not only forgive the winner’s bad sportsmanship without batting an eye, we revel in it ourselves as if we had personally won the contest.

Now this behavior has been integrated into our conduct of elections. The winners of an election NOW have the right to rearrange their state’s districts to ensure not only that the winning party keeps its seats, but will gain MORE seats at the next election. True, it’s bipartisan…it means the same for a state held by one party or the other. But, where is the majority right now? The party that led us into war? That screwed the budget to favor the rich? That is turning its back on the environment because it will mean lower profits? Will it be this party that is our defacto ruling party from now on, with no hope of turning the rascals out, because they can rearrange the districting to protect themselves? This is how democracy ends…with a round of applause.

Oh, I decided to try for a TV cartoon effect in today’s cartoon…hope it worked out.

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