The Scum Also Rises...

Yesterday, another big, nasty turd floated to the surface of the Bush administration punchbowl. Turns out that Chimpy McPresident lied about shutting down the black sites and stopping the torture of detainees.

After stating publicly and emphatically in December of 2004 that "torture was abhorrent", a secret memo was issued by Bush administration apparatchick, fixer and Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez. This memo gave "explicit authorization" to use interrogation techniques against detainees at these "black sites" and other US facilities which meet the criteria for torture as laid out in US law, the UN Convention Against Torture and the Geneva conventions.

This establishment of secret prisons, legal protections for those engaging in these practices, and the overarching shroud of secrecy surrounding these operations and the Bush administration in general, are indicators of a shift towards a fascist/totalitarian regime. Given the abolition of habeas corpus, the power of the President to be the sole arbiter of who is and is not an "enemy combatant" and the new powers to declare martial law under a much looser definition of a "national emergency" are all grave threats to the Constitution and the democratic processes of this nation.

No president, Democrat or Republican, should possess the powers that the Bush administration has accrued to the Executive branch, especially powers such as those outlined above. They usurp the constitutionally established separation of powers and marginalize the Legislative and Judicial branches, which serve to maintain the checks and balances so necessary in a democracy.

There are those who would argue that a unitary executive is needed to streamline the decision making processes of government. However, the Madisonian separation of powers was never meant to promote efficiency, but rather to prevent the exercise of arbitrary power. Power which the Bush administration has exercised since 9/12/01.