Imperial Presidency Theatre Presents...

...you are not entitled to know why the President of the United States does not want your children to be able to breath. Now, disperse peasants, lest I release the hounds!

This Week In Totalitarianism...

"Executive privilege" (another of those phrases like "right to privacy" or "separation of church and state" not found in the Constitution, but one which Republicans like, at least when invoked by Republican presidents) apparently means never having to say you're sorry. Or anything else, for that matter.

I'll be interested to see how long these broad sweeping assertion of pharoanic powers for the executive branch last for Republicans during a Clinton, Obama or Edwards presidency.

UPDATE: Dubya has signed an executive order allowing him to seize everything you own if you criticize the war. No, seriously.

UPDATE 2: More thoughts on the executive order and its implications from Orcinus.

Racing to the Bottom

The moral and intellectual bankruptcy of conservatism continues, as they scramble to justify granting Pharaoh-like powers to the president. The smaller the Republic Party gets, the meaner they get. The Party that produced Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt is well on its way to becoming a handful of paranoids with poor personal hygiene, huddled in their mother's basement with tinfoil on their heads whispering darkly about "conspiracies" and "traitors."

Quod Licet Iovi Non Licet Bovi

From the Great and Powerful Kos, an intriguing speculation on just why Dubya is apparently planning to go to war with Congress over an issue that has been pretty well-settled--subpoena power. The short answer: the White House wants a Constitutional Armageddon to try to prove their asinine assertion that the Founding Fathers, despite all evidence to the contrary, intended for the president to be like unto Pharaoh.

You, Too, Can Be An "Unlawful Enemy Combatant"

Under the so-called "compromise," US citizens can be "detained" as "unlawful enemy combatants." Nothing new, of course; the Bush Administration has always argued that the President can, on his sole authority, not subject to limitation by Congress or review by the courts, arrest American citizens on American soil and lock them up for their rest of their natural lives, with no access to a lawyer or a judge, no charges ever being filed, and no notice to their families that they've even been arrested--I mean, "detained." My only question for my Republican colleagues is: would you trust Hillary Clinton with that kind of power? If the answer is anything other than "yes," then NO president should have that kind of power.

UPDATE: From MediaMatters, more on the President's power to lock you up forever just 'cause he feels like it. And Tom Burka demonstrates the absurdity of negotiating with a President who thinks he's pharaoh.

You May Have Missed the "Pharaoh Clause" in Social Studies

From Glenn Greenwald, John Yoo explains how in times of war the President becomes like unto a god, just as the Founders intended.

The Surprises Continue

For the first time ever, President Bush seems to suggest that there may actually be a limit to the pharaoh-like powers of the Executive Branch. In the meantime, as usual, the Bull Moose makes a good point.