As I stated in an earlier letter President Bush is the political heir of King Charles I. These issues were supposed to have been settled in the seventeenth century in the English civil war, the necessary precursor of the American revoluton. The King's view of the untrammeled and unaccountable power of the monarchy was rejected by Parliament and by the judiciary under Sir Edward Coke, and was ultimately decided by force of arms on the field of battle.

Many in President Bush's base view him as God's president, with a mandate from the Almighty- the American version of the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings- and President Bush, by his words and actions, indicates that he believes much the same thing.

The framers of the constitution created an accountable Executive, with LIMITED powers, as one of three coequal branches of the American government, with significant checks and balances put in place to restrain each of the three branches so as to secure the liberty of the American people. At least this has been the traditional American interpretation of the intent of the framers.

In a recent article in this space Glenn Greenwald urged the Congress to stand firm in its rejection of the Bush assertion of untrammeled Executive Privilege. He said that failure to do so would reduce the Congress and the Supreme Court to little more tha advisory bodies, with the presidency becoming totally dominant in American political life.

Quite.

Which view of The powers of the presidency will prevail? That depends on the Congress and the Courts. One thing is sure, though. King George W. Bush Makes King George III look like sweetie pie the monarch!

A long time ago I read that there was a coterie of hypermasculine gay officers on the Kaiser's General Staff in the days leading up to the First World War. They saw themselves not as less manly than their straight colleagues but as more intensely masculine ang gung ho and militaristic than the ordinary pantywaist straight officers. They were the uber defenders of the Reich, clad in black net stockings and frilly corsets for fun. I believe the account of this was in Barbara Tuchman's THE GUNS OF AUGUST, but I can't be entirely certain at this distance in time.

Their sexual predilections certainly did not lead them to shrink from war!

Now, in the U.S., there seems to be a psych-ops campaign being waged by some spinmeisters to paint ordinary straight guy democratic politicians as effeminate pantywaists, not worthy of the trust of the American people in this time of war.

Hmmm.

I recently saw a program on television relating an account of former FBI Director and noted conservative anti-communist crusader J. Edgar Hoover participating at a party in drag.

Hmmm.

And then there was the precipitous fall from grace of a noted Evangelical leader, Ted Haggard, for engaging in a two year relationship with a male prostitute involving some contact with illegal drugs.

Hmmm.

I have wondered a number of times in the past few years at the panic and hysteria out there in regards to gay rights, the homosexual agenda, and especially, gay marriage. Why is this so? I would expect people to be mildly amused by these things, as they would be by the idea of leather or foot fetishes, not reacting like chicken little thinking the sky is falling because of them.

Could there be some bisexuals in the woodpile somewhere?

President Bush and his advisers succeeded in building a winning coalition of voters to win election. A substantial part of this coalition, the base, were people of faith alarmed by the significant social changes in the past fifty years.

Liberal voters see this era as one of great hope and the expansion of freedom; many religious voters see it as a slide into moral relativism and degeneracy. They looked to vocal leaders and the Republican Party to turn this around.

The religious voter has discovered that the march to a more liberal future is inexorable notwithstanding their best efforts. They have not yet realized that the moral positioning of the Republican elite is more about the will to power than the will of God. All they know at this point is the heartbreak of failing to achieve their faith based social policy goals as their Republican elite leaders propigate looming disaster for America.

These extreme right wing people pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America while eagerly betraying the foundational values of the Republic for which it stands.

It is hard to believe such neo authoritarians not only exist in America but are also highly influential in government.

Its all about Spin. The Iraq war can not now have a successful conclusion truly favourable to the United States.

As a Victorian Poet once wrote, even though my quotation may not be exact:

Do not go gentle into that long night,

rage, rage against the dying of the light.

At the beginning of the First World War someone,perhaps the British Foreign Secretary,said:

The lights are going out all over Europe.

Today with George W. Bush, the neocons and the religious right in extremis the lights are in danger of going out all over America.