I read a comment here that worried about impeaching Bush because we'd get Cheney. So what? We have Cheney anyway, with or without Bush. We had a wonderful choice, a decent, intelligent man who fought corporate power all his life. Twice we could have had Ralph Nader but brainwashed Americans bought the most stupid idea that Nader couldn't win. Nader should have gotten 150,000,000 votes from all the workers who don't ride to work in limos.

The Republicans and Democrats are one. Its laughable that all of a sudden there is a scandal because Jack Abramhoff pled guilty. Bribery isn't legal just because the Supreme Court ruled a corporate campaign contribution isn't a bribe unless the candidate signs a contract that he's taking a bribe.

We are a stupid culture. Look in the mirror and admit to yourself that John Kerry never told the truth and was no better than his Skull & Bones brother.

All this analytical crap by Tom Englehardt who is slowly getting the real message about absolute power, is pathetic. The nonvoters gave their vote to the Bush/Kerry crowd and buried all of us except the guys who ride to work in limos.

The corporate elite aren't rich because they're stupid.

what, if any, limits you believe there are or should be on the powers of a president during a war, at wartime? And if the global war on terror is going to last for decades, as has been forecast, does that mean that we're going to see, therefore, a more or less permanent expansion of the unchecked power of the executive in American society?

This is the whole issue in a nutshell. Someone asked Bush this to his face and he couldn't or wouldn't give a straight answer. This scares me. We have to keep asking this question again and again until we get some real answers.

Outstanding point, one I've been waiting to see written by somebody, anybody, anywhere. This administration is rotten from stem to stern. Cut off its head and something even worse will replace it.

Because who is next in line? Cheney. How far down the list would we have to go to find someone not infected with the desire for absolute presidential power?

Finally there is something like a consensus on what right-wingers call The Left that the Republican faction currently in power will stop at nothing to render that power absolute or as nearly so as is practicable. The cries of "kook" and "conspiracy theorist" with which such accusations were greeted by many, if not most, Democrats have been muted almost to inaudibility in the light of the Katrina debacle, the Abramoff scandals and the recent revelations about illegal domestic spying.

And yet nobody but Howard Zinn, in the November 5 edition of The Progressive, has computed the outcome of Samuel Alito's confirmation as a Supreme Court justice, which remains very likely, if not certain, or counseled the only possible approach to this calamity.

"The courts have never been on the side of justice," Zinn writes, "only moving a few degrees one way or the other, unless pushed by the people. Those words engraved in the marble of the Supreme Court, 'Equal Justice Before the Law,' have always been a sham." He cites more than enough examples to demonstrate the truth of this.

If and when Samuel Alito takes the oath of office, the last vestige of checks on presidential power will fly out the window. The cloak of a purely formal and meaningless legitimacy will be flung over the subornation and legal reversal of election results, torture, "night and fog" arrests, secret detentions without charges or trials, unchecked and Orwellian domestic surveillance, lies and secrecy in every area of government activity, and even murder in the self-proclaimed interests of the state and/or morality. Congress, like the Roman Senate under the Empire, will be reduced to the powerlessness of a gentleman's club.

The corruption that must flourish under these circumstances beggars the imagination, making Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay look like Boy Scouts and Richard Nixon a saint.

"It would be naive," Zinn writes, "to depend on the Supreme Court to defend the rights of poor people, women, people of color, dissenters of all kinds. Those rights only come alive when citizens organize, protest, demonstrate, strike, boycott, rebel, and violate the law in order to uphold justice."

Isn't it past time for progressives of all stripes to acknowledge the terrifying and painful accuracy of these observations and to begin writing, speaking, and acting on these truths both widely and openly?

I've long had a theory that the real George W. Bush is not at all similar to the genial ignoramus he presents to his constituents. Both liberals and conservatives have bought into Bush's presentation of himself as a guy who doesn't read and who is not interested in the intellectual or academic aspects of arguments. This act plays so well to all the Americans out there who also dislike reading and would prefer to rely on their pastor's interpretation of the Bible for their political guidance.

I think the man is lazy, arrogant, spoiled, corrupt and quite possibly evil, but I don't think he is as dumb as he would have us believe. His poor record before becoming governor of Texas is attributable to an overwhelming sense of entitlement stemming from his family connections. And, he was quite right to rely upon this family connections providing him with the opportunity to seize the power he has now without ever relying deserving it. Now that he has been "elected" to the position of President twice, he must feel an even bigger sense of entitlement. So, I guess it's no surprise that he wants to be King.

The one book that has fallen out of favor that should come back is George Orwell’s 1984.

After the actual year 1984, everyone though we had missed the predictions. We did not. The author only made two mistakes:

The “revolution” came from the Right, not the Left.

He was exactly twenty years too early.

Other than that, every single prediction came true:

The war without end.

Enemies of the State everywhere.

Re-writing facts and history to suite policy

Control of media (The Ministry of Truth has been outsourced to FoxNews).

A population increasingly sinking into poverty, except for those who are politically connected.

Constant surveillance.

A cult of unconditional love for Big Brother.

The most distressing part is we all know how the book ends: Winston Smith is arrested (no warrant or actual charges necessary, of course). Is tortured (Orwell did not mention “waterboarding”, but we can assume it was there). And, finally, he “loved Big Brother”.