Recently in politics Category

Today we celebrate the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America.

The Fifth of November is also the day that folks in the United Kingdom celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, in memory of the man who led a failed attempt to blow up the English Houses of Parliament on this day in 1605.

It has been said that Guy Fawkes was "the only man ever to enter Parliament with honorable intentions."  Four hundred years later, President Barack Obama may prove to be the second.

Good article by Ron Suskind over at Esquire.  Couple of quotes:

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heckuva lot easier. Just so long as I'm the dictator." --George W. Bush, December 18, 2000

"If I decide to do it, by definition it's good policy" --George W. Bush, 2001

"President Bush was unmoved by any arguments that challenged his assumptions. Debate was silenced, expertise was punished, and diversity of opinion was anathema, so much so that his political opponents--other earnest Americans who want the best for their country--were, to him and his men, the moral equivalent of the enemy."

"A common thread running through all of these discoveries is a basic misunderstanding of--or disregard for--the limits of presidential power. Indeed, this ahistoric president seems to have never appreciated just how hard-won are the institutions of American liberty. Article II of the United States Constitution grants stunning power to the president, power almost beyond imagining to be entrusted to one man. But for George Bush and Dick Cheney, it wasn't enough. And so, with a level of secrecy that betrayed a basic mistrust of the American people, they proceeded to expand the awesome power of the presidency and in the process upset the balance of powers designed by the founders. And in this, the president and vice-president found their greatest success." [Emphasis added]

Interesting piece over at Scholars & Rogues on the apparent hypocrisy of the conservative Republican faithful.