"You don't really wanna know just how far it's gone..."

[thatcrazycajun]

With thanks to filkertom for the link: This essay by one of truthout.org's commentators outlines just what we really have to worry about right now from the current holders of our nation's highest offices.
William Rivers Pitt: Bad, Worse, Worst and Beyond
As I believe Keith Olbermann observed recently, this is no more than the natural, logical, utterly predictable consequence of putting people who openly loathe and despise the government in charge of running it.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I have to respectfully disagree with Pitt. The best government *is* the smallest one, because power corrupts, and it is painfully clear that absolute power corrupts absolutely, witness the Current Occupant. (See also, the Civil War, which, contrary to popular belief, was fought over, of all things, tarriffs, which were needed for social programs.)

I'm not *completely* against social programs. I am totally against federal social programs. It says provide for the common Defence, and promote the General Welfare, not t'other way around. If you want social programs, do them on a local level. It not only minimizes the amount of money one person can control (and thus the corruption), but it also makes sure the program really fits the community.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

So you support Junior and Darth's efforts to dismantle the federal government, then? It's not just social programs they're wrecking; it's basic functions of government like law enforcement, product safety and business practice regulation, environmental stewardship (and you may not see that as a basic function of federal government, but the National Park Service might disagree), etc.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

The Congress shall have Power:

To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

And that's *IT*. Everything else devolves to the states or the people.

Law enforcement *is* an allowed function; business practices and product safety fall under Interstate Commerce (although the product safety bit is stretching things a LOT). The National Park Service is technically unconstitutional, though I might be willing to see about fixing that under carefully controlled circumstances....

Education? Right out. This was *always* envisioned as a state or local thing. Ditto public health, Welfare (which actually is state-by-state these days), and OMG Social Security. About eighty percent of fedgov is a big fat no-no, and needs to be reverted to the state or local level.

The big problem I have with Bush is not that he's wrecking the government per se. It's that he's wrecking freedom, the Army, and the economy, all for the direct benefit of Big Bucks. The ultimate result of all this being that, if he keeps this up, China will be able to walk in and take over without a shot being fired... because no one will know how, or have the wherewithal. Fortunately, I already know how to swear in Mandarin, at least a little.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

You want to talk about dismantling government, though, try this (http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=689731)... as I said, the EPA is pushing the extreme bounds of the Commerce Clause, but if we're going to have an agency let's at least let it *do* something, right? Bush has stalled their work and cranked $80m through its gears without producing any results. *That's* destructive of government that doesn't need destroying, and ultimately detrimental to the nation.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Every negative thing anyone has to say about our "leaders" is, to me, part of a larger mosaic of absolute evil, and my reaction is always, well, yes, but you're only scratching the surface. Nothing about George Bush would surprise me. If it were revealed that he is raping, killing and eating 3rd world babies, I would hardly bat an eye, and I would expect the usual suspects to defend him and try to explain that raping, killing and eating 3rd world babies is a necessary thing to defeat terrorists and we should all be raping, killing and eating 3rd world babies. And I truly do believe that Ann C. does rape, kill and eat 3rd world babies, and quite frequently as well. And that, as a certain folksinger from New York has touched on, she is Satan's living daughter.