miller's crossing

"We're eager to work with Congress on legislation that would further codify the president's authority," the New York Times reports White House spokeswoman Dana Perino as saying. "We remain committed to our principle, that we will not do anything that undermines the program's capabilities or the president's authority."

She's referring to the Senate Intelligence Committee's failure to provide any meanful oversight of or investigation into Bush's secret, domestic wiretapping. But really, it's a plain statement of the Bush doctrine: the president has the authority to do whatever he wants and nothing shall undermine that authority. (Thanks to the smart and saavy Laura Rozen for pointing out this quote.)

It is frightening to be living with an administration that holds this view. Everyday reading the headlines, I cringe and feel sickened by the hypocracy and corruption of lawmakers and those supporting them. (Add to those culpable the corporate news media -- NPR is included in that catagorization, by the way. Just last week I heard them thank their corporate underwriter Fleishman-Hillard, the global PR firm, who counts such beneficent companies as Monsanto and PepsiCo as clients.) Whether or not the Bushies can pull off whatever they want is another story. Personally, I'm hoping that the house of cards will fall before we all end up in detention camps.

And in other news, the Pentagon has decided that it's just fine to pay newspapers in Iraq to print stories written by U.S. soldiers without disclosure. This is troubling for many reasons, but I've yet to see anyone point out how this creates "incestuous amplification," a military phrase, no-less. Jane's Defense Weekly defines it as "a condition in warfare where one only listens to those who are already in lock-step agreement, reinforcing set beliefs and creating a situation ripe for miscalculation." (See Banana Republicans, page 102.)

I don't usually rant here, but I feel compelled to say that this is not the time to bury one's head in the sand. This is a time for heroic visions. Even if you can't figure out how it can make a difference, this is a time to get your best and most ingenious and authentic self out there. If that means painting crazy monster pictures or baking earth-shattering scones do it.

Do whatever is your most real and passionate inclination. Love something. Figure out what is important and worth keeping and live your life with those values up front. Ours lives and values do matter. I matter. You matter. Hard as it is to believe, this blog matters. Amazing to me to think about this. It is a revelation....