Confessions of a rube

President Bush signed the new and improved(?) Patriot Act into law. Later, President Bush immediately issued a signing statement ordering the Justice Department not to obey the Patriot Act’s new Congressional oversight provisions.

The Congress and the President play a bait and switch game with the American public. Congress writes a law that assuages its conscience. The President disobeys the law. They all move on to the next confidence game.

I, much to my shame, have been a notorious rube believing as I have that the Constitution still means something.

As for the future, the 2006 and 2008 elections look dismal. The front runners for the 2008 Presidency leave me feeling agnostic with a queasy stomach.

What takes decades to screw up, is not easily fixed. Grand agendas to fix everything at once always fail.

What needs fixing first? The Iraq War and its mentality seems a good place to start. Nothing will go right until the United States gets out of Iraq, and gives up the notion that multi-trillion dollar wars are tenable policies and practices.

The war destroys any chance of meaningful social change. And forget about civil rights until the Iraq War is over.