968. It's the Constitution, stupid!

Samuel Johnson warned us in 1775 that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". Ambrose Bierce commenting on Johnson's quote in 1946 added "With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first.”

These last 5+ years of a Bush administration and Republican monopoly in Congress have proven the points.

But now we regretfully must add that the administration's unparalleled secrecy and claims of national security to quash any kind of judicial, Congressional or public oversight to NSA, FBI and other spying on Americans have added whole new levels to the meaning of scoundrel.

Bush has always claimed that he trusts the people. What the deciderer really means is that he has the utmost of contempt for the people, and of a sinfully compliant Congress as well. Always has, always will. It's just that at a time when the people had more faith -- at times, a lot more faith -- in him, the contempt may not have seemed so obvious to most of them.