I'm gonna have to write "Don't be an asshole!" on a Post-It and put it on my computer monitor.

Or put up a sign saying "Do not taunt happy fun shrift" or something.

OK, there are some left-wing folks who think that the Bush administration is planning on installing a dictatorship in the US. Does this belief become more credible when "old-line conservative Paul Craig Roberts -- a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan" says it?

[link]

What prompted this paranoia is an odd little Executive Order that "allows the government to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies."

Paul Craig has this to say about it:

When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order] ... there's no check to it. It doesn't have to be ratified by Congress. The people who bear the brunt of these dictatorial police state actions have no recourse to the judiciary. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule. ... The American people don't really understand the danger that they face.

eta: Here is the Executive Order, straight from the whitehouse.gov website: [link]

Shrift, I saw your dead body on the news last night!

Seriously?! I haven't seen anything.

Oh yeah. I haven't written back yet, I need to get my graciousness back. I think I left it in the shower, I better go look for it...

Dude. Don't write back to crazy people you know are crazy!!

Dude. Don't write back to crazy people you know are crazy!!

So much this.

msbelle, I'm so sorry for all the stress and the possible LD. Ack. You and Mac need some stress-free summer days.

Dude. Don't write back to crazy people you know are crazy!!

t points and nods a lot

Seriously, pd, it's not worth it. All it's going to do is prolong the craxy.

OK, there are some left-wing folks who think that the Bush administration is planning on installing a dictatorship in the US.

We were just talking about this at work. Y'know how none of the Republican presidential candidates are very appealing right now (c.f., the recent poll where "none of the above" got a higher percentage than any of the Republican candidates)?

I'm just waiting for Bush to look at that and then, as a first step, abolish term limits and run again.

How does the expression go again? Don't try to beat a pig at mud wrestling--you'll only get dirty, plus the pig enjoys it.

Or something.

We were just talking about this at work. Y'know how none of the Republican presidential candidates are very appealing right now (c.f., the recent poll where "none of the above" got a higher percentage than any of the Republican candidates)?

I'm just waiting for Bush to look at that and then, as a first step, abolish term limits and run again.

Yep, kinda' makes sense, in a paranoid, "they would never do that - oh wait, these guys might" kind of way.

From the article:

Roberts said that because of Bush's unpopularity, the Republicans face a total wipeout in 2008, and this may be why "the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush's follies or the war, because they expect his unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory in next year's election."

However, Roberts emphasized, "the problem with this reasoning is that it assumes that Cheney and Rove and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts, or it assumes that they are content for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his fling." Roberts believes instead that Cheney and Rove intend to use a renewal of the War on Terror to rally the American people around the Republican Party. "Something's in the works," he said, adding that the Executive Orders need to create a police state are already in place.

How does the expression go again? Don't try to beat a pig at mud wrestling--you'll only get dirty, plus the pig enjoys it.

"Don't try to teach a pig to sing - it accomplishes nothing and it annoys the pig."

Wait, that's probably a completely different expression involving pigs....