Mad as hell

I am finally getting angry about what is happening with politics at the top.  Up to this point it has only disgusted me, but it now seems to be getting totally out of control – and that is making me mad.
The first thing that started to really get to me is Bush’s insistence that the Constitution gives him the right to secretly spy on our citizens without oversight or control.  Of course spying is always secret; otherwise it wouldn’t exactly be spying.  I understand that there are times when the good guys have to watch the bad guys without the bad guys knowing about it.  The part that really gets to me isn’t the spying, it is the statements that the President is above the laws and rules of the country and can decide to do this without any Congressional or judicial oversight.     We have a country with three major branches that was designed specifically to prevent this type of abuse of power by one of the branches.  However, right now we have a situation where all three branches are in bed together and they are doing as the darned well please with no oversight.  1984 seems to have come a bit late, but it has indeed come. He is saying that he is above our laws and traditions.  He has told us before that he knows what is right because God personally tells him so. (From this, it sounds like he is actually crazy to me.)
The second part that really got me hopping mad is the way that the greedy, sneaky, unworthy bastards stuck the bill to drill in Alaska onto the bill to fund the Iraq disaster (I no long can call it a “war” – it is totally Bush’s folly and is a disgrace).  Since the greedy bastards in power knew that the Congress could not politically withhold funding from Bush’s folly, they placed the drilling bill there where it was bound to pass.  The reason for this is that they know that the majority of the country, and the majority of Congress, disagree with the drilling in Alaska.  The only way that they could get to that oil at this time was to sneak the bill in attached to something that was so motherhood and apple pie that it would have to pass.  This is just a case of giant pork barrel.  
The drilling will of course do us no good at this time, will deplete potentially critical reserves for the future, has the potential for widespread environmental damage for no good, and has the potential for enriching many of Bush’s buddies.  It looks to me like there is no value for Americans in doing this, there is a big chance of great damage – the only thing going for it is the potential for very large, short term profits by the rich oilmen of the world.  I doubt if any of these rich guys have ANY desire or willingness to do anything of value for the USA.  They are multinational companies that are going around the world doing whatever is necessary to enhance their short term gains.  In this case they are going to drain our reserves at a time when they are not needed, which will place us at greater dependency and risk with regard for oil shortages in the near future.  We will see the long term costs go up because of their short term profits.
When will all of the killing and pillaging of our nation stop?  Is it possible to stop it any longer, or have we entered into the decline before the total collapse and fall of the nation?   The feeling that I have is that we are on the brink of collapse similar to just before the fall of Rome, and the unraveling of the USSR.  We cannot continue to spend money like it was water (we increased our national debt by over $800 billion last year alone), and destroy our natural resources, while telling the rest of the world to go to hell without paying the price of this sort of government.
It was nice that Bush finally admitted that things aren’t going all that great in Iraq.  However, I was not given any hope when he went on to say that it was HIS responsibility to make that kind of decision, and that he have to take whatever the consequences are for his decisions.  Where does he get off thinking that he bears ANY of the consequences of his actions?  Nothing happens to him.  Destroying the American economy isn’t a problem for him, it is a problem for us.  Bombing to death tens of thousands of innocent people isn’t a problem for him, it is a problem for the dead and the families of the dead.  Making our soldiers fight and die in a war that was not needed, based upon lies and greed isn’t a problem for him, it is a problem for the soldiers and their families.  Bush  does not have any negative consequences for his actions, and he clearly doesn’t give a damn what it costs anyone else as long as he gets to be king and has the power of the only superpower in his hands.  He is doing to America what he did to all of the other companies that he was allowed to control, he is bankrupting us.