All Hail Dear Leader!

This came out a while back but I've been too busy to mention it. But in case you've missed it, Bush is installing political officers in every branch and bureau of the Federal government.

You read that right. Political officers. And no, this is not one of Olen Steinhauer's novels about Soviet oppression of Eastern Europe. This is America. Or it was last time I looked.

But like Stalin, Bush wants total control over everything that moves. That means his political hacks will have oversight over anything involving public health, the environment, civil rights and our quickly evaporating rights to privacy.

In an executive order, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee to supervise all documents and all rules that regulate anything larger than a chicken fart.

This means people with real expertise will have to submit everything to this "regulatory policy office" to, in the words of the New York Times, "make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities."

You know, like FEMA in New Orleans and the CPA in Iraq, because those groups have done such sterling work. Particular targets? The EPA and OSHA. Jeffrey A. Rosen, general counsel at the White House OMB said, “This is a classic good-government measure that will make federal agencies more open and accountable.”

Open and accountable. The Bush administration wants open and accountable. Done laughing? No, I'll wait.

OK, let's continue.

The way things usually work is, agencies enforce laws enacted by Congress, but Bush doesn't like Congress, so he's decided to to say "fuck them." He's done this with his signing statements before, plenty of them, but that hasn't give him the reach he really wants. No, Dear Leader needs political officers throughout the bureaucracy to make sure nothing gets by that might give Dear Leader a rash.

Peter L. Strauss of the Columbia Law School said the executive order “achieves a major increase in White House control over domestic government.” Which is such great news. This administration has been so competent at governing, why not give them more power? Hell, let's abandon Congress altogether and install Bush as Emperor for Life.

Over the past few years I've written short films for two Federal agencies and each time the script was gone over for anything that colored outside the lines of administration policy, so this has been going on for a while. The old hands told me they'd never seen anything like it. Well, with this new executive order, they ain't seen nothing yet.

And for further proof this stinks like a dead fish on a hot manifold, the Times reported that "business groups hailed the initiative."

And if that doesn't keep you awake nights, you haven't been paying attention.