Bush is still in charge and the "Decider"

Americans are getting so excited with the Presidential race and so anxious for a change in Washington, that we are forgetting one thing: Georges W. Bush is still in charge for the next 11 months. He is still the President and as such, he still has a lot of power; the power to make decision that impact on the country and on people’s lives.

Tonight is his last State of Union Address and the union is in a state of disarray. More than half of the Americans blame Bush for the downturn of the economy. One could argue that at 5%, the unemployment rate could almost be considered full employment. It would in Canada. As for the real estate crisis, financial institutions should take a huge part of the responsibility for that debacle. But there are no excuses for Bush nor the Democratic Congress for not seeing that coming. The stimulus package is late, does not solve everything, and what it does is increase the US deficit already at 250 billions dollars.

Over the last seven years, Georges Bush has made a choice to focus on foreign policy, particularly on Iraq, instead of domestic issues. Since 9-11 he has spent most of his presidency talking about other possible terrorist's threats and he has used his power as president to give himself more power. And this is what is most troublesome.

Last May, the President signed a directive that granted near dictatorial powers to the office of the president in the event of national emergency declared BY the President. This directive bypasses Congress and obliterates the separation of powers. According to a Congressional Research Service, under the National Security Act, the president “may seize property, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, control travel, etc.”

This was almost not reported by the American media. But consider this, neither was a recent study by two non profit journalism groups. That study unveil that the Bush administration, made 935 false statements in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Bush alone made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein’s possessing weapon of mass destruction and 28 false statements about Iraq’s links to Al Qaeda.

Now, we can all do the math. The man is still in the control room.

Catherine Cano - Canovision