Dude, where's my constitution?

We Americans are famous for taking everything for granted, whether it be cheap gasoline, clean water, Social Security when we retire. Oh, and a representative democracy based on an extraordinary document called the Constitution (accompanied by a Bill of Rights), replete with a system of checks and balances that prevents any one component of our government - executive, legislative and judicial - from amassing unmitigated power.

Right?

George Bush's legacy, which we are told has become of increasing concern to to this damaged shell of a man, will of course be the gravest attack on the principles of our democracy in the 200 years of its history. We no longer have a President, we have a king, and the king has a magic want called "executive privilege," with which the "people's business" suddenly has been placed on a "needs to know" basis. And we, the American people, apparently have no need to know.

From today's Washington Post: "Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority Thursday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege."

The American people should be outraged, but don't hold your breath waiting for the somnambulant masses to rise up in indignation. As for me, I am calling not only my own congresswoman, but a hell of a lot of others. I want impeachment proceedings started against these bastards NOW!

As for democracy? You don't miss your water until the well runs dry.