Sinking to new lows.

The discovery that the Bush Administration has been gathering the phone records of millions of Americans has people in a dither. This completely the opposite of what Bush said was going on or to put it bluntly: he lied again. And it is illegal to do such things without search warrants. Bush spoke briefly about the matter to the press. His statement was: "the intelligence activities I authorised are lawful."

Now this means nothing. Remember this is a president who has repeatedly claimed he has the power to unilaterally break the law as he wishes. He is a man who says that the presidency, instead of being one of three equal branches of government is superior to all other branches thus not bound by laws passed by congress or rulings from the courts. He is an advocate of the imperial presidency. And that means that anything he does is automatically legal in his own eyes. For him to say that what he authorised is not illegal says nothing since he thinks everything he authorises is automatically legal becaused he authorised it. This my friends is as close to a dictatorial theory of government that any major US politician has ever pushed. It is as close to the old "divine right of kings" theory.

I have reported that previously Bush's approval rating had sunk to a new low of 31%. Of course that was then and today is today and he sinks to a new low. As presidents go he regularly sinks to new lows in all senses of the term. A Harris poll shows his approval rating now at 29%. At this rate by the mid-term elections his approval rating should consist of him, Laura and maybe the Cheneys.

Even among Republicans 39% said the country was headed in the wrong direction.