What are we to make of it all?

As a "top Republican" testifies in the scandal involving the covering up of a Republican sexual predator's activities by Republican House leaders including Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio, the Washington Post reports the chilling enactment of the unConstitutional Military Commissions Act.

From Reuters:

Boehner said he told the ethics panel privately what he had earlier said in public -- that he first learned about contact between Foley and a former page several months ago, and believes he informed House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican.

Hastert, however, has changed his story several times, in his attempt to lie his way out of trouble. So has Boehner, who became infamous for trying to bribe fellow House members on the Floor of the House of Representatives with checks from the tobacco lobby in an attempt to kill anti-tobacco legislation.

Polls show Democrats leading in the race to control Congress in the wake of the sex scandal, and a new book by a conservative evangelical, called Tempting Faith, has further tarnished the White House in the eyes of fundamentalist whackos by revealing the fact Bush & the Republican Party have simply been using the religious base for votes.

Well, DUH! What, was anyone with a fully functioning brain really fooled into believing the GOP actually cares about religion? It's simply a means to an end for the far right, which controls the Republican Party. But this is somehow news to the gullible fundies, who have allowed themselves to be led astray by frauds such as Pat Robertson, D. James Kennedy and Jerry Falwell.

This, combined with the sex scandal, may turn evangelical voters off enough to keep them home on November 7th, and thus determine the outcome of a critical midterm election that will ultimately decide the future of our nation.

Why is this election so important? Because George W. Bush has gotten his way once again, and gotten the Republican-dominated Congress to make the Judicial Branch irrelevant.

The Washington Post reports:

Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush this week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

In a notice dated Wednesday, the Justice Department listed 196 pending habeas cases, some of which cover groups of detainees. The new Military Commissions Act (MCA), it said, provides that "no court, justice, or judge" can consider those petitions or other actions related to treatment or imprisonment filed by anyone designated as an enemy combatant, now or in the future.

What we are watching is a police state in action, stripping the accused of their right to challenge the government in court. The Military Commissions Act also grants immunity to Bush & Co. from being prosecuted for war crimes -- and retroactively at that. This means not only can Bush authorize torture in the present and the future and get away with it, he is exempt for past authorizations of torture. And there is nothing anyone can do about it.

The MCA is, of course, unConstitutional. And it is highly unlikely it will stand up in court especially if the Democrats manage to regain control of Congress and repeal the law (even if Bush's puppets on the Supreme Court uphold it).

But what to make of it all?

Congressional Republicans, with the aid of some turncoat Democrats, have sanctioned war crimes committed by the dictatorship residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Even if this weren't reason enough to oust the GOP from power, the damning NIE report showing the occupation of Iraq has strengthened terrorism combined with the predations of a Republican politician covered up by his party's leaders demonstrate that the biggest threat to America is not al-Qaeda, but the Bush regime and the Republican Party.

I cannot stress this enough: do not rest on your laurels thinking the GOP is toast, and that Democrats will sweep the midterm election. The GOP controls the electoral process in a great many states, including Ohio. So despite polls showing significant leads for Democrats, we cannot dismiss the very real likelihood that the Republicans will steal yet another election. Get off your asses, dear readers, and vote by absentee ballot. Make sure those ballots get fully, properly and accurately counted, and that they are not thrown away. Don't give in to fear, and let righteous anger fuel you.

This is our country, and we need to take it back. If we don't, then get used to living in an Orwellian police state.