Lame Duck For Dinner

The American political system produced a unique phenomenon; because our executive leader is independently selected from our representative leaders, we have "lame duck" presidents. A president is allowed to walk around for two months with all the trappings of power, and the emergency powers invested in the position, but means nothing in terms of what we consider real power - the ability to plot judicial courses, plan legislative agendas, and produce bureaucratic initiatives. George W. Bush, believe it or not, is now - and only now - truly a useless and pointless human being.

And we've done well with the weird "spandrel" that is the lame duck; for instance, consider Prop. 8's current status in the California courts. Essentially, the ACLU has sued CA because Prop 8. represents such a radical contradiction within the Constitution of the state, that the legislature technically has to vote first before it can go to the people. Here's hoping, but the main point is, is that the Supreme Court of CA even has dibs on deciding this because of Judicial Review, the principle in which the courts can hear all acts of the government and determine their constitutionality, and thence order the Executive to do whatever it is the court wants them to do; which comes from Marbury v. Madison, a case, of course, under a lame duck president, that ragingly liberal, socialist, and secularist slaveowner, Thomas Jefferson. So there's a point there.

Then there's James Buchanan's marvelous performance right before the Civil War. Generally, most sitting presidents try to do something when various sections of the nation secede - not James "Yes America, You Had At Least One Gay President" Buchanan, who spent most of his time after losing the election dreaming about returning to someplace called "Wheatland". If you think Obama had it bad, remember that Fort Sumter had already been fired on before Lincoln even slept in the Lincoln Bedroom. That's handing a hat full of shit to a dude and telling him "Yup, you're next in the hat parade."

And then there's the last few weeks - since October 6th, in fact; everything Bush has done since then is subject to review and denial until Jan. 19th, or something like that - the details are in the article. But more or less, ol' Tumbler there is done. Maybe he could take up a hobby or something - he seems like the kind of guy who could really get into restoring old planes. That'd be good for him now, in the middle of an empty large building surrounded by harmless gizmos - as long as he doesn't come out.

That Is All For Now.