"Our Leader", divinely ordained, with unlimited power in wartime

Connecting the Dots

1) Michael Isikoff at Newsweek reports on a 2001 memo to the White House Counsel's office:

Just two weeks after the September 11 attacks, a secret memo to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’ office concluded that President Bush had the power to deploy military force “preemptively” against any terrorist groups or countries that supported them—regardless of whether they had any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Towers or the Pentagon.

The memo, written by Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, argues that there are effectively “no limits” on the president’s authority to wage war—a sweeping assertion of executive power that some constitutional scholars say goes considerably beyond any that had previously been articulated by the department.

Also, says the article, the memo concludes that the president may order "whatever military actions 'in his best judgment' he believes are necessary to protect the country. In the exercise of his power to use military force, 'the president’s decisions are for him alone and are unreviewable.'"

2) This is a few days old. Bush's speechwriter, who subsequently, according to Andrew Sullivan, had heart trouble requiring angioplasty, insists to the Washington Post that Bush's speeches are written carefully so as NOT to claim that he believes he was chosen by god. Most of the really disturbing things the president has said, like calling the WOT a "crusade", were "unscripted comments". When "closely questioned" on Bush's "frequently repeated line that 'freedom is not America's gift to the world, it's the almighty God's gift to all humanity,'" Gerson "said the president wrote those words. They are, he said, a repudiation of the kind of 'American exceptionalism' that holds that God has chosen the United States as his special instrument, and an echo of Abraham Lincoln's assertion that Americans should strive to be on God's side rather than claiming that God is on their side."

Really? Repudiating American Exceptionalism? Cause that's not what it sounds like to me. For example, here are some quotes from his 2004 state of the Union speech:

America is a nation with a mission, and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace -- a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman. America acts in this cause with friends and allies at our side, yet we understand our special calling: This great republic will lead the cause of freedom.

[...]

My fellow citizens, we now move forward, with confidence and faith. Our nation is strong and steadfast. The cause we serve is right, because it is the cause of all mankind. The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable -- and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.

May God continue to bless America.

That sounds a lot like saying that America is special and that God has blessed the country and that the mission that GWB has taken us on is supported by "that greater power who guides".

[Side note: While researching this post I found The Presidential Prayer Team. The internets never fail to suprise and entertain.}

3)Also old news, but "Our Leader" billboards are fer real.

"It's beginning to look a lot like fascist, everywhere you go..." (can't get freakin' christmas carols out of head!)

UPDATE: Screwed up the Our Leader link. Now fixed.