19 April 2007

Wherein I introduce a new (and I think potentially important) new term

Yesterday's disappointing but predictable US Supreme Court ruling allowing a ban on certain late term abortions to stand has set me to thinking about what the Decider's true legacy will be.

During his tenure so far he has radically reshaped the Federal bench, including and rather obviously after yesterday, the Supreme Court. For the most part these are not old fashioned small "c" conservatives but radicals with an agenda who hold no special love of stare decisis. We can expect long standing precedents to fall in the areas of civil liberties including privacy, abortion and women's rights and loss of restraint over government intrusion. The rapidly dissolving divided between religion and state will probably be swept aside. Corporate power will grow and regulatory power (local, state and Federal) will be dramatically reduced.

This is the brave new world that we will have to live with long after the Decider(TM) has returned to lonely ignominy on his country estate in Texas. (He hasn't got horses so it definitely IS NOT a ranch!)

I have decided that in the future I shall refer to this phenomenon as "Bushite Occupied Government" or BOG for short. (For Americans you should look here for a British definition of "bog".) As a derivative form we may wish to refer to that portion of the internets devoted to salivating over all things Bush and Bush-like as the "Bog-o-sphere".

Don't forget BOG is everywhere so tread carefully.

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