I haven't written Obama off yet but I am very skeptical. I wrote several letters here during the election expressing consternation about Obama. I very nearly didn't vote for him because of the fact that he scammed my primary vote by lying about his position on FISA. But in the end I voted for him in the general too as the far lesser of two evils.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen much since then that assuages my concerns about him. I'm most upset about all the bullshit talk about not looking backward and maybe not investigating the crimes of the Bush Administration.

On other issues, like Iran and trying terrorists, I'm more ambivalent. I think its safe to say that Iran would like nuclear weapons and its doubtful that in the long run they've completely taken that off the table. We know they tried in the past. What country wouldn't want nuclear weapons when their enemies have them? Pakistan has them. The U.S. and

israel, which have repeatedly threatened to attack them, have them. Of course they want them -- and justifiably so. Only a completely unselfconscious and hypocritical American would find this despicable.

But much as I dislike the idea of Iran getting a nuke capacity we have to ask ourselves what can we really do about this? Technology and technological know-how inevitably increase and spread. Unless there is a worldwide movement to completely eliminate nuclear weapons, including those of Russia, the U.S., and Israel, and to make it a serious international crime which is seriously enforced to produce them, then inevitably more and more countries will develop them and/or spread them around. I don't like it but I am at a loss to think of how to stop it.

Re terrorists who have been tortured: I don't want to release someone if they are in fact a clear and present danger to the U.S., but how can they be? Is there something unique about Al Qahtani or any of the others whom we will be unable to prosecute because of Bush's crimes? Send them back to Saudi Arabia or wherever they came from and don't let them back in. I don't see how they can add to our danger. Its not like there is any lack of America-hating terrorists out there who wouldn't be willing to carry out any mission that Al Qahtani isn't available for. In fact, our ongoing support for things like Israel's disproportionate attack on Gaza ensures there is a basically limitless supply of America hating terrorists, so I don't see the special nature of the threat of having to release an Al Qahtani.

Dude, you are so full of shit.

Dude, if you're for real then you are an idiot. But I think its just as likely that you are a Republican troll trying to stir up racial controversy where it is obvious that none exists.

Give it up dude. I don't worship Glenn. But I have a ton of respect for him based on his outstanding writing. The idea that he is racist because he is attacking Obama is laughable. Go troll somewhere else.

Its not a suicide pact but it is a pact, asssholes. You don't get to just decide to violate it. Suicide my ass.

The hippies said it better than any neocon dickhead:

Find the cost of freedom

Buried in the ground

Mother Earth will swallow you

Lay your body down

...and it smells like victory! Congratulations Glenn!

Of course it wasn't just Glenn and its only a small and impermanent victory, but Glenn is exactly right. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

What a pompous ass. Hey Joe: if you are so sure you're right, then how come you couldn't dare let that woman (who was obviously 1000 times more thoughtful and intelligent than you) get a sentence out? Overbearing boors like Scarborough can't handle the truth and don't have arguments that can stand up to criticism so they have rely entirely on drowning other people out, calling them names, pretending they are naive etc.

How the fuck does that douchebag Joe Sacrborough know what we got out of Khalid Sheik Muhammed? He wasn't there and the information is classified. Some people who were there are on the record saying 90% of it was complete bullshit.

If there was ever anyone who needed a boot up his ass, it is most definitely Joe Scarborough. What a fucking douchebag.

Suppose a president did all manner of illegal things and then pardoned the whole administration and himself. What can be done?

He and the other perpetrators in his administration can be impeached. The president's pardon power is limited to cases other than impeachment.

You raise a good point though. I think the pardon power should be eliminated. It is a vestige of monarchical prerogative and is utterly contrary to the rule of law. At the very least, the pardon power needs to be amended so the president can't use it to pardon himself or his cronies. That is ridiculous.

As Glenn explained in his update, Lictblau WAY overstated the finding of the FISA Court of Review -- and wouldn't you know it he erred in the direction of excusing Bush's illegal and uncosntitutional warrantless wiretaps!

Thank you Glenn, my first reading of that article left me perplexed, wondering how that could possibly have been the outcome given the fact that there had been a law that clearly outlawed Bush's wiretaps.

Lichtblau ought to be fired for malpractice. When in doubt, Eric, why did you reflexively jump to excuse the war criminal, George Bush? Why is there no one at the Times who understands what Glenn understood immediately?