when there are no consequences to one's actions?

As reported over on TPM, snippy telling Miers not to appear seems to violate 10 USC Sec 1505.

This is a felony, punishable by a fine and/or up to 5 years in prison.

Note that the subject of the questioning does not matter at all: Congress is allowed to subpoena witnesses, and they are required to appear -- if you tell them not to, you're potentially committing a felony.

Carter pardoned draft dodgers, remember. So that's a precedent (albeit one never tested in court) that a presidential pardon can be done before any charges are filed, and apply to a class of people, rather than named individuals.

Libby had a bankroll of millions of dollars, and not only the best defense money could buy, but access to all of the witnesses.

Padilla didn't.

Libby wasn't held and tortured for years. He didn't even spend a single day behind bars.

This was a kangaroo court, with hand-picked evidence allowed by the government, and an adequate defense disallowed on the grounds of "national security."

This isn't even close to justice. This is sickness.

but saying that the surge is working, but it's the Iraqi politicians' fault, strikes me as too perfect to allow "us" to pull out without losing face.

And when strikes me as being that scripted, I tend to distrust everything about it.

If he follows through on the threat of talking about any attempt to direct his show as soon as it happens.

I'm not particularly holding my breath, but it'd be nice to be surprised.

That would have taken integrity and courage but then you would have had credibility

Looks to me like Dole just admitted Snippy and his administration have neither integrity, courage, nor credibility.

But now I don't see the point. He obviously doesn't need my money, if he -- like the Speaker of the House -- don't feel a need to support and defend the Constitution. Which both of them swore to do.

But I'm sure Obama would be happy to put FISA behind him until such time as he takes office, and would actually have the power to determine surveillance policies.

He already is elected -- as a Senator, who has sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution.

But if he doesn't consider the Constitution and its Amendments to be important, it's no wonder he doesn't consider his promises and oaths to be important, either.

The Republicans like to worship at the invisible hand of Adam Smith. Fine.

What that means, however, is that the current price of gas is where it is because that's what the market says it should be. And that means that if you drop the federal taxes, the price must quickly bound back to where it is.

Unless there's illegal price fixing going on by the gas companies, of course.

Since when is 21% "barely one-in-five"? It's over one in five, albeit barely.

I just finished watching the first episode. It was horrendously awful.

that the Democrats, when presented with the choice between keeping their word and folding, would do the latter?