Glenn Greenwald should know they're not all lapdogs, and single this guy/gal out for some kudos.

on.

Presidents should be able to call press conferences whenever they feel they have something to say. But at least twice a month, there should be a "People's Press Conference," obligatory for the president to attend, in which he does NOT get to choose who asks the questions. This idea that the Prez confronts the Fourth Estate when and where and if he chooses is anti-democratic in the extreme. Would this take a Consitutional amendment?

The side of the coin this post doesn't examine -- and perhaps it is implicit in what is examined -- is the underlying current of fearfulness that animates Goldberg and Carlson and all the others who exhibit the Authoritarian Mind. Looking at post WWI Germany, people there had a lot to be afraid of; in today's America so many people desire a Big Daddy to protect them, but from what? Chimeras, infinitesimal possibilities of being harmed by "enemies" -- and yet the Authoritarian Mind is alive and well. So, it must be part of the human make-up, not just something brought to the fore by chaotic and dangerous circumstances. Jonah Goldberg lives in fear, as do the majority of those who agree with statements like "Fight them there so we don't have to fight them here," and "They want to kill us/destroy our way of life." Short of a mass psychological intervention beyond the scope of possibility, the task of showing these folks that their fears are imaginary seems out of reach. It would be easy to pity them were they not voting in huge numbers for more war, more weapons, more hate.

As long as people habitually fail to notice that there's anything wrong with our current state of affairs then no "legal remedies" are going to mean squat.

Right, and as long as the GOOD news is that only 23% of people who get their news from PBS and NPR still think Saddam had something to do with 9/11, we're one fuggova long way from there.

Well, of course. We know that the prime corollary to "they live in fear" is that "those who keep them distracted by irrational fear are making a fortune while Rome burns."

He is just a man who puts his pants on one leg at a time. When his presidency is over, he'll shrivel up and die just like we all do eventually. The problem is that a man like him, with a man like Cheney pulling his strings, can get elected and once elected do whatever they want to do without meaningful oversight or control. The presidency has been sucking up power, some say since FDR, some choose other starting points -- but the presidency has been sucking up power for a long time. There are too many things a president can do that no one can tell him he can't do, or can prevent him from doing, things that would horrify the Founding Fathers. It doesn't matter if Jesus H. Christ is the next American president, He will want, or have people around him who want, the power to realize His "vision" without that awful old foot-dragging Keystone Kops congress slowing Him down. It's up to We the People to insist that presidential power be rolled back and that our representives in congress fulfill their constitutional role in guiding the country. The prez is meant to be an executive carrying out the People's wishes, but he is becoming more king-like with every election cycle.

This was Cheney knowing that when the barred doors closed on Scooter, when the walls started closing in and that big con with all the tattoos started looking at Scooter with love in his eye, Scooter's tongue was going to loosen up real fast. "Whaddya wanna know? I'll tell you everything, I'll tell you where Uncle Dick's skeletons are buried, just get me out of here!!"

Now, Scooter can continue to be the little bird that didn't sing. Was there ever any doubt that this would happen?

So is Bush. Up yours.

Our car manufacturers do more than make cars, they provide pensions and health care, which is not their core business. The wonderful automakers they're being compared to do nothing but make cars. It's an unfair comparison.

Bush's popularity numbers aren't going to be harmed by this; those who hate him will still hate him and those who continue to love him or even tolerate him will continue in their irrational behavior. It just feels like the last nail, though -- any chance he might have had to redeem himself, if such a chance even existed, is gone.

A read of American political history shows that we've had some pretty bad leadership over the decades, as well as some good. Presidents have evoked the kind of hatred flung at Bush; presidents who've been canonized posthumously often fought bitterly with myriad critics and defamers during their administrations. Somehow, we've survived all that. But what is changing, slowly but surely, starting some the last century, is the erosion of Congress' role in government and the engorgement of presidential fiat power. This is dangerous and should temper any claim that, "We've been through this shit before, don't worry we'll survive it this time."

I can understand Bush hanging on to some supporters. Some people simply cannot admit they made a mistake, in this case by electing Bush. But Nixon is far enough in the past and sufficiently proven to have been a disaster -- who are the 40% who do NOT look upon him unfavorably today? Are they still saying, "Yes, but he opened up China?" It makes one wonder, what will Bush's die-hards say 30-odd years from now? What one accomplishment will they point out to justify their continued support? "But hey, he lowered taxes for the rich, didn't he?" "He gave us the Roberts/Alito Supreme Court, didn't he?"

Some people just never give up.