...afraid I might try to crawl through my monitor and try to throttle somebody.

I've been mulling the "Rule of Law" in much of the interim, courtesy of GG and DCL1. I admit their point about the Constitution as a Dead Letter absent respect for the Rule of Law was, well, "disruptive" for me. How to reconcile my personal alienation toward the legal "system" w/ my abhorrence of Bush's clear disdain for the same?

Thanks hrh, way back when, and more recently, The Voice of Reason and Little Brother for giving me more food for thought and/or articulating more clearly than I did, my discomfort.

Off to watch the i.b. w/ my kiddo. Recorded a special on the Galapagos...

Thank you, sir, that is precisely the type of (who, what, how, why) answer I was hoping somebody more knowledgeable than myself might provide.

I'm glad you're back, hope you stay, understand if you don't.

ondelette's "scary smart". He has two blogs?

http://achievingourcountry.blogspot.com/

is one.

http://humanityagainstcrimes.blogspot.com/

is t'other.

Neither is leisure reading. Too intense. But worth it.

Chocolate eegs sound... interesting. Perhaps delicious. If not, I could save 'em to fling @ Bolton.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-deploy_13int.ART.State.Edition1.4d77393.html

Withdrawal of additional troops from Iraq considered

Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago.

One factor in the consideration is the need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there...

along w/

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-pakistan_13int.ART.State.Edition1.4dbcdef.html

Pakistan won't let U.S., anyone else in to track bin Laden

John Heilprin and Peter James Spielmann, The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Pakistan's top diplomat said Saturday that there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaeda leader.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his nation's new government has ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants.

"Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive," he said. "People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in."...

Poetic license aside, I seem to recall Elephant Garlic as being part of the "leek" family.

Ineffective vs. vampires, I'm afraid. 8')

Glenn, I found this (from accountabilitynowpac.com) a little odd,

leading bloggers from the left (Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com,...

but I guess you're OK with it?

Strange you should quote Dreher. Even a blind squirrel (Dreher) finds an acorn every now and then.

This bit

As the above-chronicled events demonstrate, all of these assaults on our core civil liberties and the rule of law are not Republican attacks with Democrats fighting against them. They are attacks launched by the political establishment against the citizenry, and they ought to be responded to as such.

was just, AWESOME!

FWIW, I drove down to Crawford a couple days after Cindy S. took up her first vigil. Some assh*les across the road had put up a big "Freedom is NOT Free!" poster, text overlaid on a huge, blown-up (military) photo of Cindy's son, Casey, recently KIA. I spoke to her for a bit after she got through talking to Stephen Hadley and some other Bushite.

Let me tell you, Brother, I've never been more impressed with another human being's sheer (I'm struggling for the word) graciousness? Very warm, with a Zen-like calm, it seemed to me. There were other parents there, and families of lost loved ones, and somehow SHE was the healing influence in the midst of all of it.

I've seen all the shit that got thrown at her in the subsequent years. Nothing's ever changed my initial impression.

I'd replace Pelosi w/ her in a nanosecond.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/washington/16combatant.html?em&ex=1216267200&en=d3c315e2b68a7317&ei=5087%0A

or click sig for linky

Court Backs Bush on Military Detentions

By ADAM LIPTAK

Published: July 16, 2008

President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision...

Damn!

although I'd quibble w/ you about this

Some senators and congress.

But we here are the real leaders opposing this madness of moneyed murder.

I dug this

The Anti War Movement used to refer to Viet Nam.

Now it addresses a permanent war machine and mentality crystallizing beyond any single foe.

Not very uplifting, BTW. I thought I detected a "not only will I go down swinging, but there's a fleeting possibility I might connect" sentiment in this thread, of late.

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/15/complicity/permalink/495c1272eff203418216495a4b239e1f.html