Since Gen. Pace has not forgotten his alma mater's moto, perhaps we should start a pool as to how long the General will keep his job?

Article six of the constitution says that:

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

The use of any prop such as a Bible or Kuran is optional -- it makes for a better photo op.

If a person (passenger A) doesn't like the looks or behavior of a fellow passenger (passenger B) that has cleared security, I think that passenger A should be offered a different flight.

Since I expect all the wing-nuts to jump on this I'll offer an exception: If passenger B is cleaning his AK47 in the departure lounge, he should be denied boarding at the gate.

I'm reading Mortimer Adler's We Hold These Truths wherein he poses this question:

"Should we create a new constitutional office, that of Public Prosecutor, unattached to the Deptartment of Justice (and thus independent of the executive branch of the government) who shall be an officer of the courts appointed in the same manner as federal judges, that is, with the advise and consent of the Senate, and who shall be charged with the prosecution of public officials suspected of unconstitutional acts, with the further provision that no officeholder shall be immune from prosecution by reason of special privilege?"

I like this idea because the AG does more than just investigate federal bad-guys and should remain part of the DOJ. Advise and conent of the Senate is good, (though open to abuse if the same party is in control of the legislature as well as the executive), but I'd like to see term limits applied; perhaps a six-year term? It might also be good thing to make confirmation be by more than a simple majority.

The biggest problem with trying to fix some aspect of the government is that it is damned hard to come up with a solution that can't be corrupted down the line.

Senator Byrd is correct; for those of you who would like the applicable citation from the Constitution here it is:

Article I Section 7

"Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it."

Here is what I sent to the DNC and will send individually to my congresscritters:

An open note to all my representatives in DC.

If there is no resolution put forth that specifically prevents the President from attacking Iran without specific and separate authorization from congress, you will get no money from me and I will vote only for third party candidates.

Remember that everything the Nazi's did was codified into German law and the jurists at Nuremburg tried and convicted the Nazis with "crimes against humanity", which superseded German (and allied) laws.

Even though congress capitulated on the MCA, there is still the possibilty that the International Court will not agree with our use of torture and will take appropriate action to bring these miscreants to justice.

One can hope.

@anon - Muddy thinking

Greenwald blithely omits the most significant figure here: military spending as a percentage of GDP. It's barely 4 percent - nowhere near its cold war height and only marginally above 1990s levels (in case he hasn't noticed, we are at war).

The moral question is what do we give up for spending that money. President Eisenhower made the point:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953

Tell me: what are the Army divisions stationed in Europe doing in the "war on terror"? (I know that the medical people at Ramstein AFB are doing a great job of looking after our bloodied sons and daughters, but other than that.) What did our military presence on Okinawa do on 9/11? If Europe and Japan can send military personnel to the gulf; they can defend their own borders. (Though against what threat I do not know.)

@Free Market Military Industry

FYI - duPont is in the enviable position of selling to both sides. They have the IP on plastic explosives and they make Kevlar. Every time an IED goes off you can put a credit on the duPont balance sheet.