...and listen to her Harman-Kardon audio system--there must be a few around her house(s).

What is it going to take to get these folks to actually honor their oaths of office--that "protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign or domestic" jazz?

Impeachment seems the only tool available as there aren't, that I know of, any provisions for "citizen recall" petitions for Congressmen and Executive branchers as there are in, say, Calilfornia.

I wonder if state attorneys general could bring criminal charges against members of their "federal delegations." That might be a possibility, because I can't imagine that Congressmen would vote articles of impeachment on themselves. Anyone know whether state's prosecutorial engine can be used against federal officials for conduct in DC?

It could be made out that all the Congressmen who voted to extend the FISA are accessories after the fact to the illegal, warrantless eavesdropping. And the Intel Chairman & Deputy Harman, as well as the "ranking" member, all of whom probably knew about the lawbreaking before it began, might be accessories BEFORE the fact, and co-conspirators under the RICO act--or the just plain federal conspiracy laws.

They can also be arrested in their offices or on the floor of either house, per Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution:

"… They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; ….."

But how would that actually be made to happen?

kitt

I'm confused too now.

I read your initial post to be a lament about those of us pointing the finger at the Dem party, its past and current active contribution to the multiple domestic/foreign messes this blog discusses daily.--Dounia

Glenn raises much of that in his post. It is all relevant but what is most relevant is putting pressure on the one man who is in the cat-bird seat, Mulkasey. Your post wasn't doing that. Your post was basically about throwing the bums out. My stance is f'k a bunch of that and just deal with the issue at hand. How you conclude that that means 'hamster activity' is a conclusion you came to on your own. Hamster activity wasn't my suggestion or my interpretation of how to pressure Mulkasey or how to move things along.

You make assumptions about my posts that cause you to jump in with both feet and misread. An example of why that is you do that is your assumption when you wrote about me being "walled in" with 'party loyalty". My comments over the months and years very frequently show otherwise.

...on the Diane Rehm show. [My comments were with respect to the NIE reassessment, Admin. war-mongering, and Corp.media enabling] My mic was off after my comment, so I couldn't rebut the f*cking assh*le. I'll post the link when it's available in an hour or so.

http://crn.com/government/204400457

Watchdog: White House Lost A Lot More Than 5 Million E-mails
By Damon Poeter, CMP Channel
5:13 PM EST Fri. Nov. 30, 2007

"I will tell you, by the way, that it's way higher than five million. It's more than 10 million," said Anne Weismann, a former Justice Department attorney who now serves as chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Media reports have generally put the number of e-mails the Bush administration is reported to have lost from 2003-2006 at roughly five million. That was the number White House Press Secretary Dana Perino mentioned in an April press conference, when she admitted that millions of e-mails may have disappeared from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) archives.

But Weismann said sources close to Congressional and private investigations of the missing e-mail scandal had informed her that more than twice as many e-mails were unaccounted for by the Bush administration.

CREW and its co-plaintiff the National Security Archive this month secured a temporary restraining order against the EOP that prevents it from destroying all e-mail backup media in its possession.

And if the White House complies with that new court order, then Joe Klein will give them "points" for "more candor".

Two simple points:

(1) Destruction of the tapes is itself a criminal act, for it destroys evidence, and therefore obstructs justice. The taped evidence was clearly relevant to trials (and other legal proceedings) regarding the detainees. It was also potentially relevant to eventual trials of U.S. officials for violations of the U.S. War Crimes Act and and the U.S. Anti-torture Statute.

(2) Under U.S. case law, the destruction of such evidence provides ample justification for judicial dismissal of prosecutions of detainees who have been subjected to the torture (i.e., "enhanced" or "harsh" interrogation) techniques, for it destroys potentially exculpatory evidence involving coerced confessions.

In short, rather than actually bringing real terrorists to legitimate justice through trials and convictions, the Bush Administration has mucked up the legal cases first by using torture on detainees, and then by destroying the videotaped evidence of torture.

It is a return to Medieval World, and the neoconderthal nutzis of the Bush Administration have surged ahead in the race back to the 13th Century.

I refuse to be influenced by the "paranoid style of right wing politics" and vacillate from fear of the external threat, be it the New World Odor or terrists or commies; to the fear of the internal threat, be it commies or terrists under the bed, or the black helicopters and the "evil femeral gummint".

If y'all want to engage in alarmist fearmongering and run around like hysterical chickens with your heads cut off, I'll just make some popcorn and watch the show. I find it quite amusing, just like the bomb Iran paranoia.

I obviously need to learn more about free will and will enjoy doing so because I learn so much from the intelligent, wise and decent humans that post here.

It has always seemed to be from the time I broke away from the grasp and manipulations of my bipolar mother that free will and my thinking could never be taken away from me unless I chose to give them away.

People who don't want to take personal responsibility and make the choice to blame or trust others to evade doing so, are putting their minds and free will in someone else's hands whether those are "God's" or another human.