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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I like your addition. It does quantify how very far the precedent (and President) has been engraved upon the institutions of government to allow full-- unitary and signing, executive power at the expense of Congressional oversight.
Wow, what a joke. Did I say Congressional oversight?
Glenn, soon as I heard about Feinstein's outrage over the Panetta appointment I couldn't wait to see how you would include it in your next update on these themes in your journalism - love it. Great work and nice interview with Hewitt as well...
“If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution, out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president - no one is above the law."-Joe Biden
October 29, 2008-“[…] if I honestly believed that the president had violated the Constitution of the United States, and if my colleagues believed that, I think you would have seen the president impeached.”-Pelosi
No. Once upon a time they had been the majority for decades and were arrogant bastards. Then the Republicans became the majority and became the arrogant bastards.
Soon, it will be the Republicans who are seen as the "weaklings".
Guaranteed.
Everyone from Cass Sunstein and Ruth Marcus to David Broder and Stuart Taylor valiantly stands up and defends the President and his top aides against the terribly uncouth and disruptive suggestion that their crimes merit investigation and prosecution.
But ... but ... but.... I have it on Good Authority -- I was listening to RW foamer radio-talk host Mark Levin yesterday -- that Sunstein is a raving Commie, intent on imposing with a mailed fist a fascist, Socialist New World Order over the good citizens of the Yoo Ess of Aye....
Cheers,
... who was a JAG at Gitmo who, on his last day there, sent a Valentine's Day card- containing the names of all detainees- to one of the plaintiffs in a suit seeking the names under FOIA. The names were eventually released anyway, but Diaz was prosecuted, court martialed and sentenced to six months in the brig. Soon he found himself nearly broke, with a family to support, so he took a teaching job in New York. Just before he was set to begin, after he'd moved his family to New York, the job offer was rescinded. I notified one of my former teachers, David Feige, about Matt's predicament and David, during the debut week of the show he inspired, Raising the Bar, stepped forward and arranged an interview for Matt at the Bronx Defenders, where Matt works today as a parent advocate for the indigent, having come close to this himself.
If David Feige wouldn't have stepped up, what would have happened to Matt and his kids? Who knows, just like who knows what things he witnessed at Gitmo. Unlike "Fredo" Gonzales, Matt is a "casualty of the war on terror" who almost ended up jobless despite risking his career in taking this moral stand. Just as there is disparate treatment for the elite and the commoners when it comes to prosecution, there is a huge difference between those who break the law for the Bush Administration and those who either break it or uphold the oaths they take as attorneys.
Just ask Lt. Charles Swift, the JAG who refused to follow an order to plead Hamdan guilty leading to Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Though Hamdan, through Swift and Kaytal, eventually prevailed, Swift paid a steep career price and any would be whistleblowers saw the likely fallout.
A link to Matt's story is at the signature if you're interested.
It's (blowing the lid off) the cover-up.
Blast, I wish Biden would shut up sometimes. Why can't he let Obama pick whoever as CIA Director without his casting aspersions on the pick.
Do I see some cracks forming in the Obama/Biden team. I hope not. I don't think Obama needs to consult (pay homage) for whatever reason to Feinstein.
Shut up Joe, Barack got's enough bickering going on, don't add to it.
Yes, she was FBI.
Googling her is an interesting undertaking. You have to add "FBI" to even get information relevant to her, then what comes up is primarily kook websites (Newsmax anyone?). She does not exist on wikipedia, which I find strange. Or maybe not. We live in strange times.
Pondering the NeoCon Koan (NeoKoan?)
If a rogue administration pisses all over the Constitution and nobody alerts the American people, does it leave a stain?
This and many other problems, though perhaps still vulnerable to the kind of corruption we have seen rampant throughout the government and the press recently, would be vastly alleviated by giving Congress and the judiciary equal and separate power to the executive on matters of classification of information. The Congress and the courts need to have the power to evaluate the classification of information, and they need the power to declassify documents as they see fit for the proper functioning of government.
We don't really and truly have a such thing as a national election in this country, a good reason for keeping the Electoral College and just making it proportional instead of winner take all. We have 50 state elections. What that means is that any senator has an equal authority, because of an equal constituency in any election, to the President as far as the investment of public trust. The public trust is the override on "security clearances", the President-Elect is not subject to any approval for the ultimate security clearance. Senators should not be, either. The public has granted them that right, including the right to declassify information, in the voting booth. As for the courts, they routinely review classified information. They should therefore be able to declassify it if that serves justice.
And nobody should have the right to deny access to information to such people. Least of all the 'appendix' of our political system, the Vice President.
Before any charges are pressed against Thomas Tamm, every sitting and former senator who has or had access to the details of his case should be called to justify the classification of the fact that an illegal program was being executed by the person sworn to faithfully execute the laws of this country.
OT - On yesterday's thread, El Cid brought an analysis of the press by Keshev to everyone's attention. I forwarded it to the New York Times Public Editor with a note that they should use it as a yardstick to evaluate the objectivity of the Times' own reporting. They have not done that, but Ethan Bronner's article on the manipulation of the press by the Israeli government this morning does cite Keshev. Bronner has been flying small trial balloons that there is something wrong with the whole mental construct, he criticized the cognitive dissonance between a campaign that said it was targeted at a new ceasefire and rhetoric suggesting it was targeted at eliminating Hamas. I think he has a ways to go, but at least he is asking some questions.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
