Letters to the Editor
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What's good for the goose...
I will refer to the same "logic" pulled by the morons who favor wiretapping the citizenry of this country:
"If you're not doing anything wrong, why worry about your phone being tapped?"
which easily becomes:
"If the Whitehouse did nothing wrong, then why not provide the documents and witnesses?"
Conservatives want it both ways. They never deserve scrutiny, but they can be nosey themselves-- in everything from the bedroom to "security".
So, I take it this means we can toss the (illegal) wire taps now?
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It's like firing pea shooters
at the side of 'Old Ironsides'. Up the ante. Bring out some RPG's and a few C 130 gunships and give em' the whole nine yards!
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I'm Guessing
It will eventually come down to one swing vote and a 5-4.
They could find kiddie porn on the Oval Office computer and Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito would rule in Bush's favor.
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Question for Julia Dahl
Julia:
We need context. Has this ever happened before? Has a President claimed executive privilege for former aides? Has he won?
Thanks.
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Wesley Powell Beat Me To It
Yep, no matter the path, detours or conveyance, the destination is the same: Supreme Court 5-4 bush/cheney is dictator.
How else will this bunch interpret even the narrowest decision in their favor, seeing how they interpret a dog licking its right testicle as proof Saddam ordered 9/11?
You can stop reading about presidential candidates; you've seen your last election.
Change your voter registration today; dems are doomed for Guantanamo.
Bury those guns deep in the back yard; martial law will take them all.
And kiss your children good-bye - they're deploying to the latest battlefield tomorrow. Because we've always been at war with Eastasia.
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Skip the whole contempt process . . .
just file the fucking Articles of Impeachment and let's get on with the show.
The first Republican to call for impeachment will wind up a national hero.
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Note to Yellow Dog:
This may be a 5-4 vote the president doesn't want to see. There's no doubt that the Opus Dei crowd - Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts, will support King George, but in August of 06, Kennedy keynote addressed the ABA and said:
The rule of law applies to the government and all of its officers.
One can only hope he is a man of his word.
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According to CNN ...
"The White House, however, did offer again to make former counsel Harriet Miers and one-time political director Sara Taylor available for private, off-the-record interviews."
So if they are offering for them to appear for private, off-the-record interviews, how can they claim privilege over their testimony? Either they are dealing with privileged communications which Congress is not entitled to or it is non-privileged communications. This seems totally inconsistent to me.
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The first impeachment
Needs to be of Scalia. He's exhibited recurring instances of failure to reuse himself when he had a personal interest in the outcome of a case. This violates the legal ethical code of conduct and is grouds for the impeachment of a judge.
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Goose vs Gander? Not even
I'd hate to have to bargain away the right to privacy just so these two will testify.
There is a significant difference between the two situations: one involves operations of a publicly held office accountable to voters while the other involves conversations held by citizens in their private lives.
I would say the former has more of an obligation to divulge its records than the latter, unless a case can be made that the testimony of these two constitute a breach in national security. And before you laugh at the preposterous reasoning behind that claim, don't for a moment underestimate how often this excuse is used by this administration.
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Robert Lewis
Note to Yellow Dog:
This may be a 5-4 vote the president doesn't want to see. There's no doubt that the Opus Dei crowd - Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts, will support King George, but in August of 06, Kennedy keynote addressed the ABA and said:
The rule of law applies to the government and all of its officers.
One can only hope he is a man of his word.
-- robert lewis
[Read robert lewis's other letters]
I truly hope you're right. But the world, and the Supreme Court, are very different places than they were in August of last year. And in Carhart, Kennedy proved he's willing to entertain just about any crackpot fantasy to reach the conclusion he wants. ("Let's see, late-term abortion is bad because ... because ... got it! Because those poor widdle female brains just can't deal with it!"
I can see his majority opinion now: "Let's see, bushcheney should be absolute rulers forever because ... because ... because democrats are icky!"
If Sandra Day O'Connor had an ounce of integrity, she'd commit suicide in apology for her vote in Bush v Gore.
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Robert Lewis, Sir:
...There's no doubt that the Opus Dei crowd - Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts, will support King George, but in August of 06, Kennedy keynote addressed the ABA and said:
The rule of law applies to the government and all of its officers.
One can only hope he is a man of his word.
Oh you poor, naive child. Didn't you read Kennedy's opinion in Carhart?
Justice Kennedy has officially gone over to the Dark Side. And as a result, we are so screwed when all this shit hits the various fans toward which it is now in flight.
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And besides...
If the 5-4 opinion comes down against him, he'll just say screw it, and go ahead and do whatever he wants anyway.
I mean, seriously: can you tell me what enforcement mechanism there is to arrest a sitting president who just literally or figuratively says, "I dare you to stop me" or worse? US Marshals? Capital Police? What?
Who will do it? Seriously?
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@Yellow Dog
You can stop reading about presidential candidates; you've seen your last election.
I've wondered that, myself. I keep waiting for the "national emergency" to rear its head right near election time, forcing a regrettably indefinite suspension of elections. The Bush League has done everything else, why not a timely national emergency, in the spirit of the color-coded Tom Ridge-warnings that would invariably pop up during holidays? It's really just an extension of that idea. What would people do? Ickily enough, probably 20% of the country would support it. It's about the last untried trick of this rogue administration, and the only one that would guarantee a continuation of their policies, at least in the short term -- the Unitary Executive Theory, dictatorship by another name.