Letters to the Editor
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Again, so what?
They are going to posture for the sheeple, babble on in strident tones, and do nothing because the bad Repos might make fun of them.
Memo for the team formulating the new constitution after the revolution: Include a way to fire the entire government in one fell swoop. It will save a lot of time down the road.
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bring charges against miers and bolton
Speaker Pelosi MUST push for criminal contempt charges and jail time. Even if the avoider in chief will certainly resist or pardon, it will showcase even more clearly the criminal gang like approach to government these neo-fascists have brought to bear on our country.
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Then it's just a fait accompli, isn't it Alex?
Congress wasting more time and energy, mostly time, not energy, on going through this futile circle jerk. And in the end, it's all for shit.
Bush wins. Again.
I'm waiting for the "Reichstag Fire" between now and the November 2008 elections so that Bush can officially become the dictator he has joked about being.
But what is happening right now is no joke.
I believe the United States of America is sleepwalking right into a dictatorship. It's closer than you think.
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@Garry Owen
I'm waiting for the "Reichstag Fire" between now and the November 2008 elections so that Bush can officially become the dictator he has joked about being.
I think it was 9/11, and we're still dealing with the shockwaves from it. They're just sealing the deal, solidifying control. I also am really curious how the elections will turn out, or whether there'll be some national emergency declared during or right before them.
Right now I'm listening to the committee hearings, to hear aptly-named Republican apologist Representative Cannon indignantly (and illogically) intone that if Congress pushes on this fight and loses it in the courts, that the way will be paved for a more imperial presidency, and a stronger Executive Branch -- so, by his reasoning, it's better to appease Bush than to fight him, better for Congress to lay down and let Bush/Cheney do what they want than to hold them accountable to the law.
I was glad that Chairman Conyers called him out on that.
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In a way...
...scarily enough, I feel like there's enough imperial inertia to the ever-expanding Executive Branch that it feels like even if the Republicans are swept out in 2008 (again, assuming Bush/Cheney[Rove] let us have free and fair elections -- I feel like we need the UN to monitor our elections, although that would play up with the black helicopter crowd!) -- that we will still have an overly-powerful Executive Branch in dire need of serious pruning, regardless of who is in power.
Sigh. Now Republican James Sensenbrenner is saying it's an unnecessary provocation of a Constitutional crisis. So, along with Chris Cannon's appeasement stance, it looks like these are the talking points the GOP is using on this, the whole "if we push this fight, we will lose" angle instead of recognizing that it was Bush/Cheney(Rove) who initiated the wrongdoing to begin with, and that Congress needs to stop it. The GOP are deriding the Democrats for being partisan, but they're clearly revealing themselves to be the partisan faction in this whole enterprise, in their refusal to part sides with Bush/Cheney(Rove), even in the face of their illegality.
Party loyalty over loyalty to country, law, and government.
Christ, I dearly hope they pay for this in 2008.
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The Unitary Executive
Euphemism for "Dictator."
If any Salonian can deny that's where this country is headed, explain why.
Now hear this:
If you are part of the ruling elite, would you really want to have a fair election in 2008? Of course not.
From their perspective, they have successfully stymied every legal way that Congress and the Supreme Court can remove them from office. They are at the very threshold of seizing complete control of the government of the United States of America. Do you think they will hesitate now? Have they ever hesitated?
But there is a particularly disturbing new development: The emergence of partisan military commanders. This weekend, newsies were treated to an orchestrated chorus of active duty military generals in Iraq suddenly shedding their cloaks of impartiality and holding press conferences openly siding with the Republican executive branch in refusing to honor the September deadline for an assessment of the "surge."
Indeed, one Air Force general in charge of North American defense has come out publicly and declared that he "believes" Al Qaeda already has sleeper cells in America.
He "believes"? Oddly enough, this revelation or rumination a la Chertoff's "gut feeling" gets little coverage. But the Air Force general did not just pull this out of his ass for no reason. This is another example of a partisan general blatantly and openly putting aside his oath to remain non-political and loyalty to the Constitution, in order to show support for George Bush.
I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories. But this trend is disquieting. If we have a Unitary Executive above the law and the Constitution, supported by a military junta, what else would you call this other than a total dictatorship?
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Maybe We Need a FOURTH Branch Just For The DOJ
"But the Bush administration announced last week that, in its view, the U.S. Attorney is not obligated to pursue potential charges; indeed, the administration has said it will not even allow the U.S. Attorney to do so. Many legal scholars -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- seem to agree that the administration has that power."
So we have three branches of government that are supposed to provides a series of checks and balances on one another but because the Department of Justice is part of the Executive Branch it can prevent the Legislative Branch from fulfilling its Constitutional duty. Presumably, preventing the U.S. Attorney from pursuing this would also preclude this particular invocation of executive privilege from being decided on by the courts. How can the administration have this power when it's clearly shielding itself from oversight not just by the Legislative Branch but by the Judicial Branch as well?? I thought all of these clowns took an oath of office to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States", not IGNORE IT.