Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

Enough already!

New York Daily News - Home - W pushes envelope on U.S. spying

The communications director for Montana's lone congressman solicited the services of two men he falsely believed to be criminally minded hackers-for-hire -- with the expressed goal of jacking up his college GPA

To quote the wascawy wabbit, "What a maroon!"

Congressional aide admits trying to hire hackers -- to boost his college GPA | NetworkWorld.com Community

What is going on there? I think you have a president totally isolated from reality, totally delusional, kind of paranoid, figuring that everyone‘s against him, including his own Joint Chiefs of Staff, figuring that history 30, 40 years from now is going to prove him correct.

Here's the assessment from Mike Barnicle of MSNBC on the current state of mind of W. The video of the whole segment is here. It has gone beyond the emperor has no clothes, to the emperor is insane. Bush is being compared unfavorably to even LBJ in 1968 or Nixon during Watergate.

There may be a solution to Iraq for us, get the hell out and try to keep the mess from spreading (Lebanese Civil War on a larger scale?), but we're now looking at a much worse issue. The current resident of the White House has lost contact with reality. This is where things get really murky.

There are two ways for a President to be removed from office against his will other than invoking the Harrison, Lincoln or Nixon precedents, neither of which has ever gone through. First, standard impeachment, failed twice but would have gone through with Nixon, who saw the light at the end of the tunnel was an oncoming train that was going to force him out of office. Second, and wow is this getting weird, Section 4 or the 25th Amendment which reads:

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

I'm not certain I could forsee Cheney ripping this bloody skinned rabbit out of his hunting hat, but he did shoot that guy in the face...

'Scarborough Country' for Dec. 20 - Scarborough Country - MSNBC.com

Yet Bush is described by another recent visitor as still resolutely defiant, convinced history will ultimately vindicate him.

"I'll be dead when they get it right," he said during an Oval Office meeting last week.

I'm wondering how many more adjectives really need to be added to "lying, thieving, sociopathic bottom feeder" to "get it right." Maybe he really is right and the rapture is coming, but the only way I'm seeing that is if W really is the anti-Christ.

New York Daily News - Politics - Poor Bush had a week that reeked

The US Department of Justice today took a major step against impunity for atrocities in bringing its first-ever criminal charges for torture committed outside the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. The Justice Department indicted Charles "Chuckie" Taylor, Jr., son of the former Liberian president and currently in custody in Miami, for torture committed in Liberia.

Wow. Welcome to really bad precedents set by these guys. They've just put in motion the jurisprudence that should be used to prosecute themselves.

Going after torturers is a good thing. Going after them when you've been doing it too? At worst hypocritical, at best, the hoist for your petard.

Reuters AlertNet - US: Justice Dept. Brings First Charges for Torture Abroad

"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

When it comes to their familes vs the entire country, well Mr. Kingston, they're the ones who have their priorities straight, and if you don't like it, you shouldn't be there.

Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week - washingtonpost.com

Each contained a typewritten letter stating either, “I am going to kill you,” or, “We are going to kill you,” and adding, “This is poisoned.”

And now for the moron of the month award...

Justice Recalls Treats Laced With Poison - New York Times

Decius wrote:

And I think everyone knows that. If the partisan blame game started back up on Katrina, everyone would loose. Its mutually assured destruction. So instead we're focused on other things.

My position is, that would be a good thing. Expose the screw ups. Find what went so horribly wrong in the political system that a) created a situation where this could happen, and b) made the aftermath into such a god-awful nightmare.

Understanding a) isn't that hard. In general, people don't take the steps that preparedness asks for. Never have. Chicago has some of the strongest fire codes in the country after half the city burned to the ground 135 years ago, but they still don't work that well (the town hasn't burned down, but...). San Francisco has stong construction laws on trying to quake proof buildings, but as the Series quake proved, they weren't enough. New Orleans levee system was rated to handle a cat3, but failed because of some poor design and some cost cutting. The bottom line is that in the long run, preparedness is cheaper than recovery (see Clinton, Iowa in the flood of 1993, they were largely flood free but the areas that did not build a 500 year floor levee system like they had got creamed), but no one wants to go to that expense because there are other things that need doing now that have more immediate and tangible benefit.

Understanding b) is a hell of a lot harder, and fixing b) would go a long way towards dealing with a).

Thanks also for sourcing Powerline. Those oxygen thieves are the problem. It's always "us vs. them" over there which means they'll never produce anything of any value whatsoever. Assrocket and company would be doing the world a favor if they went for a long drive in a short garage.

RE: For Conservatives, It’s Back to Basics

Four days after calling his party affiliation a "closed issue," U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman said Sunday he was "not ruling it out" that he could turn Republican.

Well Joe, I guess we know who to blame when you flip and fuck the entire country.

courant.com | Lieberman Leaves GOP Door Open

I think James Baker and Dick Cheney should take Bush out to the woods around Camp David. After 24 hours in a sweat lodge, he should be given only a loin cloth, a hunting knife and a canteen of water. Bush should then set out to track and kill a black bear, after which he should eat its still beating heart so he can absorb its spirit.

I think Jonah had too much to drink (or smoke, or snort, or something) trying to not think about the GOP "thumpin."

The Corner on National Review Online