progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital
Recently I’ve finished reading Jeffrey Toobin’s The Nine and Charlie Savage’s Takeover. I’d like to summarize one of the key mutual points of these books in my own words:
The Office of Legal Counsel has been used to game the system during the Bush administration. The result is that Nixon’s dictum about how anything the president of the United States does is legal, is pretty much how things go.
I think we’ve come to understand that just saying things like the Justice Department really needs to be independent of White House influence doesn’t mean much unless there’s some clear check and balance with Congress.
What I’m saying is that to de-Bushify the OLC, appointees would need to be other than friends of duck hunting partners of the president and vice-president. I’d also like to see the Federalist Society declared a terrorist organization, but that’s probably not going to happen.
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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.
95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
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a) He was paid by Dick Cheney's henchwoman Mary Matalin to write a book on Obama [Link]
One bunch of guys is getting up and saying, "we hafta." Another bunch of guys is getting up and saying, "nuh-uh." [Link]
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Here, based on 16 years experience watching Bill Clinton campaign — and interviews with a half-dozen veterans of his political teams — is a reasonably safe bet about his campaign advice to Barack Obama: [Link]
WASHINGTON — Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday. [Link]
We are going to have a new administration. Do we want these policies continued or not? [Link]
You can try Counter Culture coffees at: - Baked and Wired, 1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW, 202-333-2500; www.bakedandwired.com [Link]
In sum, we concluded that the evidence showed that Goodling violated both federal law and Department policy, and therefore committed misconduct... [Link]
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