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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Friday, September 18, 2009

A Startling Peak Behind The Beltway Curtain 

...it's not so much the team roster of the seven former CIA Directors who wrote today's letter asking President Obama to tell Attorney General Eric Holder to stop the investigation of potential criminal actions by CIA interrogators that should be of a large general concern. That's not the problem; the problem is that they thought that the act of making a public request that the President direct the Attorney General to not pursue potential criminal wrongdoing was the right thing to, regardless the circumstances...

There is the obvious partisan problem, of course, with the mix of former Directors who have signed the letter - most of them having served under Republican presidents - but that shouldn't keep us from taking our eye off the hanging curve ball that their argument presents. What they are doing is asking the President of the United States to exercise his authority of office to stop an investigation of possible violation of Federal and international law and treaties to which the United States is legally bound. It's that simple...

One can only gather that they collectively slept through the Watergate scandal and (although it is a most imperfect example) the runup to the Clinton impeachment trial. It shouldn't be necessary to point out to these gentlemen that the holder of the office of Attorney General is supposed to be, above all others, the ONE presidential appointee who operates independent of the wants, hopes, and desires of the occupant of the White House. Many Federal agencies have Offices of Inspector General whose sole job is supposed to be to independently investigate inappropriate behavior within those agencies, even though the eight years of the previous administration may have have led people to forget that such a concept exists. The office of Attorney General exists on the same plane in one sense but also exists far above that plane in another national sense...

It is simply startling that all these former CIA Directors could find their way to a place where they felt it was OK to go public with a request that the President of the United States should stop a legitimate investigation of possible violations of laws and treaties by an authority that is supposed to be operating as an independent entity operating beyond the reach of politics. This may well be the most revealing glimpse behind the Beltway curtain that you are ever going to get, a glimpse that offers the suggestion there are places where people who should know better don't agree that the Rule of Law applies to them and that the President should violate the independence of the Attorney General's office for reasons that make no sense whatsoever in the larger American sense...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:54 PM 0 comments

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Dog Fights Out Back In The Winger Alley 

...we will leave it to Politico and the website once known as Time Magazine to talk on our behalf about just exactly who is The Big Dog on The Winger Porch, because Lord knows that to have to deal with that subject directly is about as attractive a proposition as digging up a leaking septic tank with our own teeth. Still, as sordid and smarmy as this understated but clearly ego-powered leadership battle between Rushbo and El Weepo Wacko Becko may be, it is a fascinating look inside the battle for what is becoming the real battle for the mantle of leadership of the Republican party...

Forget about Michael Steele (OK, so that's too easy). Forget about John Boehner in the House or whoever is the minority leader in the Senate these days ("Mitch" something or other keeps crossing my mind). The fight for control of the soul of the Republican party is being fought on your TV and radio and it is no longer an issue of 'message', but has become one of who is The Preeminent Messenger. This story is absolutely pregnant with undercurrents of egomania and tantalizing whiffs of raw competition that, as a rule, usually provide the markers pointing to the one specific point in time where any movement imploded on itself. It's hard to decide which of these two particular kinds of crazy better benefits the greater good, given that neither of them have had much traction in the larger electoral population over the last four years...

What is clear, however, is that these two need to fight it out...in public...as often as possible so we know who the Big Dog really is. It would be a good thing for the rest of us to know just exactly who is in charge of the Republican party, given that Steele and Boehner and that other guy aren't....
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:08 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Where The Increasing Shortage Of Clawfoot Bathtubs Can Lead 

...I blame all those "when the time is right" commercials for a nearly tragic story like this one. There simply aren't enough clawfoot bathtubs in the whole wide world to fulfill all the middle-aged male fantasies fired up by all those inescapable dueling bathtub commercials, and this is where the resulting desperate search for a suitable substitute can lead:
Police said two 44-year-olds had climbed into a dumpster to be alone just after 6 p.m. Saturday when two men interrupted them and demanded their belongings...

Aside from the fact that there is a couple in their mid-forties trying to move heaven and earth to make sure their names never see the light of police-blotter day, we clearly have an episode that can be pointed to any time somebody asks the question "what does TMI actually mean, anyway?"
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:54 PM 0 comments

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