Health of the Republic: Down 7% to 5%
Friday, July 11th, 2008I’ve been meaning to write this post for a little while but net issues have been keeping me away. In any event, the recent passage of the so-called “FISA reform” (now with telecom immunity!) has sent the Health of the Republic tumbling downward. I had begun to be cautiously optimistic that American liberty [...]
Recycled: Just Wrong
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007Long before this blog, I kept an equally-erratic literary journal called A Voice in the Wilderness. And while nothing written there was particularly world-shattering, I don’t want it to get lost in the mists of cyberspace. So to do my part to save the planet, I’m going to recycle and reuse that content, [...]
Worrisome Phrase
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007In reading this AP News story on the upcoming speech by the President, I came across the following:
Bush and his senior advisers are likely to hear the initial thinking from Ryan Crocker, Bush’s envoy in Baghdad
[emphasis added]
Isn’t Ryan Crocker the accredited ambassador to Iraq? Confirmed and empowered, one would hope, by the United States [...]
Health of the Republic: Down 10% to 15%
Friday, July 20th, 2007With exactly 18 months left to go in office, this President has made a sweeping and unprecedented play for unchecked power. According to a Washington Post article, the President intends to claim that Congress cannot pursue its investigation into the political firing of 9 US Attorneys, because the President has exerted a broad “executive [...]
Health of the Republic down, 4% to 25%
Sunday, March 18th, 2007The Health of the Republic bar has dropped another 4% in recent weeks. This is largely due to the unfolding three scandals at the Department of Justice:
The blatantly-political firing of eight US prosecutors
The new revelations about presidential interference in the internal DOJ audit of the warrantless wiretapping program
The rampant abuse of National Security Letters [...]
Health of the Republic down, 1% to 29%
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007The Health of the Republic bar has shifted downward another percentage point. This follows the promulgation of a presidential decree that gives the White House a greater say over the issuance of policy guidelines by agencies. Previously most such documents were crafted by civil servants but now, they must pass through a politically-appointed [...]