other war-crimes and crimes of treason

FRIST STUFF
* " Democratic Leader Harry Reid declared an end Monday to compromise talks with Republican leaders over President Bush's controversial judicial nominees, saying their fate along with the future of long-standing filibuster rules will be settled in a showdown on the Senate floor. ``I've tried to compromise and they want all or nothing, and I can't do that,'' Reid told reporters" LINK

* ari2: "In terms of the Constitution, the role of the President is to appoint qualified individuals to the bench. The role of the Senate is to provide their advice and consent. It's not to provide advice and block." LINK

* "Republicans hold 55 seats in the Senate and can afford five defections and still prevail on the strength of Vice President Dick Cheney’s tie-breaking vote. So far, McCain and Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island have announced they will break ranks, and many vote-counters say they expect Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine to vote with the Democrats.
Personally, if we can’t beat Frist directly, I’m hoping for a perfect 50-50 split. The irony of needing Cheney - an executive branch member - to break a tie in the legislative branch will still look like cross-branch meddling and I think the public’s growing weary of the legislative being under the sway of the once omnipotent Bush. In the long run, such an outcome could boomerang on Bush in many ways." LINK

* Tony Perkins is batshit crazy - which is fine as it goes - by why the fuck does WaPo give him op-ed space the week before the filibuster showdown (or ever)? seriously. its bad enuff that timrussert stacks his show every week with a bunch of fetusfreaks - but this is just ridiculous. i'll offer just one snippet: 'just about any religious person would hold (that) the Bible is an "absolute authority" for human conduct'. LINK


BOLTON STUFF
* apparently the bolton group-sex thing is getting ignored "cause its larry flynt" - why doesnt anyone in the press call the first mrs bolton and get the same quotes? spazzez.

* wolcott does the "bolton @ UN" = "bomb iran & nthkorea" LINK
given all the nuclear option thingys and all that, just when is bolton gonna get nominated? not soon. is it possible that he gets recess-appointed? memorial day? that would cause some major sparks.

* "Why the big rush? My reliable sources tell me it is because there is a timetable that makes it urgent for Bolton to be ready for action in June in order to cripple the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) as part of the plan to bomb the Iranian nuclear power plant at Bushehr." LINK

* "To watch the way Bush and Cheney promote the wrong people is to glimpse the arrogance of power. They don't care what the reaction is to their choices. They believe they can appoint whomever they want. And the more galling, the better. If anyone disapproves, tough.
They dare the Democrats to stop them. They dare the media to squawk. They dare the American people to rise up in revulsion." LINK

CONYERS STUFF
* byron york takes on slaughter and conyers over guckert. LINK
the interesting question is if he's trying to get people to get over notgannon - nuthin to see here - or if he's trying to discredit louise and conyers (he responds here) - if i was a repug, i'd wanna keep conyers' exposure to a minimum.

* btw, given conyers' sterling efforts everywhere, up-to-and-including his latest war-crimes efforts wrt torture (including his priceless smackdown of gonzales - in a letter to gonzales), its not difficult to imagine that he has his sights on other war-crimes and crimes of treason...