the superficial trappings of the offices of a Republic

AMDOM STUFF
* "five of the seven Ohio Supreme Court justices who should be hearing the (rare coin investment) lawsuits have recused themselves. Man, the tentacles of this thing go everywhere." LINK
oh ohio, where did your mother and i go wrong?

* "DowningStreetMemo.com Update: The site has over 116,097 visitors so far, averaging about 18,000 per day. There are over 210,000 page views.
The site has been linked to by MSNBC, the New York Times, wonkette, the Seattle Times, and countless other sites" LINK go georgia :-)

* AP headline: GOP Aides Say New Patriot Act Obliges Bush
lead: "The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury." LINK

* dcorn: "Was keeping the president out of the loop SOP?
When national security adviser Stephen Hadley appeared on Fox News Sunday yesterday, he was asked about the decision not to clue in Bush. No surprise: he said everything went fine. What happened that day, Hadley maintained, is "how the system's supposed to work." Really? Is it national security protocol to clear out the White House and not inform the guy who lives there?
Hadley maintained that if this incident "had gone on longer, or had been more serious, [Bush's detail] would have obviously talked to him about it." But forty-seven minutes can be a damn long time during a terrorist attack. And here's the thing: while the episode was under way there was no telling how serious it might be or how long it might last." LINK

* "There's only one way to make sure that the machinery of state-terror is operating at maximum efficiency; flip on the switch and let er rip. That was thinking behind last month's massive roundup of 10,000 American citizens in what was aptly-christened Operation Falcon...
The Bush administration is sharpening its talons for the inevitable difficulties it expects to face as a result of its disastrous policies. With each regressive initiative, the governing cabal seems to get increasingly paranoid, anticipating an outburst of public rage. Now, they're orchestrating massive round-ups of minor crooks to make sure that every cog and gear in the apparatus of state repression is lubricated and ready to go." LINK

* " If you think of the term "kangeroo court" we intuitively realize from experience that corrupt or ideologically chosen judicial appointees are one of the classic signs of a bananna Republic. A bananna Republic is a nation that has the superficial trappings of the offices of a Republic but whose officials have become corrupt and manipulate the process to produce results that are not reflective of the popular will or produce independent branches of government." LINK

* this article argues that the shitehouse wanted to ram bolton through before frist went nucular, but that frist waved them off - which would be interesting for 3 reasons a) whether frist can actually do that b) the whitehouse didnt wanna bother fighting to get bolton through at the moment 3) that they spun the story that frist blew em off.