The key is subpoena power

* read josh about the egadministrations desperate need to hang on to power: "Talk of impeachment, real or play-acted, is beside the point. Even having their hand pushed on Iraq is to them, I believe, a matter of far secondary importance. The key is subpoena power.
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The White House and the entire DC GOP for that matter is just sitting on too many secrets and bad acts. The bogus investigations of the pre-war intel is just one example, if one of the most resonant and glaring. Keeping control of the House and the Senate is less a matter of conventional ideological and partisan politics as it is a simple matter of survival."

* read josh on the purging at the CIA: "The administration's response to the ills of the intelligence agencies has been to further politicize them, to put them under more reliable political control....
Now as the consequences of their policies grow more severe and catastrophic and the news gets worse and worse, it's batten down the hatches time. We should be surprised that a deeper purge is underway."

* oldschool in the comments: "Shorter GWB - "Iraq was justified, ya see, 'cause we had a lotta thoughts." "Ya wanna hear my thoughts about Iran?"
A foreign policy based on criminal militaristic actions devolved from the delusions of madmen."

* calipendence notes that if pot "is the equivalent of heroin and cocaine", then morphine etc shouldn't be used medically. good point. Rush might get his hearing back.

* Rimone points to this wapo article where doctors who manage pain are "investigated, arrested and prosecuted as "drug dealers""

* genius brithum on FNS: 'the oil market is paradoxical because the price determines supply'

* clemons:

"If this tape proves to be a record of bin Laden comments, it shows that he is getting bolder because the timing of current events he refers to on these tapes and their release is growing shorter.

If this tape is verified as bin Laden, the fact that another tape has appeared so close to the last is also a sign of impressive boldness on his part -- and hopefully, recklessness.

If America does, in fact, capture or kill bin Laden in the next few months, I suspect that it will produce somewhat of a surge of support for Republicans in the election.

If these tapes keep appearing, there is increasing likelihood of a bin Laden factor in November 2006."

mon dieu