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  • http://jenorama.com Jenorama

    What worries us the most at our house is that we already live in such a dictatorship that Bush will not be punished for this anymore than he has been punished about lying to take us to war.

    Anymore than Cheney has been punished for blatantly profiting from this war.

    We worry to death that by the end of Bush’s term, we won’t have anything close to America left.

  • Sebastian

    >What is it with this “everybody’s doing it” approach and the Roosevelt quote that all the Bush supporters are parroting?

    What are you talking about??? My fax machine is broken and I didn’t get the talking points.

    > What he was trying to do is the issue. He was attempting to sabotage an election in the most assinine way possible. He is a government official and he was interfering with due process.

    Really? This was “the most assinine way possible?” You obviously have a limited imagination.

    As far as I can tell from the articles cited, James Tobin was a GOP political operative. He was not a government official. He initiated a DOS against a DNC phone bank. He didn’t prevent a single voter from exercising their constitutional right. He prevented the DNC from calling people to remind them to get out and vote for the Democrat.

    That is a political dirty trick. Is it legal? No. Is it moral? No. Is it funny? Yeah, I love a good dirty trick from any party.

    If the White House was involved, then they should hang too. There’s enough stupidity to go around. The White House doesn’t have lock on it. People make dumb decisions at all levels of politics without party leaders telling them to do it. Wait for some actual evidence before you go for the rope.

    Sebastian

  • http://www.acracknlife.squarespace.com Jerri Ann

    I need a good Leta story within all this.…

  • McDonie

    Jenorama, where do you live? I would like to visit the dictatorship you reference. You should be fortunate to live in the United States. Comparing this adminstration to a dictatorship is purely assinine.

  • mihow

    Sam said: What is it with this “everybody’s doing it” approach and the Roosevelt quote that all the Bush supporters are parroting?

    Sebastian responded: What are you talking about??? My fax machine is broken and I didn’t get the talking points.

    mihow interjects: I’m not entirely sure, as I am not Sam, but I think he’s referring to this bit:

    “FROST: So what in a sense, you’re saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it’s in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.”

    “NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.”

    I’m assuming your fax machine isn’t really broke, however. But, if you’d like me to, I am happy to fax you that particular transcript in its entirety, Sebastian.

  • mihow

    P.S. I’m thinking he got his presidents confused.

    But I have been wrong before.

  • Sebastian

    That’s an interesting interview I wasn’t familiar with. Maybe Sam will come back and tell us about Roosevelt.

    Blurb posted a while ago a link to thisnation​.com about Executive Orders. It’s conclusion was very similar to Nixon’s; the President is the Law, or rather, the President isn’t bound by the Law.

    Nixon also says in the interview: “Yes, and the dividing line and, just so that one does not get the impression, that a president can run amok in this country and get away with it, we have to have in mind that a president has to come up before the electorate. We also have to have in mind, that a president has to get appropriations from the Congress.”

    So even what I’m learning, and it makes a certain sense, is that the President is the law because he has the executive congressional power and therefore can “run amok.” President’s have been and are our benevolent tyrants.

    The checks and balances come in as Nixon said. If he has “run amok” then don’t elect him next term. Or take him to court as is being done with the “unlawful detainments” at gitmo. Or take the money away. Or seek to impeach him.

    The refrain should probably be changed from, “No one is above the law, including the President” to “The President is the Law, but not above the people.” (Where’s a marketing person when you need one.)

    Perhaps there’s a disconnect between the simplistic view we are taught in grade school about the separation of powers and what has been the reality. Not just with or since Nixon, but perhaps from the founding. And it’s this encounter with the reality from the myth that brings the confusion and outrage.

    I’m a little unsettled myself at the ramifications.

    Sebastian

  • mihow

    You know, not to derail this here thread and all, but I really liked Roosevelt. I wish more of our President’s were like him. Granted, I wasn’t actually really alive when he was doing his thing, but everything I have read I’ve liked. I think that’s why I stepped in and hoped that Sam was speaking of the Nixon thing and not something Roosevelt did.

    I’m willing to make a bet that should someone like him run during this day and age, with how much worth and importance we put on looks, health, and physical abilities, he’d never win.

  • http://biggaysam.com Sam Merrill

    Sorry for the confusion. The Roosevelt quote I’m referring to is the one the Republicans are spewing to back up their stance on the unfair immigration policies.

    ““In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” Theodore Roosevelt 1907

  • http://eyebrow-raisingfolk.blogspot.com Lisa

    McDonnie is obviously onto something here … our country has been WAY more adversely affected by Clinton’s blow job and lie about a blow job than by Bush’s lie about WMDs and lie about the leak and lie about … well, you get the idea. To paraphrase a famous bumper sticker (god, has it come to that?!?!), WAY more people died from Bush’s lies.

    Read a newspaper, McDonnie. Just one.

  • McDonie

    Lisa, It’s spelled McDonie. Please, at the very least get that right.

  • http://mihow mihow

    Oh, McDonie had a farm; do you REALLY want to go there?

    It’s “administration” not “adminstration” and it’s “asinine” not “assinine”.

    Come on, now. If you’re going to take the time to write a comeback, make sure you, too, have spelled everything correctly.

  • McDonie

    Mihow, the nursery rhyme begins:

    ‘Old’ McDonie had a farm…

    Come on, now. If you’re going to take the time to mimic a nursery rhyme, be sure to get the lyrics right.

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