Sunday, January 08, 2006
It's a WTF Sunday at the Daily Aneurysm
We've seen so much in the political history of this country in the last five years that you'd think we'd be getting immune to scenes of high weirdness by now. Are you? Not me. Sometimes I page through the news and click through the blogs and I see things that make me feel like I'm going down the rabbit hole with Alice for the very first time. For example:
An article in the conservative Weekly Standard makes the case for why unchecked presidential power is good, and why we should want more. It's written not by some mouthbreathing Fox News pundit, but by a professor of law at Harvard. Short version: Our current enemy is so big and bad that only unchecked king-like power can save us, and if you think that's too much, you don't know jack about the Constitution.
WTF?
Glenn Greenwald, who subbed for Digby this past week, comments on the article at his own blog, Unclaimed Territory. (Read a few of the other posts while you're there--it's a blog so good that it makes me think about giving up blogging altogether.)
On the same subject, there's an article from the New York Times Sunday Magazine that traces the history of growing presidential power, and discusses if and how it's possible for Congress and the Supreme Court to curb it. If the author's analysis is right, it's clear that the Alito hearings, which begin tomorrow and were already going to be highly contentious even before the spy scandal erupted, are likely to become a bloody battleground over the issue of presidential power--if Democrats can get him to actually say anything about it.
More WTFs: Anybody who wants your cell phone records--anybody, for any reason--can get them by ponying up $110, no questions asked.
WTF?
And finally: You may have noticed that the cable channels are contributing to the public discourse this weekend by giving us minute-by-minute medical briefings on the condition of Ariel Sharon. It isn't like the guy is going to be up and persecuting Palestinians in a week or two--he's going to be going down for his dirt nap as soon as they pull out the tubes. And until they do that, there's no news--certainly not in the quantities it's been shoveled out this weekend.
WTF?
We've seen so much in the political history of this country in the last five years that you'd think we'd be getting immune to scenes of high weirdness by now. Are you? Not me. Sometimes I page through the news and click through the blogs and I see things that make me feel like I'm going down the rabbit hole with Alice for the very first time. For example:
An article in the conservative Weekly Standard makes the case for why unchecked presidential power is good, and why we should want more. It's written not by some mouthbreathing Fox News pundit, but by a professor of law at Harvard. Short version: Our current enemy is so big and bad that only unchecked king-like power can save us, and if you think that's too much, you don't know jack about the Constitution.
WTF?
Glenn Greenwald, who subbed for Digby this past week, comments on the article at his own blog, Unclaimed Territory. (Read a few of the other posts while you're there--it's a blog so good that it makes me think about giving up blogging altogether.)
On the same subject, there's an article from the New York Times Sunday Magazine that traces the history of growing presidential power, and discusses if and how it's possible for Congress and the Supreme Court to curb it. If the author's analysis is right, it's clear that the Alito hearings, which begin tomorrow and were already going to be highly contentious even before the spy scandal erupted, are likely to become a bloody battleground over the issue of presidential power--if Democrats can get him to actually say anything about it.
More WTFs: Anybody who wants your cell phone records--anybody, for any reason--can get them by ponying up $110, no questions asked.
WTF?
And finally: You may have noticed that the cable channels are contributing to the public discourse this weekend by giving us minute-by-minute medical briefings on the condition of Ariel Sharon. It isn't like the guy is going to be up and persecuting Palestinians in a week or two--he's going to be going down for his dirt nap as soon as they pull out the tubes. And until they do that, there's no news--certainly not in the quantities it's been shoveled out this weekend.
WTF?
