MENTAL MIDGETS MAKE MICHING MALICHO

As if it isn't enough for the neocon orgy of criminals to rape the American electorate in consecutive presidential elections, lie the United States into nearly 45,000 war casualties, and shamelessly redistribute the nation's wealth to the already burgeoning bank accounts of the nation's conglomerate corporations and billionaires via monumental tax breaks - and at the expense of middle and low income families - they now wholeheartedly support, indeed demand, the unconditional surrender of all governmental power to the Executive Branch, the Constitution be damned (as it turns out, Bush has already beatified the Constitution calling it a "goddamn piece of paper"). Avid Fascists like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity use their access to the public airwaves to convince their bigoted constituencies that George W. Bush is worthy of such dictatorial authority. And the wee little tadpoles - MosesKnows, MrArchieBunker, Hondo_1887, Karma-NY, Vigilant Reason, Vic Ferrari, Charlie3, Virginia_1776 - you know, the groveling dogmatic grassroots apologists who Bush wouldn't piss on if they were on fire - latch on to the engorged man-breasts of Rush and Sean for their daily dose of life-sustaining propaganda and spin. As luck would have it, neocon suckling pig Hondo_1887 abandoned the teet early last evening to come enlighten us with his trademark mental midgetry. With so much pap to choose from, it was necessary to pare down Hondo's mental magic to one representative rumination that defines how ridiculous a neocon he really is. I'll call it the Law of Neocon Devolution, and it is especially educational:

Hondo_1887: anyway.... they won't make anything about this in Washington legally... it is just politics as usual... .completely legal

Well shut my mouth and stuff me plumb full of greeee-its, we have a legal genius amongst us - and a neocon, at that. With such a powerful persona as Hondo_1887 on team Bush, I fear all those thousands of legal and constitutional experts and scholars who say the President clearly violated the law to the impeachment standard of a "high crime" are simply wrong! What WILL become of those of us who expect our leaders to lead by example (a philosophy that serves our military well) and abide by the law? Those damn Liberals and their expectations - always getting it wrong!

Is this guy a right wingnutcase or what? Just politics as usual? Completely legal? There is no doubt the President violated the law in authorizing warrantless wiretaps of American citizens. The neocons pull "politics as usual" from their bag of dirty tricks in a not-so-subtle attempt to divert attention away from a colossal Presidental faux-pas, but moreso to mask their own "shock and awe" at the legal ramifications even they cannot deny may lead Bush the way of Tricky Dick Nixon. You can see the consternation (or is it constipation?) in Sean Hannity's expressions as he waxes eloquent about how the law is amiss and how Sein Fuhrer will be vendicated. In PT political rooms, you sense the agony already manifest in the right wingnut psyche - the spin-rich compost and the LOLs are applied, dare I say, more "liberally" than ever - which is typically the case when Bush takes a dump and all the neocon bobbling-heads are momentarily undocked from the mother ship. That said, it is important to give the devil his due; Hondo_1887 brings great talent to the Bush corner, and Bush just might be saved by the bell.

But I don't think so. Not this time. This is a major set-back for the Emporer and his loyal courtiers. Bush has massaged and molested the law too many times with impunity, and the latest transgressions may very well have shaken the other two branches of our government out of their 5-year stupor. This characteristically offensive behavior by the Bush Administration is nothing more than the continuation of the power grab Bush and his band of dancing organgrinder monkeys commenced in November 2000. Members of the Legislature and the Judiciary are expressing skepticism early on - from both political parties - and vow to take action to return balance to government as proscribed by the Constitution. The cotillion is over, folks! It's time to get the Bush regime out of their monkey suits and into something more appropriate for criminals - let's see... how about something in a black and white stiped brushed cotton? Heck, Condi Rice might luck-out and enjoy her incarceration close to home where the progressive state of Alabama has retrofitted it's jail-birds with the classic black and white striped prison garb - you know, to give Alabama that highly sought-after nostalgic ambiance on highway clean-up day. Bush, being the great coward that he is, would require the addition of a verticle yellow streak down the back of his pajamas. Anyway, speaking of legal...

...In the landmark case McColluch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution was the "supreme law of the land" in accordance with Article VI, and that nobody was above the law; not individuals, not States, not a branch of the Central Government. In an equally important ruling in Marbury v. Madison (1803), the Justices opined that any Act of Congress or any Law or Act of the Government was subject to Judicial Review and that those Acts or Laws found incompatable with the Constitution are unconstitutional and are therefore invalid (and that includes Executive Orders that fly in the face of the law). In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled that the 4th Amendment protections of American citizens could not be sacrificed for the "convenience of the government;" that a "probable cause" threshold must be met by the government to overcome those protections. In 1978, President Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) into law, which defines in painstaking detail what is required to spy on foreign entities. FISA language explicitly denies the government warrantless electronic surveillance of American citizens in ALL cases. Finally, in 2001, President Bush signed the Patriot Act into law, which requires a warrant to conduct domestic wiretapping (with the exception of computer systems communications where no warrant is required in most cases), and even sports a provision for a 72-hour grace period in cases where expediency would be lost to the legal process. The Patriot Act also allows the FISA judge to order a wiretapping warrant ex parte easing the government's burden of meeting the "probable cause" standard.

So Hondo_1887, might I suggest when you come to a debate, you come at least minimally prepared with some facts? If you're going to make comments such as that cited above, you really need to have some knowledge base from which to mount your position. As usual, you made a smug, matter-of-fact comment - "completely legal" you wrote - and you were utterly unable to provide even a smattering of evidence that what Bush did was legal, and that tells me you are simply mouthing what Rush and Sean tell you to say. The legal history of this wiretapping business is lined up squarely against the President, and with the added revelation that many of the wiretap warrants Bush sought were actually denied by the FISA Courts, there is the additional contention that Bush conspired to violate the law by countermanding the Judges' rejections and by circumventing legal process. Calling this "politics as usual" is disingenuous, and brings into question the neocons' commitment to one of the hallmarks of our nation's longevity - that we are a nation of laws. It is incumbant upon the House of Representatives to perform its constitutional duty and ensure Bush receives his long overdue comeuppance. If Bush and his disciples are purporting that the Constitution does not transcend the times, if they don't believe that the Constitution is held above all men, and if they believe the law and our rights are an impediment to the national security, then America doesn't have long to live - at least as a free and democratic society. We can only hope Hondo_1887 is wrong in his assessment.

Oh, by-the-way, Hondo_1887 suffered a TKO in the 1st Round, and was unavailable to participate in the group photo op! Karma-NY was still too bloodied by last week's thrashing in PT to appear with his peeps...uhhhh....no pun intended!

vacreeper2003