Oh, the law? That's for chumps

From the "tell us something we didn't already know" department, the GAO has found that the Bush Justice Department has violated civil service laws.

In two years, we'll find out that they're still violating laws. Oh, my.

Addicted to himself

George Bush is obviously intoxicated by the perception of his own power. He has, by his own admission, never made a mistake as president. His feels his opinions are as righteous as the sunrise. And he sees his decisions are ironclad in his view of their brilliance.

In other words, he is mentally incapable of perceiving reality.

And those whom he picks to surround him are enablers. They provide the elixir he drinks day in and day out.

Recently, Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse revealed the infinite regress of the Bush legal logic when he requested justification for some of the President's signing statements. What he found was a President who considers himself not only judge and jury when it comes to law, but legislator, law enforcement, defendant, prosecutor, judge and jury. He makes the law. He ignores the law. He changes the law. He defies the law. All at his whim, and all in the kind of strict confidence that no one - no one - except the President himself, can penetrate. It's something akin to divine right, which would make him...king. And the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel back s him up.

It's an honor system I'm not comfortable with.

Ridding the world of terrorist librarians

Kevin O'Connor's infamy in Connecticut stems from his prosecution of a civil liberties case against librarians in a case defending the Patriot Act.

In the end, he lost, because judges decided that the case voided the Constitutional rights of the librarians. So O'Connor decided to appeal. And lost again.

A bit further down the road, it appeared that the FBI was issuing security letters like junk mail in pursuit of boogeymen in trumped-up Patriot Act cases.

Today, the Hartford Courant, in another hard-to-fathom endorsement by their editorial board, is asking the Senate to confirm O'Connor for a high-ranking position in the Bush justice department.

Let's see, that's endorsements of George Bush (twice), John Rowland (several times), Creepy Joe™ Lieberman (often), Hillary Clinton (for today's vote), and now Kevin O'Connor. What next, an endorsement for Bill Belichick as NFL coach of the year?

Civil rights and wrongs

Kevin Rennie is that rare commodity - a pundit who sees beyond partisanship to shine a light on any party, any politician, and bureaucrat, who acts illegally or unethically. He understands the system, and the law, and we're fortunate to be able to read his columns in the Hartford Courant.

Today, he underlines the irony of ambitious Connecticut US Attorney Kevin O'Connor pursuing a job in Bush's justice department when he spent months pursuing librarians as if they were mobsters, using the Patriot Act like it was a bludgeon.

A very leaky bucket

When the Bush Justice Department tells a judge to back off from his inquiry into whether the CIA destroyed evidentiary videos, it's not an argument that holds much water.

The Justice Department, members of which may have been involved in the order to destroy the tapes, haven't had a great track record over the past eight years. Do the names Ashcroft and Gonzales ring a bell? How about Plamegate? And then there's the firing of US Attorneys General for poitical reasons.

Of course, there is the base untrustworthiness of Bush and his immediate minions.

It is, of course, a case of the fox not only guarding the henhouse, but running the KFC franchise.

So Judge Kennedy, it will be interesting to see if you have the good "judgment" of your appointed title.