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NTodd’s Why We Fight II: The Right Of Emergency Defense covers the 1930s and 40s in Germany and what happened as a way of explaining why people need to oppose the current power grab by the President.

I tend to be pragmatic about such things: if they worked, such actions might warrant some minor consideration in limited circumstances, but given the track record of those in power, more restrictions are in order.

We didn’t use the information we had before 9/11 effectively. None of the proposed powers deal in any way with the actual problems that blocked the efficiency of the old system. As I said before, we didn’t have enough people looking for the needle and their solution is to bring in more hay.

Hurricane Katrina was the Department of Homeland Security on display. The response shows the level of preparedness of this administration. You cannot be effective if you put political appointees into critical operational roles. Political ideology is not a replacement for training and experience.

When they get in trouble these people hold photo ops. Why gather this much experience in one place and then spend 10 minutes with the group? They say that even a blind pig can occasionally find an acorn, but not if the pig refuses to leave the barn.

The current FBI can’t be trusted to make a fingerprint match; the IRS is “auditing” our political party affiliation; Homeland Security is opening mail; and the Defense Department is tapping our electronic communications.

While the Pope considers eliminating Limbo, the Shrubbery has created a new version at Guantanamo.

With a Republican controlled Senate, recess appointments are used to fill critical positions with unqualified, inexperienced cronies.

Congress would seem to be filled with people more interested in their personal interests that the interests of the country.

Has any of this helped to capture Osama bin Laden? Did any of this prevent the bombings in Madrid and London, the capitals of two of our closest allies in the so-called “War on Terror”? Looking at the situation in Iraq it is fairly obvious who is trapped by the “flypaper theory”, and it isn’t the “terrorists”.

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It’s cold and hard to type with mittens on and the cats have abandoned the computer room for the electric blanket. [Traitors!]

Just for that, I’m not going to tell them that the cat family tree has been deciphered.

R. Neal [the former SKB] wonders where the Religious Reich buys televisions that don’t have any controls on them. He assumes that the lack of power switches and channel selectors is the reason they keep trying to get stations not to broadcast certain programs.

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™ ^{[Kevin Drum]}

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Alpha Cat

Okay, Dot, I get it.

[Editor: Dot instructs Ringo on the hierarchy in the house.]

Friday Ark

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