Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Unite for the Constitution!

Two of Pretty Lady's dear friends, Edward Winkleman and Franklin Einspruch, have alerted her to Strangebedfellows:
Strangebedfellows is a unique and diverse left--right coalition which has come together to put a stop to the eradication of civil liberties in America. Modeled on a similar group in Britain, the initial Strangebedfellows group encompasses Ron Paul supporters (BreakTheMatrix.com, Rick Williams and Trevor Lyman), leading bloggers from the left (Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com, Jane Hamsher of firedoglake.com) and many more who share the view that warrantless surveillance, telecom immunity and other such outrages of the lawless surveillance state MUST END—AND END NOW.
Despite her extended vacation, Pretty Lady notes that there are still two days left before the August 8 deadline for dropping a moneybomb on behalf of civil liberties; please hasten over, all ye semi-solvent, and sign your pledge!

Of course, Pretty Lady's personal opinion is that we should be far more concerned about the wholesale licensing of torture than about a bit of wiretapping; she has long known that privacy is an illusion, and is only obtained within the secure knowledge that nobody out there cares all that much, whatever embarrassing information is published about oneself on the Internet. But she thinks that this coalition is an excellent start. It is time that we did away with these pettifogging partisian allegiances, and started addressing abuse of power, period.

UPDATE: At least dear Cintra is paying attention to the thugs behind the curtain:
Yoo, and the elusive Mr. Addington (referred to by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank as "Cheney's Cheney") were subpoenaed in order to answer questions about the Bush administration's interrogation rules. Yoo and Addington are, ostensibly, the last human shields protecting the executive office from the full weight of accountability for these policies.

The two men, who have arguably performed more radical and bizarre leaps in legal interpretations of the Constitution than an entire Federalist Society full of crackheads, made their case by being snide, nasty and rudely dismissive on the stand in a way that seemed melodramatically excessive even for archetypal Scooby Doo villains.

"Think of Addington as the id of the Bush White House," wrote Milbank.
"Though his hidden hand is often merely suspected -- in signing statements, torture policy and other brazen assertions of executive power -- Addington's unbridled hostility was live and unfiltered..."

Addington has long been legendary for being able to emit nearly lethal malodorant toxins from his personality glands, but both he and Yoo seemed to be resorting to the time-honored teenage male technique of being unbearably personally unpleasant in order to wear down their opposition, in an apparent effort to make the authority figures in the subcommittee throw up their hands and stomp into the kitchen in frustration from a desire to strangle them.

These people, Pretty Lady feels compelled to remind you, are running our government. Have we no shame?





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pretty Lady

The panjandrums in the Executive branch get away with it because the Congress, the first resort, has become an odious collection of Constitutional, moral, and ethical degenerates. Scandals abound, unchecked and unpunished except for the occasional sacrificial lamb, some poor underling. If things were as they were meant, it would mean little who led the Executive branch, a strong armed adventurer or a weak kneed poser. Having a strong, responsible Congress might accomplish one other thing – it might lessen the power and therefore the importance of who’ll be the next president. No more twenty four month presidential campaigns. No more obscene amounts of money being tossed about like crap in a monkey cage. No more polls, handlers, media consultants, wizards, and conjurers. The Restoration of the Congress is the single most important thing to be done. The Restoration should commence with every single incumbent being voted out of office. Hell, even my fantasies are fanciful.