Happy News Digest Vol. 1

The topics on this blog are usually dour, skeptical, cynical and depressing. This past week however has brought some welcome "good news" and I thought I'd cheer us all up by recapping some of it.

First, the attempt to tack on authorization of the Arctic oil drilling outrage to a defense appropriations bill was blocked. See poor Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska (who recently refused to swear in oil company executives at a Senate hearing, and days later the executives were found to have lied about their participation in Cheney's energy policy cabal) proclaim that yesterday was “the saddest
day of my life“. Boo hoo.

Next, while it pains me to see our civil liberties abused as is being exposed with revelations regarding the Cheny administration’s warrantless, illegal and unconstitutional domestic phone taps, it encourages me that so much attention and seriousness is being paid to this outrage.

From Why won't the Bush administration obey the law? By Dahlia Lithwick in Slate:

There are two explanations for the Bush administration's failure to stay within the boundaries of the legal structures for which it's bargained: One is that the administration believes it is fighting this war on its own; the courts, the Congress, and the American people are all standing in its way. The other is that the administration is convinced that none of our statutes or policies or systems will actually work in a pinch. Our laws aren't just broken. They are unfixable.

...

So, which is it? Does the Bush administration refuse to honor its legislative and constitutional bargains with Congress, the courts, and the American people because it believes we are all just getting in its way? Or does it sidestep us because it believes that all these trappings of a democracy—the courts and the laws and public accountability are broken and unfixable? The first possibility is grandiose and depressing. The latter is absolutely breathtaking.

The Administration's attitude is neatly summed up by this post (shamefully lifted in total by me) from Billmon

The Federales

Q: If FISA didn't work, why didn't you seek a new statute that allowed something like this legally?

GONZALES: That question was asked earlier. We've had discussions with members of Congress, certain members of Congress, about whether or not we could get an amendment to FISA, and we were advised that that was not likely to be -- that was not something we could likely get, certainly not without jeopardizing the existence of the program, and therefore, killing the program. And that -- and so a decision was made that because we felt that the authorities were there, that we should continue moving forward with this program.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
December 19, 2005

GOLD HAT: We are Federales . . . You know, the mounted police.

DOBBS: If you're the police, where are your badges?

GOLD HAT: [puzzled pause] "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! [angry] I don't have to show you any stinking badges!

Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1948

Next, I was overjoyed when our Dear Leader was "forced" to go along with Senator McCain's anti torture provision after he previously had vowed to veto any legislation containing such directives.

And finally, readers of this blog will know what a warm spot (NOT!) in my heart that I hold for proponents of so-called Intelligent Design. Therefore I feel their pain (at least to the degree that they have been causing pain to me) when the decision in the Kitzmiller v. Dover lawsuit was handed down earlier this week, denying the teaching of creationism disguised as psudo-science in the classroom. Judge Jones, in his 139 page decision (which I am joyfully working my way through) states:

The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.

There is more, much more going on that suggest that the wheels may be coming off of BushCo's train. and the radical right is losing some of their traction. Here's to a hopeful 2006 !!!