Jesus' General

I believe I have found my instant source of YHWH

Seriously, I'm Still Commenting

Maybe I have a problem. Nah.

Spending Time on Daily Kos

Can't stop. Can't stop commenting. Sweet Jesus.

Other Voices in the Whale

Besides Norman Ornstein's article on executive privilege at the American Enterprise Institute, also read Adam Cohen's editorial in the NYT today. One explicit argument made is that "the Constitution cannot enforce itself," and that Congress has to push back agasint the Imperial president. James Madison would.

What Leviathan Whispers in W. The Whale's Ear

Reading Robert Alter's translation of Genesis and found verses that might have benefited the Great Whale if they had been whispered in his God-hungry ears. Abram has gone out with a number of his retainers to bring back Lot and his people who have been abducted by the four kings who defeated the rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah (Lot was vacationing nearby, what a mistake); Abram has conducted a night-time raid by which he has recovered Lot, all Lot's people, and all Lot's "stuff." Melchizedek, the king of Salem that Abram must negotiate with, offers to let Abram keep all the "stuff" he has gained in this battle. Abram defers, claiming only what the "lads," his men have consumed. This is Alter's note:

One should note, however, that the military exploit--apparently, a surprise attack by night--is dispatched very quickly while the main emphasis is placed on the victorious Abram's magnaminity and disinterestedness. Thus the idea of the patriarch's maintaining fair and proper relations with the peoples of the land, already intimated in his dealings with Lot in the previous chapter, comes to displace the image of mere martial prowess.

Now here's a voice in the night to listen to.

New York Times Sights Two Leviathans

Well, what a morning for executive whales. Here's a paragraph from the NYT's article on Musharraf,

General Musharraf's critics had accused him of dismissing the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, so as to install someone more likely to bend to his authority as the general was expected to face critical challenges this year to his continued rule as president and army chief of staff.

And here's a couple of paragraphs on the W. whale.

A federal appeals court ordered the government yesterday to turn over virtually all its information on Guantanamo detainees, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to limit disclosures and setting the stage for new legal battles over the government's reaons for holding the men indefinitely.

It was the latest of a series of stinging legal challenges to the administration's detention policies that have amplified pressure on the Bush asministration to find some alternative to Guantanamo, where about 360 men are now being held.

What we can say about the sightings of these two whales is that an effective seperation of powers (note the collusion of the Justice department with the White House in this country)keeps Leviathans from gobbling up more water than they should ever be allowed to hold.

Other Voices On The Whale's Privilege

Norman Ornstein in an American Enterprise Institute article on executive privilege ("Executive Privilege" Has Storied History, but It Can Be Abused) writes,

During the treason trial of Aaron Burr, Chief Justice John Marshall moved to compel President Thomas Jefferson to produce his private letters on the matter. Jefferson produced the letters--but said he had the power to withhold them and was complying voluntarily.

and

Nixon invoked executive privilege and refused to turn over any tapes. The Supreme Court actually acknowledged the existence of a privilege, the need to allow a president to get free and candid advice. But it denied that the president's claim of absolute privilege could prevail and said in this case that the public interest was served by obtaining the full truth during a criminal prosecution. Nixon gave up the tapes--and days later resigned from office. A quarter-century later, Clinton was rebuffed by a federal judge when he invoked executive privilege during the Monica Lewinsky scandal to try to keep his aides from testifying.

and

It may be a derived power, but executive privilege is a real power. It exists, as the Supreme Court said, to allow the president to have candid and free-flowing advice. But it is a presidential power. The logic is clear: It does not apply in a blanket way to every presidential aide; it applies when the information being sought impinges on the president's ability to get that free-flowing advice--in other words, when the communications are directly or indirectly between the president and his aides, or the president and his executive branch advisers. It does not apply to communications between Justice officials and White House aides who are, say, discussing the politics of firing U.S. attorneys or the legal basis of a surveillance program.

Mr. Ornstein points out that Congress has the strong argument, but now the Roberts Court is in power . . . so?

No Transparent Whales, Please

Sometimes voyaging in the whale is difficult due to prohibitions on seeing exactly what is up ahead. For instance, as reported in the Washington Post today.

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

Cheney removes himself from Google Maps, while the Whale blackens windows. But what of this reading of executive privilege?

Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has written a book on executive-privilege issues, called the administration's stance "astonishing."

"That's a breathtakingly broad view of the president's role in this system of separation of powers," Rozell said. "What this statement is saying is the president's claim of executive privilege trumps all."

As this Bushean reading of executive privilege appears based on a Justice Department opinion during the Reagan administration that was never tested in the courts, well . . . seems exactly this is where the Whale is sailing.

Other Voices in the Whale (Read Along with Kagan's article on Surging For Summer (Further Indigestion for the Whale)) or Alice in Surgeland

Zeyad Kasim on IraqSlogger writes the following (6/30/07)

"In their distinctive style of morbid humor, resourceful Baghdadis are circulating emails presenting their own personal assessment of the security situation in the capital. The detailed lists of what neighborhoods and areas are safe and what to avoid completely, because of Mahdi Army or Al-Qaeda activity or the random car bomb, are quite different from those found in Iraqi government or U.S. military statements. As many parts of the capital have become no-go zones for members of either the Sunni or Shia sect – or sometimes for both, it is a challenge for Baghdadis to identify areas where they are able to move freely and areas where they should better stay out.

The following is a translation of one such email making the rounds among residents of Baghdad and on Iraqi Web forums. The sarcastic email, which was written in Iraqi slang, attempts to classify the districts of Baghdad based on their level of danger. According to the author, the safest neighborhoods are the ones where the odds of staying alive are 50%:

The situation in different areas of Baghdad in regard to takfiri gangs of the new age: Al-Qaeda, the Mahdi Army, and their spiritual leaders – the forces of liberation.

fall into four different categories: safe, relatively safe, dangerous, and relatively dangerous. They are classified as follows:

- A safe area: where the probability of you staying alive is 50%.
- A relatively safe area: where the probability of you staying alive is 40%.
- A relatively dangerous area: where the probability of you staying alive is 30%.
- A dangerous area: where the probability of you staying alive is 20 to 10%."

Read the entire article at IraqSlogger.com / The Baghdad Death Map
and
Read The New Strategy in Iraq" at weeklystandard.com.