I have been busy

Trying to keep Abbie from completely taking over. Of course, I have failed on that front. But the good news is that she and I are enrolled in obedience training. In a couple of weeks, I am confident that I will obey better.

But the news just keeps happening and I keep up with most of it. Yesterday, I kept track on Al Gonzales' testimony before the Senate and it was truly amazing. If you didn't watch, TPM has a good rundown with clips. Gonzales' incompetence is truly amazing. He lies constantly, and lies badly. At times, you wonder if he isn't just making stuff up.

TPM has some concerns that this has long standing consequences that really need to be addressed now:

"Without going into all the specifics, I think we are now moving into a situation where the White House, on various fronts, is openly ignoring the constitution, acting as though not just the law but the constitution itself, which is the fundamental law from which all the statutes gain their force and legitimacy, doesn't apply to them.

If that is allowed to continue, the defiance will congeal into precedent. And the whole structure of our system of government will be permanently changed."

And that is my fear as well. I think, for example, that there is a good possibility that our next President might be Hillary Clinton. Will she embrace that expanded power of the President? Why do conservatives not fear that? Where is the damn principled conservatism?

At least some are starting to see what many of us have been yelling about. Here is a list from conservative Rod Dreher of things he no longer believes:

"1. Having been absolutely certain that the war was the right thing to have done, and that we would prevail easily, I am no longer confident that I can discern when emotion is affecting my judgment unduly.

2. I no longer implicitly trust governmental institutions, including the military -- neither in their honesty nor their competence.

3. I no longer believe the Republican Party is superior in foreign policy judgment to the Democrats.

4. I no longer have confidence in the ability of our military, or any military, to solve deep cultural and civilizational problems through force alone. I mean, I thought nothing could stand in the way of the strongest military fielded since the days of ancient Rome. No more.

5. I have a far greater appreciation for how rare and fragile liberal democracy is, and a corresponding revulsion at the American assumption that it's the natural state of mankind. Which is to say, the war has made me rethink my ideas about human nature, and I'm far more pessimistic now than I ever was."