objections

Get ready to be pissed to the point of wanting to break stuff:

A Morgan Stanley wealth manager will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because Colorado prosecutors don't want him to lose his job.

Martin Joel Erzinger, who manages more than $1 billion in assets for Morgan Stanley in Denver, is being accused only of a misdemeanor for allegedly driving his Mercedes into a cyclist and then fleeing the scene, Colorado's Vail Dailyreports. The victim, Dr. Steven Milo, whom Erzinger allegedly hit in July, suffered spinal cord injuries, bleeding from his brain and, according to his lawyer Harold Haddon, "lifetime pain."

The reason for the reduced charges?

“Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession, and that entered into it," Hurlbert said. "When you're talking about restitution, you don't want to take away his ability to pay."

"We have talked with Mr. Haddon and we had their objections, but ultimately it's our call," Hurlbert said.

So the guy is to well off to face what the law wants?

We have just endured eight years of "cowboy diplomacy" by George Bush. This has given us such zingers as "bring it on" and "we are going to conduct a crusade". Bush's mentality has further alienated this country from the rest of the world and extinguished our status as the shining city on the hill.

One thing you do have to admit though is that Bush can pull off these stunts and still maintain some appearance of likability. Disagree with him 100% on policy, but he is still the guy you would want to have a beer with.

Now enter John McCain. Josh reminded me this morning of a very testy exchange between Obama and McCain back in 2006. McCain was upset that Obama wouldn't support his plan for a bipartisan commission to come up with lobbying/ethics reform, instead choosing for such reform to go through normal committee. This led to McCain firing of a very nasty letter to Obama for not supporting him.

While refreshing my memory on this little exchange, I noticed something that sounds very familiar:

"That's why I am not going to win Miss Congeniality again this year in the Senate."

As you can guess, John McCain said that. It's something he repeats on the campaign trail still and even brought up in the first debate.

There are a couple of issues here that should be taken up by the media and pundits. First off is John McCain's admission that he isn't congenial. We need someone who can lead our country by understanding and working together, not someone who wants to strong arm any objections into submissions. No matter how you slice it, the Democrats will retain control of Congress this year and probably end up with a more solid majority. Having a President McCain, who admits to not being congenial, is a perfect recipe to have a Congress less effective as we do now.

I had a feeling the news of Cheney's saying he is not part of the executive branch would start a fire storm. I just had no idea it would be this big.

Rahm Emanuel is showing a pair and ready to really go after Cheney in a way that sounds perfectly legal:

Following Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney's office.

The amendment to the bill that sets the funding for the executive branch will be considered next week in the House of Representatives.

Emanuel also suggested that Cheney needs to return his salary to the U.S. taxpayers and move out of the house paid for by us. Since that house is paid for by us and for the Vice President of the United States, who is part of the executive branch, I say Cheney be evicted immediately. Hell - I say he gets charged with trespassing!

The Washington Post has also started a four part series today about Cheney, entitled "Angler". Think Progress has already torn into part one and discovered this:

Shortly after Bush was elected, “Cheney preferred, and Bush approved, a mandate that gave him access to ‘every table and every meeting,’ making his voice heard in ‘whatever area the vice president feels he wants to be active in.’”

Every time I read articles like this I remember that old SchoolHouse Rock cartoon, back in the day when we had real Saturday morning cartoons, teaching all the young kids how a bill becomes a law. I then wish I had a copy of that to send to the White House because they evidently missed that cartoon:

The office of Vice President Dick Cheney routinely reviews pieces of legislation before they reach the president's desk, searching for provisions that Cheney believes would infringe on presidential power, according to former White House and Justice Department officials.

The officials said Cheney's legal adviser and chief of staff, David Addington , is the Bush a dministration's leading architect of the ``signing statements" the president has appended to more than 750 laws. The statements assert the president's right to ignore the laws because they conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution.

The Bush-Cheney administration has used such statements to claim for itself the option of bypassing a ban on torture, oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act, and numerous requirements that they provide certain information to Congress, among other laws.

Previous vice presidents have had neither the authority nor the interest in reviewing legislation. But Cheney has used his power over the administration's legal team to promote an expansive theory of presidential authority. Using signing statements, the administration has challenged more laws than all previous administrations combined.

Article 1, section 7 of the Constitution states the following:

Now Bush didn't know about the port deal?

President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at
six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab
Emirates until the deal already had been approved by his administration, the
White House said Wednesday.

Defending the deal anew, the administration also said that it should have
briefed Congress sooner about the transaction, which has triggered a major
political backlash among both Republicans and Democrats.

Bush on Tuesday brushed aside objections by leaders in the Senate and
House that the $6.8 billion sale could raise risks of terrorism at American
ports. In a forceful defense of his administration's earlier approval of the
deal, he pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the
agreement involving the sale of a British company to the Arab firm.

Article continues

here.

Ok Congress didn't know, Bush didn't know, the Joint Chiefs didn't know,
Rumsfeld didn't know. Who the hell is running our government? This is a total
lack of oversight or a major lie. The

GOP congressional hearings on this subject should get really interesting.