"From Louis XIV to George W. Bush"

What!? $700 billion with no oversight? Vomit bucket, stat!
Did anyone miss my preference for replacing golden parachutes with the guillotine?

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Lawyers, Guns and Money

From Louis XIV to George W. Bush By Paul Campos Here, in just 32 words, is a summation of the state of American democracy in our time: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Translation: Congress will take $700 billion from the pockets of ordinary Americans, and hand it to Henry Paulson. Paulson then has absolute, unreviewable authority to do with this money what he thinks best. Many people have pointed out in the past day or so that this is bad. What no one seems to be raising is the question of whether it's even legal. Of course after eight years of George W. L'etat, C'est Moi Bush, the question of whether the biggest financial rescue operation in American history is actually legal is considered nothing more than a bothersome technicality, if that, to be dealt with by the administration's lawyers to the satisfaction of Very Serious People everywhere.

A Strong Argument Against the Unitary Executive

Watching Ariel's Beginning now ten going on twenty times with my daughter has strengthened my conviction that la décapitation c'est trop propre pour le roi. Banning music? Because your wife died? WTF? What's that got to do with the rest of us? Reminds me of going to war because of a father complex.

First Triton bans music, then he imprisons the entire court for going to a speakeasy, then he imprisons the evil power-hungry female archetype for doing his bidding. It's not her fault Ariel interfered with the capture of a fugitive. Stupid Triton.