We have an anomaly in our courts, irresponsibly supported by the executive and legislative branches of our government, in the manner that our courts interpret Sovereign Immunity and, in turn, its impact on our day to day lives.
Now, as FDR concluded about the Great Depression, climate disruption is invading the United States like a foreign enemy. It is inflicting physical damages, loss of life and growing burdens on federal spending and the economy.
This week is Public Service Recognition Week: a time to honor the men and women who serve our nation as government employees. But lately, the feeding frenzy surrounding scandals by federal employees will not go away.
Even as we nod in agreement when the President says "We can't wait," we will find it necessary to think about how a future, less benign, president will say the same thing to support reconstitution of the imperial presidency.
Here's where we are now. A committee, grandiosely labeled a "Super Congress" will essentially decide whether and how much we'll cut and whether and h...
President Barack Obama's political sepulcher will be war. His extinguishment as a political comet could have been avoided if he had respected the exclusive constitutional responsibility of Congress to commence war.
President Obama's campaign to help military families in any and every way possible may just turn out to be more effective in stemming the tragic epidemic of military suicides than any psychotropic drug or psychotherapeutic intervention.
Members of Congress have abdicated to the president their constitutional responsibilities because of slavish devotion, staggering constitutional illiteracy, and a vassal-like conviction that the executive branch knows best.
No circular firing squads please; it is too late to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Let's prepare for the future.
1. Repair Our Base
Where...
Much has been written about President Obama's decisive firing of General McChrystal from his command in Afghanistan. Yet it should have come to no one's surprise given an event now near forgotten over a year ago.
With a new emergent phase of democratic and quasi democratic regimes, can enhanced executive power linked to globalization be reoriented to better, noncommercial goals, like climate change, global hunger, or poverty?
Last week's ruling that the warrantless wiretapping from the post 9-11 era is illegal was not just a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration. It also slammed the current administration.
Contrary to popular belief, and recent Executive custom, the Constitution conveys only three powers to the President of the United States that are entirely his and not subject to review or reversal.
Those who sought legal idealism from the Obama administration won't be getting it, and those who saw a bloated, creeping Executive branch under Bush/Cheney have not, after all, voted in a choirboy.
President Obama, acting without equivocation, has put his administration on notice. Nothing less than competence and dedicated service to the nation is expected. The Bush buddy years are at end.
The Republican Party is a ghost of its original self. It's no wonder reasonable, tolerant, progressive Republicans are jumping ship, while new recruits to the Party are diminishing.
It might look to some like Sarah Palin is Dick Cheney on steroids. It's okay to play contrarian with a running mate, but it will be considered insubordination when he's your boss.
Bush's term in office will be remembered for the precedents it set, particularly in relation to the presidential power, and the separation of powers between the three branches of U.S. government.