There are a bunch of disturbing articles about Bush's firing of USA's using expanded executive powers under the Patriot Act, and replacing them with campaign operatives with no litigation experience whatsoever.

It's pretty obnvious what they're doing: republican political problems will not be indicted, and the Senate can't do anything to stop it (without amending the Patriot Act). But there's another, less obvious side to this, and that is the process of Congressiona oversight. Failure to respond to a House subpoena is a criminal offense, and an executive branch official that refuses to do so is looking at jail time if no lawful privilege exists.

So far, so good. But the executive (at least prior to this administration) has not claimed to be able to pick and choose which laws they want to enforce. There's pretty solid authority that DOJ must to go to the grand jury in such cases. Now, if you're the proverbial ham sandwich, who would you rather have running the deli--the independent prosecutor with republican connections, or the opposition research head from the Gore campaign?

This president is making us look like a banana republic.

I was going to write a short post about how 24 had completely jumped the shark. It seems that someone's already done it with a sense of humor.