Hi, folks. Since it's a pretty big week for at least two of the world's major religions, I thought it would be nice if we could sit down and have this little chat.
You may not know it, but we're already acquainted. We're... tight, even.
I'm God.
Last week's endorsement - and expansion - of Bush Administration claims that legal immunity cloaks the Oval Office in a protective sheath holding all the bugaboo power of a shyster-schmeister Shroud of Turin has more than a few folks, especially Obama supporters, wondering just how much of the regal, "unitary executive" model the new president is willing to junk.
Glenn Greenwald, himself an attorney, has done a masterful job of hitting the roof over the Department of Justice brief which answered one of the first lawsuits filed over the vast program of illegal wiretapping intiated by the Bush Adninstration. In it, the DoJ demands dismissal of the entire suit, basing its argument on the old Bush claim that "state secrets" privilege bars such lawsuits - even if the spying was illegal - and a brand-new "sovereign immunity" claim, supposedly propped up by the specious Patriot Act, that bars actions against any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications.
