Ford on the Nixon pardon:

“I looked upon him as my personal friend. And I had no hesitancy about granting the pardon because I felt that we had this relationship and I didn’t want to see my real friend have the stigma,” Ford told journalist Bob Woodward in the interview.

Ford had long said he pardoned Nixon because he wanted to mend the divisions of Watergate. In his speech announcing the pardon, he acknowledged his friendship with Nixon but said his concern was for the country and not personal sympathy for the disgraced former U.S. leader.

OK, no more bunk about the pardon healing the country. The “long national nightmare” was not Watergate, it was Vietnam. Just as Iraq is today.

[Update 12/31: Link to article regarding the neocons From The American Conservative Magazine: "They Only Look Dead."]

(And you thought recycling was always a good idea.)

Did you know that the impeachment mechanism is not limited to elected officials and judges?

From John Dean:

Realistically Refocusing the Impeachment Movement

The Constitution’s Impeachment Clause applies to all “civil officers of the United States”–not to mention the president, vice president and federal judges. It is not clear who, precisely, is among those considered “civil officers,” but the group certainly includes a president’s cabinet and sub-cabinet, as well as the senior department officials and the White House staff (those who are issued commissions by the president and serve the President and Vice President).

Quite obviously, Bush and Cheney have not acted alone in committing “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Take a hypothetical (and there are many): Strong arguments have been made that many members of the Bush Administration–not merely Bush and Cheney–have engaged in war crimes. If war crimes are not “high crimes and misdemeanors,” it is difficult to imagine what might be. Jordan Paust, a well-know expert on the laws of war and a professor at University of Houston Law Center, has written a number of scholarly essays that mince few words about the war crimes of Bush’s subordinates. For example, many of their names are on the “torture memos.”

Dean-who says not only that Bush has clearly committed impeachable offenses but that “Cheney’s culpability is 10 to 20 times greater”-argues that impeaching those who work closely with them is do-able because there wouldn’t be the repugnant aspect of overturning an election.  What’s more, there’s a precedent.  If you, like me, dream of justice being served but understand that impeachment of Bush and Cheney (especially the satisfying conviction part) is very unlikely, follow me.  Dean has rethought the idea, and the new one’s a winner. Read the rest of this entry

Silently among the rolling hills 10 miles from the beautiful Mississippi Palisades, down a country road like fog from the river moving through trees comes a dark presence to disturb the countryside with gun shots. It is not hunters looking for deer this time. It is not children with air rifles shooting pellets at tin cans on fence posts. This time the shots will be from the latest and most sophisticated weapons in the hands of those who are being trained in the art of killing. They are learning the skills required to survive in the quagmire of violence they will soon enter. Read the rest of this entry