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Oh, this is rich; a Republican lawmaker who had no problem issuing numerous subpoenas against then-president Bill Clinton and members of his administration is calling Democrats "subpoena-happy." Representative Dan Burton of Indiana once chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and had the unmitigated gall to warn Democrats -- who now control both chambers of Congress -- not to "abuse" their authority. I guess Burton would know all about abusing authority, wouldn't he?

Meanwhile, Senator Russ Feingold seems to have found his balls and is using them to introduce legislation that would cut off funding for the Iraq war, in anticipation of the Shrub's veto of already-passed legislation containing tepid benchmarks and vague timetables that will allow the dictator to continue the war until the (supposed) end of his term. Which is great, except Carl Levin, a pro-Iraq war Democrat, appears ready to do everything in his power to continue war funding. But really, given the stalemate over the war budget, the clock is running out and it is only a matter of time before either Congress or the White House blinks.

John Conyers has apparently run out of patience with the Bush Injustice Department, issuing subpoenas relating to the U.S. Attorney scandal. That's great, Mr. Conyers, but you know as well as I do that the only way to show you mean business is to have Articles of Impeachment ready. But you are too big a coward to do that, so don't expect to accomplish much of anything.

The Joke's On Us.

To say the occupation of Iraq is going badly is to state the painfully obvious, and every day we are "treated" to reminders, like the latest crackdown in Iraq following peaceful protests by Iraqis against the U.S. presence in their country. It is also an increasingly common occurrence to learn that some neocon has finally been made to realize that the whole mess of invading Iraq was a huge mistake that never should have been allowed to happen, like the revelation that the late neocon Jean Kirkpatrick left a scathing condemnation of the war in her final book (likely to be released later this year).

With all this, you'd think shit stains on the ass-crack of humanity such as Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh would be smart enough not to say anything too stupid and offensive. Not so, as reported in The Progressive's website. Writer Matthew Rothschild ruminates on how big a joke it is for the these two to joke about doing an end-run around the U.S. Senate in giving a recess appointment to yet another lying crony, who was involved in launching the Swift Boat Liars for Bush attack ads against John Kerry in 2004.

This is what we're up against, ladies and gentlemen. Evil sons of bitches who have no regard for the Constitution or the rule of law, going about business as usual as if Democrats never won control of Congress. They'll get away with firing U.S. prosecutors for purely political reasons, be let off the hook for illegally outing a CIA operative, continue to do end-runs around Congress, and start their war with Iran. They do these things thinking it's all one big joke, because they think they're untouchable, and because in the end Democrats are too spineless to prove them wrong.