Charles P. Pierce at Esquire writes—Nancy Pelosi Must Defend the Essential Integrity of the Constitution:
On Tuesday morning, on the electric Twitter machine, I saw a picture that was both remarkable, and remarkably sad. Congressman Justin Amash, Republican of Michigan, had a group of high school students sitting on the steps of the U.S, Capitol, and he was explaining to them what the impeachment process is, and why Amash has called for it, bringing down upon his head the wrath of flying monkeys everywhere. [...]
It really is time. Don McGahn blew off the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning, relying on a fanciful legal opinion that had no basis in the law. [...]
It is reported that the meetings got a little fiery. Good. They should be. This is not a question for the timid nor an issue for soft words. There should be a brawl over this matter, and, if you think these intra-party squabbles are loud, wait until an impeachment inquiry opens up. My guess is that civility will not be a priority, and good for that, too. Excising the corruption that entered the Republican party in the 1980s, and entered the White House in 2017, never was going to be gentle.
It really is time. Nobody supported Nancy Pelosi more than I did when lightweights like Tim Ryan and Seth Moulton came after her last year. I still don't see a legislative tactician of her caliber anywhere else in the caucus. But this is now beyond tactics, no matter how skillfully they might be deployed. This is a fight for the essential integrity of the Constitution, and pre-emptively ruling out any weapon in that battle is dereliction of the first order.
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“The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions.”
~~Susan Sontag, Esquire (July 1968)
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2010—As it makes live feed available, BP admits oil flow worse than claimed:
So what might be motivating BP to concede their claim of 5,000 barrels per day was wrong? Perhaps the fact that they have finally posted a live feed of the oil gushing from the main leak.
In my experience watching the feed, it's had some technical hiccups, but I was able to watch about five minutes before the video screen went black. It's incredibly disturbing -- clouds of oil billowing from the site of the leak, at times appearing far, far worse than the initial video BP released.
The fact that BP now claims to be siphoning off 5,000 barrels per day but the flow of oil appears to be as bad as ever tells you just how massive this leak is. CBS was the first news organization to get its hands on the live feed and showed it to Purdue Professor of Mechanical Engineering Steven Werely. He estimates that nearly 100,000 barrels -- 4 million gallons or an Exxon Valdez every three days -- is still spewing from the leak.
On
today’s Kagro in the Morning show:
Things are heating up on the impeachment front. A DC court rules Trump's accountants must turn over records, with or without an impeachment inquiry. McGahn blows off Judiciary. So House Dems start pushing back (and jumping ship) on the i-word.