mcjoan reviews James Piffner's "Power Play":

James P. Pfiffner's book Power Play: The Bush Presidency and the Constitution, succinctly and convincingly lays out the historical backdrop for the development of our system of government, based on the rule of law, and just as convincingly presents his argument that the Bush administration has put that very system on a precipice. . . . Pfiffner argues that, in pursuing an agenda developed by Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Bybee and others, Bush "abrogated the rule of law by taking actions not authorized by law and sometimes directly against the law."

No kidding. A WaPo article yesterday detailed how Cheney and his henchman David Addington perverted the Constitution:

Les Gara, a state representative from Anchorage, explains the background of the Troopergate investigation that the McCain campaign "is now trying to spin like an amusement-park tilt-a-whirl."

This summer, this started out as a Republican investigation. Former Republican legislator and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Halcro came out with a story that the press, then, reported on, that the governor had inappropriately fired -- or worked to try to fire a state trooper. ... And the first calls to move ahead with an investigation were from Republican Party members. ... Today’s spin by the McCain camp that this is somehow some sort of democratic effort is just nothing but -- but a falsehood.

In the same conference call, Borough Assembly member Michelle Church from Wasila (who was working as a community organizer when she first met Gov. Palin) discusses "Palin’s decision to accept state travel per diems for 312 days ... that she has actually spent at home." She says "Governor Palin got paid to sleep at home." Nice work if you can get it.

The Service Employees International Union ad will air in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Green Bay 21, Detroit 3 at halftime.

Jeralyn and BTD are both flying this afternoon and I'm watching football so here's an open thread. You don't have to talk about football but you do have to follow the commenting rules.

Update: Packers 48, Lions 25. 2 INT's and 1 TD by Charles Woodson. INT and TD by Nick Collins. 328 yards and 3 TDs for Aaron Rodgers. Now it's time for the Jets and Brett Favre.

Fortunately, The New York Times is doing the vetting of Sarah Palin that John McCain didn't bother to do. The conclusion:

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials. ...

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

Once she became governor, Palin hired at least five high school classmates for government positions. She installed one of them as the director of Alaska's Agriculture Department. The former classmate cited a "childhood love of cows" as a job qualification. [more ...]

Florida deserves credit for liberalizing its voting laws to restore voting rights to ex-felons who have finished their sentences. Florida deserves criticism for failing to take the new law seriously.

Fred Schuknecht, the director of administration for the Florida Clemency Board, acknowledged in an interview that there was a backlog of 60,000 former felons who could potentially have their rights restored, but must first be reviewed by the agency. Despite the fact that 3,500 newly released prisoners are added to the caseload every month, the Legislature cut 20 percent of the staff devoted to felony voter restoration cases, Mr. Schuknecht said.

With a presidential election on the horizon, what a perfect time to cut the staff needed to restore voting rights. Way to go, Florida.

Yet another reason why I believe Cass Sunstein is unfit to serve in an Obama Administration, his "defense" of Roe:

Those who seek to preserve the right to choose ought to be prepared to make some distinctions. As it was written in 1973, Roe v. Wade was far from a model of legal reasoning, and conservatives have been correct to criticize it. The court failed to root the abortion right in either the text of the Constitution or its own precedents.

This is nonsense in my opinion, particularly Sunstein's statement that Roe was not rooted in the text of the Constitution and the Supreme Court's precedents (Roe particularly followed Griswold to its logical conclusion.) Sunstein is entitled to his opinion, but he is not entitled to serve in a Democratic Administration or to be a Supreme Court appointee of a Democratic President. More . .

Ras (9/11-13) has McCain up 50-47 (yesterday it was 49-46.) I'll be adding the other results as they become available this morning and afternoon. I will add an overall take when all results are in. So far, no change - a slight McCain lead.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

I am switching between Meet the Press and ABC's This Week, Charles Schumer is on MTP and Claire McCaskill is on ABC's This Week.

In the first few minutes, we can see the difference between a good surrogate and a bad surrogate. Schumer is talking about how McCain/Palin is running for Bush's Third Term and ticks off the issues, the economy, foreign policy, energy policy, etc. Schumer's line "McCain/Palin is NOT change from George Bush." Pitch perfect.

McCaskill (going against Carly Fiorina) spent the top of the show attacking Sarah Palin. She is awful. Just awful. She has to be taken off the surrogate circuit.

This is an Open Thread.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Kind of funny:

It's outrageous that school districts would import teachers from the Philippines rather than paying a sufficient salary to attract American teachers.

[Baldwin County, Alabama] district officials went around the world last year, with expenses paid by a teacher recruiting firm, and brought back Michel Olalo of Manila and 11 other Filipinos to teach along the shores of the Gulf Coast and Mobile Bay and in the communities in between.

The minimum starting salary for an inexperienced teacher in Alabama is $36,144. That's ten times better than a teacher is paid in the Philippines. That's good for Filipinos who may well become excellent teachers, but shouldn't our schools pay enough to make teaching an attractive job for Americans?

Activist, candidate, and Green Party leader Peter Camejo died today at the age of 68.

Camejo ran for [California's] top office in 2002, 2003 and 2006, supporting abortion rights, universal health care and a moratorium on the death penalty. Before joining the Green Party, he also ran for president as the Socialist Workers Party nominee in 1976. In 2004, Camejo was independent Nader's vice presidential pick.

Camejo, a first-generation Venezuelan-American, was also active against the Vietnam War and a vocal advocate for migrant worker rights. He marched in Selma, Ala. with Martin Luther King, Jr.

RIP, Peter Camejo.