In the most blatant disregard for the law in quite a while, President Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence.

The man is the worst President in the history of the nation and this is merely confirmation of the contempt he holds for the law, the Constitution, and the American People.

Will our Democratic representatives wake up and understand NOW that he will never end the war in Iraq -- that only a Congress that says no to funding the Debacle past a date certain can end the war? I doubt it.

The White House announced today it won't turn over documents subpoenaed by the House and Senate Judiciary Committees concerning Harriet Miers or Sara Taylor in the U.S. Attorney firing probe. The text of White House Counsel Fred Fielding's letter is here.

The deadline for the document production was today.

In reaction, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy accused the administration of shifting "into Nixonian stonewalling" and revealing "disdain for our system of checks and balances."

This is the first time Bush has claimed executive privilege since 2001.

John Conyers is threatening legal action against the White House:

More....

Digby and many others have written about this TNR article about the National Review cruise. I was struck by this excerpt:

D'Souza summarizes the prevailing sentiment by unveiling what he modestly calls "D'Souza's law of immigration": An immigrant's quality is "proportional to the distance traveled to get to the United States." In other words: Asians trump Latinos.

Being an Indian immigrant, who justified bin Laden and Al Qaida by saying:

Muslims must rise up in defensive jihad against America because their religion and their values are under attack. This aspect of Bin Laden’s critique has been totally ignored, and it’s one that resonates with a lot of traditional Muslims and traditionally people around the world . . .

I think maybe D'Souza might want to be more careful about that. As Jane Galt has pointed out, no Mexicans have perpetrated terrorism in the United States. It was folks from far away, some from near where D'Souza's people came from.

Andrew Sullivan writes:

Instead of conflating all the moral issues, [Americans between 18 and 29] have no problem with gay dignity and equality, but retain many of the moral conflicts of their parents with respect to the far more troubling issue of abortion.

What did the poll Sullivan cites for this argument actually say?

When many progressives railed and rallied for a primary challenge to Senator Joe Lieberman, the contempt and disdain heaped on them (I was one) from the Media and the Right was piled high. It will be interesting to see how the Media covers the growing GOP Primary Fever, which started with urging John Bruning to challenge Chuck Hagel in Nebraska:

An Instapundit reader later urges primary challenges for compromise supporters, Kausfiles seconds the idea. Riehl World View is just done with the whole party.

Mickey Kaus, whose political affiliation seems to be Republican but it is not always easy to tell if he is just an independent, writes:

the prospect of political defeat is the thing politicians most understand. (The money helps them avoid the defeat.) That means the most effective thing that could be done to pressure pro-comprehensive Senators is to start organizing actual campaigns against them--primary challenges, but also general election challenges to Republicans from anti-comprehensive Dems, and vice-versa. It's easy to organize on the Web, and by organizing now you might get your Senator to change his or her vote. Once the vote is cast it's too late. ...

The vituperative Mickey Kaus! Who'da thunk it? But all kidding aside, I applaud these attempts to organize "people power." I think political parties should be where ideas are debated, and primaries are the right vehicle. I think every candidate should be primaried, even the ones I like.

According to a new New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll, young Americans are leaning left.

Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll. The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion.

More good news:

Substantially more Americans ages 17 to 29 than four years ago are paying attention to the presidential race.

....More than half of Americans ages 17 to 29 — 54 percent — say they intend to vote for a Democrat for president in 2008. They share with the public at large a negative view of President Bush, who has a 28 percent approval rating with this group, and of the Republican Party. They hold a markedly more positive view of Democrats than they do of Republicans.

It gets better. More below.

From the fourth installment of WaPo's Cheney series:

In Oregon, a battleground state that the Bush-Cheney ticket had lost by less than half of 1 percent, drought-stricken farmers and ranchers were about to be cut off from the irrigation water that kept their cropland and pastures green. Federal biologists said the Endangered Species Act left the government no choice: The survival of two imperiled species of fish was at stake. Law and science seemed to be on the side of the fish. Then the vice president stepped in.

. . . Smith [knew] Cheney . . . as a man of the West who didn't take kindly to federal bureaucrats meddling with private use of public land. "He saw, as every other person did, what a ridiculous disaster shutting off the water was," Smith said. . . . [Interior Secretary Gail] Norton flew to Klamath Falls in March to open the head gate as farmers chanted "Let the water flow!"

. . . Months later, the first of an estimated 77,000 dead salmon began washing up on the banks of the warm, slow-moving river. Not only were threatened coho dying -- so were chinook salmon, the staple of commercial fishing in Oregon and Northern California. State and federal biologists soon concluded that the diversion of water to farms was at least partly responsible.

. . . Last summer, the federal government declared a "commercial fishery failure" on the West Coast after several years of poor chinook returns virtually shut down the industry, opening the way for Congress to approve more than $60 million in disaster aid to help fishermen recover their losses. That came on top of the $15 million that the government has paid Klamath farmers since 2002 not to farm, in order to reduce demand.

Nice work Dick.

So, take heart. And take a look around you. You live in a nation full of progressive-thinking, liberal-leaning, good-hearted people. Give yourself a pat on the back-you won! We won! Let's take a victory lap together and then get to work on fixing the Great Disconnect -how it is that, in a nation of lefties, the right hand controls everything. They do not represent the will of the people, and that has to change. Start acting like the victors you are and get out there to claim the country that is truly ours. -Michael Moore, "Dude, Where's My Country?"

Amanda Marcotte writes:

But I do think liberals who dislike Moore so strongly are genuine in their distaste and not just trotting it out to appear fair’n'balanced. And I think that Ezra’s review points to why—the overarching theme of Moore’s career has been an attack on American exceptionalism, . . . the belief that America is somehow better or at least different and can’t be held up to the same standards as other countries is endemic.

I am an American Exceptionalist, but not in the way Amanda describes. I hold America to higher standards. I expect the best from the United States. And, I think Michael Moore is an American Exceptionalist too. I think he argues that the United States SHOULD be better. I think that is the theme of his work. Not anti-Exceptionalism. Consider this from "Dude, Where's My Country?":

Mitt Romney is one tough talker when it comes to imprisoning suspected foreign terrorists. How does he feel about people in the United States who are suspected of breaking the law? If they happen to work for his presidential campaign, he puts them on paid leave.

The director of operations of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign will be on a paid leave of absence while the authorities investigate accusations that he impersonated a state trooper in Massachusetts and told a reporter in New Hampshire that he had run the reporter’s license plate, the campaign said Friday.

Jay Garrity is presumed innocent and, if he's charged, is entitled to a fair and speedy trial. Why does Romney believe the accused who are imprisoned at Guantanamo are entitled to anything less?

Plan A was:

Cheney's office has contended that it does not have to comply because the vice president serves as president of the Senate, which means that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch."

Plan B now is:

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Cheney is not obligated to submit to oversight by an office that safeguards classified information, as other members and parts of the executive branch are. . . . Cheney is not subject to the executive order, she said, "because the president gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he's decided that he should."

Of course that begs the question, WHEN did the President decide this? Cuz Cheney has not been complying since 2003. If he decided yesterday that does not excuse Cheney's non-compliance before. But what the hey, Cheney says it does not matter if the President says he has to or not, the Vice President is NOT a part of the Executive Branch so the President has no rulemaking power over him anyway.

I like Rahm Emanuel's Plan C:

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) said he plans to propose next week, as part of a spending bill for executive operations, a measure to place a hold on funds for Cheney's office and official home until he clarifies to which branch of the government he belongs.

Emanuel, WaPo says, admits his plan is "just a stunt." It should not be a stunt if it is.

William Mercer, the U.S. Attorney for Montana, who also has been serving as the Number Three top official at DOJ has withdrawn his nomination for permanent appointment.

Mercer's confirmation hearing was set for next week. His resignation letter says he has become convinced he would not be confirmed.

He will stay on as U.S. Attorney for Montana. Mercer has been heavily criticized for neglecting his U.S. Attorney duties while serving in the higher national DOJ slot.

Among his "contributions:"

Conservative surgeon John Barrasso will be the Acting Senator for Wyoming, replacing Craig Thomas:

Barrasso, 54, will serve in Thomas' place until the beginning of 2009. He said on his application that he also intends to then run in a November 2008 special election to serve out the remainder of Thomas' term, which ends in 2013.

His views come as no surprise:

"I believe in limited government, lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong national defense," the orthopedic surgeon and state senator from Casper wrote in his application.

He said he has "voted for prayer in schools, against gay marriage and have sponsored legislation to protect the sanctity of life."