Republican Punk Is Back!

After a refreshing vacation and break from the real world, the blog has returned!

Unfortunately, things didn't stop while we were offline, so here's a quick recap:

The Holder justice department decided looking back instead of forward was a good idea after all, and is investigating a small group of CIA interregators. To quote Peter King: "It's Bulls***! Makes you wonder whos side they're on."

Scott Kazmir was traded to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a pair of high potential, low minors prospects and a player to be named later. Kazmir was having a very bad season and is signed for over $30 million over the next two years (more if his 2012 option was picked up), so while first instinct is advantage Angels, it could turn out to be a win for both teams (if the prospects work out quickly and Kazmir rebounds) or possibly even another coup for the Rays, such as when they got Kazmir and another prospect for Victor Zambrano.

Jim Doyle announced he wasn't running for re-election as Governor of Vermont, likely costing the Republican party a critical seat in a dark blue state.

Matt Skiba has plans to record a solo album. Here's to hoping that the Alkaline Trio frontman can make something as good as his short-lived post-punk side project, Heavens.

And of course: Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009. It's the end of an era.

The Proper Republican Response to CIA Revelations

CIA Director Leon Panetta's recent admission to members of Congress that the CIA kept a program secret from everyone, including Congress, under orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney has brought the expected witch hunt from the left and cries of witch hunt from the right. This would be my response:

1) Let's call a spade a spade. The level of executive privelage used by the second Bush administration clearly went beyond what was necessary to keep us safe. There is a difference between using military commissions to keep secrets uncovered about terrorist activities and resulting from ongoing investigations, vs. hiding certain executive/intelligence activities because they were probably illegal.

2) An investigation here is appropriate. This is different than the liberal attempt to haul everyone who ever spoke to the former President concerning waterboarding and other forms of enhanced interrogation and its potential illegality. Those are policies that have since been abolished by the new administration, and crafting a legal opinion (such as what John Yoo and other lawyers did) or carrying out activities that you were told were legal (such as what the CIA operatives involve did) should never be considered wrong. That was their job, and they were told by every one of their superiors that they were doing it properly. In this case, there is the potential for blatent, knowledgeable violations of the law.

3) As mentioned above, this investigation should not touch the CIA operative who carried out this operation, if they were simply told by their superiors that it was legal and had no reason to suspect otherwise.

4) As believers in limited, constitutional government, we should be apalled that the Vice President, a position that exists, even in the new, expanded government, solely to break tie-votes in the Senate and advise the President/lead Presidential commissions, was issuing commands such as this.

5) While this should be carried out in a way that is as transparant as possible, the specifics of this program should not be revealed to the public until it can be confirmed that it was illegal. We also shouldn't jump to conclusions about the legality of this. While morally we can be opposed to the VP having such powers and select committees not being briefed, this may have been within the realm of the law. Whether we like this or not, we need to remember that.

Relevant Link: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24821.html