Saturday, March 17, 2007

Patriot Act shenanigans

I have been trying for some time now to figure out the rationale for the clause in the Patriot Act regarding the appointment of U.S. Attorneys. We know that in reality it was a power grab by the Imperial Presidency, but I couldn't figure out how they pretended that the clause belonged in a bill regarding protecting the United States from attacks by Horrific Islamofacist Terrorist Evil Doers. Oh, wait, I forgot "Radical." Whatever.

At last it is revealed.

The clause facilitates replacing a U.S. Attorney in the event that one is killed in a terrorist attack.

That clatter you heard was me falling out of my chair. I am back now, uninjured, and we can continue. The cat left the room in quite a hurry, so that makes me a terrorist of sorts, but we can proceed without the cat.

Anyway, a question arises in my mind. Why do we need to expeditiously replace U.S. Attorneys and not, say, Federal Judges? Or a bunch of other positions that under normal circumstances require Senate confirmation?

Or is there another clause in the Patriot Act that no one has noticed yet?

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