State Secrets & Executive Privilege

Man, this crap really makes my eyes cross.

First up, John Stewart interviews Robert Pallitto, author of Presidential Secrecy and the Law .



Next up, Glenn Greenwald reveals the partisan bamboozlement of John Yoo, author of much of Bush's legal theories of necessary Executive Privilege, who during the Clinton years, denounced Executive Privilege.

Glenn Greenwald: John Yoo, then and Now


And finally, Kagro X has a blog entry about the near-futility of trying to exert even a tiny bit of accountability with a Contempt of Congress charge:

Contempt Vote in the House


So ... the President can (and regularly does) declare anything a State Secret, the Supreme Court can't adjudicate a case for which the President asserts a State Secret, and Congress has to get the Executive to prosecute a Contempt of Congress charge against the Executive.

Oh! and the person who is going to WRITE the letter to Congress telling them to go to hell, Fred Fielding, is probably going to be person that Congress issues a contempt against!

It makes my head hurt.

Our system of checks and balances is in complete tatters.