Breaking News from ABC:

Troop Surge Already Under Way
90 Advance Troops from 82nd Airborne Arrive in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 10, 2007— - President Bush's speech may be scheduled for tonight, but the troop surge in Iraq is already under way.

ABC News has learned that the "surge" President Bush is expected to announce in a primetime speech tonight has already begun. Ninety advance troops from the 82nd Airborne division arrived in Baghdad today.

Good afternoon, mushy-headed defeatists!

(Don't mind the good-natured jab! That's just what Glenn Greenwald thinks you are if you think the good folks in the Bush "administration" aren't quaking in their boots in the wake of the Hamdan decision.)

Just thought I'd bring you up-to-date on the short life of the Hamdan decision. You'll recall that two weeks ago we learned that the "administration" denied that Hamdan appliedto the NSA's spying programs, and a bit later, that they denied that Hamdan applied to torture, too.

If you haven't already added Jane Mayer's New Yorker profile on David Addington, Cheney's Chief of Staff and chief architect of the administration's "legal theories" on the "war on terror" to your Must Read List, you should do so immediately. I thank my fellow Next Hurrah blogger emptywheel for bringing it to my attention.

This article, especially in combination with the recent PBS Frontline presentation, "The Dark Side," makes a solid and quite explicit case for something that many have been arguing for a long time, namely that the current administration's constitutional affrontery is a direct outgrowth of our collective failure to definitively and directly repudiate and exterminate the expansionist views of executive power represented by the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals.

Back in March, I took a look at what little data there was that could test the conventional wisdom that discussion of impeachment was "bad" for Democrats. The data in question was the 2004 election results from Nevada, whose Democratic Party had included in its statewide platform a plank calling for impeachment.

The results, you may recall, were a net gain in seats in the state legislature, and increased Democratic performance in every Congressional District in the state.

Not rock solid proof that impeachment helps Dems at the polls, of course. But a solid data point in refuting the stab-in-the-dark guess -- and that's all it is -- that impeachment hurts them.

Ten.

Were you aware of that?

One in every five state Democratic Party organizations have already crashed that gate, often in defiance of the party brass. And, as we know only too well, in defiance of the national leadership.

Gee, what could possibly account for such a widespread, but wholly organic movement?

And imagine where it'd be if there were national Democratic leaders willing to take the reins.

"But, wait!" I hear you protesting. "Coming out for impeachment will be used against us. It'll hurt Dems at the polls!"

"But..." you'll hear me answer, "that's just a guess. You have nothing to point to that says you're right. Whereas, I have something to point to that says you're wrong."

It has been my contention for a while now that the options for containing the dangerous expansion of executive power under the Nixon/Bush doctrine are diminishing, to the point where impeachment may be the last left standing.

And despite the validity of the various political or mechanical objections to impeachment, I'm left with the same question: what other alternative is there?

Love it or hate it, think it's possible or don't, outside of impeachment, the field of potential champions is looking mighty thin.

I recommend to you a discussion at The Next Hurrah, kicked off by DemFromCT back on December 2nd, of the shenanigans at the Department of Justice regarding the Texas redistricting case?

"Stop talking about impeachment!"

"Focus on the elections!"

"Win back the Congress, and then we'll have subpoena power and oversight authority!"

It seems to me that it's time to have a nuts and bolts discussion about what we're supposed to be gaining in exchange for agreeing to sit on our hands and watch what we say.

How exactly do we see subpoena power and oversight authority under a Democratic Congress actually playing out?

Let's start the inquiry by taking a look at how attempts at oversight, however pathetic they might be, are going in the current, Republican Congress.

So I've finally decided to pick up and read the copy of Al Franken's The Truth, with Jokes that I got as a gift this past holiday season. And having just recently read some of the blog coverage of Franken's recent visit to Burlington, Vermont, I was struck by a section of the book I read last night, and haven't been able to sleep since.

Let me start with the relevant passage of the book. In Chapter Six, "With Friends Like Zell," Franken describes what may have been one of the most politically costly mistakes made by the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign.

His discussion begins with Kerry's own foreshadowing of one particular Republican attack:

Dateline: Oregon

Old Friends DFA to Present Impeachment Resolution to City Commissioners and Mayor Potter Next Wednesday at 9:30 AM

Submitted by Ginny Ross - DFO on Fri, 05/05/2006 - 9:21pm.

Those supporting impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney are invited to attend Wednesday’s (May 10) City Council meeting at 9:30 a.m. That’s when a Resolution to Impeach both men will be presented to City Commissioners and Mayor Potter by the DFA's Old Friends Coffeehouse MeetUp group.

Today's episode... Mobile, Alabama!

Can't take three more years of Bush

It appears that President Bush believes that he is infallible. He refuses to admit that he has made any mistakes. Where is the accountability that Republicans always talk about?

If the president, because of his ego and arrogance, refuses to recognize and admit mistakes, then we will never solve the problems of America. Here are just a few of the major problems.

He failed to respond effectively to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. For example, a report by government auditors discloses that our government spent $3 million for 4,000 beds which were never used. We spent thousands for trailers which were never used. In 2003 and 2004, our government awarded more than $10 billion in contracts to Halliburton and its subsidiaries, most of them no-bid contracts.