Interesting stuff today

I'm going to have to acknowledge the harsh reality that "links adspar likes" was a pretty worthless meme. It was kind of like those Conan O'Brien featurettes that always have the most literal names that aren't funny at all. At least he used to do that. I haven't watched him in years. Yeah, but that's what they were like. And Conan and I both have huge heads, so we have at least those two things in common.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I've seen a bunch of interesting stuff this morning that I thought I'd share.

First up was this piece by digby, contrasting today's understanding of impeachment with the views of the founding fathers. Here is James Madison on impeachment:

...let us consider the restraints he will feel after he [the president]is placed in that elevated station. It is to be remarked that the power in this case will not consist so much in continuing a bad man in office, as in the danger of displacing a good one. Perhaps the great danger, as has been observed, of abuse in the executive power, lies in the improper continuance of bad men in office. But the power we contend for will not enable him to do this; for if an unworthy man be continued in office by an unworthy president, the house of representatives can at any time impeach him, and the senate can remove him, whether the president chuses or not. The danger then consists merely in this: the president can displace from office a man whose merits require that he should be continued in it. What will be the motives which the president can feel for such abuse of his power, and the restraints that operate to prevent it? In the first place, he will be im-peachable by this house, before the senate, for such an act of mal-administration; for I contend that the wanton removal of meritorious officers would subject him to impeachment and removal from his own high trust.

"Mal-administration"... "wanton removal of meritorious officers"... "abuse of power"... raise your hand if this sounds like anyone you know. This wanton US Attorney scandal alone ought to be enough to bring that bastard down.

Next up, courtesy of PZ, is the God Simulator. Start as an eternal, omnipotent deity and see what happens!

Here's a new story about how global warming is probably going to fuck us over in ways we haven't even really considered yet. But Republicans will still loudly deny anything is happening.

And rounding it out, here is the NitPicker condemning yet another Republican corruption scandal:

So, while it's good to see Congress finally chipping away at the crust surrounding the Bushies warm, gooey center of corruption, it's important to make clear that this isn't simply a rogue, incompetent administration. This is a rogue, incompetent administration which is, nevertheless, following the exact recipes Republicans have written over the last thirty years. Americans need to understand that, in one sense, Bush hasn't failed. He implemented core Republican principles and they failed. And they always will.