The American Bar Association – hardly a bastion of anti-Bush liberals – is starting to ask about those signing statements President Bush has been using to basically say he doesn’t have to follow the law he’s signing if he doesn’t want to.

A panel of legal scholars and lawyers assembled by the American Bar Association is sharply criticizing the use of “signing statements” by President Bush that assert his right to ignore or not enforce laws passed by Congress.

In a report to be issued today, the ABA task force said that Bush has lodged more challenges to provisions of laws than all previous presidents combined.

The panel members described the development as a serious threat to the Constitution’s system of checks and balances, and they urged Congress to pass legislation permitting court review of such statements. – Washington Post

People are starting to come around to the fact that this administration is recklessly out of control when it comes to their abuse and over interpretation of executive power.

Ouch… It’s no wonder that Republican Paul Bucher’s campaign waited until Friday to release it’s fundraising numbers.

In the first six months of 2006 Bucher raised a total of $136,111 while spending $179,950 according to his campaign finance reports and has just over $85,000 left in ‘cash on hand’. That, to put it mildly, is terrible for his campaign at this point in the race.

Compare to the other Republican J.B. Van Hollen who has $417,000+ (part of that is a second mortgage he took on his house) ‘cash on hand’ and has spent $95,000+ so far for his campaign. Clearly the money favorite for the Republicans going into the final stretch of the campaign before the September primary is Van Hollen, and I think that’s the opposite of what most people would have predicted.

The Democratic candidates by the way both have strong campaign war chests at this point. Kathleen Falk has $600,000+ cash on hand and current AG Peg Lautenschlager has over $238,000 in the bank.

I’ve always held the belief that it’s unfortunate that so much money is required to run for political office these days, and I can sympathize with the Bucher campaign in that respect. While every race should be about the issues and the quality of candidates, the sad fact is that we live in a Democracy these days in which money is often the deciding factor in who gets the most votes.

This is very similiar to the problem Scott Walker had in his quest for the GOP nomination for Governor a few months ago. As soon as it was disclosed that he was getting killed in the fundraising department, it pretty much dried up any additional influx of money because for the most part, no one wants to give money to a loser.

And when you’re trailing everyone else in the race by such a wide margin, that perception is hard to shake even for someone like Paul Bucher.

The last few months in Iraq have been particularly bloody as I mentioned a few days ago, and the violence this week has been even worse:

Bombings and shootings soared by 40 percent in the Baghdad area in the past week, the U.S. military said Thursday. An American general said extremists were preparing “an all-out assault” on the capital in a decisive battle for the future of Iraq. – AP

Does anyone really buy the Republican line anymore that if we pull troops out of Iraq, it’s going to be a ‘catastrophe’? Does anyone really buy the Republican line anymore that Iraq is the “central front on the war on terror”?

The fact is that Iraq is already in a state of chaos and civil war today and bringing our troops home isn’t going to have an effect on the stability – or lack thereof – in Iraq anymore. It’s chaos with 130,000 troops there 3+ years after “Mission Accomplished” and it’s time we face the fact that it’s only going to get worse with or without the US military.

At least 20 civilians were killed today in Bahgdad alone.

Sixteen other bodies were found in widely separate parts of the country — apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

Also Wednesday, six people died when a bomb hidden in a plastic bag exploded inside a vegetable shop in eastern Baghdad, police Lt. Ali Abbas said. Five more people were killed in three small blasts in the Karradah district of central Baghdad, Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said.

In west Baghdad, gunmen killed Maj. Gen. Fakhir Abdul-Hussein Ali, legal adviser to the Interior Ministry, as he rode to work. – AP

News today also came out that over 6,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in May and June. Twice the number of people killed in the 9/11 attacks have been killed in Iraq in just the past 2 months, and it doesn’t even make the news.

I honestly don’t expect much from President Bush these days, but one thing it would be nice for him to remember is that he is still a represenative of the United States when he travels abroad.

His behavior in recent days has been nothing short of embarrassing and un-Presidential.

First it was gnawing on a butter roll, mouth-agape, while using “shit” and “Syria” in the same sentance, and now he’s trying to pull the ole backrub technique on the Prime Minister of Germany.

Dear Mr. President: You’re not at a Yale frat party anymore dumbass. Start acting like it.

At least 53 innocent civilians are dead and 105 more wounded in Iraq today.

Every innocent death only clarifies what a failure the President’s “stay and pray” policy has been… and continues to be.

The violence is so widespread and prevalent in Iraq it’s not even front page news anymore when 40+ civilians or American troops are killed anymore.

A coordinated attack Monday in Mahmoudiya south of Baghdad killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens, and small-arms fire killed a U.S. soldier in the capital. – CNN

The problem of course is that by and large the American public is increasingly becoming indifferent and apathetic to the constant death and destruction that’s coming out of Iraq. Forty innocent civilians being killed doesn’t even make the second page of the newspaper anymore! Think about that.

It’s cute the President thinks he’s a comedian and all, but how about some leadership on the serious crisis in the MidEast right now instead of jokes about a pig preoccupation?

And when an American reporter asked Bush whether he is concerned about the Israeli bombing of the Beirut airport and about Iran’s failure to respond to an offer for negotiations that the U.S. and its European allies have made, Bush replied with more boar jokes before delving into the substance of the questions. Chicago Trib.

He brought it up five times during the press conference in Germany yesterday. After all, who cares if the middle east is on the brink of war, North Korea has nukes pointed at us, and civilians are being slaughtered on the streets of Baghdad? Let’s tell another joke about the pig!

I wonder what the odds are on at least one instance of the “terror alert level” being raised between now and then?

Republicans are in jeopardy of losing their grip on Congress in November. With less than four months to the midterm elections, the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that Americans by an almost 3-to-1 margin hold the GOP-controlled Congress in low regard and profess a desire to see Democrats wrest control after a dozen years of Republican rule. AP