The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by MacAlister:

Those lyrics are from an old, unattributed folk song called (usually) Delia's Gone, about a beautiful but vicious, conniving woman who gets her comeuppance. In that particular verse, the songwriter is discussing his lack of concern over his paltry sentence for killing her.

There are many verses, some of which describe Delia's violent end in graphic detail. I expect some of the folks Martha Ivery conned would really enjoy it.

To ease back closer to the topic,

per Claude Muncey:

This has happened before -- consider what would have happened if Nixon, in his last month in office, called that anonymous major or lieutenant commander waiting just outside into the oval office and tried to issue an execution order for OPLAN 1000. I have no doubt that this would have been checked first with the Secretary of Defence, and would have been quietly ignored. (The double check is normal procedure -- emergency war orders are to be issued jointly by both the PotUS and SecDef, not by the President alone, despite what all the novels say. The "Two Man Rule" on nukes operates all the way to the top.) Shortly afterwards, Vice President Ford would have invoked Section 4 instead of Section 1 of the 25th Amendment, as Nixon would have been residing in a quiet locked room in Bethesda.

So let's review how this applies to the current situation. Such an order, or any order, would have be be reviewed by both Rummy and the Shrub. That's like saying my decisions have to be reviewed by me and myself. But wait! Section 4 could then be invoked by--woops!--President Cheney, from a secured, undisclosed location, to countermand an order he gave in the first place anyway.

Does anybody see how the current administration has already gotten around any safeguards against its insanity there may have been? The SecDef and the real CEO already march in lock-step, and The Smirker is simply a figurehead. He's been residing in a quiet locked room on Pennsylvania Avenue since September, four years ago.

Regarding the "hunker down and wait" theory, it's easy enough to do, especially when equipped with blinders, earplugs, and enough booze. But I'm concerned about how much additional damage can be done in our foreign affairs, and to our treasury, in the next three years.

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