Dear Hillary

A debate over a law is never “over”:

As this debate moves forward toward the next election I would hope that Republicans and conservatives take the opportunity to remind voters that our entire system of government is, to varying degrees, a flexible and constantly shifting beast. Obamacare is, beyond question, the law of the land as it stands today. It’s also true that a couple of aspects of it have been challenged through the proper rules of order and have survived the test all the way to the highest court. But absolutely none of that has magically transformed this piece of legislation into some sort of natural law, essential human right or sacred text brought down on stone tablets from Mount Sinai.

The law of the land is as permanent as the voters decide it should be. Its expiration date may never come or it may be swept way with the next meeting of the legislature. There is no debate over the law which ever truly ends as long as there are those left who wish to debate it.

It’s almost as thought they want to silence dissent.

Gina McCarthy, John Koskinen

…and other obstructers of justice. Congress should impeach them. And remove them. They should have done it with Holder, too.

Yes. Impeachment is used far too seldom, largely, I think, because political partisanship has come to take precedence over Congressional prerogatives against the Executive. The Founders would be appalled at the degree to which partisans in Congress allow the Constitution and law to be spit on.

How We Get To Mars

Rick Tumlinson channels me in this Space News op-ed:

If settlement is the goal, Apollo redux is dead. Giant expendable government rockets hurling government employees and return vehicles at Mars won’t cut it in the long run. The main reason to do so is government public relations, as the heroes return and share their stories. If settlement is the goal, we send other kinds of PR heroes — settlers — who land and live out their days on camera, building the first community as more and more follow. Again, it’s different models. One model works for government, the other for private ventures. And since the one-way model is so much cheaper, and the people who will have working one-way systems first are private sector, they may well beat the government to Mars.

He proposes a much more viable approach, but for now, it’s politically unrealistic. Congress doesn’t want to send people to Mars. It wants to build big rockets.

[Afternoon update]

Keith Cowing isn’t impressed.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!