30 May 2006

SOMETIMES I DO NOT LIKE IRONY

Memorial Day: the one day out of every year when Americans reflect on the men and women who have died in service to our freedoms, to protect us and our nation from those who would seek to conquer or ruin us. A day to stand humbled before those who have paid a patriot's greatest price for liberty.

Interesting that this weekend of all weekends gave us the latest proof that the Constitution is dead. From Sunday's Boston Globe (free registration):
"The office of Vice President Dick Cheney routinely reviews pieces of legislation before they reach the president's desk, searching for provisions that Cheney believes would infringe on presidential power, according to former White House and Justice Department officials.

...

Previous vice presidents have had neither the authority nor the interest in reviewing legislation. But Cheney has used his power over the administration's legal team to promote an expansive theory of presidential authority. Using signing statements, the administration has challenged more laws than all previous administrations combined."
How terribly lovely. It's been hardly a week since I read Glenn Greenwald's book about this very topic, and it's nice to see that there's still more to say about it. Not going to do the quote-mining thing, just go and read the article. Then weep for the fate of our country.

Via Firedoglake, where there is extensive commentary.
at

2 comments:

  1. Pat King5/30/06, 11:03 AM

    Yeah, the signing statements thing creeps me out, mostly because it means that what I (along with most people I know) had assumed was a general cowardice in that Bush never vetoed anything that hit his desk, was in fact a more complex cowardice, whereby he would not explicitly veto, but rather add a statement saying "Unless I don't feel like it." Surely this cannot stand?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pat King5/30/06, 11:16 AM

    Oh, and I also like Cheney's little "FISA sucks ass!" comment whereby he argues that, since FISA was implemented during a period of overreaction, and hurt the president's power, they shouldn't have to obey it. Which, when you think about it, is so true. The real problem, though, is those pesky elections, implemented during a period of overreaction to imperial monarchy. Let's scrap those as well, eh?

    ReplyDelete

Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.

Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.