By David Swanson
Every major pseudo peace movement organization in the country, afraid to actually urge Congress to cut off the money for the illegal occupation of Iraq, believed it was really important to set up a commission to probe contractor waste in Iraq, and to once again ban the construction and maintenance of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. Every open-government and whistleblowers group backed the expansion of protections for whistleblowers and the requirement that intelligence agencies promptly respond to congressional requests for documents.
This week President Bush signed the Defense Authorization bill into law, and then added a statement announcing his right to violate these four provisions. And the silence is deafening.
The Guardian newspaper in England, and the Boston Globe wrote serious reports.
The Associated Press wrote an article that touched on the topic but missed the point.
The Virginian Pilot wrote an article that followed Senator Jim Webb's lead and avoided the central problem.
Senators Casey, Levin, and Webb made remarks that failed to challenge Bush's abuse of power or mention the word "impeachment."
The House of Representatives maintained a total and absolute silence.
And activist groups followed suit.
And they look like fools or hypocrites. All of them.
Yes, previous presidents have written signing statements, but never to announce their right to violate laws, only to express opinions about the laws that they were going to, as a matter of their essential duty as president, enforce.
Yes, a signing statement announcing the right to violate a law, and the actual violation are two different things.
Yes, a signing statement should be meaningless.
But the Supreme Court cites them and the Bush-Cheney administration acts on them. This is not the first time Bush has given himself the right to violate bans on permanent military bases, and he has continued to violate those bans. Bush and Cheney routinely refuse to provide Congress with information, to sanction contractor abuse, and to punish whistleblowers. These behaviors will continue, just as will torture and warrentless spying and various other activities that this administration derives the right to engage in from signing statements.
The Government Accountability Office found last year that in a small sample of these signing statements the Bush-Cheney administration had already followed through on violating 30 percent of the laws it claimed the right to violate. The corporate media now spins this as glass-half-full news (more than half the time he doesn't mean it! hurray!).
Last January the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on the matter, laying bare the violation of constitutional separation of powers. A Justice Department official testified that the president could violate any law he liked until the Supreme Court told him to stop.
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http://www.davidswanson.org
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
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Student of history, religion, exoteric and esoteric, the Humanities in general and advocate for peace, justice and the unity of humankind, not through force, but through self-realization and mutual respect. |
Needed: A New American Revolution Our institutions have been turned into prisons in the Matrix. Our representatives by and large act as sleazily as whores and with all the courage of the Vichy French Government sucking up to Hitler, except Bush doesn't hold Congress at gunpoint, he merely waves cliches and bromides over their heads. The triumph of mendacity over Truth. Not one of them dares tell Bush to his face that he is a lying dog, a mass-murderer and a sick torturer. That omission alone should bring down the wrath of the Heavens upon them. By their default, it will bring the wrath of the Heavens down on us, the American people, unless we act. When a nation of laws becomes a nation of lies, the whole system has to be picked up, turned upside down and shaken vigorously. by
Mac McKinney (42 articles, 62 quicklinks, 146 diaries, 984 comments)
on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 9:22:27 PM
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Rick Kellis is currently a graduate student at California State University at Northridge and will obtain his long-sought M.A. in Systematic Musicology (Psychology of Music) at the end of this spring 2008 semester. His area of interest lies in employing natural tonality, achievable through the use of just intonation, to produce optimum consonance, leading to greater resonance. Resonance is a key ingredient in the practice of music therapy and in superstring theory, an area in which a myriad of... |
Not all are silent about impeachment especially progressives Over at Buzzflash.com there are about a half dozen stories listed re: these signing statements- Here the summary on one: by
RicK (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 1:39:31 AM
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This quote summarizes the nature of my concerns and the content of personal experiences which stir my activism:
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Here is a very radical--and necessary?---idea: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. " Time for a new Declaration of Independence? Time to cut the apron strings? by
Kathryn Smith (88 articles, 2 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 342 comments)
on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 3:24:58 AM
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It has to be unconstitutional Bush is using these signing statements as a line item veto which is a power he does not possess. Why isn't someone doing something about this? by
Watching (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 314 comments)
on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 3:53:04 PM
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Pelosi is a Joke The words outta her mouth sound stern but the look on her face at the Stae of the Union speech spoke volumes. She should abdicate her throne in the HR in shame. White woman speak with forked tongue, Kimosabe. Thanks for the article, David. Keep tryin'. by
Papawhale (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 60 comments)
on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 5:24:57 PM
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