I Really Am Above the Law

Most of the Press has really joined the Fifth Columnist, {Read Here} those who are working to do away with our Constitutional Republic. They did not do their jobs when it comes to informing the American people about the signing of the Patriot Act Bill, making what should never have been even temporarily part of our laws, into a forever law. The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, Mr. Bush and his Administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

Oh yes, they covered the ceremony. Mr. Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, 2006, saying it was ‘’a piece of legislation that’s vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people.”. But they did not cover the most important signing that Mr. Bush did that day, in secret.He included an addendum (or signing statement, an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law), saying that “he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act’s expanded police powers. Undermining our Constitution, and their duty under that Constitution”.

Mr. Bush expanded on this by saying that “he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law’s requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ‘’impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive’s constitutional duties.”

‘’The executive branch shall construe the provisions that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch in a manner consistent with the president’s constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information”.

Mr. Bush, once again has cited his constitutional authority to bypass a law. He not only thinks of himself as above the law, but that he can write the laws for himself. Bush’s expansive claims of the power to bypass laws have provoked increased grumbling in Congress. Members of both parties have pointed out that the Constitution gives the legislative branch the power to write the laws and the executive branch the duty to ‘’faithfully execute” them.

This comes after the disclosure that Mr. Bush had authorized the illegal electronic surveillance of American’s phone calls and e-mails without obtaining warrants from the FISA Court, as required by law. Mr. Bush said his “wartime powers gave him the right to ignore the warrant law.”

This year Congress passed a law forbidding the torture of any detainee in US custody. Mr. Bush signed the bill but issued a signing statement declaring that “he could bypass the law if he believed using harsh interrogation techniques was necessary to protect national security”.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, inserted a statement into the record of the Senate Judiciary Committee objecting to Bush’s interpretation of the Patriot Act, but neither the signing statement nor Leahy’s objection received coverage from the mainstream news media, Leahy’s office said.

Leahy said Bush’s assertion that he could ignore the new provisions of the Patriot Act (provisions that were the subject of intense negotiations in Congress ) represented ‘’nothing short of a radical effort to manipulate the constitutional separation of powers and evade accountability and responsibility for following the law.”

‘’The president’s signing statements are not the law, and Congress should not allow them to be the last word,” Leahy said in a prepared statement. ‘’The president’s constitutional duty is to faithfully execute the laws as written by the Congress, not cherry-pick the laws he decides he wants to follow. It is our duty to ensure, by means of congressional oversight, that he does so.”

The White House dismissed Leahy’s concerns. Surprise, surprise! It should concern the press. It should concern the Congress. My God, don’t they see that they are becoming even more redundant . Soon there will be no need for a Congress. Mr. Bush can handle making the laws. This Cabal has already determined that they can decide which laws they must follow. How many rulings by the courts has this Administration defied? It should concern all of us.

A New York University law professor who specializes in executive power issues, David Golove, “the signing statement illustrates the administration’s ‘mind-bogglingly expansive conception of executive power, and its low regard for legislative power. On the one hand, they deny that Congress even has the authority to pass laws on these subjects like torture and eavesdropping, and in addition to that, they say that Congress is not even entitled to get information about anything to do with the war on terrorism”.

Unitary Executive Branch, my ass! All Hail, King George! Anyone want to join in a Tea Party?