Stalin
So bush has claimed by virtue of Congress authorizing him to take military action in Afghanistan, he as commander and chief has the authority to violate explicit laws and and constitutional prohibitions against search without so much as informing anyone, much less any oversight. As patently ridiculous as that claim is the more frightening one is that the claim taken to its conclusion grants the commander and chief the right seize anyone off the street and perform a summary execution.
Maybe it’ll be with a bit of cover: I believe someone in this mosque is affiliated with terrorism, I’ll send in my special operations team (i.e. death squad) and kill them all. Don’t forget to dig the mass grave.
Or perhaps as political intimidation: Mr. Senator you voted incorrectly in that last vote, I think you are giving aid to terrorists by not giving me unfettered power. Sgt. kill this traitor. “bang.” Good now do the rest of you want to check to make sure you voted th right way?
There is nothing more sacred about the laws covering murder than the laws covering surveillance, his belief that one sort of laws don’t apply to him if he doesn’t want them to suggests he will equally throw aside other laws when they are inconvenient.
Bush’s interpretation of law have consistently been incompatible with 200+ years of freedom. He isn’t satisfied being a president he want full military dictatorship powers. Unfortunately since the senate is control by his party and since party loyalty seems to trump actual law and what is good for this country, impeachment proceeding are not underway.
I wonder how senators who impeached for lying about an affair justify not impeaching a president advocating and secretly carrying out both torture and domestic spying without judicial oversight.
When Bush first starting making his powergrab, I had discussions with people who were of the opinion that it only affected the “bad” people and non-citizens so how was I affected and shouldn’t I shut up now. Now we see where it leads and how we all are affected, the question is whether anything legal can be done to stop it?
“I wonder how senators who impeached for lying about an affair justify not impeaching a president advocating and secretly carrying out both torture and domestic spying without judicial oversight.”
Probably something ridiculous along the lines of “This is done in the interest of national security.”
(http://livejournal.com/users/josephgrossberg)
I don't doubt this and what frightens me even more is that because our election system is completely rigged and gerrymandered to hell and back we can't implement the final check on these people and remove them from office by virtue of election.
(http://livejournal.com/users/nephlm)