American Bar Association Declares Bush's Signing Statements Unconstitutional
July 24, 2006 Boston Globe
The American Bar Association task force concluded on July 23rd that President Bush's signing statements (numbering approximately 750) are unconstitutional and violate separation of powers.
The task force wrote, "The president's constitutional duty is to enforce laws he has signed into being, unless and until they are held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Constitution is not what the president says it is."
Charlie Savage summarized the signing statements in a past article, (April 30, 2006)Boston Globe:
Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation's sponsors to signing ceremonies at which he lavishes praise upon their work.
Then, after the media and the lawmakers have left the White House, Bush quietly files “signing statements” -- official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the federal register. . .
In his signing statements, Bush has repeatedly asserted that the Constitution gives him the right to ignore numerous sections of the bills -- sometimes including provisions that were the subject of negotiations with Congress in order to get lawmakers to pass the bill. He has appended such statements to more than one of every 10 bills he has signed.
Nieman Foundation page on signing statements @ Harvard University
Specter to Sue Bush Over Signing Statements
July 25, AP / June 28, 2006 SF Chronicle
Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) is sponsoring a bill to stop President Bush from adding signing statements to bills that he signs into law. Specter hopes to retro-actively affect Bush's past signing statements (now totaling more than 800), particularly those added to the torture bill and the latest version of the patriot act. “We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will...authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president’s acts declared unconstitutional,” he said. Specter issues this statement after the American Bar Association released its' findings of the statements as unconstitutional (see above story).
Signing statements typically indicate how the law is to be implemented, at issue is , Specter says,"whether the president may, in effect, cherry-pick the provisions he likes, excluding the provisions he doesn’t like. The president has the option under the Constitution to veto or not."
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) said (June 28, SF Chronicle), "I believe that this new use of signing statements is a means to undermine and weaken the law. If the president is going to have the power to nullify all or part of a statute, it should only be through veto authority that the president has authorized and can reject -- rather than through a unilateral action taken outside the structures of our democracy."
June 28, 2006 San Francisco Chronicle
June 28, 2006 Rolling Stone story
Tim Russert: "Free Elections are No Guarantee of Democracy"
July 23, 2006 Meet The Press
Tim Russert, host of Meet The Press, made the statement on Sunday:
But you have free elections in Iraq, and the head of the parliament calls us butchers. You have free elections in Palestine, and Hamas wins. You have elections in Lebanon, and Hezbollah wins 10--12 seats in the parliament and two Cabinet seats. Free elections are no guarantee of democracy.
Paul Krugman rebuttal to Wall Street Journal Op Ed.
July 7 , 2006 NY Times
Paul Krugman, NY Times Op Ed columnist, responded to the Wall Street Journal's accusation that The Times has treasonous intentions. The Wall Street Journal's Political Editor is quoted as being,"“shocked,” saying that “I don’t know anybody on the news staff of The Wall Street Journal that believes that.”
Krugman's emphasis is on the administrations policy to "attempt to create a political environment in which nobody dares to criticize the administration or reveal inconvenient facts about its actions".
Clerical Error or Sign of Things to Come?
June 28, 2006 Ken Thomas, AP writer
John Conyers (D-Mich.) and 10 other House Democrats are suing to stop implementation into law of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 because the version voted on in the House and Senate was different. The change involved the number of months that Medicare would rent medical equipment for. The House version said 36 months, the Senate version 13 months. After the bill was approved in the house it was then changed back to 13 months before Bush signed the bill into law.
The debate is not just over a clerical error, but over historical president and the ability of a bill to be changed prior to signature by the President of the United States as conyers says, "First it was ignoring the Geneva Conventions, then it was the abuse of Presidential signing statements. Now our government is arguing that it can pick and choose which laws to ultimately enact, regardless of clear Constitutional procedures requiring bicameralism before presentment to the President."
See July 20, 2006 Talk Left article with links to Defendants opposition to DOJ request for dismissal.
Librarians Speak Out on FBI Demand for Records after being Gagged by Patriot Act.
May 30, 2006 ACLU
After congress completed a debate on the re-authorization of the Patriot Act the Federal Government lifted a permanent gag order on librarians that were ordered by the FBI to produce library records of patrons.The ACLU took on the case of the 4 librarians.
Ann Beeson, ACLU Associate Legal Director, said,"Our clients were gagged by the government at a time when Congress needed to hear their voices the most....This administration has repeatedly shown that it will hide behind the cloak of national security to silence its critics and cover up embarrassing facts. Every time the government invokes national security in defense of secrecy -- as they've done most recently with NSA wiretapping -- the American public should remember these four librarians."
FBI Continues to search office of Rep. William Jefferson (D;Louisiana)
May 21, 2006 CNN
After searching Rep William Jefferson's home in August the FBI has broadened their search to the Representatives' Washington office. While the warrant remains sealed an FBI spokesperson did say this search was "in conjunction with an ongoing public corruption investigation", and that a portion of the warrant would be made public after the search is complete.
CNN reports: "Vernon Jackson of Louisville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty in federal court this month to bribing the congressman with more than $400,000 in payments, company stock and a share of the profits to promote a Kentucky company's high-tech business ventures in Africa. See that story here.
Jefferson maintains his innocence in the matter and says he will remain in office. Jefferson represents the 2nd district of Louisiana, which is still rebuilding from Katrina and is enthralled in the FEMA contract scandals.
Related Link: Beyond Delay; The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress
Stephen Colbert 'Roasts' Bush And Correspondents at Correspondents'
May 1, 2006 Editor and Publisher
At the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner Stephen Colbert delivered a roast to the audience and the guests that they will not soon forget. In an event that is usually steeped in comedy Colbert, who stars in a Comedy Central series named after him, delivered an unapologetic look at George Bush, his administration and its' failed policies, and even the press.
From the start you could tell that Colbert had hit a nerve with everyone in the room, he kept drilling ......After his 'roast' had concluded Laura and George could barely shake Colbert's hand, let alone smile. The Press corp, and nearly all of the audience, appeared equally as frazzled.
The next day the press' either barely mentioned Colbert, or criticized him- Washington Post reporters Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts said,"Stephen Colbert's cutting satire fell flat because he ignored the cardinal rule of Washington humor: Make fun of yourself, not the other guy." In reality Colbert had said what none of the press dared say themselves, and most definitely not while standing next to the President of the United States. It was Harry Taylor's honest, personal criticism times one hundred. As a friend of mine said to me, "I hope Stephen has his taxes in order!" =D
A high quality VIDEO of the event can be found here.
See Washington Post Story (Not the one mentioned above!) and Blog quotes here.
White House to remove camera's from daily briefing?
May 1 , 2006 Associated Press
"Bolten (new Chief of Staff) said it may be worth considering whether to end the daily televised press briefings where reporters and the press secretary frequently air disputes in front of the cameras, but he will leave that decision up to Snow (new Press Secretary. "
European Union Accuses CIA of Secretly Transporting Terror Suspects
April 27, 2006 The Washington Post Foreign Service
An EU Parliamentary Committee accused the CIA of violating human-rights conventions and European law by concealing the true purpose of 1,000+ flights and not reporting passenger manifests to local authorities. The Parliament committee expects to conduct hearings in affected member nations. Attention will be given to the nature of the flights, compilation of the crew and prisoners, and whether EU intelligence services were involved.
Neil Young Releases "Let's Impeach the President"
April 30, 2006 F. Biele, The Progressive Report
Singer Neil Young released a new album on Friday entitle "Living with War" . His web site, www.neilyoung.com, contains a free streaming stream of the entire album and lyrics and links to interviews that he has given regarding the new album. It is currently being played by radio stations and will be available for digital download on Tuesday. The album was recorded less than 3 weeks ago and was recorded in a 12 hour session that included a 100+ chorus of all-union singers in Los Angeles, CA.
One of the songs that is particularly scathing of the President, and expected to receive backlash is entitled "Lets Impeach the President" . The song contains sound bytes from President Bush and the lyrics flip...flop...flip...flop...Young is a Canadian citizen who has lived and worked in Los Angeles for 40 years with his American born children and wife. He has already been questioned about his right to criticize America when he is not a citizen.
Young says, ""We are the silent majority now, and we haven't done a damn thing," Mr. Young said. "We've stood by and watched this happen. But there's more of us than there is of them, and we have to do something. When people start talking and see they can get away with it, it's going to happen everywhere. It's going to be a landslide, it's going to be a tidal wave. This is just the tip of it."
In March of 2003 London, just prior to the Iraq war, Dixie Chick band member Natalie Maines told a concert crowd, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." To this day they still receive criticism
Around this same time of year in 1970 Neil Young wrote "Ohio" after four Kent State University students were killed by U.S. National Guardsmen.
See April 28, NY Times Story Here.
Churches in Ohio Risk Losing Tax Exempt Status
April 25, 2006 The Washington Post
From the Washington Post story, "A group of 56 clergy members contends that two churches have gone too far in supporting a Republican candidate for governor.
Two complaints filed with the IRS say that the large Columbus area churches, active in President Bush's narrow Ohio win in 2004, violated their tax-exempt status by pushing the candidacy of J. Kenneth Blackwell, who is the secretary of state and the favored candidate of Ohio's religious right.
The clergy members said the churches improperly held political activities and allowed Republican organizations to use their facilities."
PBS series NOW recently reported on evangelical Christian support of Republican political candidates. See NOW Story here.
Democrats Urge Education Secretary to Close Loophole in No Child Left Behind Act
April 28th, 2006 Associated Press Article
In a letter to Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, 14 Democrats led by Rep. George Miller said, "It appears from these press reports that many states have been gaming the system, appealing to the U.S. Department of Education for loopholes that allow the exclusion of millions of minority children's scores .... States must not be allowed to continue to do this any longer."
Minority Students Not Counted for No Child Left Behind Act
April 18, 2006 Associated Press Article
According to the Federal Education Department 25 million students tests scores are being reported nation-wide for the No Child Left Behind Act. An Associated Press investigation found the nearly 2 million students (8%) were not counted, and the vast majority of these students are minorities.
The Associated Press reports,"Excluded minority students' scores may be counted at the district or state level. Bush has hailed the separate accounting of minority students as a vital feature of the law. "It's really essential we do that. It's really important," Bush said in a May 2004 speech. "If you don't do that, you're likely to leave people behind. And that's not right."