No, really?
Jul. 25th, 2006 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockIt's nice, if somewhat late, that the American Bar Association has begun to take notice of the naked power grab on the part of the president and this administration. Imagine the impact if this had come out in 2004:
Among those unanimous recommendations, the Task Force voted to:
- oppose, as contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers, a President's issuance of signing statements to claim the authority or state the intention to disregard or decline to enforce all or part of a law he has signed, or to interpret such a law in a manner inconsistent with the clear intent of Congress;
- urge the President, if he believes that any provision of a bill pending before Congress would be unconstitutional if enacted, to communicate such concerns to Congress prior to passage;
- urge the President to confine any signing statements to his views regarding the meaning, purpose, and significance of bills, and to use his veto power if he believes that all or part of a bill is unconstitutional;
- urge Congress to enact legislation requiring the President promptly to submit to Congress an official copy of all signing statements, and to report to Congress the reasons and legal basis for any instance in which he claims the authority, or states the intention, to disregard or decline to enforce all or part of a law he has signed, or to interpret such a law in a manner inconsistent with the clear intent of Congress, and to make all such submissions be available in a publicly accessible database.
It really is nice that people are starting to figure this shit out two damn years too late...
And continuing the better late than never theme, Glenn Greenwald points to this:
Andrew Sullivan today publishes an e-mail from an American solider in Iraq, reporting that "Baghdad has descended into complete anarchy" and that Iraqi police officers are afraid even to drive to Baghdad. Sullivan calls our invasion of Iraq, which he vocally supported, "one of the the biggest military fiascoes in American history." I realize there is always controversy generated when supporters of the war end up acknowledging that it was a mistake, but between someone who acknowledges error and those who continue to insist in the face of undeniable reality that things are going well in Iraq and that our invasion was the right thing to do, I will take the former over the latter every time.
You know it really didn't take a new Nostradamus to figure out way back in '03 that this was how things were going to turn out. In fact, many of us did, and were told in not so polite terms to STFU. I wish I could be as open and prepared to forgive the very people who referred to myself and like-minded folks as "terrorist lovers", "Saddam supporters" and lest we forget, "traitors"; sadly I find myself unable to. I kind of feel like I've spent the past 5 years watching a clusterfuck of a film and screaming at the tv, "What the fuck are you thinking? Are you even capable of higher thought? What the matter is wrong with you people?!"
The only downside is I can't switch the channel and watch something else.
Among those unanimous recommendations, the Task Force voted to:
- oppose, as contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers, a President's issuance of signing statements to claim the authority or state the intention to disregard or decline to enforce all or part of a law he has signed, or to interpret such a law in a manner inconsistent with the clear intent of Congress;
- urge the President, if he believes that any provision of a bill pending before Congress would be unconstitutional if enacted, to communicate such concerns to Congress prior to passage;
- urge the President to confine any signing statements to his views regarding the meaning, purpose, and significance of bills, and to use his veto power if he believes that all or part of a bill is unconstitutional;
- urge Congress to enact legislation requiring the President promptly to submit to Congress an official copy of all signing statements, and to report to Congress the reasons and legal basis for any instance in which he claims the authority, or states the intention, to disregard or decline to enforce all or part of a law he has signed, or to interpret such a law in a manner inconsistent with the clear intent of Congress, and to make all such submissions be available in a publicly accessible database.
It really is nice that people are starting to figure this shit out two damn years too late...
And continuing the better late than never theme, Glenn Greenwald points to this:
Andrew Sullivan today publishes an e-mail from an American solider in Iraq, reporting that "Baghdad has descended into complete anarchy" and that Iraqi police officers are afraid even to drive to Baghdad. Sullivan calls our invasion of Iraq, which he vocally supported, "one of the the biggest military fiascoes in American history." I realize there is always controversy generated when supporters of the war end up acknowledging that it was a mistake, but between someone who acknowledges error and those who continue to insist in the face of undeniable reality that things are going well in Iraq and that our invasion was the right thing to do, I will take the former over the latter every time.
You know it really didn't take a new Nostradamus to figure out way back in '03 that this was how things were going to turn out. In fact, many of us did, and were told in not so polite terms to STFU. I wish I could be as open and prepared to forgive the very people who referred to myself and like-minded folks as "terrorist lovers", "Saddam supporters" and lest we forget, "traitors"; sadly I find myself unable to. I kind of feel like I've spent the past 5 years watching a clusterfuck of a film and screaming at the tv, "What the fuck are you thinking? Are you even capable of higher thought? What the matter is wrong with you people?!"
The only downside is I can't switch the channel and watch something else.
