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kpete Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 07:52 PM
Original message
Bushworld: President Can "Ignore or Modify" Laws "Without Disclosing New Interpretation"
Edited on Thu May-08-08 07:58 PM by kpete
In a partial concession to Congressional pressure, the Bush administration agreed on Wednesday to show the Senate and House Intelligence Committees secret Justice Department legal opinions justifying harsh interrogation techniques that critics call torture.

At the hearing, a department official, John P. Elwood, disclosed a previously unpublicized method to cloak government activities. Mr. Elwood acknowledged that the administration believed that the president could ignore or modify existing executive orders that he or other presidents have issued without disclosing the new interpretation.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/08/pixie-dust-and-the-john-yoo-memos/

It’s hard to understate how radical is CheneyAddington’s vision of the presidency. They have tossed out finely crafted political compromises along with the rule of law, some that took centuries to establish. Their elaborate or snarky arguments boil down to l’etat, c’est moi.

This President is subject to no laws, not even his own.
That’s not representative, constitutional government.
It’s dictatorship.
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PDJane Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 07:54 PM
Response to Original message
1. Uh, guys?
You know that freedom thing? You don't have it anymore.
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grannylib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 07:55 PM
Response to Original message
2. Well of COURSE they can! As long as the pResident is Chimpy the
Imbecile.
Let a Democrat try that, and the little piggies would be squealing up a storm.
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DavidDvorkin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 08:43 PM
Response to Original message
3. The President can, with a wave of his wand, castrate Congress
Or even just a wiggle of his eyebrow. That interpretation of presidential powers might once have seemed controversial, not to mention unlikely. However, the current Democratic majority has accepted its validity.
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dysfunctional press Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 10:41 PM
Response to Original message
4. why isn't that front-page above-the-fold banner-headline NEWS!...?
oh...yeah...corrupt corporate media and the corrupt corporate president dictator. got it.
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lovuian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 10:44 PM
Response to Original message
5. Congress didn't get the memo that Bush was King
and I really will be surprised if he leaves quietly
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Fly by night Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 06:44 AM
Response to Reply #5
15. I am also concerned that the Chimp will not leave easily.
It is sad (and frightening) to hear the corporate media pundits predicting another "October surprise" that would be the excuse Bush would use to declare martial law and refuse (for the third time) to acknowledge and respect the consent of the governed. (I've heard that in recent months both on "Washington Week in Review" and "the McLaughlin Report", two PBS programs.)

If that happens, I expect a number of Iraqi war vets will remember their oath to "defend the country from all enemies, foreign and domestic." As one young vet said after watching the premiere of "UNCOUNTED", he couldn't imagine a bigger domestic enemy than those who steal elections.
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magellan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:39 PM
Response to Original message
6. It isn't as if this wasn't obvious
But DAMN it pisses me off to read it in black and white and know that STILL, NOTHING will be done about it.
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alfredo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:50 PM
Response to Original message
7. The page isn't loading.
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 01:51 AM
Response to Original message
8. k&r nt
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dmr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 05:36 AM
Response to Original message
9. President Obama has to fix this!
No one - NO ONE - is above the law.

This administration and their appointees are National-Security-Slap-Happy with their dirty tricks. I could understand a once in awhile situation, but these gangsters use this excuse for what it is. An excuse. An excuse to break the law. Do whatever they want regardless of what it will do this country.

We can't get these people out fast enough, but it looks like there is a light at the end of this disastrous tunnel.
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Buns_of_Fire Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 05:50 AM
Response to Original message
10. I guess, then, that the bushies won't be too disappointed
when a President with some horsepower between the ears "ignores or modifies" ALL executive orders written since...oh, say late January 2001?
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Hubert Flottz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 05:52 AM
Response to Original message
11. Prince George rules by decree...because there's nobody to stop
him...I hope they like it when the democrats have that much power.
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formercia Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 05:59 AM
Response to Original message
12. The President cannot pardon someone convicted of Treason.
something for them to think about.
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crimsonblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 02:46 AM
Response to Reply #12
17. he can pardon treason..
The president can pardon anything but cases of impeachment. And it is completely irreversible. There has been conjective as to whether a person pardoned by the president can even be tried in international courts.
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formercia Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 05:16 AM
Response to Reply #17
18. They can be tried in international courts
Leaders of right-wing regimes in Latin America pardoned individuals for offenses committed during the Dirty Wars. Many of these pardons have been overturned and and they have found themselves the subject of international manhunts.

If I was a member of Bush Gang or one of the contractors involved, I would be very careful in making travel plans.
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Echo In Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 06:03 AM
Response to Original message
13. K&R
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jonnyra Donating Member (205 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 06:13 AM
Response to Original message
14. We know our congress creeps wont stop 'em
The question is why? There is not question they subverted the constitution, pillaged the nations economy, started wars of agression killing millions of innocents. Yet our congress does nothing. I guess as long as the wealthy keep making money no one really gives a shit what happens to the nation and its citizens.
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Hydra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-09-08 10:53 AM
Response to Reply #14
16. You got it
As George Carlin said:

"It's a big club- and you ain't in it! You and I are not in it."
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