01.04.07
Can We Impeach This Jerk Yet?
As reported today on the national wires (“Bush says feds can open mail without warrant,” Seattle Times 4 Jan 07), Congress just passed a law specifically prohibiting the government from opening private mail without a warrant — a judge’s warrant, not an “administrative” one — and on Dec. 20, as Washington shut down for Christmas, President Bush quietly signed it.
BUT. “He then issued a ’signing statement’ that declared his right to open mail under emergency conditions, contrary to existing law and contradicting the bill he had just signed,” according to the story. It continues:
Bush said he will “construe” an exception, “which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection in a manner consistent…with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances.”
Bush cited as examples the need to “protect human life and safety against hazardous materials and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.”
Of course, the problem is that “exigent” basically means anything the Bush Administration wants (we are at war, don’t forget) — which is precisely why the outgoing Republican Congress put it in the damn law in the first damn place.
Predictably, the low-level White House flacks sent out are mumbling the “not assuming any new powers” mantra, but national security specialists and officials alike are shocked and concerned.
“The [Bush] signing statement claims authority to open domestic mail without a warrant, and that would be new and quite alarming,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington.
“You have to be concerned,” a senior U.S. official agreed. “It takes executive-branch authority beyond anything we’ve ever known.”
And I’m totally serious about the impeachment thing. Pending election, my foot. The man swore a binding oath to “uphold and protect the Constitution.” I’d say active subversion outranks blowjobs on the indictment scale any day of the week. I mean, c’mon.
If you haven’t already, read up on this “signing statement” phenomenon and watch for it in the papers.
Steve said,
January 7, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Anything that Lancelot Link does these days brings little surprise from me.He’s just hellbent on getting “Caesar” put before his name, isn’t he? He should have been dragged out and hung like Mussolini after the New Orleans fuck-up (No love loss here, most of my wifes family lives between Opelousas La. and Pascagoula Miss.).