The secret tyranny
By Libby
This is good news. Via Emptywheel, another senator steps up to do his job for the people and try to save our form of democracy.
Until now, the unitary executive theory has remained unexplained, since the White House has kept the rulings from public scrutiny under state's secrets. But Sheldon Whitehouse took the time to pore through OLC rulings and discovered what was hidden in that dismal piece of unread legislation, the so-called Protect America Act, that the Congress passed in August. (Of course the hurried passage had nothing to do with their vacation plans.)
It turns out it "provides no - zero - statutory protections for Americans traveling abroad from government wiretapping." Whether you're on a business trip or a family vaction or even a serving soldier, the government can wiretap your every electronic device -- at will. If you so much as cross the border to go shopping, you can be targeted -- at the Bush regime's pleasure. As Mr. Whitehouse notes, "[U]nless Congress acts, here is what legally prevents this President from wiretapping Americans traveling abroad at will: nothing. Nothing."
The good Senator also finds the darker foundation that upholds this breach of civil rights and it amounts to a total repudiation of the whole concept of checks and balances. The complete details are at the link but the short version couldn't be more hair raising.
I read that and I looked at the definition of tyrant. An absolute ruler who governs without restrictions. And then I wondered how anyone could argue that Bush isn't the living embodiment of that definition?
[cross-posted to The Reaction]
This is good news. Via Emptywheel, another senator steps up to do his job for the people and try to save our form of democracy.
Until now, the unitary executive theory has remained unexplained, since the White House has kept the rulings from public scrutiny under state's secrets. But Sheldon Whitehouse took the time to pore through OLC rulings and discovered what was hidden in that dismal piece of unread legislation, the so-called Protect America Act, that the Congress passed in August. (Of course the hurried passage had nothing to do with their vacation plans.)
It turns out it "provides no - zero - statutory protections for Americans traveling abroad from government wiretapping." Whether you're on a business trip or a family vaction or even a serving soldier, the government can wiretap your every electronic device -- at will. If you so much as cross the border to go shopping, you can be targeted -- at the Bush regime's pleasure. As Mr. Whitehouse notes, "[U]nless Congress acts, here is what legally prevents this President from wiretapping Americans traveling abroad at will: nothing. Nothing."
The good Senator also finds the darker foundation that upholds this breach of civil rights and it amounts to a total repudiation of the whole concept of checks and balances. The complete details are at the link but the short version couldn't be more hair raising.
In a nutshell, these three Bush administration legal propositions boil down to this:
1. "I don't have to follow my own rules, and I don't have to tell you when I'm breaking them."
2. "I get to determine what my own powers are."
3. "The Department of Justice doesn't tell me what the law is, I tell the Department of Justice what the law is."
I read that and I looked at the definition of tyrant. An absolute ruler who governs without restrictions. And then I wondered how anyone could argue that Bush isn't the living embodiment of that definition?
[cross-posted to The Reaction]
Labels: Bush, Justice, police state, rule of law
posted by Libby Spencer at 8:43 PM
4 Comments:
This administration gets scarier and scarier as each day passes. We had not had this much corruption and secrecy since Nixon.
I've been in a long debate with someone at Praguetwin's blog, but like every other Bushite, "he can't see the forest for the trees that are in the way."
Our discussion is about the torture of detainees, but as I was laying out the sins of our government I was shocked to see that it sounded eerily like Stalin's Soviet!
I'm very worried.
Me too Rocky. I'm convinced we should impeach, late though it may seem.
Frankly, I think it's too late to impeach. I forsee a civil war--no shit--I really mean that. I don't think this administration has any intention of leaving the White House. As a nation, we are being split down the middle. If you don't support the war, you don't support the troops. If you support the war, you must also support the Patriot Act, the continued morass that it Gitmo, etc. I wrote over at Praguetwin that what is happening here reminds me too much of Stalin's reign of terror and that's the truth. I think I'm going to work on a Plan B in earnest.
I've been doing some posting on impeachment and it's actually not too late. Check it out when I get around to doing the excess hoggage post. It only took six months to conduct the impeachment hearings on Nixon. I think we should at least try it before it comes down to fighting in the streets.
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