Glenn Greenwald asked Bush defenders to “explain how there can be any limits at all on his power under the theories of Executive Power which they are advocating to argue that Bush had the right to violate Congressional law.”
In response, there are two posts from Leon at Red State.org and two posts from Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom, one of which largely relied on what Jeff reverently calls “a long and meticulously argued post” from John Hinderaker at Powerline. Leon also alerted me by e-mail to the issuance yesterday of a Memorandum from the Department of Justice (.pdf) which sets forth the Administration’s legal defense of its behavior.
The “long and meticulously argued post” includes these representative paragraphs:
The starting point, of course, is the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution sets out the powers and duties of the President. Some people do not seem to realize that the executive branch is coequal with the legislative and judicial branches. The President has certain powers under the Constitution, and they cannot be taken away or limited by Congressional legislation any more than the President can limit the powers of Congress by executive order. …
… This brings us back where we started, i.e., the Constitution. The only constitutional limitation on the President’s power to intercept communications by Americans for national security purposes is that such intercepts be “reasonable.†Is it reasonable for the administration to do all it can to identify the people who are communicating with known terrorists overseas, via the terrorists’ cell phones and computers, and to learn what terrorist plots are being hatched by those persons? Is it reasonable to do so even when—rather, especially when–some portion of those communications come from people inside the United States? I don’t find it difficult to answer those questions; nor, if called upon to do so, would the Supreme Court.
In other words, the President is not bound to follow laws passed by Congress if (in his discretion) he believes they infringe on his powers, and he can engage in warrantless searches that he (in his discretion) deems “reasonable.” And these decisions may be made in secret.
That’s pretty much absolute power, is it not? So the answer must be, no; there are no limits to the President’s powers.
The rest of the blog posts boil down to “you lefties don’t understand that we’re at war.” And Judd at Think Progress addresses the DoJ memo here. Be sure to read the rest of Glenn Greenwald’s post; it is outstanding.
The righties continue to churn out turgid screeds of legalosity to defend Bush’s warrantless search policy. And they continue to use the straw man argument that we lefties are opposed to surveillance of potential terrorists. (Once again, no one is arguing against surveillance, just that it be conducted within the law.) But after all this time the righties have yet to provide satisfactory answers two simple questions: Why not comply with FISA? And if FISA is cumbersome, why not ask Congress for changes in the regulations?
Hello? Righties? Anybody ….. ?
: Why not comply with FISA?
I think the answer lies in the definition of a terrorist. Are we talking about a foriegn terrorist, a congressional terrorist, a political terrorist or a journalistic terrorist? Remember,If you’re not for him than you are against him, and therefore qualify as a terrorist according to Bush’s logic.
I don’t believe for one minute that Bush is genuine in saying that he’s doing what he’s doing to protect America. He protecting his personal political empire.
Legalosity. You could trademark that if all the blatherers currently in a lather didn’t have such a claim to it already. Make sure all those arguing about the wartime powers of the commander in chief get back with you about who actually gets to declare war. You don’t hear too much about that from all these Article Two types.
My favorite part of the post is:
“No principle emerges more clearly from the Constitution, all other founding documents, and the Federalist Papers than the principle that the people, through their Congress, make the law and nobody, including the President, is above it or has the right to violate it. Pro-Bush lawyers can write endless justifications from now until he leaves office, and that principle will still, by itself, resolve all of the issues relating to the Bush Administration’s eavesdropping in violation of the criminal law.”
… excuse me,
I am an American Citizen. The last time I checked, the government is acccountable to ME! The President is accountable to me … and if you DARE tell me he is more qualified I will slap you upside the head with my resume versus the resume of George Bush any day of the week. In point and fact, almost EVERY American has a better resume than the mis-leader of the free world, because they have actually worked and achieved in order to receive renumeration.
I demand Mr. George Bush admit to the many lies and past/current illegal activities in which he, his cabinet, friends, lobbyists, legal teams, advertising agencies, Haliburton, tv media outlets, FCC, think tanks, NATIONAL OBJECTIVE NEWS SOURCES have and continue to participate in.
Each (and more) have contributed in the UTTER & COMPLETE DECEPTION. Today, we learned that even MORE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ARE BEING USED & COMPROMISED. Judicial experts who refute the lies are themselves branded liars.
I do not trust the governing body. I want accountability and transparency right now. Stop the spying until I am satisfied that it is legal.
My nation, my country, my state, countie, town and even my neighborhood is deteriorating and I don’t want to fly anymore flags, ribbons, or banners. I love our troops. I can’t afford to give anymore money to Katrina Victims and when I learn of how much Haliburton is making … i wonder exactly who is doing all the sacrificing.
Our national debit is a discrace and Japan practically OWNS America. Their GNP rose (as my daughter would say) “like more than 20%?? You KNOW how much money that is???”. (and she’s … like … 14 & home-schooled.
The United States of America is going to hell and i want answers now. I don’t care what day it is. I don’t care the hour. I don’t care if you’re on (another) vacation. I AM YOUR BOSS. This is important. I want ANSWERS NOW.
Since it’s obvious George wont answer, let’s discuss letting him go and who we have in place to feasibly replace him.
We are not at war. The Republican Party is pursuing a stealth civil war against the rest of America. That is the only war that is either in progress or in prospect.
There is a military adventure going on in Iraq. This is not a war. It is an illegal military adventure undertaken for purely domestic political reasons.
The Party has already explained why it did not ask Congress to tweak the FISA process: because it knew it would lose. That, in turn, had nothing to do with technology and everything to do with the identity of the targets, which are exclusively domestic: the same [kinds of] targets as those of the Huston Plan.
“…no one is arguing against surveillance…”? I *am* arguing against all surveillance powers, because I know that they will not be used productively. The “war on terror” is being conducted with the methods and standards of a county sheriff. Every county sheriff maintains a list of “troublemakers”. When a crime is committed whose perpetrator is not inherently obvious, no effort is made to discover the actual culprit; instead, one of the “troublemakers” is picked off the list, and prosecuted on fabricated evidence; and so it is with every aspect of the “war on terror”, which accordingly lacks any legitimacy whatever.
Okay, the part about Japan is not completely accurate, but hey .. she’s an American, only 14, and most certainly contributes to the greater good.
Can we honestly say that about our President or his Administration?
P.S. I am a woman-of-color and WE HATE CONDI RICE. She is considered THE ANTI-CHRIST amongst black woman and intelligent individuals. I am truly ashamed that the first woman-of-color in such a high-level government office was so easily bought off. Money is truly the root of all evil.
Everything Bushco does accomplishes two things: give themselves more power with a rationalizing( usually with us or against us) talking point and always puts more money in their pocket( and empties pocket of any who would oppose). So I have to think that they are data mining for business information, personal information, political information and selling that info to the highest bidders. Don’tcha think?
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I coined the word legalosity and have the name legalosity.com fyi
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