US democracy in a handbasket going downwards

[ciphergoth]

Administration tells Congress (again) - We won't abide by your "laws"

[...] Thus, Sen. DeWine can pass his cute little bill purporting to require oversight, or Sen. Specter can pass his, or they can do nothing and leave FISA in place. None of that matters, because no matter what Congress or even the President do with regard to the law, the law does not restrict what the President can do in any way. They are telling the Congress to its face that all of the grand debates it is having and the negotiations it is conducting are all irrelevant farces, because no matter what happens, the President retains unlimited power and nothing that Congress does can affect that power in any way.

[...] As usual, the most amazing aspect of all of this is not that the Administration is claiming these powers. It is that even as it claims them as expressly and clearly as can be, the Congress continues to ignore it and pretend that it still retains power to restrict the Administration by the laws it passes. And the media continues to fail in its duty to inform the country about the powers the Administration has seized, likely because they are so extreme that people still do not really believe that the Administration means what they are saying. What else do they need to do in order to demonstrate their sincerity?

Please tell me that this is somehow in error - that there remains some check on W's power.

Comments

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

barely...

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

It's soooo depressing. And Congress won't even call them on their bullshit - they're too busy going, "Heil, Georgie!" to stick their necks out and try to rein this bullshit in. I mean, hell, everytime the courts do ANYTHING the least bit anti-president, Congress starts talking about writing laws to counteract the ones the administration was violating.

It's just pathetic. I am truly depressed about the situation.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

http://www.idrewthis.org/2006/watergate.html

[ioerror.livejournal.com]

There's no error in your view. It's entirely out of hand.

The dictator (president)

[ablueskyboy.livejournal.com]

Before any more history repeats, like the Nazies, extermination camps or anything else they try to use to kill Constitutional Rights, someone please impeach this guy. Then, send him to high school and make him pass his history class this time.

Thankyou.

[simm42.livejournal.com]

And people called me paranoid when in 2001 I suggested that given the corruption of the first election bush would try to stay in for a 3rd term by any means necessary (he wouldn't be the first republican to attempt to do so)