All Posts Tagged With: "Congress"

“Plebiscitary Democracy: Political scientists use this to describe those systems wherein a leader is elected but once elected has almost all of the power. . . .Elect the President. Let him win and then get out of his way” — Barney Frank from “The Nation” magazine describing The Presidency of G. W. Bush

And in The Nation, Barney Frank goes on to describe the Bush Presidency thus:

“We have historically talked about checks, about balances, about our three branches of government. We have contrasted that to the more unitary governments in other parts of the world, even democratic ones. We have separate legislative, judiciary and executive branches.

This is an Administration which considers checks and balances to be a hindrance. They believe that democracy consists essentially of electing a President every four years and entrusting to that President almost all of the important decisions.

I believe we have seen a seizing of power that should not have been seized by the executive branch. But thanks to the acquiescence of a Republican majority in this Congress, driven in part by ideological sympathy, the President has been allowed to be the decider. So we have had a very different kind of American government. It is democracy, but it is closer to plebiscitary democracy than it is to the traditional democracy of America.”

What Mr Frank is effectively saying is that once G. W. Bush came to power, he:

• Ignored legislation passed into Law, and simply did things his way. An example is The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, by which the President and Congress together set forward a method for wiretapping and eavesdropping in cases where we thought there were foreign threats to the US. This legislation was passed 30 years ago and has been obeyed by Carter, Bush Snr. and Clinton within the full requirements of law. Bush has ignored this legislation and the Law.

• By ignoring the legislation, Bush is effectively doing what he wants, not what the people or Congress want.

• Bush has been able to do this because of his interpretation of the power contained in the “vesting clause” of the Constitution which reads, “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” This short sentence in the US Constitution allows the President to ignore legislation, ignore Congress and ignore his people. He does what he likes in other words.

• And logically, if you carry this misuse of power to extremes, then it can be said, looking at Bush’s performance, that he has gone against his own US Constitution.

The Final Word rests with Barney Frank:

“We had the Patriot Act situation, where the Judiciary Committee unanimously adopted a very reasonable, balanced bill, which gave law enforcement expanded powers to fight terrorism but had some safeguards against abuse.

But the Attorney General said, No, we do not like that bill. Here is a new one. And a new bill was written overnight and “debated” on the floor of the House with no ability to amend it.

These examples demonstrate that Congress was now ready to do whatever the Administration wanted. They don’t want Congress to agree on their ability to detain people at Guantánamo or track terrorist financing because accepting the right of Congress to agree with them implies that at some future date Congress might disagree. And plebiscitary democracy has no room for Congressional disagreement once the President has made his decision. So we have a situation of unilateralism and a refusal even to take Congress in when Congress wants to be a willing partner.”

This behaviour by the Bush Administration, who indeed have the ability to do as they like in government is, at best, a poor hash of the US Constitution and democracy, and at its worst is nothing more than A Banana Republic government dictatorship without any binding or effective Constitution at all.

We’ve got just about 155 days left to go in the absolute worst administration in American history. It goes without saying that the principals in the Bush administration are running amok. But then again, they’ve been doing that unhindered for just about eight years. It’s just that they’re doing more of it now, and they’re doing it more brazenly. What the hell. They have nothing to lose. The only losers are the American people.

Aside from the principals in this hideous administration, there are many others who have let this country and its inhabitants down. I say with six months left, it’s time for them to take their lumps. These are in no particular order, except that I’ve saved the best for last. Here goes:

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA; Speaker of the House)
I’m a cynic, but I’m not entirely beyond being idealistic. When the Dems took control in 2006 and Pelosi became the first-ever woman Speaker of the House, the hair on my arms stood up. Why wouldn’t I be excited? I’m a woman and it was a historic moment. That ill-placed euphoria didn’t last very long. Almost from the second she took office she took impeachment off the table. That was enough to slap me back into the real world. If she had done everything else right (she hasn’t), Pelosi’s tenure at this position would still have been a total failure because of her refusal to do her job. Why? Because she took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution and to serve the American people. Someone should remind Mrs. Pelosi that it is not her table to undress. She works for us.

She appeared on The View to promote her book Know Your Power: A Message to Our Daughters. I was disgusted that she was even promoting a book with that title. You have to do more than know it when you’re given a position of responsibility. You have to wield it. Then she made the most boneheaded comment I’ve ever heard when she said she’d be glad to impeach President Bush if someone could point out what law he’s broken. How can someone even be Speaker of the House without knowing the Constitution and the rule of law? You only need one impeachable offense. Just one. All she has to do is read Dennis Kucinich’s singular Article of Impeachment. If that doesn’t do it, consider that our president went on national television and admitted to approving torture. That enough? Of course, she could probably find a few more if she read the other thirty-four articles filed.

At the very least, President Bush and his minions have done things that warrant investigation. And that’s what an impeachment is. So, let Bush face the music and beat the rap. Others have done it before him. Some have won and some have lost. Instead we had this sham of a non-impeachment meeting and very few people have fallen for it, judging from the harassment Nancy Pelosi is getting on her book tour. In the alternative media, it’s being called her “Why haven’t you impeached him yet?” tour. In fact, let’s impeach Madam Speaker as well for failure to uphold her oath of office. It is her duty to see that impeachment is advanced. No president is above the law.

Harry Reid (D-NV; Senate Majority Leader)
While his job has been harder than Pelosi’s because of his slim majority, he still suffers from leadership impotence.

Barack Obama (D-IL; 2008 Presidential Candidate)
For the progressives in the Democratic party, his move to the center immediately after sewing up the Democratic nomination is a disappointment. His support of lifting the offshore drilling ban is a disappointment because he knows that isn’t going to have one iota of positive effect on our energy problems. He’s just trolling for votes. For those of us who believe in a strong separation between church and state, his continuing to campaign from the pulpit is a bone of contention.

Congress
We’re talking about a 9% approval rating. Does anything more need to be said? Yes, of course it does. The Republicans have broken the Congressional record for filibusters. In 2007, they exercised the filibuster 128 times. Their 2008 record is pretty abysmal also. Now, when do we start calling this obstructionist? What term would conservatives used in place of obstructionist? I’d like to hear it. When does this kind of self-serving behavior become harmful to the American people? And the Democrats do not get off unscathed. This is the most impotent bunch of lawmakers ever. I don’t know what side of the rainbow Nancy Pelosi is working, but she thinks the Congress has done just fine. There’s a disconnect here because the voters don’t think the Congress has done just fine. That’s usually when people lose their jobs.

John Kerry (D-MA)
Here’s a politician in my own backyard whom I have supported through the years. While I will continue to support him for re-election, he has been a disappointment on at least one front. For a Senator who chose not to run in 2008 so that he could dedicate himself to ending the war in Iraq, he has been conspicuously quiet. We Democrats expected him to come front and center and take a leadership position on this issue. He hasn’t done anything remotely resembling that.

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Senator Coburn is special in that he has held up dozens of pieces of bi-partisan-supported legislation, many of which originated with the Republicans and had already passed the House of Representatives. That any one man could have that much power is patently absurd. When Senate leader Harry Reid combined these bills into one omnibus package in an effort to bring them to a vote, the Republicans did what you’d expect – they filibustered their own legislation.

Michael Mukasey
Mukasey has confirmed plans to loosen post-Watergate restrictions on the FBI’s national security and criminal investigations. According to Mukasey, these new rules “expressly authorize the FBI to engage in intelligence collection inside the United States.” He says it’s necessary to improve the FBI’s ability to detect terrorists. From everything I’ve read about the period just before the 9-11 terrorist attacks, there was a huge intelligence gap, but it had nothing to do with lack of information. They had plenty of information, the intelligence agencies and the administration simply didn’t bother to process it. So, tell me again why we should settle for a further erosion of our civil rights?

Once again, President Bush has chosen an Attorney General with no real regard for the law. Even thought the courts have ruled that Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton are not covered by Executive Privilege and must comply with Congress’ requests, Mukasey has chosen to ignore it. He also refuses to act on Karl Rove’s repeated contempt of Congress. This pattern is not new. Attorney General John Mitchell ran the same kind of interference for the Nixon administration. That’s how we ended up with a special prosecutor. It’s time for another.

Karl Rove, Josh Bolton, Harrier Miers
These aren’t patriots or just folks ‘doing their jobs.’ These are Bush-Cheney operatives who have something to hide and are obstructing justice. They are being instructed to break the law by the president of the United States, and the Attorney General of the United States is allowing them to continue to obstruct justice. It’s revolting that it is allowed to continue, and it’s frightening that the American people are so silent on this topic.

John McCain (R-AZ; 2008 Presidential Candidate)
This is the presidential candidate who outwardly shoots down lobbyists and other special interests, yet has a campaign staff full high rolling lobbyists and fund raisers (some of whom worked for the Bushwhacker, a prolific fund raiser during his run for the presidency). This position is strictly for the benefit of the asleep-at-the-switch portion of the American public. Those who are not asleep know better. He has flip-flopped on numerous issues, including Roe v. Wade, the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and torture. He frequently doesn’t know what he’s talking about and appears confused, like when he refers to Czechoslovakia (which hasn’t existed since 1993), can’t distinguish between Shia and Sunni, and insists that the so-called ‘troop surge’ brought about the Anbar Awakening. Even though Cindy, his lovely wife, stated that “we won’t go negative,” that’s exactly what McCain’s advertising has done. Why? Because he has brought Karl Rove in to advise his campaign. Can’t you tell? Suddenly the advertising looks all too familiar. If this is the best we can offer our country and McCain is enthroned, we are in real trouble come January 20, 2009, because his policies are barely distinguishable from the failed policies of our current imperial president.

George Bush-Dick Cheney
Some people blame George Bush for the state we’re in while some say Dick Cheney’s running the country. I view them as a two-headed monster; they’ve made this mess as a team. From the 935 lies that led us into Iraq, to the energy deals Cheney made behind closed doors, to the obstruction of the 9-11 investigation, this has been what can only be described as a disgraceful and embarrassing administration. This administration operates in secrecy and has slowly turned itself into a dictatorship. What little transparency there is, is carefully orchestrated by George Bush and Dick Cheney. We only know what they want us to know.

There should be absolutely no doubt that George Bush lied in order to justify our invasion of Iraq. Contrary to accepted opinion, there was no ‘blanket’ authorization for the use of force against Iraq. Authorization stipulated two things: That Iraq possessed WMD and that there was a direct link between Saddam Hussein and the the 9-11 terrorist attacks. We now know beyond any doubt that there were no WMD, no matter how you try to spin it. As for a direct link between Saddam Hussein and the events of 9-11, President Bush himself admitted his lie. In January 2003 in a joint press conference with Tony Blair, he told a London reporter that he could not make the claim that Iraq was involved in 9-11. He reiterated this again in September 2003 on Meet the Press. Here’s what he said when he was asked by Tim Russert about Saddam’s involvement:

“No, we’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September 11th.”

Mistakes? Hardly. Bad intelligence? Only on his part. Lies? No question. Impeachable offense? Absolutely. Someone ring up the Speaker and point this out to her.

While only vetoing 10 bills in his two terms, President Bush has given himself the authority to disobey more than 750 laws by issuing signing statements. You don’t need to issue vetoes (not quiet with negative consequences) when you can quietly declare yourself immune from the laws. You have to ask yourself why we even go through the legislative process. It’s a sham. To Bush supporters who minimize it’s impact and choose to ignore the danger associated with this behavior, I say: This is not okay. This is not a principle our country was built upon. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. It may not be a problem if you share Bush’s vision, but I can assure you that his vision is not everyone’s vision. This country belongs to each and every one of us and we pass laws for a good reason. Now, we are not saying that other presidents have not used signing statements. They all have, some more than others. However, not to the degree and in the manner of George Bush. This president has redefined democracy, and it’s a disaster.

The education president barely has command of the English language, and ‘no child left behind’ has turned into ‘every child left behind.’ This miraculous vision has never been fully funded by the federal government, leaving communities struggling to fulfill it’s directives and leaving students up a creek. It is an ill-conceived, horribly planned program not budgeted in real-world terms. Because of this, many states have opted out of the program.

My mother used to say that people will get away with what you let them get away with. She was absolutely right. The same holds true in Washington as it does in everyday life. That George Bush has brazenly broken the law and weakened the Constitution is hardly arguable. That he has committed impeachable offenses is no longer in question. However, he had plenty of enablers on both sides of the aisle and still does, and that is the biggest shame in all of this.

America Held Hostage at Gas Pump By Own Congress

Mexico’s giant Cantarell oil field is drying up. Mexico has been our third largest suppliers but its sales of crude oil to the United States have plunged to their lowest level in more than a dozen years and Venezuela is about to replace it as our third biggest oil supplier. Oil prices have tumbled more than $24 in the past two weeks at least in part because of falling U. S. demand after all we import almost three times as much oil as Japan, the next largest importer, and nearly four times as much as China. Yet we have enormous untapped energy reserves because of political blocking.

Regardless of whether oil’s cost spike from $10 a 42 gallon barrel ten years ago to today’s $120 per barrel price is driven by speculators; corporate greed, citizen lethargy or stupid government policies is irrelevant to the issue.

What is most relevant is that 75% of Americans are demanding more oil and by implication actions to energy independence. The quickest first step is to turn on more domestic oil drilling and moving to more solar, wind, and nuclear power. Americans are screeching for Congressional action, and wildly disapprove of the job it is doing - or not doing.

What is going on is the Democrat controlled Congress is holding every American family hostage at the gasoline pump and intentionally risking a worsening economy to influence the November General election. It is one of the most despicable exhibitions of selfish, partisan politics imaginable. Those politicians know that if gasoline falls to $3.50 or less per gallon by the election the results of the election will change.

This is “banana republic” politics at its worst.

The New York Times has reported that Congress and the Bush administration have reached a compromise on an expanded FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) bill that will grant telecom companies limited immunity.

Once again, our roll-over-and-play-dead Congress has found a way to relinquish its duty to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. The Times describes the process as having been reached after ‘months of wrangling.’ That’s the problem here; Congress is only interested in ‘wrangling’ not in standing up to or ‘fighting’ against what has become, at best, a rogue administration.

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The Democrats were returned to power in November 2006 under the guise of reigning in this administration and ending our involvement in Iraq. Neither has happened. Instead, the Congress has been complicit in escalating the war in Iraq and in assisting President Bush’s assault on our civil rights. In February the Democrats showed a bit of backbone by allowing the temporary surveillance measure to expire, raising Bush’s hackles. It must have been too much heat for the Democrats to endure because they’re about to vote him expanded spying powers. <!–[endif]–>

The most controversial portion of the FISA bill is the section that grants retroactive immunity to the telecoms complicit in violating our civil rights. According to a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), he considers this bill better than the bill the senate passed in February and much better than the Protect America Act signed into effect last summer. His spokesman went on to say that Reid is still opposed to retroactive immunity. However, it remains to be seen if Reid will stand up and fight. It sounds more like he has resigned himself to the fact that the bill will pass.

Caroline Frederickson, head of the ACLU Washington Legislation Office characterized this legislation as a “thinly-veiled giveaway to some major campaign donors.” She went on to say, “The Hoyer/Bush surveillance deal was clearly written with the telephone companies and internet providers at the table and for their benefit. They wanted immunity, and this bill gives it to them.”

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It’s clear that the Democrats lack the political will to stand up to President Bush, a lame duck president who can now lay claim to having the most unpopular administration in American history. One has to wonder why they are even taking up this legislation at this time with a new administration starting in just seven or eight month’s time. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) vowed to filibuster any legislation that included retroactive immunity. That remains to be seen. It’s difficult to have much faith in this particular crop of Democrats.

Inarguably, the most seminal event in American history in the last half-century was the September 11 terrorist attacks. On September 13, 2001 President Bush stated, “The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” We fell into line behind our elected leader, resolute in avenging this horrendous act. We spoke with bravado about how we would return to the American ‘way of life’ because we were determined to live in freedom. We would not let the terrorists win. It matters not that six months to the day Bush made the comment about finding bin Laden, he said, “I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” By then, we had our nationalistic blinders on and President Bush was successfully using the politics of fear to keep Americans in line. With a misguided sense of ‘patriotism’ we gave up our civil rights so that our leaders could keep us safe. And even after the President of the United States proudly stated on the national news that he approved torture and abuse, we cannot summon the stomach to impeach him. Don’t look now, folks, but the terrorists have won.

The nation we have become under George Walker Bush has been shaped in large part by the 9-11 terrorist attacks. After the attacks, there was a great opportunity to bring about unity on a national and international scale. That opportunity was squandered by this administration. From the beginning, George Bush took the position that if certain nations did not do his bidding, they would be considered siding with the terrorists. When the families of those killed on 9-11 started to ask questions and press for an investigation, they were stonewalled for months. The administration finally relented and appointed the supposedly bi-partisan 9-11 commission, and then proceeded to first stonewall it, then lie to it. There are certainly enough holes in the official story to warrant an investigation, but we will never see it while George Bush is in office. The reality that every American has to face is that, at the very least, the Bush administration saw this tragic event as a broad-scale political opportunity and took advantage of our fears. That’s what dictators do.

For all the rhetoric that comes from this administration about democracy and freedom, the fact is that our civil liberties have been significantly curtailed and more are coming under assault every day as a result of 9-11. In October of 2001 our Congress foolishly passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act, giving the government unprecedented power to search telephone, e-mail, medical and financial records in the name of fighting terrorism. This was also the reason the Bush administration used to justify illegally wiretapping American citizens. The Protect America Act of 2007 retroactively legitimizes Bush’s illegal activity. If that isn’t enough, he also wants Congress to authorize retroactive immunity for the telecommunication companies that participated in this atrocious behavior.

If Ronald Reagan was ‘the great communicator,’ then George W. Bush is ‘the great liar.’ In October of 2002, Congress voted to give George Bush the power to unilaterally attack Iraq without so much as taking the time to verify and question the ‘facts’ used to justify the invasion: That Saddam Hussein was somehow involved in 9-11, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and that Iraq tried to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger. We now know that President Bush and several members of his administration, including Dick Cheney and Colin Powell, told these and many other lies in order to justify the invasion of Iraq. Had the Congress done its due diligence, the unnecessary death and destruction that this war has wrought could have been avoided.

Then we have the matter of torture. The United States has no business singling out nations like China and Cuba for human rights abuses when our president has violated (and continues to violate) the terms of the Geneva Convention. While the administration would have you believe that what happened at Abu Ghraib was the brainchild of low-level soldiers, we now know where the orders came from. President Bush himself proudly told ABC News just recently that he approved the torture techniques being used on detainees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The terrorists have won because our government and way of life have become unrecognizable. We need not fear an attack from the outside because we are destroying ourselves from within. The U.S. Constitution, the cornerstone of our democracy, has been repeatedly violated by the Bush administration. Our system of checks and balances, anchored by a free and independent media and a Congress truly acting upon the will of the people, is all but gone. Finally, the American people themselves have become complacent sheep waiting out Bush’s term of office. We are not a stronger nation because of it. We are not a safer nation because of it. And the terrorists know that.