It's Safer To Be A Dessert In The Movie "American Pie", Than It Is To Be The Constitution In The Hands Of President Bush
President Bush condemed the New York Times as "disgraceful" for disclosing a secret CIA-Treasury program to track millions of financial records in search of terrorist suspects, the Associated Press reported.
Um, excuse me, black pot?
Let me see if I got this right. The disgrace is NOT the fact that Mr. Bush authorized the review of private financial records, (without probable cause or properly obtained and executed warrant) but RATHER that the New York Times had the audacity to tell us about it.
Apparently, exposing a violation of the law is bad, but trampling the Fourth Amendment rights of millions of Americans, not so much.
Vice-President, Dick Cheney added, "The New York Times has now twice - two separate occasions - disclosed programs; both times they had been asked not to publish those stories by senior administration officials. They went ahead anyway. The leaks to The New York Times and the publishing of those leaks is very damaging."
You bet they're damaging. They're damaging to the bad faith efforts of an Administration that has:
- Authorized the warrantless wiretapping of our phone conversations.
and
- Disclosed the classified identity of a CIA operative, otherwise known as treason.
Of course the Executive Branch maintains that this is all perfectly legal. After all, we're in a time of war. But a war with whom? Mr. Bush declared on May 1, 2003 an end to major combat operations in Iraq, meaning that troops there are essentially on a peacekeeping mission. There's the "War On Terror," I suppose, but again I ask, with whom specifically is this war on? Terror is not a nation or thing, terror is a tool of destruction and a crime. You don't wage war against crimes. You seek to prevent them and if committed, you capture and try those whom you believe are responsible. When fighting crime there are rules that must be observed. It is a constitutional foundation of our American justice system. You don't get to ignore the rules just because they don't suit you.
Mr. Bush knows this. Sadly, like President Nixon, he has come to believe that he is above the law. It is the duty of Congress to remind him otherwise. And it's our job to make sure that they do!
Um, excuse me, black pot?
Let me see if I got this right. The disgrace is NOT the fact that Mr. Bush authorized the review of private financial records, (without probable cause or properly obtained and executed warrant) but RATHER that the New York Times had the audacity to tell us about it.
Apparently, exposing a violation of the law is bad, but trampling the Fourth Amendment rights of millions of Americans, not so much.
Vice-President, Dick Cheney added, "The New York Times has now twice - two separate occasions - disclosed programs; both times they had been asked not to publish those stories by senior administration officials. They went ahead anyway. The leaks to The New York Times and the publishing of those leaks is very damaging."
You bet they're damaging. They're damaging to the bad faith efforts of an Administration that has:
- Authorized the warrantless wiretapping of our phone conversations.
and
- Disclosed the classified identity of a CIA operative, otherwise known as treason.
Of course the Executive Branch maintains that this is all perfectly legal. After all, we're in a time of war. But a war with whom? Mr. Bush declared on May 1, 2003 an end to major combat operations in Iraq, meaning that troops there are essentially on a peacekeeping mission. There's the "War On Terror," I suppose, but again I ask, with whom specifically is this war on? Terror is not a nation or thing, terror is a tool of destruction and a crime. You don't wage war against crimes. You seek to prevent them and if committed, you capture and try those whom you believe are responsible. When fighting crime there are rules that must be observed. It is a constitutional foundation of our American justice system. You don't get to ignore the rules just because they don't suit you.
Mr. Bush knows this. Sadly, like President Nixon, he has come to believe that he is above the law. It is the duty of Congress to remind him otherwise. And it's our job to make sure that they do!
posted by John Fracchia at 6:58 PM
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