Jon Alter/Newsweek:We are in danger of scrapping our checks and balances

[kpete]

A Power Outage On Capitol Hill
We are in danger of scrapping our checks and balances—not just for a few years (as was done during the Civil War), but for good.

By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Jan. 23, 2006 issue - What if we faced a constitutional crisis and hardly anyone noticed? As he quietly mastered the tiresome cat-and-mouse game inside the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Judge Samuel Alito gave few hints of where he stood on a matter that goes to the heart of what it means to live in a republic. With a few exceptions, the media coverage didn't help. It's so much easier to talk about Joe Biden's big mouth or a right-wing Princeton alumni group or Mrs. Alito's tears than to figure out how the country should prevent a president of the United States from castrating the United States Congress.


read more at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10854374/site/newsweek/

[babylonsister]

1. I love Alter; he's right up there w/F. Rich and M. Ivins. nt

[journalist3072]

2. We're not in danger of it; it's already happened

And what's really sad is that the United States Congress doesn't seem to care. In fact, they are complicit in it.

I mentioned this already in another thread, but I think it bares repeating here.

I was totally amazed last week during the Alito hearings. The issue of Vanguard came up, of course. And of the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee (I forget which one, though) told Alito not to "lose any sleep" over the fact that he had promised to recuse himself and he failed to do so.

The Rethuglican Senator said that plenty of Senators themselves don't keep promises, so he told Alito not to lose any sleep over it.

I just found it amazing that a Senator on the Judiciary Committee told a nominee not to worry about the fact that the nominee had LIED to the United States Senate during his previous confirmation hearings.

That's when I truly realized that the Senate doesn't really care about advise and consent OR about exercising its oversight function.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. They're supportng Bush's take over of the country.

Because he's making a good faith effort.

[PDittie]

5. Yes. Same thing when Linsay Graham said

"And if someday several of us testify that we don't know Jack Abramoff, you'll believe us, right?"

It's all over now. Except for the revolt.

[Pirate Smile]

4. .

"The NSA story is an acid test of whether one is a traditional Barry Goldwater conservative, who believes in limited government, or a modern Richard Nixon conservative, who believes in authority. Alito is in the latter category. His judicial opinions suggest a deference to executive power, and he once pioneered presidential "signing statements" that are meant to help judges come down on the president's side. Just recently, Bush attached such a statement to John McCain's bill banning torture in which the president reserved the right to ignore the law if he wants to."

[grasswire]

6. write to Alter, please

The link to e-mail is at the top of the story. PLEASE write to both encourage him and to demonstrate to MSNBC that someone is reading what he writes.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. K&R

[EVDebs]

8. Alito was in Reagan's DOJ Office of Legal Counsel during Rex84

and the other Ollie North 'suspend the Constitution' projects. Operations Garden Plot (arrest and detain dissenters to wars) and Cable Splicer.

Did Alito 'sign off' on any of these projects or write opinions about them ? Did Alter look ?


"From 1985-1987, Alito served in the Office of Legal Counsel as Deputy Assistant Attorney General where he provided constitutional advice for the Executive Branch."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/judicialnominees/alito.html

What if the media didn't notice that TIA was already being 'offshored, privatized, and outsourced' to the Bahamas with Global Information Group Ltd. run by Ben H. Bell IIIrd ? Or that ChoicePoint database info was being used in background checks that can often prove incorrect, thus depriving someone of employment ?

see www.spychips.com and article in Motherjones

and article Total Surveillance
www.motherjones.com/interview/2005/12/albrecht.html

shows us that RFIDs can be used to track just about anything. The budding background check preemployment requirement is now using error-filled database info to prevent people from getting work...

Who is checking the background checkers?
www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p13s02-wmgn.html

Now, I ask you, if they can track a pair of underware you bought from Wal-Mart, why oh why can't they track the kidney dialysis equipment OBL needs somewheres up in the Hindu Kush ?

Just asking questions the media hasn't made HEADLINE NEWS.

[roseBudd]

9. click through and rated it a 5...

One of the things we can do to encourage courageous media is to always click through. Site traffic is being measured 24/7 on the largest sites.

[Hissyspit]

10. Don't foget: Click Email this to put it on most Emailed list; rate it, too

AND email Mr. Alter.

[Wordie]

11. Signing statements, a presidential power grab, courtesy of Alito.

His judicial opinions suggest a deference to executive power, and he once pioneered presidential "signing statements" that are meant to help judges come down on the president's side. Just recently, Bush attached such a statement to John McCain's bill banning torture in which the president reserved the right to ignore the law if he wants to.

Excellent article by Alter, just in the nick of time, I'd say. Thanks for posting this, kpete.

Has anybody mailed this article to Feinstein yet? To all our Senators??? I'm going to send it off right now.

On edit, an update: I emailed this article and the other excellent article on this topic at Media Matters, to Senator Feinstein, and urged her to re-consider her decision against a fillibuster. Anybody else care to join me?

[blm]

12. DO YOUR JOB, ALTER - and tell fellow reporters to do theirs.

It's the MEDIA who allowed all this to happen, through your many years falsely characterizing the two parties.

Go stick your years of "mommy" and "daddy" party mentalities up your collective reporters' asses.

[greiner3]

13. Stand by your man;

Damn, I hated that line before. Now, it runs through what's left of my cerebrum.