A state of emergency: Bush is a danger to the constitution (Blumenthal)

[struggle4progress]

A state of emergency
Bush is a danger to the constitution in his wartime capacity as commander in chief

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday June 1, 2006
The Guardian

.. Once Bush approved them, the clerisy of neoconservative lawyers put them into effect. They believe fervently that the constitution is fatally flawed and must be circumscribed. The Bush administration's holy grail is to remove suspects' rights to due process, speedy trial and exculpatory evidence. The war paradigm is to be strengthened to conduct permanent war against terror that can never be finally defeated. There is no exit strategy from emergency.

In the short run, Bush's defence of his war paradigm may precipitate three constitutional crises. In the first, freedom of the press is at issue. On May 21 Alberto Gonzales, the attorney general, announced the possibility that the New York Times would be prosecuted for publishing its Pulitzer prize-winning article on the administration's domestic surveillance. "It can't be the case," he said, that the first amendment trumps the right of the government "to go after criminal activity".

In the second case, a wartime executive above the law may be asserted. Last week the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who charged the vice-president's former chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby with perjury and obstruction of justice, made plain his intention to summon Cheney to the witness stand to impeach Libby's credibility or else commit perjury himself. But will the administration fight the subpoena as an infringement on a unitary executive that should be immune from such distractions in wartime?

In the third case, if either house of Congress should fall to the Democrats in the November midterm elections, the oversight suppressed during one-party rule would be restored. Would the administration refuse congressional requests for documents as it did when the Democratic Senate in Bush's first year asked for those pertaining to Cheney's energy taskforce, which reportedly included Enron's CEO Ken Lay, last week convicted on numerous counts of fraud? ..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1787109,00.html

[spindrifter]

1. This is an extremely important

short piece on the neocons' gambit to change the very core values of our government.

I am wondering about the last paragraph quoted above. Let's say the Democrats regain power in one or both houses. Let's say they start demanding documents during investigatory hearings and the administration refuses them, but the timing is such that a new administration is in office before the Rethugs are able to get into the S. Ct. Would the new Democratic administration be able to hand over the documents? I suspect the timing would be such that this scenario would not work.

[grasswire]

6. wouldn't the FBI raid their offices for files and documents??

There's precedent now for an elected official ignoring a subpoena.

[pansypoo53219]

2. georgie and dickie(real president)

are WMD.

[Pierzin]

3. dickie and georgie pissing on the constitution!!!!

Who'da thunk it? Georgie is the Wizard and Dick is
the Man Behind the Curtain!!!

then who are the lapdogs of the meida??? this is unreal. I guess I'll see you all in the gulag.

[Doctor_J]

4. What ever happened to Sid's suit sagainst Sludge?

When it was revealed that one of Governor Bush's top aides was a serial wife-beater, Sludge ran a pice about how Sid was too. It worked partially, as the story about Smirk's aide went away, but Sid promptly sued the Matty for slander. How'd that turn out?

Don't mean to hijack.

[struggle4progress]

5. Who can remember all the false stories Drudge has ever posted?

[Doctor_J]

11. Yes, but this was unique in that Blumenthal fired back

immediately and forcefully. I was hoping he would sue the liar into bankruptcy.

[Demeter]

7. The Flaws Aren't So Much in the Constitution As in the Culture

The political culture panders to the NeoCons with the notion of "gentlemenly behavior" and "negotiation". Even now, there are benighted fools in office who haven't grasped the fundamental fact that NeoCons take no prisoners and welsh on all deals. But this viewpoint is gradually giving way to something a little more Reality-based.

The economic culture has been pushing for piracy since Day 1 back in 1776, and Teddy Roosevelt's trust-busting and FDR's attempts to eliminate Corporate Piracy have been largely undone. The principles will have to be included in the Constitution and violators vigorously prosecuted and stripped of assets.

The social culture has a large current of religiously-supported fascism that arose after the Enlightenment brought the United States into being. Crypto-Christo-Fascism will have to be thoroughly discredited, and public education reinstalled as the premier unifying cultural transmission process.

[Pierre.Suave]

9. AND...

That is a good post, very good.

[Pierre.Suave]

8. This is

a very good article.

[Doctor_J]

10. The Constitution has been suspended

is what he's trying to say. As I am able to sit here at my computer and express myself pretty freely, that can't be completely true. However, I am no threat whatsoever to Rove's rule. The signing orders, along with 1st amendment zones, threats to the NYT and many others, anthrax sent to Tom Daschle, and the complete symphony of * propaganda from the MSM does smell pretty badly of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. It's pretty scary.

[ArbustoBuster]

12. The gloves need to be off.

If the Democrats regain control of one or both houses of Congress in November, they need to take the damned gloves off. If Bush refuses to turn over required documents, or otherwise breaks the law, he needs to be slapped down immediately. The Congress controls the pursestrings. See how long Bushie likes sitting in a White House with no food and no electricity because Congress refuses to pay the bills. That ought to teach him who's boss.