Note to members of Congress: before you finalize the Patriot Act

[kpete]

Note to members of Congress:

Before you finalize the Patriot Act provision or any other law relating to these issues, you might want to contemplate whether what you are asking for in terms of oversight is activity that
is even legal. Then, you might want to ask yourself the question Mark Kleiman asks:


Does the President have the Constitutional authority to violate criminal laws whenever he judges, in his sole discretion, that those laws might interfere with defending the country?


If your answer to this question is yes, then you might want to consider whether Congress is entirely superfluous, and whether your salaries, perks, and other benefits might be put to better use paying people who would actually be willing to do the job.

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/
http://www.markarkleiman.com/

[tulsakatz]

1. good point!

If Bush can make decisions at his own discretion, with or without the approval of Congress, what the hell do we need them for?