Monday, May 29, 2006

Examples of the President's Signing Statements

"Examples of the president's signing statements"


April 30, 2006

Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution. The federal government is instructed to follow the statements when it enforces the laws. Here are 10 examples and the dates Bush signed them:

March 9: Justice Department officials must give reports to Congress by certain dates on how the FBI is using the USA Patriot Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.

Bush's signing statement: The president can order Justice Department officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides it could impair national security or executive branch operations."

The Big Picture- Thanks to the lack of situational clarity, the Legislative branch is rendered impotent. Impeachment is effectively removed from the list of possible actions. Note how Impeachment impaired Clinton's Executive Branch and how just the threat of it impaired Nixon's.

"Dec. 30, 2005: US interrogators cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Bush's signing statement: The president, as commander in chief, can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will assist in preventing terrorist attacks."

The Big Picture- It is now possible for Bush to purge political enemies just as despots have throughout history. i.e. All he has to do is decide that 6 million sent to a concentration camp might assist in preventing terrorist attacks. Hitler used the same exact reason for the Holocaust.

"Dec. 30: When requested, scientific information prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted [to Congress] uncensored and without delay."

Bush's signing statement: The president can tell researchers to withhold any information from Congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch."

The Big Picture- Congress no longer has the right to information gathered or discovered by any scientific group or individual who has received federal funding in any way. The 9-11 Commission might have been shown the impossibility of the Official Theory and proof of Bush's criminal involvement, and not have been allowed to give any of that information to Congress or the Public.
"Aug. 8: The Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its contractors may not fire or otherwise punish an employee whistle-blower who tells Congress about possible wrongdoing.

Bush's signing statement: The president or his appointees will determine whether employees of the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can give information to Congress."

The Big Picture- Informing anyone other than the guilty parties of any governmental wrongdoing is now a criminal act. Congress no longer has the authority to subpeona anyone and /or force them to testify under oath.

Dec. 23, 2004: Forbids US troops in Colombia from participating in any combat against rebels, except in cases of self-defense. Caps the number of US troops allowed in Colombia at 800.

Bush's signing statement: Only the president, as commander in chief, can place restrictions on the use of US armed forces, so the executive branch will construe the law ''as advisory in nature."

The Big Picture- Bush no longer needs Congress to declare war. As in Columbia, Bush can order troop deployment/ invasion of any Country. Constitutionally, the Legislative Branch was the only body authorized to approve or restrict military usage with it being the only body authorized to declare War.

"Dec. 17: The new national intelligence director shall recruit and train women and minorities to be spies, analysts, and translators in order to ensure diversity in the intelligence community.

Bush's signing statement: The executive branch shall construe the law in a manner consistent with a constitutional clause guaranteeing ''equal protection" for all. (In 2003, the Bush administration argued against race-conscious affirmative-action programs in a Supreme Court case. The court rejected Bush's view.)"

The Big Picture- The JudicialBranch has just been rendered redundant and impotent in the face of Executive Branch power to construe and define the Constitutionality of any Law it creates or ignores.

"Oct. 29: Defense Department personnel are prohibited from interfering with the ability of military lawyers to give independent legal advice to their commanders.

Bush's signing statement: All military attorneys are bound to follow legal conclusions reached by the administration's lawyers in the Justice Department and the Pentagon when giving advice to their commanders."

The Big Picture- There is no longer any allowable expressed independent opinion
in the US Armed Forces. No views contrary to the official policy may be entertained or suggested.

"Aug. 5: The military cannot add to its files any illegally gathered intelligence, including information obtained about Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches.

Bush's signing statement: Only the president, as commander in chief, can tell the military whether or not it can use any specific piece of intelligence."

The Big Picture- The full power of the US Military information and espionage services may now be used against the Citizen's of America with impunity.

"Nov. 6, 2003: US officials in Iraq cannot prevent an inspector general for the Coalition Provisional Authority from carrying out any investigation. The inspector general must tell Congress if officials refuse to cooperate with his inquiries.

Bush's signing statement: The inspector general ''shall refrain" from investigating anything involving sensitive plans, intelligence, national security, or anything already being investigated by the Pentagon. The inspector cannot tell Congress anything if the president decides that disclosing the information would impair foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations."

The Big Picture- The US Military is no longer subject to inquiry or inquest for any action taken, no matter the level of atrocity if it could possibly bother anyone else to know about the atrocity.

"Nov. 5, 2002: Creates an Institute of Education Sciences whose director may conduct and publish research ''without the approval of the secretary [of education] or any other office of the department."

Bush's signing statement: The president has the power to control the actions of all executive branch officials, so ''the director of the Institute of Education Sciences shall [be] subject to the supervision and direction of the secretary of education."

The Big Picture- No opinions or views contradictory to the Official Policy may be entertained or suggested by anyone at any time.

The Big Big Picture- For God's sake!! If you can look at these 10 flagrant molestations of Constitutional Power and not see the jack boots coming down the street , then you are indeed beyond help. It is already too late and you have not even noticed it. Rise!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

i assume you wont mind if i shoutwire this one, there has been plenty of talk about the signing statements but no one has ever really given examples or explained them at all.

but ya im not sure how anyone can interpret these statements as anything but abusive and detrimental to the balance of the three branches of the american goverment, one should not have exculsive power over the other.

Reverend X said...

Post this everywhere!! Even with the signing statements in the public domain, I do not believe anyone realises how damaging they are. US law is based on precedents and every time the President writes a line about his being above the Law, he achieves one more step up the ladder to the absolute position he desires.

Hellpig said...

Comparing Bush to Hitler shows what a whack job you are...

Reverend X said...

That is it? That is the extent of your argument? Well, sorry Helly but I was not a signatory to the "Can't state the obvious parallels of fascist control techniques used by both the Hitler and Bush" conventions of the Blogger Code. If it walks like evil, talks like evil, smells, tastes, and feels like evil, I get to call it evil. Your "Well, your hair looks stupid!" defense ain't exactly effective rebuttal.

Anonymous said...

revs got a point hell, you cant possibly agree with all of these statments, some are bizaar and pointless

what about the one dealing with recruitment of women and minorities for intellegence purposes? it seems just stupid and bigoited not to allow non-white males to do spying and such for the states, having a more diverse intel network will only help in the long run

or the columbian one, dose the prez want another combat mission in columbia, cause if its becoming a hostile situation it should be a un issue, i doubt you want the us cleaning up the mess in columbia

and what about all the stuff screwing with the military, why does the admin need to control loyal and dedicated soldiers and their command?

overall these statements give the admin unessasary contol over various aspects of the us, and dont say its all for national security cause some of that has nothing to do with ns.

but yah usually you present a much better argument

Hellpig said...

When Bush exterminates 11 million jews come see me.......Clinton murdered more people then Bush has lost in the fight on Terror and at least Bush had an excuse..More people are killed in the USA by Illegal aliens per year then all the patriots lost in both Iraqi wars..

Reverend X said...

Does it have to be Jews? And please back up any of that other crap you said. BTW the number of patriots on permanent disability from Iraq 1 is 518,000. DU did that in one short deployment. We got guys that have been there since 2003 coming up with multiple malignancies. Dying of Cancer for serving their country... way to support em there, tough guy.

Hellpig said...

So now you deny the elimination of 11 million jews in WWII

Hellpig said...

"illegal alien crimes"

google it yourself

50% of all inmates in CA are illegal aliens

26% in the rest of USA

clinton sent 100's of thousands of muslims to their death in Bosnia

WTF you talking about way to support them,look who's talking,what you do in no way supports our troops,I did my tour '83 to '86 when did you serve?

Anonymous said...

yah clinton blows too (or was blown) but how ever much he sucks ( or.. nevermind) it dosent excuse bush and the like from what they did, i didnt see any conservitive congressmen screaming bloody murder about clinton and the shit he pulled. but its like comparing hitler with stalin both were horrible murderers but i doubt you could say one was better/worse than the other based simply on body count ( or at all really). they both were the worst aspects of humanity.
and dont pull an iran with the holocaust thing.
as for the illeagles in jail, why havent they just been sent back to there own countries? i could see some serious cases like murder where the us keeps em locked up, but keeping so many in jail is just a waste of money, it would be cheaper to send them back.

as for supporting the troops i say the us can do one of two things, either bring em home or probably a better soulution is proporly supply and protect them (ie, clean food, body armor, ect) and more importantly reinforce them so they can do the job and cover more ground. as it stands the us troops cant do much to stem the violence cause there isnt enough of them. the admin is screwing them in favor of building bigger bombs and giving money to their makers.

and finally stop doging the signing states issue ( hmm mabye you should go into politics, issue doging is a common skill)
what is your opinion of bush's signing statements that undermine us laws and even the seperation of military command from civilian leadership?

Hellpig said...

why havent they just been sent back to there own countries?

LIBERALS

Anonymous said...

well again i dont see conservitives complaining about it, and they were also moving to imprison all illeagles, that would not have helped the prison pop at all, it would have exploded

still waiting on the rest of my post..

Reverend X said...

Helly,
Are you doing ok? You are way below par with these arguments. I did not deny the holocaust happened. I asked if it was necessary for Bush to kill just the race you mentioned or could I let you know when he had reached 11 million murders counting everyone he killed. He is prolly there already if you count all the people who are dying from DU poisoning, but are still technically alive.