Should We Start Using The Word "Fascism" Now?
President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research...
Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation's sponsors to signing ceremonies at which he lavishes praise upon their work.
Then, after the media and the lawmakers have left the White House, Bush quietly files ''signing statements" -- official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the federal register.
In his signing statements, Bush has repeatedly asserted that the Constitution gives him the right to ignore numerous sections of the bills -- sometimes including provisions that were the subject of negotiations with Congress in order to get lawmakers to pass the bill. He has appended such statements to more than one of every 10 bills he has signed. [Boston Globe via the portside list]
Look, I'm not saying that this is a fascist administration, let alone government. We still have all the trappings of liberal democracy (even if it's only for certain strata of people based on criminality, immigration status, etc.). What I am saying is that this is really scary, that if Bush were a little more like Nixon we would all be in a world of trouble right now instead of just people in Iraq, people in Guantanamo Bay, people along the Gulf Coast, the poor in the U.S. and around the world, immigrants, etc. Once you lay the precedents, all you need are the right (or, rather, wrong) people to come into power and destroy everything.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research...
Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation's sponsors to signing ceremonies at which he lavishes praise upon their work.
Then, after the media and the lawmakers have left the White House, Bush quietly files ''signing statements" -- official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the federal register.
In his signing statements, Bush has repeatedly asserted that the Constitution gives him the right to ignore numerous sections of the bills -- sometimes including provisions that were the subject of negotiations with Congress in order to get lawmakers to pass the bill. He has appended such statements to more than one of every 10 bills he has signed. [Boston Globe via the portside list]
Look, I'm not saying that this is a fascist administration, let alone government. We still have all the trappings of liberal democracy (even if it's only for certain strata of people based on criminality, immigration status, etc.). What I am saying is that this is really scary, that if Bush were a little more like Nixon we would all be in a world of trouble right now instead of just people in Iraq, people in Guantanamo Bay, people along the Gulf Coast, the poor in the U.S. and around the world, immigrants, etc. Once you lay the precedents, all you need are the right (or, rather, wrong) people to come into power and destroy everything.
someone else at 12:59 PM | Direct Link | |
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