Senator Specter angling to PARDON Bush?
When US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor pronounced in Detroit, “It was never the intent of the framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights.” in the decision condemning the AT&T wiretaps she made it crystal clear that this was a very clear cut issue. The same decision was made by a California US District Judge. The issue is to be decided by the U.S. Courts of Appeals and Supreme Court – unless someone throws a monkey wrench into the works.
It appears that Arlen Specter is the Monkey throwing the Wrench. According to the article at Nieman Watchdog,
ather than encouraging judicial review of the program, the Specter/White House bill instead seeks to transfer all the challenges to one court, which happens to be the most likely to rule in favor of the government. Contrary to some reports, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review likely would hear arguments in an adversarial setting – so the proceedings wouldn’t be entirely one-sided. Nevertheless, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review is an ideal venue for the government as it is the only appeals court that has already made statements favorable to the government. (In 2002, when the government was secretly violating the FISA, it made a general argument for broad presidential authority and in its ruling in that unrelated case the court obligingly included a sentence about presidential power which the Justice Department now relies on in arguing that the President has the constitutional authority to ignore FISA.) . . . The Specter-White House bill would further stack the cards for the President by retroactively amending the FISA and gutting its prohibition on warrantless wiretapping. The bill would replace FISA’s carefully constructed checks and balances with a blank check to the President.
Senator Specter, I would respectfully bring to your attention re this matter of the President ordering wiretaps without warrants and not following the 3 day rule– NIXON WAS IMPEACHED FOR MUCH LESS. Just because he’s President does not give him the right to break the law.
Chris Floyd said it much better than I can.
This bill is a watershed moment in the history of our Republic; although the spirit of liberty has long rotted away inside the gilded carapace of power, this bill will remove some of the remaining outward flourishes that, in better times, might yet be re-animated. But if the president’s power to break laws at whim is officially acknowledged as part of the institutional framework of our government — as it will be if Specter’s craven measure passes — there will be precious little left to build on. Even the ruins and rubble of our Constitutional Republic are being pounded into sand by Bush and his willing executioners of freedom. They want to leave us nothing that is not in their own iron, bloodstained hands. Dark days indeed.
Anyone who would stand with this man, George W. Bush, who has broken his oath of office and the law of our land so many times, is standing against the American People, Senator Specter. For this you deserve much worse than a Bitchslap. I will not be voting for you, and yes, I am a PA voter.
Technorati Tags: Arlen Specter, Wiretaps, Bush Pardon, Specter-White House bill
