Just came across this story and I hope that many of you are as concerned as I am. Our President does not seem to have a full grasp of the implications of his actions. I fear that the President does not understand how all Americans, both Republican and Democrat, disapprove of the actions of any elected official that ignores the fundamental rights and principals upon which this country is based. In this country not even the President is above the law. This observer is very concerned over what has been appearing in the press regarding domestic spying.
Here is the story hot off the wire:
The National Security Agency has conducted much broader surveillance of e-mails and phone calls without court orders than the Bush administration has acknowledged, The New York Times reported on its Web site.
The NSA, with help from American telecommunications companies, obtained access to streams of domestic and international communications, said the Times in the report late Friday, citing unidentified current and former government officials.
The story did not name the companies.
Since the Times disclosed the domestic spying program last week,President Bush has stressed that his executive order allowing the eavesdropping was limited to people with known links to al-Qaida.
But the Times said that NSA technicians have combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might lead to terrorists.
The volume of information harvested from telecommunications data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the paper said, quoting an unnamed official.
The rest of the story here.
Here is the New York Times story that first reported the broader abuses.
Dec 24, 2005
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Maybe the Unitary Executive theory score is Clinton's 354 to Bushes 95 uses (abuses).
Clinton at war exercised the use of force 36 times under the War Powers Act. Bush obtained a resolution based on false information to Congress on the use of power and transformed that somehow into the use of torture on "detainees." Have we come to being "lost and undone" as Patrick Henry suggests for not having left behind the barbaric practices of the "Old World?"
At least Nixon was honest enough (even though later ruled wrong) to claim under his oath of office Inherent power to suspend the 4th for domestic no warrant wiretaps during the Vietnam war.
Bush just assumes the role of sole authority and that a constitutional government no longer exists since 9/11.
Thankfully, even after 5000 bombings, 86 policeman killed and a record of 33,604 assaults between the fall of 1969 and spring of 1970 over the Cambodia invasion, did the Supreme Court see fit to keep a constitutional republic minus Rehnquist’s sole authority argument. Only congressional acts allowed under the law would allow presidential actions.
If new chief justice Robert’s arguments for torture are accepted as one of those presidential powers then Nixon would have been allowed to torture those on his political hit list! And now we learn that Bush has one too? Instead of Roberts focus on Jackson's decision in Truman’s Youngstown the focus should be on Jackson's closing arguments as prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials.
Hopefully, Roberts will recuse himself like Rehnquist did when Nixon's inherent power argument reached the Supreme Court. And hopefully the Supreme Court will again rule unanimously against Roberts and his argument for torture in favor of the "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" part of what is left our current Constitution.
I am Citizen Michael John Keenan
CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
We are in a state of constitutional crisis. For Rummy to lobby on intelligence reform and now have military acts off the books means that the "lynch-pin" of the constitution, the taxing and spending powers of Congress, of raising standing armies, has now been violated. My congressman now has no way to effect my Liberty nor my Republic. Our constitution was specifically designed to avoid this combination of the President's office with the Defense Department; that the King shall not have his own standing army to send willy-nilly to wherever he thinks he has the pleasure too. That is why I can never believe the neo-cons claims to absolute presidential power as Commander-and-Chief even during war. The claim of inherent power of the president has already been settled under Nixon's attempt during the Vietnam War. As Nixon’s assistant attorney general Rehnquist made the argument of inherent power to wiretap the White Panther Party without a warrant – during a war. This power, which was claimed to be held under the President’s Oath of Office, was rejected by the Supreme Court in an unanimous decision against suspending all or parts of the Constitution . Because this was Rehnquist argument as assistant attorney general he had to recuse himself from his very first decision after being appointed to the Supreme Court and rightly so. And guess what? America was still standing in the morning after this and Nixon's resignation avoiding his impeachment. This is in spite of a average of 6 bombings a day, 86 killed policemen, and a record 33,604 injuries between the fall of 1969 and spring of 1970 by our own citizens over the invasion of Cambodia.
Unfortunately, Rehnquist conveniently ignores this when he reviews his history of the power of the President during war. He brings up WWI and WWII but for some reason he completely skips being slapped down by the Supreme Court during the undeclared, illegal and immoral so-called Vietnam War. This is bald face intellectual dishonesty that completely belies the important decision on the necessity of War - not to mention the young lives thrown willy-nilly into harm's way. That is why I completely reject the neo-con's medieval thesis that constitutional government is too weak to survive in a difficult world and that we should defer to a sole sovereign power. We have become weaker since taking on this post 9/11 repeat of Rehnquist's "in terrorem" position. I would like to read his memo on the subject of presidential power and the invasion of Cambodia but alas that memo has disappeared, nowhere to be found on the internet. The persuasive force of his ideas no longer count I can only suppose. I only fear that with Roberts he will take what was a tragedy we survived and turn a repeated claim of 18th century inherent power into a farce that destroys our Constitution.
CALIFORNIA FREEDOM CHALLENGE!
I have decided to run for Congress only I will hire Election Ontario, a nonpartisan agency from Canada to collect and count my own registered votes then have them COUNT THE PAPER BALLOTS AND ANNOUNCE THE RESULTS!
If McPherson and the California Association of Election Officials plan on stealing our vote by using rigged electronic voting machines then I will steal it back using a paper vote and will count it QUICKER! This is the same model that was used in the Mississippi Freedom Challenge. Remember the folks that were "honored" in the front row of the Democratic Convention.
Here is how Election Canada works:
After the polls close, the Deputy Returning Officer opens the ballot box and counts the ballots.
The ballots are counted and recorded as 'valid' (properly marked); 'unmarked' (no mark on the ballot); 'rejected' (declared invalid by the poll official because of improper marking); and, 'declined' (returned by any voters who have stated they decline to vote). Ballots will not be counted again unless a judge orders a Judicial Recount.
The Deputy Returning Officer completes the Statement of the Poll and places all the ballots and voting supplies into a special envelope to be returned to the Returning Officer.
The Deputy Returning Officer telephones the ballot count to the Returning Officer. The Returning Officer gives the count information to any media in his or her office so that voters and candidates may get early, unofficial results of the election through radio, television, newspapers and the Internet.
On a previously established day, usually one or two days after the election, when Returning Officers have received the special envelopes from all the Deputy Returning Officers in the electoral district, they total the vote from the Statement of the Poll for each poll. This is the Returning Officer's Official Tabulation of the vote. Seven days after this count, if there is no recount ordered by a judge, the Returning Officers advise the Chief Election Officer of the name of the winning candidate in their electoral district. From this information, the Chief Election Officer prepares the official list of candidates elected.
I will then take these results and challenge the seat of representation at the next session of Congress. Stand aside Mr. Dreier.
According to the constitution if 1/9 of such challenged seats won we could print what ever we wanted in the Congressional Record. More open government right there! Besides, Gentleman Boss Dreier is not going to give us the time of day.
Oh, did I forget to mention that I have invited former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to come and help officiate over this CALIFORNIA FREEDOM CHALLENGE!
I owe it all to my voteover experts:
http:// www.electionsontario.on.c...ntario_en.shtml
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