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CHECKS AND BALANCES UNDER OUR CONSTITUTION? WHAT CHECKS AND BALANCES?

(June 2, 2006) As reported by the Boston Globe:

Two senior Democratic House members yesterday demanded that President Bush withdraw his assertion that he can ignore portions of the USA Patriot Act calling on him to provide periodic reports to Congress on how new law-enforcement tactics are being used.

Representatives Jane Harman of California and John Conyers of Michigan -- the ranking Democrats on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, respectively -- sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking that Bush follow the law.

''We ask that the administration immediately rescind this statement and abide by the law," the lawmakers wrote. ''Many members who supported the final law did so based upon the guarantee of additional reporting and oversight. The administration cannot, after the fact, unilaterally repeal provisions of the law implementing such oversight."

After some lawmakers raised concerns that the Patriot Act may pose a threat to civil liberties, Congress added a series of new oversight provisions to it. The law requires the Justice Department to keep track of how the FBI is using its expanded powers to monitor suspects and seize papers during counterterrorism investigations. The law required the administration to give Congress that information by certain dates.

But after Bush signed the Patriot Act reauthorization on March 9, he issued a signing statement -- an official document in which a president lays out his understanding of the law -- asserting that he had the authority to withhold the information from Congress if he decided that disclosing it would interfere with foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations (emphasis all added).

Of course, "his understanding of the law," here, as in many other instances, has been used to simply and blatantly disregard the law.  And, of course, the phrase, "executive branch operations," is, of course, a catch all meaning, "if we decide not to share it."  In other words, a law gets passed because oversight provisions are put in, and then the administration simply ignores those oversight provisions.

A call to Conyers' office confirmed that as of today, over two months later, there has been no response, directly, or indirectly, to this request that the executive branch abide by the law, as well as abide by our Constitution, that states, clearly and unambiguously, at Article I, Section I, that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." Blatantly changing a law on the specious pretense of "interpretaton" is legislating, in direct contravention of the Will of Congress (and, as Congress serves as our representatives, in contravention with the represented will of the American people), and of the Constitution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 


 

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