Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement – The Boston Globe — You have to wonder if this guy decided to NOT step down as President after the next Presidential election if anyone would just say OK.

WASHINGTON — When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act’s expanded police powers.

found by Rick Steinmetz



  1. jasontheodd says:

    Everytime I comment “welcome to Peoples Republic of America” I get a lot of responses from rightys who say it will never get that bad. Slowly my friends it will. Perhaps too slowly for the semi blind to see, but slowly and surely it will if nobody stops it.

  2. Mr. Fusion says:

    King George the Worst, The Great Uniter, Emperor of all the Americas, Supreme Ruler of the Middle Eastern Territories, and Leader of the Free World and the Ort Cloud, can be summed up in one word:

    ARROGANCE

  3. Mister Mustard says:

    We have reached the point of diminishing returns in trying to explain Dumbya’s neofascism.

    After everything that has happened in the past 5 years, anyone who still supports Dumbya (a great minority, thankfully) would continue to support him if he started lining up liberals in Lafayette Park and executed them at gunpoint.

  4. BOB G says:

    at last count 50 to 60 milion people still support our president. that fact goes right over the heads of left coasters

  5. Scott says:

    that leaves 130 million who don’t

  6. 2xBob says:

    The republicans who are for him are not real rupublicans. They think they are republicans because bush is a republican and they like bush. Isnt republicanism rooted in the idea of small executive government giving power to states? If that is true then this isnt right (pun). Our trillions in debt, our ungodly large executive power and heck, even the secracy around the going ons are wrong. This is why I usualy say I’m just a conservative or im a republican against bush.

    Heres to hoping for a good strong election 2008. I want a conservative Republican and a Clinton like democrat.

  7. AC says:

    My Worry? Remember how they came up with the trial balloon in 2004 about how, if there was a terrorist attack before the elections that they would SUSPEND – not postpone – the Presidential election.

    Flash forward to 2008 and there is a “terrorist attack” of ANY kind

    All Hail King George, president for life

    AC

  8. Mister Mustard says:

    >>at last count 50 to 60 milion people still support our president.
    >>that fact goes right over the heads of left coasters

    Uhhhh. Not being from the left coast, that fact did not go over my head, nor did the fact that there are almost 300,000,000 Americans.

    For those of you who subscribe to the George W. Bush theory of education (and hence cannot add, subtract, multiply, or divide) that leaves about TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION of us red-blooded Americans who think he’s a brainless twit, a puppet of Heart Attack Cheney and Karl “666” Rove, and a nasty man.

  9. Miguel Correia says:

    Beware of the electronic voting systems… if you don’t get a paper receipt to deposit on a physical ballot, then there is no way in the world your vote is safe.

    Just imagine this SQL query:

    declare @dumbya int;
    set @dumbya=666;
    update vote set selectedCandidate=@dumbya where ID % 2 = 0;
    go

    Elections will be held, people will vote, but who will know that his vote was really counted right?

    Good luck!!

  10. AB CD says:

    Sure, get rid of the computer voting. I hope you throw out any internet voting ideas as well. However, with a paper receipt, you’re inviting lots ofg vote buying.

  11. Mike Voice says:

    Who says the President doesn’t have a line-item veto! 🙂

    Sad to see this play-out.

    The Clinton attackers were furious because Bubba would’nt resign, exactly because they had to attack/weaken the Presidency in their efforts to under-cut and limit him at every turn.

    Now, Dubya and Dick are trying to re-claim “Exectutive Powers” and “Presidential Perogatives” they like to think existed pre-Bubba.

    I wonder who amongst the D & D supporters is considering the powers which will be transferred to the next administration, and the next… and whether they will be comfortable with those future, “unknown quantities” claiming the same secretive powers. 🙁

  12. AB CD says:

    he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ”impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive’s constitutional duties.”

  13. Milo says:

    “idiot. he’s referring, of course, to those who voted for him.”

    Bush is posting on Dvorak!

  14. Improbus says:

    I used to be a Republican. After Dubya got re-elected I didn’t have the stomach for it anymore. I am closer to being a Libertarian so the loss of civil rights was too much. Also, being a physical conservative, Dubya’s barrow and spend policies make me sick.

  15. Jeremy says:

    Everything is in place for all of our nightmares to come true. It started as soon as the dead started coming home from the war – stop that from being reported on – on one really said anything about it or cared.

    Bush is lining up all the laws so we can’t report on his actions, and I think people are correct in their fear that there will be an attack some time before the elections.

  16. NotMe says:

    Whatever. There’s no possible way I can imagine that he could be worse than Kerry, Gore or Hillary.

  17. JeeBs says:

    Why does it always seem that every presidential election boils down to choosing the lesser of two evils?

    I would really like to have the choice “None of the above” most of the time.

  18. James Hill says:

    An anti-Bush thread to spike the post count. What a shock.

  19. Milo says:

    Paul must have gotten a big raise indeed!

  20. Seth Russell says:

    It never ceases to amaze me how much the American people are swallowing his disregard for the laws of the land. Here is a cartoon about it.

  21. Milo says:

    Paul continues to raise the bar for American debating skills and manners.

  22. joshua says:

    Once upon a time, in a land called America there existed a Republican party that had real principles, hated big goverment, and believed in balanced budgets and low taxes, that individuals counted, and anyone could be anything they wanted through hard work, education and freedom.

    That party died!!!!!!!!!!!

    But, those of you who are Democrats, don’t get all happy, because your party isn’t what it used to be either.

    Both parties are now in bed with big business. Both think that goverment is wonderful and we need more. Both parties think that individual inititive, freedom of speech, and low taxes are un-patriotic.
    The far right and the far left have more in common than they realize. Both are intolerant of opposing views, both use lies and distortion to sway voters and both are usually wrong on most issues.

    Yep……having only had the right to vote in two elections, I have already ran into the lament of most thoughtful voters……*wtf are these people doing on a ballot.*

    I am a conservative, with very strong Libertarian views, which is what conservatives USED to be. But I can’t vote for the Libertarian Party in this country because it also espouses some pretty whacky stuff. So….what do we do?

    I think that Tod may be right….what we need is another revolution to restore the constitution and start over.

  23. Thomas says:

    For all you blind Bush haters (and it seems to be most of you), you do realize you are actually hurting the Democrats ability to get re-elected do you not? Rather than continuing to convince people that Bush is evil, why don’t you focus on putting up a candidate that

    A: Won’t raise taxes and actually understands market economics.
    B: Doesn’t have his/her head in the sand with respect to defense.
    C: Will take power away from the Federal government and give it back to the States.
    D. Will focus on balancing the budget and paying the deficit instead of paying art grants.
    E. Is actually believable given their past history (e.g. unlike Kerry).
    F. Will keep his religion to him/herself.

    You do that and you’ll get my vote. Obviously, I like to see this from both parties (fat chance). You keep going with the “I hate Bush” bullshit and you’ll be looking at another “lesser of two evils” Republican President in 2008.

  24. Greg V. says:

    I saw this this morning when there was only nine comments. I was eagerly awaiting what the defense of this could possibly be. Let’s see what we got:

    #4 – Some people support the president. Nope, no defense there. Doesn’t address his behavior.

    #19 – Democrats would be worse! A classic beside the point defense. Also doesn’t address his behavior.

    #14 – Okay, that deserves a response. This is the Unitary Executive theory, which is basically the belief that congress has no authority over the president when acting as Commander in Chief. Regardless of the merit of this constitutional interpretation (which seems dubious as congress has done just that in the past) this has a number of problems.

    – It has been extended to anything remotely having to do with national security. See the article for more examples. And it’s not just for Iraq but the broader war on terror. The WoT is for all practical purposes a perpetual war because there is no well defined, realistic endpoint. It doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fought or that we can’t improve the situation, just that I don’t see where we say we won and we’re done. So the president can do whatever he wants related to national security forever. This Should Frighten You.

    – This issue is not being fought by whether a bill gets passed or not, but whether the president decides a bill applies to him, regardless of clear congressional intent. He didn’t veto it, saying that this bill unfairly impinges on his power. He just signs it and says he doesn’t have to listen to it in a signing statement. That gives congress no power to contradict his view. There are no checks and balances.

    Congress gets a check by voting on whether the bill even gets to the president. The president gets a check by being able to veto it. The congress gets another check by being able to override it with a supermajority. In this case, the president gets to issue a signing statement as if it carries legal weight which the congress has no control over. This Should Frighten You.

    – Third, both of these things if left unchallenged will apply to future presidents as well. Democrats and Republicans. People you will trust, and people you won’t. By accepting this you are not just giving Bush this power, you’re giving everyone this power. This Should Frighten You. Would you trust Hillary, Kerry, or Gore with this power?

    I can’t believe anyone actually believes and approves of Unitary Executive. Regardless of what you think about the president in general, and regardless of how much some of these Bush bashing comments must grate on you, I would still think everyone would be able to recognize that this is a Really Bad Thing.

  25. Mr. Fusion says:

    Let’s just impeach the a**hole. He is already going down as a Buchanan competitor.

    For those that disparage Gore & Kerry. Ya, right !!! Somehow having some integrity doesn’t count.

  26. Milo says:

    “i’ll continue to advise you that your best course of action is to FOAD.”

    I intend to do both but perhaps not as quickly as you’d like.

  27. Jacob Gohlke says:

    Mmmhmm…


  28. Beeblebrox says:

    at last count 50 to 60 milion people still support our president. that fact goes right over the heads of left coasters

    It’s not that it goes over anyone’s head. It simply has nothing to do with anything. After all, Bill Clinton’s approval rating at the height of the Lewinski scandal was in the 80% range.

    Does that mean that you or any other right-wing numbnuts thought that those mean ol’ Republicans should have left him alone? If not, then why is it supposed to matter now when critics of Bush think that he views himself as above the law?

  29. Beeblebrox says:

    Whatever.

    Ah, yes. Indifference to Bush’s total disregard for the law or the seperation of powers. The hallmark of the modern Republican. Conservatism as we know it is dead, or at least all but absent in this Republican party.

    There’s no possible way I can imagine that he could be worse than Kerry, Gore or Hillary.

    This is, of course, more a commentary on the shortage of your imagination than anything approaching reality.

    We need only look back at a scant 6 years at the last Democratic president for a reasonable yard stick on what a Democrat can do. And all he really managed to accomplish was a balanced budget, overthrowing a brutal dictator with almost no American casualties, and the single greatest economic growth in American history.

    I will happily concede, btw, that he did this with a Republican Congress. And I am only too happy to appreciate some division of power for the future. An all Republican govt has been, just as the all Democratic govt was in 1992, an unmitaged disaster.

  30. JT says:

    Paul T….

    You have said what exactly worth debating?

    “Don’t BLIMP”

    “last i checked, seven year olds can’t vote. much to the dismay of their lefty taxpayer paid inculcators (”gradeschool teachers”).”

    Yeah…nice work.


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