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Late night commentary from this week:Jon Stewart: We just heard that Iraq has announced an 80-billion dollar surplus. How are they gonna spend this money? John Oliver: Well John, like everything in Iraq now, it is up for reasoned discussion. Some have suggested a few infrastructure improvements and then socking the rest away. Others would like to construct a giant bed, cover it with all the money, and then let everyone in the country just roll around on it Scrooge McDuck-style. Others still would like to hire a mercenary army like Blackwater to drive out the infidel American force. ---The Daily Show - "President Bush is on a week-long tour of Asia. He’ll visit South Korea, Thailand, and China. Or as the White House calls it: the Everything Sold At Wal-Mart tour." ---Jay Leno - "Now, to highlight what a charade proper air pressure is, the McCain campaign has started handing out Barack Obama 'Energy Plan' tire gauges. You see, it's a great way to drive home what a ridiculous plan this is. Plus, it's an easy way to check your tire pressure, and that can save you a lot of money. That's not just me talking. The government's own website says that proper tire inflation can save up to 12 cents a gallon immediately. So thank you for the tire gauge, Senator McCain. And good work. You stuck it to all the left-wing nutjobs who advocate proper tire inflation. Radical liberals like your potential vice presidential nominee, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joe Lieberman, Triple A and the pinkos over at NASCAR. I've had my eyes on those guys ever since they had that car sponsored by the ACLU." ---Stephen Colbert - "Security is very tight for the Olympics in China, which has been very hard on the locals there. Many stores and factories in Beijing have been forced to close, and people have been forced out of their houses. Sort of like here in the United States, only for them it ends in a couple of weeks." ---Jimmy Kimmel - "There's excitement in the air over the Olympics...also lead, arsenic, benzene..." ---David Letterman - "The skies over Beijing are very smoggy. The government says the pollution is just a harmless mist. They made a similar statement about the treatment of prisoners---it’s not torture, it’s Pilates." ---Craig Ferguson
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“The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution – not a confusing patchwork of state rules,” Johnson said in a conference call with reporters. “I believe this is a better approach.”LINK California's law would not have conflicted in any way with the Federal law. There was no real reason to override California in this. After that report, it has also come out that this decision was made AGAINST the advice of the EPA Administrator's own staff.
"California met every criteria . . . on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers," said an EPA staffer. "We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts." EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced Wednesday that because President Bush had signed an energy bill raising average fuel economy that there was no need or justification for separate state regulation. He also said that California's request did not meet the legal standard set out in the Clean Air Act. But his staff, which had worked for months on the waiver decision, concluded just the opposite, the sources said Thursday. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the media or because they feared reprisals. California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said she was also told by EPA staff that they were overruled by Johnson. She said Johnson's decision showed "that this administration ignores the science and ignores the law to reach the politically convenient conclusion." Nichols, who served as assistant EPA administrator overseeing air regulations under President Clinton, said she had helped write waiver decisions there, and "I know California met all the criteria on this one."LINK Due to the conflicts arising from this decision, and the way it was carried out, the House Oversight Committee is now investigating the whole incident. LINK California is also suing the Federal Government and the EPA in particular to have this decision overturned. From the article:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday for denying its first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUVs, challenging the Bush administration's conclusion that states have no business setting emission standards. Other states are expected to join the lawsuit[...] "There's absolutely no justification for the administrator's action," Attorney General Jerry Brown said Wednesday. "It's illegal. It's unconscionable and a gross dereliction of duty."LINK This is not over and there is every indication California will win the lawsuit and somebody is going to be very embarrassed by the end of this.
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In the United States we believe in the "Rule of Law". A term meaning that everyone must obey the law, and nobody is above the law. These laws are to be written, public, and challengable in court.
Bush's nomination for Attorney General thinks one man is above this.
AT his confirmation hearings last week, Michael B. Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, was asked whether the president is required to obey federal statutes. Judge Mukasey replied, "That would have to depend on whether what goes outside the statute nonetheless lies within the authority of the president to defend the country."
According to Judge Mukasey’s statement, as well as other parts of his testimony, the president’s authority "to defend the nation" trumps his obligation to obey the law. Take the federal statute governing military commissions in Guantánamo Bay. No one, including the president’s lawyers, argues that this statute is unconstitutional. The only question is whether the president is required to obey it even if in his judgment the statute is not the best way "to defend the nation."
If he is not, we no longer live under the government the founders established.
His arguement basically comes down to the fact that The Constitution is above all laws, and that since the President is required "the defense of the nation" in the Constitution, laws are null and void in pursuit of this goal.
This is NOT a view the nation should embrace. The defense of the nation can and should be pursued following the Constitution, International Law, and also following our domestic laws. Violating these ideals has led other nations to dictatorship, corruption, and loss of liberty. It CAN happen here as well, not just other nations.
The Attorney General is THE law enforcement official in the country. It's their job to ENFORCE the laws of the land, not make exceptions to them. If something is illegal, the Attorney General should be the first one to stop the President and his actions. That was the main problem with the last one. Gonzales was seen as just defining things and changing them to fit the current Administration. Not holding the Administration to the law.
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The single largest anti-Constitutional contribution to the Bush Regime by the PAA is its effective cancellation of legislative and judicial oversight on warrant-less wiretapping. When this bill was signed into law, the Constitution's separation-of-powers principle and balanced branches principle were completely ignored. The law is set to expire after 6 months. But, unsurprisingly, Bush just announced that he wants those powers to be permanent.
The Protect America Act is a warrant-less eavesdropping bill that expands the power of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It was passed just before summer recess: by the Senate on August 3 (Roll Call 309), and by the House on August 4 (Roll Call 836). George Bush then signed the bill into law on Sunday, August 5.
The Protect America Act gives the federal government the authority to monitor American citizens' phone conversations and e-mails, providing they are corresponding with persons "reasonably believed to be located outside the United States." This bill, which was drafted mostly by the White House, was created in response to the 2005 scandal where President Bush was ridiculed for authorizing the National Security Agency to conduct a secret wiretapping program targeted at persons within the United States.
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Site last updated February 11, 2012 @ 4:35 am