Under the guise of "opening a discussion" Bush wants Congress to grant him the power to use the US Military, within the United States, for police powers.
Using another manufactured crisis, this time the "Bird Flu", he attempts to sow fear amongst the populace, that this as yet non existent pandemic will require "quarantines" that only the military could enforce.
Can Congress, the media and the people be so gullible and forgetful of history that they will accept this nonsense?
Even Conservative "think tank" people warn that this step is fought with danger and could mean the end of the American Republic.
The country handled the flu pandemic in of 1918 just fine, without a Dictator.
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On the topic of "recess appointments", I submit that the traditional view of this, at least that being bandied about in the media, is seriously flawed.
The President does NOT have a Constitutional right to fill any vacancies the Senate is considering, but only such vacancies that might OCCUR DURING a Senate recess.
From the US Constitution, for you contemplation:
Article 2 - The Executive Branch
Section 2 - ". . . The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session."
Note the specific wording. It says vacancies "that may happen during", not those 'that may happen to exist during' a recess.
So, clearly, a plain reading of the Constitution puts lie to what so many media people mainatain, that President Bush has a Constitutional power to appoint John Bolton during the coming Senate recess.
Further, I submit that should President Bush make such an appointment, he would be in violation of the US Constitution, thus adding fuel to the smoldering issue of impeachment.
An uninformed populace is central to most tightly controlled societies.
If one is a Despot, benign or not, (or has designs to become one, verbalized or not) one finds it is much easier to control a population that is kept ingnorant of any facts, or opinions, that are not convenient to your plans to gain and maintain control.
Having been lulled to sleep by a spineless and compliant Mass Media (under threat of license non renewal and political retribution) we are dreamily unaware that the Press, long a bastion of freedom and the information required to keep it, has now also been emasculated.
Seems a major newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has given us a glimpse of the future, where we will be kept in the dark regarding deeds or misdeeds of our "leaders".
An article in the New York Times, (see it here) which deserved a front page banner, is buried on a back page.
According to this article, there are two items the Plain Dealer will not publish, out of fear of prosecution. These items would be of great interest to the public, according to the article.
Coming, co-incidentally enough, on the heels of the London bombings, the article is sure to gather little public attention.
So, then, who is to know what information has been kept hidden?
A smoking gun regarding a "cooked" election? A smoking gun that might lead to Presidential Impeachment? Sadly, it seems we will never know?
Another American tragedy unfolding. The Ghosts of Fascist Europe, circa 1930's must be laughing their ethereal asses off.
So, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, states the obvious truth, in equating our treatment of prisioners at Guantanamo to the acts of Nazi's an Commies, yet needs to apologize for it.
In a June 14 speech on the Senate floor, Senator Durbin read from an FBI agent's account of prisoner condition at Guantanamo Bay. The Agent described prisonsers being shackled to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures for up to 24 hours at a stretch.
Prisoners in those conditions sometimes urinated or defecated on themselves, the agent reported.
"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings," Senator Durbin stated.
The Bush administration continues to claim that prisoners are being treated in accord with the Geneva Conventions. I guess the agent must be lying?
I don't know what is more disturbing, that the Administration continues to claim what is obviously not true, or that Senator Durbin caved in to pressure and apologized for telling the truth.
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