Friday, July 20, 2007

Storming Our Bastille

by shamanic

This is pretty much the moment to grab the pitchforks and torches and drag the despised royals from their fortified compounds and whip them in the streets.

Don't believe me? Go read the Declaration of Independence. Study the list of grievances. Tell me that the founders of this nation weren't rising up against a man very much like George W. Bush.

Equality? Justice? This is how America's President views his own accountability:
"A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case," said a senior official, who said his remarks reflect a consensus within the administration. "And a U.S. attorney wouldn't be permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided. No one should expect that to happen."
So according to the president, the president can simply declare executive privilege and anything and everything is literally beyond examination.

Do our Republican representatives and senators accept this brand of tyranny? I really want to know. Is it the position of the president's party that the president is simply infallible in our constitutional system? Look at this quote and tell me that the GOP hasn't determined that a Republican president (because none of these arguments, by the way, apply to Democratic presidents) is the embodiment of God on Earth:
David B. Rifkin, who worked in the Justice Department and White House counsel's office under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, praised the position and said it is consistent with the idea of a "unitary executive." In practical terms, he said, "U.S. attorneys are emanations of a president's will." And in constitutional terms, he said, "the president has decided, by virtue of invoking executive privilege, that is the correct policy for the entire executive branch."
This is simply theological. "Emanations of a president's will" reminds me of the Roe vs. Wade ruling, so criticized by men like Rifkin for its language of "emanations" and "penumbras".*See comments

Grab your pitchforks, fellow Americans. We have some work to do.

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