Bush's Shrinking Safety Zone

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by tw

George Jr's Executive Order (XO) was issued...

We were talking about Clinton's XO.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

We were talking about Clinton's XO.

Clinton's XO would be legal, as I understand it. The president can issue an executive order to wiretap executive branch employees who have signed a release. That release, as I understand it, is required when accepting those high security positions. No judicial review required to authorize such surveillance of people such as Ames. But an executive order or something equivalent is required. That XO is legal.

George Jr authorized, by executive order, wiretapping of people who were not of the executive branch. He authorized this without judicial review as was required by law. And as we now know, the Asst Attorney General who was in charge at that time refused to condone it. People with questionable backgrounds then went to the hospital to pressure Ashcroft into giving approval. Ashcroft was reluctant but eventually gave in because he was told it was a matter of national security. George Jr's XO is illegal. The only way they could get even Ashcroft to agree was to pressure the man repeatedly in his hospital bed.

An executive order to authorize those wiretapping was not legal. It was just another George Jr half truth to justify illegal wiretaps for the greater glory of George Jr. Another example of a dictator demanding loyalty over American principles and laws. They even had a secret court and had 72 hours, after doing the wiretaps, to get court permission. And still that was not good enough? Their facts were as flimsy as the aluminum tubes for WMDs. So they created their own version of law - without judicial review. Knowing that even that secret court would reject their claims as bogus; these extremists justified wiretapping knowing full well that we will not demand impeachment or any other sanctions.

It’s rather silly to even think George Jr would have any respect for laws. He routinely subverts trade laws to protect big steel at the expense of American workers and their jobs. He unilaterally terminates international treaties on weapon proliferation and anti-missile defense. He lies about how much the drug bill will cost so that excessively high drug prices can be protected AND so that government will price support those profits. He unilaterally attacks another nation on bogus WMDs and outright lies. He has no qualms about a nuclear reactor with a Three Mile Island problem running in Toledo as long as he got his $450,000 fund raiser. His administration's connection to K Street corruption is unprecedented. Just a sampling of how his god (also called Satan) tells him what to do - such as run for the presidency or invade Iraq.

UT, if you think for one moment that this president is innocent, well, I have this mafioso friend who will make you a great deal on free money. This made man is also as honest as George Jr - and he reads his memos.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by tw

He lies about how much the drug bill will cost so that excessively high drug prices can be protected AND so that government will price support those profits.

Speaking of lying, I just saw GWB giving a speech saying that if tax cuts are not made permanent, families making $50,000 a year will pay 50 percent more in taxes.

I'm trying to understand what kind of math he was using, or if he was playing games with words and that he wasn't actually saying that their total federal income tax of all or most families would rise by %50, but that some combination of circumstances and deductions made it theoretically possible to raise the taxes of one or more families by %50.

For example, a family living entirely on dividends from a stock in Yugoslavian eel farming.

I haven't found any analysis yet on factcheck.org. I'd be real curious about it.

From here.

By letting people keep more of what they earn, this economy is strong. Unfortunately, just as we're seeing the evidence of how the tax cuts have created jobs and opportunity, some in Washington are saying we need to raise your taxes. See, that's either by saying we're not going to make the tax cuts permanent -- in other words, they're going to expire -- or why don't we repeal the tax cuts right now. When you hear somebody say, let's don't make the tax cuts permanent what they're telling the American worker and the American family is, we're going to raise taxes on you. If that were to happen, a Chicago family of four making $50,000 would see federal income taxes go up by nearly 50 percent.

[tw]

Report Rebuts Bush on Spying
A report by Congress's research arm concluded yesterday that the administration's justification for the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments.

The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions made recently by Bush and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the president's authority to order secret intercepts of telephone and e-mail exchanges between people inside the United States and their contacts abroad. ...

The report includes 1970s-era quotations from congressional committees that were then uncovering years of domestic spying abuses by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI against those suspected of communist sympathies, American Indians, Black Panthers and other activists. Lawmakers were very disturbed at how routinely FBI agents had listened in on U.S. citizens' phone calls without following any formal procedures.

According to the George Jr admininstration, then J Edgar Hoover also did right to wiretap whomever he wanted. After all, Hoover's only interest was national security - right? Hoover also had no ulterior motives. Neither did Nixon. Clearly each was only violating law for righteous reasons.