{"id":199,"date":"2005-12-22T05:11:16","date_gmt":"2005-12-22T11:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=199"},"modified":"2005-12-21T22:05:12","modified_gmt":"2005-12-22T04:05:12","slug":"vital-presidential-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/vital-presidential-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Vital \r\n\r\nPresidential Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bush Addresses Uproar Over <\/p>\n

Spying<\/a>
\n‘This Is a Different Era, a Different War,’ He Says as Some Lawmakers Seek Probe
\nBy Peter Baker and Charles Babington, <\/p>\n

Washington Post Staff Writers<\/p>\n

“It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war,” he <\/p>\n

said. “The fact that we’re discussing<\/em> this program is helping the enemy<\/em>.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Text: Bush News Conference<\/a><\/p>\n

Bush: I want to <\/p>\n

make sure the American people understand, however, that we have an obligation to protect you<\/strong>, and we’re doing that and <\/p>\n

at the time protecting your civil liberties. Secondly, an open debate about law<\/strong> would say to the enemy, ‘Here’s what <\/p>\n

we’re going to do.’ And this is an enemy which adjusts. <\/p>\n

QUESTION: You say you have an obligation to protect us. Then why not <\/p>\n

monitor those calls between Houston and L.A.? If the threat is so great and you use the same logic, why not monitor those calls? <\/p>\n

Americans thought they weren’t being spied on in calls overseas; why not within the country if the threat is so great? <\/p>\n

BUSH: We <\/p>\n

will, under current law, if we have to. We will monitor those calls.<\/p>\n

Vital Presidential Power<\/a><\/p>\n

This is not an argument for an <\/p>\n

unfettered executive prerogative. Under our system of separated powers, Congress has the right and the ability to judge whether President <\/p>\n

Bush has in fact used his executive discretion soundly, and to hold him responsible if he hasn’t. But to engage in demagogic rhetoric <\/p>\n

about “imperial” presidents and “monarchic” pretensions, with no evidence that the president has abused his discretion, is foolish and <\/p>\n

irresponsible.<\/p>\n

[William Kristol is editor of the Weekly Standard.]<\/p>\n

WEBCommentary(tm) – Bush Goes on <\/p>\n

Offense…Finally<\/a><\/p>\n

During Monday’s presser, Bush could be seen attempting to suppress his anger over the leaking of the NSA <\/p>\n

operation. Hopefully he will call for a special prosecutor to investigate this truly damaging leak. He must stay on the <\/p>\n

offensive.<\/strong> We spent two years investigating the leak of a bozo’s CIA wife’s name. These were two people using the CIA for <\/p>\n

their own politically leftist agenda, yet the Democrats and their lapdogs in the news media<\/em> displayed feigned concern regarding <\/p>\n

national security over the woman’s identity being revealed. <\/p>\n

As expected, liberals from the Democrat and Republican parties <\/p>\n

called for congressional investigations into President Bush’s decision after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to allow domestic <\/p>\n

eavesdropping without court approval. They appeared disinterested in finding out the truth about the leaker in this obvious case <\/p>\n

of treachery<\/strong>. …<\/p>\n

Now that Bush and his administration are finally taking the offense, they should deal with the liberals <\/p>\n

and backstabbers in their own party. And keep up the pressure to investigate the New York Times hack who broke the story and find out the <\/p>\n

identities of the treasonous leakers. The media want a special prosecutor leak investigation? Give ’em one they can choke on, Mr. <\/p>\n

President. — Jim Kouri, CPP <\/p>\n

[mjh: The famously “leftist” New York Times capitulated to a presidential request <\/p>\n

to keep silent on this domestic spying for more than a year.]<\/span><\/p>\n

Bush Addresses Uproar Over <\/p>\n

Spying<\/a>
\n‘This Is a Different Era, a Different War,’ He Says as Some Lawmakers Seek Probe
\nBy Peter Baker and Charles Babington<\/p>\n

Washington Post Staff Writers<\/p>\n

Nor did he explain why the current system is not quick enough to meet the needs of the fight <\/p>\n

against terrorism. Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the NSA in urgent situations can already eavesdrop on international <\/p>\n

telephone calls for 72 hours without a warrant, as long as it goes to a secret intelligence court by the end of that period for <\/p>\n

retroactive permission. Since the law was passed in 1978 after intelligence scandals, the court has rejected just five of <\/p>\n

18,748<\/em> requests for wiretaps and search warrants<\/strong>, according to the government.<\/p>\n

Imperial Assumptions<\/a> By <\/p>\n

Eugene Robinson<\/p>\n

It seems that the Imperial Presidency has been restored. The nation’s highest office was cut down to <\/p>\n

constitutional size three decades ago, when Richard Nixon helicoptered out of town, but listening to George W. Bush in his latest come-<\/p>\n

out-swinging media blitz has been like an audience with an impatient monarch whose ungrateful subjects won’t just shut up and do as he <\/p>\n

says.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, he was wrathful. How dare someone reveal that for years his administration has been eavesdropping on the phone <\/p>\n

calls and e-mails of American citizens? How dare the New York Times publish its story about the illegal surveillance? <\/p>\n

Investigations would be convened, he warned, and the leakers could be outed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unauthorized Snooping<\/a> <\/p>\n

[Washington Post Editorial]<\/p>\n

[I]f Mr. Bush claims the authority to defy acts of Congress, he invites a constitutional clash of the <\/p>\n

highest order. In a constitutional democracy, laws are meant to be followed until they can be changed — even laws that, a president <\/p>\n

feels, encumber his ability to wage war. …<\/p>\n

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales … acknowledged that the administration discussed <\/p>\n

introducing legislation explicitly permitting such domestic spying but decided against it because it “would be difficult, if not <\/p>\n

impossible” to pass.<\/p>\n

Civil liberties <\/p>\n

don\u2019t matter much \u2018after you\u2019re dead,\u2019 Cornyn says on spy case<\/a> By Jonathan Allen<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of your civil liberties matter <\/p>\n

much after you\u2019re dead,\u201d<\/strong> said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a former judge and close ally of the president who sits on the <\/p>\n

Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who has led a bipartisan filibuster against a reauthorization of the Patriot <\/p>\n

Act, quoted Patrick Henry, an icon of the American Revolution, in response: \u201cGive me liberty or give me death.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called Cornyn\u2019s <\/p>\n

comments \u201ca retreat from who we are and who we should be.\u201d<\/strong> …<\/p>\n

Cornyn, who agreed with the White House analysis <\/p>\n

of the president\u2019s powers, called for an investigation into how the Times obtained its information<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bush Addresses Uproar Over Spying ‘This Is a Different Era, a Different War,’ He Says as Some Lawmakers Seek Probe By Peter Baker and Charles Babington, Washington Post Staff Writers “It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war,” he said. “The fact that we’re discussing … Continue reading Vital <\/p>\n

Presidential Power<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}