http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm
This will keep you occupied for hours.
Drag him if he stops.
I forget, do we live in a democracy or a monarchy?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/05/10/bush_vs_congress/
Bush vs. Congress
HE CHAIRMAN of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Arlen Specter, wants to force the Bush administration to explain and defend the president's practice of quietly declaring he will not obey laws passed by Congress. The public first became aware of this when Bush appended a ''signing statement" to the anti-torture amendment of Senator John McCain.
The full extent of the president's attempt to create stealth vetoes became evident when the Globe's Charlie Savage reported April 30 that Bush had used this technique to exempt himself from the reach of more than 750 laws, far more than any previous president. Specter's hearing next month will be most useful if it goes beyond an investigation of this practice and points the way to a reassertion of Congress's truncated authority.
Specter's statements when he announced the hearing show that he, at least, knows the stakes. Calling the signing statements a ''very blatant encroachment" on the powers reserved to Congress by the Constitution, Specter said, ''There may as well soon not be a Congress . . . And I think that most members don't understand what's happening."
What's happening is that a president who prides himself on being the first in modern times to go so long without vetoing a bill has found a way to reject legislation that restricts executive branch authority in ways he doesn't like. Beyond reserving the right to set aside the anti-torture law, Bush has used signing statements to nullify rules and regulations for the military, affirmative-action requirements, safeguards against political interference in federally funded research, limits on the use of US troops in Colombia, and protections for whistle-blowers who tell Congress about alleged government wrongdoing.
Taken together, these exemptions create a sweeping expansion of executive power at the expense of Congress. Specter's first challenge in the hearing is to quiz administration officials aggressively enough so that other members of Congress will recognize how their authority has silently leaked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
Despite Bush's encroachments, Congress still has the power of the purse. If the hearings are effective, Specter and others should be able to persuade Congress to cut funding for certain programs that Bush wants to operate his way, not Congress's way. Representative Edward Markey of Malden said Specter must demonstrate to senators that both Republicans and Democrats in Congress lose power to stealth vetoes.
Specter asks, ''What's the point of having a statute if . . . the president can cherry-pick what he likes and what he doesn't like?"
If Congress doesn't resolve this, the ideal of democracy that Bush wants to be the basis of his foreign policy will suffer a defeat at home.
- Thats just scary. Why isnt the media making a big deal out of this? Why doesnt every single person know about stuff like this?
[Edited by - Silverfuel on 05-11-2006 07:30 AM]
909, lil late but still here.
well, what do you guys think? NSA is logging our calls. What next, doubly noting our Alba entries?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/12/bush.clinton.poll/index.html
(CNN) Poll: Clinton outperformed Bush
Friday, May 12, 2006; Posted: 10:41 p.m. EDT (02:41 GMT)
-- In a new poll comparing President Bush's job performance with that of his predecessor, a strong majority of respondents said President Clinton outperformed Bush on a host of issues. The poll of 1,021 adult Americans was conducted May 5-7 by Opinion Research Corp. for CNN. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Respondents favored Clinton by greater than 2-to-1 margins when asked who did a better job at handling the economy (63 percent Clinton, 26 percent Bush) and solving the problems of ordinary Americans (62 percent Clinton, 25 percent Bush). (Watch whether Americans are getting nostalgic for the Clinton era -- 1:57)
On foreign affairs, the margin was 56 percent to 32 percent in Clinton's favor; on taxes, it was 51 percent to 35 percent for Clinton; and on handling natural disasters, it was 51 percent to 30 percent, also favoring Clinton.
Moreover, 59 percent said Bush has done more to divide the country, while only 27 percent said Clinton had.
When asked which man was more honest as president, poll respondents were more evenly divided, with the numbers -- 46 percent Clinton to 41 percent Bush -- falling within the poll's margin of error. The same was true for a question on handling national security: 46 percent said Clinton performed better; 42 percent picked Bush.
Clinton was impeached in 1998 over testimony he gave in a deposition about an extramarital sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinksy. He was later aquitted by the Senate.
[Edited by - Silverfuel on 05-13-2006 5:37 PM]
Posted by martin:
well, what do you guys think? NSA is logging our calls. What next, doubly noting our Alba entries?
i'm sure. cheney's getting quite the woodie over the whole affair, as this picture indicates.
^Marv just had me looking a VP dong.
Posted by martin:
^Marv just had me looking a VP dong.
must be the tool of democracy.
This thread is going terribly terribly wrong
On the bright side....900!
