Monday, December 3, 2007

Just So Long As I'm The Dictator


Email|Print| Text size + By Charlie Savage Globe Staff / December 1, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush this month issued his first signing statement since the Democratic takeover of Congress, reserving the right to bypass 11 provisions in a military appropriations bill under his executive powers.

In the statement, which the White House filed in the Federal Register on Nov. 13 but which initially attracted little attention, Bush challenged several requirements to provide information to Congress.

For example, one law Bush targeted requires him to give oversight committees notice before transferring US military equipment to United Nations peacekeepers.

Bush also challenged a new law that limits his ability to transfer funds lawmakers approved for one purpose to start a different program, as well as a law requiring him to keep in place an existing command structure for the Navy's Pacific fleet.

"The Act contains certain provisions identical to those found in prior bills passed by the Congress that might be construed to be inconsistent with my Constitutional responsibilities," Bush's statement says.

"To avoid such potential infirmities, I will interpret and construe such provisions in the same manner as I have previously stated in regard to those provisions."

By referring only to objections voiced in past documents, Bush's new signing statement struck a less aggressive tone than those he issued during the years when his own party controlled Congress.

In the past, Bush's assertion that he could bypass laws was backed by the invocation of broad theories laying out the scope of a president's power to defy congressional statutes.

In a further sign that the White House adopted a muted tone, the new signing statement also said nothing about two higher-profile provisions in the bill that limit presidential power: One law prohibits the military from using foreign intelligence information that was collected illegally, and the other forbids expending funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq.

As lawmakers drafted the bill earlier this year, the White House warned Congress that the illegal intelligence and Iraq-base provisions "impermissibly" infringed "on the president's constitutional authority" over national security and foreign affairs.

But Congress kept the provisions in the final bill and Bush's statement did not mention them.

Analysts said the president's less aggressive tone may be an effort to avoid reigniting a controversy that erupted last year after it came to light that Bush had used signing statements to challenge more laws than all previous presidents combined - including a torture ban. Congress held hearings about signing statements and the American Bar Association called for an end to them.

"They have clearly edited themselves," said Christopher Kelley, a political science professor at Miami University of Ohio who first analyzed the new statement on his blog Thursday. "They've taken out all the rhetoric about executive power."

But Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, denied that there was any "public relations" motive behind the change. Shorter signing statements, he said, are "just easier."


"It's been said," Fratto said. "It's our position and it hasn't changed."

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And wingnuts call Hugo Chavez a dictator.

GI - Expendable Government Issue

At Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth White-side listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.

Isn't this just awful. A soldier tries to kill herself and instead of the help she needs gets a court martial. When I was in the Army, I saw shit like this all the time.
And I bet the prosecuter and judge claim to be God fearing Christian men.
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"Military psychiatrists at Walter Reed who examined Whiteside after she recovered from a self-inflicted gun wound in the stomach diagnosed her with a severe mental disorder, possibly triggered by the stresses of a war zone. But Whiteside's superiors considered her mental illness "an excuse" for criminal conduct, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post."
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And I wonder what "excuse" these soulless assholes use to call themselves human beings.
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"At the hearing, Wolfe, who already had warned Whiteside's lawyer of the risk of using a "psychobabble" defense, pressed a senior psychiatrist at Walter Reed to justify his diagnosis."
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Awe, yes. the "psychobabble" defense . Take the slacker out back and shoot her. She obviously is a drag on a Godly nation. And for the sake of mental health purity in the military we must erase this stain on America's correctly righteous image as a superpower only with super soldiers. This is what we get for an accountable volunteer military. It gets to create it's own sense of. justice even when it's opposite of what the average civilian would approve.
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"But outside the Pentagon, the military still often deals with mental health issues by relying on the judgment of combat-hardened commanders whose understanding of mental illness is vague or misinformed."
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Herein lies the fault of the military justice system in cases like these and others. The commander of a unit gets final say on all judgments of the military court. Kind of like the Mullah's in Iran.
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"Under military law, Soldiers who attempt suicide can be prosecuted under the theory that it affects the order and discipline of a unit and brings discredit to the armed forces. In reality, criminal charges are extremely rare unless there is evidence the attempt was an effort to avoid service or endangered others."
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"mens rea" or guilty mind is a bedrock principle of American criminal law. It doesn't matter in the military as the commander is the final arbiter on whether or not lt. Whiteside had a guilty mind. I am praying this case gets dropped. What a choice for Miss Whiteside of a dishonorable discharge or being prosecuted for a crime that could give her life in a military prison. I say the only crime here is for the American people to allow such horseshit to exist in their Army with knuckledraggers like the prosecutor, judge, and unit commander involved in this case.

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