NYT editorial: In the Rose Garden, Bush Untethered!

[DeepModem Mom]

Editorial
Bush Untethered
Published: September 17, 2006

Watching the president on Friday in the Rose Garden as he threatened to quit interrogating terrorists if Congress did not approve his detainee bill, we were struck by how often he acts as though there were not two sides to a debate. We have lost count of the number of times he has said Americans have to choose between protecting the nation precisely the way he wants, and not protecting it at all.
On Friday, President Bush posed a choice between ignoring the law on wiretaps, and simply not keeping tabs on terrorists. Then he said the United States could rewrite the Geneva Conventions, or just stop questioning terrorists. To some degree, he is following a script for the elections: terrify Americans into voting Republican. But behind that seems to be a deeply seated conviction that under his leadership, America is right and does not need the discipline of rules. He does not seem to understand that the rules are what makes this nation as good as it can be.

The debate over prisoners is not about whether some field agent can dunk Osama bin Laden’s head to learn the location of the ticking bomb, as one senator suggested last week. It is about whether the United States can confront terrorism without shredding our democratic heritage. This nation is built on the notion that the rules restrain our behavior, because we know we’re fallible. Just look at the hundreds of men in Guantánamo Bay, many guilty of nothing, facing unending detention because Mr. Bush did not want to follow the rules after 9/11.

Now Mr. Bush insists that in cleaning up his mess, Congress should exempt C.I.A. interrogators from the Geneva Conventions. “The bottom line is simple: If Congress passes a law that does not clarify the rules — if they do not do that — the program’s not going forward,” Mr. Bush said. But clarity is not the issue. The Geneva Conventions are clear and provide ample room for interrogating terrorists. Similarly, in the debate over eavesdropping on terrorists’ conversations, Mr. Bush says that if he has to get a warrant, he can’t do it at all. Actually, he has ample authority to eavesdrop on terrorists, under the very law he is breaking, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act....

***

The best thing Congress could do for America right now is to drop this issue and let the courts decide the matter. Mr. Bush can’t claim urgency; it’s not as though he has stopped the wiretapping....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/opinion/17sun1.html

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. If the government can't act as decent human beings do, then its programs

SHOULDN'T "go forward".

[lonestarnot]

2. This spoiled rich fucking brat my way or the highway is just

more of the same character that lives within that demon known to the world as someone's leader over here. He needs some of his own damned medicine. I hope Congress doesn't back down from the know-nothing freak.

[madokie]

5. He needs to be dropped off over on this side of the tracks and

have to live the life we are forced by him and his ilk to live, the bastard wouldn't last 24 hrs.

[lonestarnot]

6. What do you think the coward would do? Shoot himself?

He's too big of a coward for that. He'd probably try to rob a bank the second day. LOL

[momster]

16. As soon as he scored....

a little 'mood enhancement', he'd be curled up in a cardboard box somewhere and that would be the last we'd hear of him. May it be soon!

[lonestarnot]

27. Wouldn't that be something! Never hear of him again! But we'll

have to hear of his shit till we die. How freak'n depressing.

[momster]

36. He'll be out making speeches

to various ultra-con organizations and getting big bucks for it (do you suppose they'll pay him by the 'um'?) And he'll serve on some boards and do some golfing and sometimes we'll see a photo. Or hear when he's in the hospital for 'faintness' or 'monitoring'. But he won't be important anymore, he won't be a headline anymore, and that's what I'm waiting for. I can't see him doing good work like Jimmy, or taking any further interest in politics like the Big Dog. Maybe Laura will be the nominal head of some charitable foundation but George will fade away into the irrelevancy he so richly deserves. Considering his fixation of his legacy and what 'history' will say of him, what could be a worse fate?

[lonestarnot]

41. Prison.

[butterfly77]

34. I prefer in the middle of the baghdad...

[BlueEyedSon]

3. It's called a "false choice" and pretty much all their arguments are

[patrice]

11. Indeed!

You are told two things are mutually exclusive, and it is assumed that you're incapable of thinking of a third, or fourth, or other alternatives.

[momster]

17. What's scary

is how many people can't think of a third or fourth alternative. I hear it a lot every time there's another 'terrorist threat' and the powers that be lock off another item to take on a plane. "I'd rather not take water than be dead,' the morons say. "If it's waiting in line or getting blown up, I'll wait in line..." Or, my personal favorite, "You have no civil rights if you're dead"...which I'd credit to whichever congressional moron let that one out if I could remember who it was.

[DBoon]

29. "You have no civil rights if you're dead"

but eventually we are all dead anyway.

Death is part of human existance.

Living like a slave isn't

Do these people think if they give away all their liberties that they will live forever?

[Felinity]

31. When did we become a nation of cowards?

Individuals risked and gave their lives to found this nation.

"Give me Liberty or give me Death!"

Bush's cowardly reaction to 911 has been lauded as unifying, but did he tell us to mourn, pray for the victims, then pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get involved in the Nation's efforts to avoid future threats, be strong, alert, involved? No, he said "go shopping", take your eye off the ball and let him handle our security. We see how that's worked out.

"Go shopping" is a denial response, a pretend-everything-is-fine response. There's a little thing I learned about denial some time ago, "denial is a defense mechanism against terror." It's hiding from terror. It's not a way to BE secure, it's a way to FEEL secure. It's cowardly.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

32. Take my liberty or give me death.

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but it is a post-9/11 world.

[fooj]

4. Classic case of Little Lord Pissypants throwing a temper tantrum.

IMO, he's scared shitless. Guess "death penalty" doesn't sound so "festive" when he may be the one falling victim. Treasonous, rat bastard! I hope he burns in hell for all of eternity.

[lonestarnot]

7. Me too, but do you think he'll really ever be tried for a war crime?

[fooj]

10. IMO, it's the only way we can begin to redeem ourselves

with the rest of humanity. The treasonous, rat bastard is a WAR CRIMINAL. I don't care if he is an American or not. As far as I am concerned he is an IMPOSTER! A traitor! Holding him accountable is the right thing to do. IMO, it's the ONLY thing to do.

[lonestarnot]

26. I wholeheartedly agree. It's the only thing to do, but he's weaseled

on everything so far. I will patiently wait.

[BeFree]

12. Yes.

[ktlyon]

30. another Presidential first

headline:
FIRST PRESIDENT SHOT BY FIRING SQUAD FOR TREASON

[civildisoBDence]

37. He sounds more and more like a petulant child

I like Will Forte's impersonation on SNL--whining, shrill, and incredulous that anyone could disagree.

Newsprism

[patrice]

8. Clarity?

“. . . If Congress passes a law that does not clarify the rules
— if they do not do that —
the program’s not going forward,”
?????????????????????????????????????????????????

We know what he's supposed to be saying, but if we didn't, we wouldn't know anything more about it from this sentence.

[file83]

35. All Bush has done for the last 5 years is BLUR the issues..."clarity" is

the last thing this guy wants. Like the sentence you quoted in your post - Bush can't even be clear on this issue of clarity!!!

WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.

[WinkyDink]

9. "the very law he is breaking, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance

Act."

HOW COULD THE NYT PRINT THIS, and NOT CALL FOR IMPEACHMENT??????

[cassiepriam]

13. Bribe or threats, the only two strategies they know.

And it has worked pretty well for them, so far.

[BrklynLiberal]

14. If he can't cheat to win, he is just not going to play. SO THERE!

:P

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. The NY Times blows it at the end of the article

No, the best thing Congress could do right now is not to drop this issue and let the courts decide the matter, the courts have already decided. Congress needs to impeach the criminal.

[CJCRANE]

18. Why is it suddenly so urgent?

B*sh has been breaking the law for at least 5 years.

Um, wonder if it has anything to do with elections in November...

[gordianot]

22. Maybe another set of evidence will break, if the House goes Democratic.

* is afraid of something.

[struggle4progress]

19. So's the NYT gonna stop enablin the man who would be king?

[Cleita]

20. Considering that he hasn't protected us at all anyway and

current events have proved it, why should we care anything about what he says and what threats he makes to us, the American people? He essentially is saying he won't protect us unless we give him unlimited powers to do whatever he wants to do. I liked Randi Rhodes little riposte about the rose bushes in the Rose Garden growing eight feet tall with all the fertilizer that they are getting out of Bush's mouth.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. I didn't hear that -- good one, Randi! nt

[Lindacooks]

23. Reminded me of the tantrum Reagan threw after Congress failed

to send the money he wanted to the Contras. Shortly after that, the Iran-Contra scandal was born.

[Amonester]

24. So the NYT "defined" the real terwhorist:

And I quote:
...
"he is following a script for the elections:

terrify

Americans into voting Republican"
...

Now if THAT doesn't define WHO the real terwhorist R, I dunno what does...

[DeepModem Mom]

25. Good catch, Amonester. Good catch. nt

[EVDebs]

28. Get over it. The Dixie Chicks were right spot on. He's an embarassment.

[Eurobabe]

33. Impetulant little prick who needs to be impeached

NOW!!

[madrchsod]

38. he cannot rewrite the geneva conventions

the congress of the united states can not rewrite the geneva conventions

there are a lot of people believing he or the congress can

[high density]

42. Yeah, where does this belief come from

that Bushco can unilaterally rewrite international laws and agreements as they see fit? Unfortunately for us and the world it seems Bush is hell bent at taking the most belligerent and polarizing path on every single issue under the sun.

[happydreams]

39. A big part of pissypants noise is to cover up the royal shithouse

mess he has made of US foreign policy in general and the war in Iraq specifically. By all calculations, even if you don't think he is a fascist dictator like I do, the son-of-bitch has committed the biggest blunder (I think he's a war criminal)in the history of the country.
Now its becoming clear that the fascistis only strong suit: protecting us from terror, was protecting us from a fantasy! "The Power of Nightmares", a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis proves that Rumsfeld hyped a Soviet threat that did not exist and then he along with the Bushies went did the same thing with Al Qaeda.

[Cha]

40. They called him "mr bush", too...that's

way too respectful of a chimp dic. It's now "The Brat bush".