DNC: Checks & balances in the face of an executive branch drunk with power

[bigtree]

Legislative Branch Need Not Apply

March 26, 2006 at 01:43 PM
http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/03/legislative_bra.php

Why even elect them?

"When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers. The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers."

This is why it's so important to elect a Democratic Congress in 2006. This is why all calls for oversight before the passage of the Patriot Act were meaningless. It's why you can't trust President Bush in a speech when he says:

"Congress also oversees the application of the Patriot Act. Congress has recently created a federal board to ensure that the Patriot Act and other laws respect privacy and civil liberties. And I'll soon name five talented Americans to serve on that board. Attorney General Gonzales delivers regular reports on the Patriot Act to the House and the Senate, and the Department of Justice has answered hundreds of questions from members of Congress."

This adminstration, aided and abetted by a Republican controlled congress, has little regard for the system of checks-and-balances so important in the face of an executive branch drunk with power.

http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/03/legislative_bra.php

[dogday]

1. Oversight----We don't need no stinking "Oversight"

They are going down.. They cannot keep juggling the lies and deceit without getting caught.. The only decision now is who to serve up?

[KoKo]

2. Okay....what's going to be done about Bush Power if we don't take

back congress in '06. Most Dems aren't paying any attention to this. Only the activists on line who scour for news or the Party Ops who get the lastest scoop e-mailed to them. Average Joe Dem on the street says:
"Signing statemen? Huh...what's that...why should I care."

[Cocoa]

6. This is why it's so important to elect a Democratic Congress in 2006.

[KoKo]

7. How do we "UP" our Dem turnout without issues, though?

:shrug:

[bryant69]

3. Yeah that signing statement is pretty messed up

I don't know what the upshot of them is going to be but I can't see naything positive coming out of it.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[msgadget]

4. Hearings anyone??

''The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information . . . "

It's not about WINNING the debate, it's in getting the debate HEARD by the American people.

[Warpy]

5. This is why it was VITAL to prevent an extremist like Alito from

being confirmed!!! Damn it, the judges Stupid is appointing will be rubber stamps for the unconstitutional excesses of a GOP administration and an obstruction to the constitutional attempts to overcome them by any Democratic administration.

And our good DLC boys in Washington just didn't see it coming. That's why we have to get rid of THEM along with the Repugs they side with.