Cato Institute finally notices that Putsch doesn't like freedom

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" Zepp " <zepp

Tue, 02 May 2006 06:42:23 -0700

[Zepps_News] Cato Institute finally notices that Putsch

doesn't like freedom

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6ec15f3c-d93d-11da-8b06-0000779e2340.html

 

Bush in `ceaseless push for power'

By Caroline Daniel in Washington

Published: May 1 2006 19:30

 

 

 

[Zeppnote: About time those free market whores got the dollar bill

signs out of their eyes and got up on their hind legs and began barking[

 

President George W. Bush had shown disdain and indifference for the US

constitution by adopting an " astonishingly broad " view of presidential

powers, a leading libertarian think-tank said on Monday.

 

The critique from the Cato Institute reflects growing criticism by

conservatives about administration policy in areas such as the " war on

terror " and undermining congressional power.

 

" The pattern that emerges is one of a ceaseless push for power,

unchecked by either the courts or Congress, one in short of disdain

for constitutional limits, " the report by legal scholars Gene Healy

and Timothy Lynch concludes.

 

That view was echoed last week by former congressman Bob Barr, a

Republican, who called on Congress to exercise " leadership by putting

the constitution above party politics and insisting on the facts " in

the debate over illegal domestic wiretapping of terrorist suspects.

 

On Thursday Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the judiciary

committee, noted: " Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over

Congress. "

 

Mr Healy and Mr Lynch argue that Mr Bush has also failed to protect

the right to political free speech by approving a bill that eliminated

" soft money " contributions to political parties. He had also cracked

down on dissenters, with non-violent protesters being harassed by

secret service agents whenever Mr Bush appears in public, it said.

 

The more serious charges concern Mr Bush's actions in the " war on

terror " . Citing a 1977 interview with President Richard Nixon, who

said, " Well, when the president does it, that means it is not

illegal " , the report argues that the administration's public and

private arguments for untrammelled executive power " comes perilously

close to that view " .

 

The authors cite spying by the National Security Agency and the

" torture memos " , produced by the Department of Justice to defend the

authority of the president over interrogation techniques. " The

constitution's text will not support anything like the doctrine of

presidential absolutism the administration flirts with in the torture

memos. "

 

--

 

" Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government

talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court

order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about

chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order

before we do so "

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

 

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

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