***Bush conditioning congress to expand power!*** (must read)

[cynatnite]

In a 27-page report written for lawmakers, the research service said the Bush administration is using signing statements as a means to slowly condition Congress into accepting the White House's broad conception of presidential power, which includes a presidential right to ignore laws he believes are unconstitutional.

The ``broad and persistent nature of the claims of executive authority forwarded by President Bush appear designed to inure Congress, as well as others, to the belief that the president in fact possesses expansive and exclusive powers upon which the other branches may not intrude," the report said.

Under most interpretations of the Constitution, the report said, some of the legal assertions in Bush's signing statements are dubious. For example, it said, the administration has suggested repeatedly that the president has exclusive authority over foreign affairs and has an absolute right to withhold information from Congress. Such assertions are ``generally unsupported by established legal principles," the report said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/10/05/bush_signings_called_effort_to_expand_power/

[lvx35]

1. Like Pavlovian dogs.

c'mon, congresspeople! resist the temptation! :)

[Blue Fire]

2. dumya better work fast!

The whacked-out right wing rethuglican conservanut majority dissappears soon!

[DRoseDARs]

3. So he fancies himself both President AND US Supreme Court?

I'd be happy to lend him my old US Government book and show him that only the US Supreme Court gets to decide on the constitutionality of laws, via cases brought before them. The book even has pictures and diagrams, so he doesn't need to "read" anything.

[bigbrother05]

4. kick

[cynatnite]

5. kick

:kick: