Friday, June 30, 2006

MY SIGNING STATEMENT


As of today, President Bush has added "signing statements" to about 750 pieces of legislation passed in the House and Senate. The text of each and every one can be found at http://www.coherentbabble.com/signingstatements/pressignstate.htm#2006 (thanks to Tom Harper for the link, check out his weblog "Who Hijacked Our Country?" - see my links section.)

In referring to specific provisions which could limit the President's powers, a phrase he commonly uses throughout the signing statements is "The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and to recommend for congressional consideration such measures as the President shall judge necessary and expedient. " This seems like little more than a way to say "Screw all you guys in the House and in the Senate, I can do whatever I want."

After reading about twenty of his "signing statements", I figured out the gist. I have one of my own:

This reader shall construe the President's signing statements as an attempt by the executive branch to create conditions which allow the President to exceed his constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to recommend for the consideration of the Congress any measures he judges necessary and expedient.

Bush is an anus. We Democrats REALLY NEED TO GET BUSY.

6 Comments:

Blogger Tom Harper said...

Great post. Thanks for the link.

The next time I have to answer some questions -- whether on paper or in court -- I think I'll accompany my answer with a signing statement. Next April when I'm sending in my taxes, I shall accompany my check with a signing statement reserving the right to take back some of my money later on if I change my mind. Hmmm...the possibilities are endless.

6:40 PM  
Blogger Mandelbrot's Chaos said...

I don't know what's getting into us. I pretty much agree with the entirety of this post. Signing statements should either not be used at all (preferable), or at least restricted to thanking Congress for doing something that actually benefits the nation, which would also be extremely rare. The president's job is to affirm or veto acts of Congress, and to coordinate the power of the executive branch to fulfill the requirements of the various laws. That said, I think all presidents should look long and hard at something before signing a bill into law, and that the veto should be used quite a bit more often.

7:54 AM  
Blogger Sheryl said...

When are they going to impeach the bastard? I mean, he's not just dicking the democrats when he attacks our separation of powers. Congress is controlled by republicans. He's dicking republicans too!!!

5:31 PM  
Blogger GTX said...

A real President task should be to rule wisely over all his citizens, after all, when his election is confirmed he must be the President of United States of America and not the President of Republicans or any other party, as good sense commands.
Perhaps he didn't have read Maquiavel, for sure. I recommend him strongly a version commented by Napoleon.
Enemies are very important to make us see the right balance of government.
Maquiavel says that enemies, at least, should kept around, not apart.

7:15 AM  
Blogger Lizzy said...

We need to get busy impeaching the bastard.

8:09 PM  
Blogger Snave said...

Thanks, Joao. I would agree he resembles Napoleon in some ways!

Honestly, I wasn't absolutely sure about impeachment at first, Sheryl. I'm still not 100% sure that would be best at the moment, but it's getting to where I am about 90% sure. The guy looks more and more like a crook every time I consider him and what he does.

10:22 AM  

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