Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Donning My Tinfoil Hat
In History News Network, historian William C. Kashatus asks, "Is Bush Just Following Lincoln's Example?
Does President Bush have the constitutional authority, as he claims, to order the warrantless surveillance of suspected al-Qaida agents in the United States? Yes he does, say some, who point to Abraham Lincoln's suspension of writs of habeas corpus during the Civil War to defend their position. Then and now they argue, the commander-in-chief during wartime has an obligation to place national security above Fourth Amendment safeguards that protect the privacy of the individual.He answers his own question:
But there's a major difference between the two cases, namely the degree to which each president aimed to tilt the delicate balance of power in the federal government in favor of the executive branch. While Lincoln retained his credibility with Congress and the American people, Bush is diminishing his. [...] To be sure, the president should and must enjoy broader constitutional authority in wartime in order to protect the American people. Congress recognized that need when it approved the Patriot Act. But that's not the issue here. The real issue is Mr. Bush's objective--specifically, whether his administration is guilty of tilting the delicate balance of power in the federal government too far in the direction of the executive branch.This essay, and the comments posted to it, have made me think thoughts that, six years ago, I would have dismissed as silly tinfoil-hat conspiracy mongering. For the past five years, however, I've watched Bush do as he damn well pleased in flagrant disregard of the laws of our country, beginning with the dismissal of Victoria Wilson from the Civil Rights Commission so the Commission could have a Republican majority, and constantly expanding his ambition from there. So. The Busheviks argue that Bush's power must not be constrained by laws, because We Are At War and he must not be limited in what he can do, and how quickly he can do it, to Protect Us From The Enemy. But Bush himself began this war, with neither a legal nor logical justification for it. What if a major reason for invading Iraq was to create a rationale for expanding the power of the president beyond all previous limits?
Comments:
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Well then, we would have been witness to a coup d'etat.
And we have.
The President has himself displaced the Presidency with himself as Emperor.
America is over.
And we have.
The President has himself displaced the Presidency with himself as Emperor.
America is over.
Remember Langston Hughes, shrimplate:
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
As long as African Americans can believe in the America that never was but one day will be, so can we.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
As long as African Americans can believe in the America that never was but one day will be, so can we.
Thanks, Charles. That's one of my favorite poems.
Whenever I dip a toe in the cold and murky waters of cynicism, you always seem to have a comment that stops me from tumbling in headlong and drowning in it.
"We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!"
Right on.
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Whenever I dip a toe in the cold and murky waters of cynicism, you always seem to have a comment that stops me from tumbling in headlong and drowning in it.
"We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!"
Right on.
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