Constitution Day: Bush is Liberal about the Constitution, So are Republicans in Congress

The Founding Fathers were acutely aware of the example of King James II, whose practice of suspending or dispensing with laws he believed encroached on royal prerogatives eventually occasioned his overthrow in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. With such precedents in mind, the framers of the United States Constitution directed the president to execute the laws without fail. The Republican Congress, however, has acted as a disinterested spectator while President Bush has stolen its legislative authority in plain view and exercised the tyrannical power of making, executing, and conclusively interpreting the law and the Constitution.

--Bruce Fein, Constitutional Scholar, Reagan administration

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TODAY IS "CONSTITUTION DAY", SO WHAT ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION? WHERE IS CONSTITUTIONAL "RULE OF LAW" FROM REPUBLICANS? The neoconservatives and Bush are LIBERAL regarding the constitution as if "it evolves with us", as Al Gore once stated. The plea of "necessity" is the tyrant's plea, and warned of in West Virginia's own Constitution above as well (see quote under banner).

Since the public largely missed it, let's look at a recent power play here below by Bush, to usurp powers, which did not make network news. The claim of "war powers" is a direct threat to constitutional government, and for the expansion of Executive Branch powers--without any checks or balances. What emergency? Do Americans act like there is an emergency, watching ball games and American idol? THIS IS A LIE TO EXPAND POWER, AND AN OLD TRICK EVER SINCE WILSON AND ROOSEVELT--BOTH WAR DEMOCRATS. The "terrorist threat" is a fiction, overblown to invoke fear and justify war to "reorder the middle east" and to clamp down on "free Americans"--i.e. surveillance, REAL ID, Homeland Security, PATRIOT ACT, et al.

Bush Extends 2001 National Emergency Declaration For One Year --Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks (whitehouse.gov)

12 Sep 2007

Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines flight 93, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States. Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, last extended on September 5, 2006, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2007. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.

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See also this article, Bruce Fein justifying the censure of George W. Bush:

Statement of Bruce Fein, Deputy Attorney General to Ronald Reagan

Statement of Bruce Fein Before the Senate Judiciary Committee Re: S.Res. 398 Relating to the Censure of George W. Bush (2006)

"I am grateful for the opportunity to express my support for Senate Resolution 398. It would censure President George W. Bush for seeking to cripple the Constitution's checks and balances and political accountability by secretly authorizing the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens in the United States in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and misleading the public about the secret surveillance program."

Another fine conservative article regarding Bush's record on the Constitution, is from CATO Institute here. Please republicans note the credentials of the authors before blowing it off:

May 1, 2006

Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush

by Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch

Gene Healy is senior editor and author of "Arrogance of Power Reborn: The Imperial Presidency and Foreign Policy in the Clinton Years".

Timothy Lynch is director of the Project on Criminal Justice and author of "Dereliction of Duty: The Constitutional Record of President Clinton."

Unfortunately, far from defending the Constitution, President Bush has repeatedly sought to strip out the limits the document places on federal power. In its official legal briefs and public actions, the Bush administration has advanced a view of federal power that is astonishingly broad, a view that includes

• a federal government empowered to regulate core political speech—and restrict it greatly when it counts the most: in the days before a federal election;
• a president who cannot be restrained, through validly enacted statutes, from pursuing any tactic he believes to be effective in the war on terror;
• a president who has the inherent constitutional authority to designate American citizens suspected of terrorist activity as "enemy combatants," strip them of any constitutional protection, and lock them up without charges for the duration of the war on terror— in other words, perhaps forever; and
• a federal government with the power to supervise virtually every aspect of American life, from kindergarten, to marriage, to the grave.

President Bush's constitutional vision is, in short, sharply at odds with the text, history, and structure of our Constitution, which authorizes a government of limited powers.

John Turley, Constitutional Scholar interviewed by MSNBC on Bush and Constitution and "War Powers"