Signing statements

It seems appropriate, in light of today's PDB blogswarm, to also talk about signing statements -- and how different our world might be if Bush had simply been paying attention.

The data here is old, but the message is very current. On April 30, 2006, the Boston Globe ran a story entitled "Examples of the president's signing statements."

Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution. The federal government is instructed to follow the statements when it enforces the laws.

I don't have a link for this, but the person who sent me this article says that on an annual basis, Bush has claimed the authority to disobey laws 8.5 times more than President Clinton did, and 2.6 times more than his father did.

March 9: Justice Department officials must give reports to Congress by certain dates on how the FBI is using the USA Patriot Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.

Bush's signing statement: The president can order Justice Department officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides it could impair national security or executive branch operations.

Dec. 30, 2005: US interrogators cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Bush's signing statement: The president, as commander in chief, can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will assist in preventing terrorist attacks.

Dec. 30: When requested, scientific information ''prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted [to Congress] uncensored and without delay."

Bush's signing statement: The president can tell researchers to withhold any information from Congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch.

Aug. 8: The Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its contractors may not fire or otherwise punish an employee whistle-blower who tells Congress about possible wrongdoing.

Bush's signing statement: The president or his appointees will determine whether employees of the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can give information to Congress.

Kinda makes your skin crawl just thinking about all this. Welcome to Bush World View.

"Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US"

That was the headline of the President's Daily Briefing given to Bush on August 6, 2001 (see photo above). The declassified memo reads:

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Youse! and "bring the fighting to America." [...]

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a (text blacked out) service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar "Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists. [...]

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

Keep in mind that in the months leading up to the September 11 attack the Washington Post had calculated that Bush had spent 42% of his first eight months as president ON VACATION. When Harriet Miers handed Bush the August 6th PDB, he was on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

How different might our world be today if Bush had taken the time to have our national security team fully investigate this memo, instead of spending his time clearing away brush on the ranch.

How many people would still be alive -- the nearly 3,000 killed on September 11, the thousands of US soldiers killed in Iraq, the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed for no reason -- had Bush simply been on the job?

We must never forget.