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(Photo by Jim Young/Reuters)
Here is a question that President George Bush did not address in his statement to the nation this morning: why did he drop the ball on inspectors in North Korea? (From the Nitpicker):
The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused.Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built.
In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors.
President Bush argued that the decision was "vital to the national security interests of the United States". (emphasis mine)
I don't know about you guys, but I'd like some answers as to why the Bush Administration failed to require any inspectors in North Korea before we handed over a big, fat chunk of our money. And why we failed to initiate any real diplomacy in the four years since we handed over that big chunk of American fundage. And why it seems like we are always on a reactionary footing in our foreign policy under the Bush Administration, instead of taking a pro-active, problem solving approach? And I hope to hell someone asks Tony Snow about this today, since the President scuttled out of the room without taking questions after his speech this morning.
Heckuva job, Bushie.
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Hi Redd!
So far it doesn’t appear that Clusterfuck relishes the new Korean topic. He has programmed his supporters to expect unilateral US invasions to establish our will- instead we’
re getting pathetic UN actions. This doesn’t look good for Clusterfuck so far.
Fitz!
Ronery!
I would really like to hear W explain that statement, which will not happen, of course, but I’ll settle for Tony Snow.
Great post Christy, as per usual!
John “Wilford Brimley” Bolton not exactly burning up the presser right now.
I hope Tony Snow got some sleep last night, because he’s gonna get hammered on a bunch of fronts. Foley/Kolbe/Hastert/Reynolds/etc., Ralston/Abramoff/Rove, Iran, Iraq, and now North Korea.
Even Goyal’s probably going to have a nuke question, though it may be about India and Pakistan - perhaps N. Korea supplying nuclear material in the region.
What’s a press secretary to do?
SPOTLIGHT to David Gregory at NBC.
Pronto.
Talk of making South Korea the head of the UNSC might have egged this on to North Korea
John Casper,
Left you a very long EPU’d comment below. But I think you will like it. It’s about how your theory may be much correct than you think.
Because he’s a moron?
Can I have Worst. President. Ever. for $400, now, Alex?
When oh when will the country bumpkins who love a “tough talkin’ Texan” realize that his speak loudly and carry a small stick brand of foreign policy is a complete and utter failure. We bomb the living shit out of the only member of the AOE that doesn’t have nukes then act surprised when the other two speed up their development of said nukes. Duh. They know which action will garner them better protected from the bully of the world (US) and they did the only reasonable thing.
Nukes in Iran and NK is a direct result of George “I have no idea about foreign policy” W. Bush and his puppy, Bullhorn Bolton. So we dared them, threatened them, and did everything BUT talk to them and they made a nuke anyways. Now we are militarily tied down in that clusterfuck Iraq and just WHAT are we gonna do about it?
Pathetic. Embarassing. Incompetent. Failure.
Okay, I SPOTLIGHTED this post to every one of the NBC folks responsible for White House and Washington beat, as well as the Pentagon beat.
Added this note:
Agh. I didn’t used to hate people, but I do now, thanks to this administration.
looseheadprop @ 10
lhp - I followed up with something on your theory below.
it is funny and sad that we have elected a retarded man, twice. Or perhaps not.
if you forget what they say and look only at what they do, you can see this administration thinks providing armageddon, or you name it, for their religious base. since they can’t do anything more financially to help the right wing nut religions, a little death and destruction works too. they are all ready as rich as they can get
who will take put him back in the home?
I want to make sure I have this straight. Basically, Daddy Bush is saying that the way to get Little Kimmy to stop doing naughty things is to increase Little Kimmy’s allowance while eliminating parental oversight. Is that it?
After taking a brief from Stevie Hadley on NK’s nuke detonation last nite, Junya put his hands over his ears, and wearing his cammie jammies shut his eyes and and got some well-deserved zzzs.
And so it came to him in a dream: A voice whispered to him. An Exit Strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan! Hot damn!
Waking early, Junya didn’t even bother to change out of his cammie jammies, but skipped down the stairs to join Laura Belle for breakfast.
Digging into his bowl of Fruit Loops and slabbering some peanut butter on his doughnuts, Junya exclaimed:
I got it! I really got it! An Exit Strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan! Hot damn!
I’m gonna go on TV and tell the ‘Merican public that I’ve figured out how to make us safer.
Yup, we just tell ‘em that we are bringin’ our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan so North Korea don’t get ‘em.
Yup, we gotta have ‘em home to protect the ‘Merican people and our way of life.
To which Laura Belle replied:
Junya, you come out from under that table right now, y’hear?
And look what you’ve done! You’ve wet your cammie jammies again!
I sure as shit don’t know why Babs didn’t leave you on somebody else’s doorstep.
EvilDrPuma @ 16
Sorry, I failed to check some timestamps. This is what Daddy Bush did almost five years ago, and now he’s finding out what Little Kimmy did with the money.
EvilDrPuma @ 16
Well, the way he sees it, it works for his relationship to Congress, so he’s just applying time-honored Repug principles to the situation.
And it’s Dear Leader who says it’s the Democrats that would “rather wait for an attack?”!
So, will the Am. People rally round the President again, or want to tar and feather him for his failures? My guess says 55% tar and feather.
EPU’d
Ed*ard Teller @ 85
“The Korean test was a fizzle - 1/2 kiloton yield shows this test to be comparable to the NK IRBM test last summer - an engineering failure.
But this engineering failure by the NK government is paled in comparison to the abject failure which is the US’s foreign policy, …”
I wouldn’t necessarily say it was a total engineering disaster. One can learn an awful lot from the mistakes. They will have proved some calculations in one area and have a better understanding of what needs to be changed to make a better result. As Edison stated about all his failures for the light bulb, ‘I have found 10,000 ways of not making a light bulb.’ One only needs one right outcome to become successful.
I’ve read somewhere (don’t remember where) that Saudi Oil is backing up China’s purchase of the US debt. This may cause some serious issues later.
EvilDrPuma @
18
thereby showing that $95,000,000 will get you a bomb which sort of works……?
Bolton dashes off before the ?s get tough. Cut ‘n run, John?
Let me adjust my tinfoil hat and I’ll explain the reasoning.
If Bush wants to spend billions on a Stars Wars shoot-em-down “initiative”, he needs to have at least a plausible nuclear enemy. Now he does (well, not really, but he can declare it to be so). Look for huge expeditures to the big corporations who just happen to provide a lot of money to the Greedy Ol’ Perverts.
Has it occured only to me Bush’s sole responsibility is to tear up the world? He has done a fine job of creating intentional chaos by acting like an idiot but no idiot could pull off dishing the USA’s prestige in the world so quickly.He projects everything… and by that I mean if he says something about another country… he is talking about us. If he says something about someone, he is really talking about himself. He rarely lies when you hear what he is saying using that discernment….. you just frequently moan and groan and say O NO NONONONONonononono… then you cry more. Singlehandedly he has destroyed the greatest country ever on the face of the earth. Yep past tense, enabled by the rubber stamps each voter sent to the hell hole of DC. I can hardly blame anyone anywhere for thinking USA is now a big bully. USA is treating me like a second class citizen living in a third world country so it makes little difference at this point what happens next ….. I think people really don’t care anymore.
Considering Bush’s love of the Nookyular inspectors in Iraq, why would we expect him to behave differently in NoKo?
Bush has an interest in keeping Lil Kimmy misbehaving so he can demagogue the brain dead.
“Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy’s staying alive.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
PS Where’s Osama?
rat bastahd @
12
Exactly! If we had a leadership that beleaved in diplomacy, we might allow other countries to see solutions to disagreements rather than giving them only options of suurender or self defence.
Balrog @ 25
I’d phrase that differently: Considering Bush’s obvious intelligence deficit, why would we expect him to behave differently in NoKo?
GrandmaJ and other Nanooks of the North:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/polltracker
Loooking goood!
EvilDrPuma @ 28
That works too. But it’s fun to say Nookyular.
rat bastahd @ 12:
It’s called cowboy diplomacy
This from a 12-year-old article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists by physicist David Albright, re amounts of plutonium NK ALREADY most likely had accumulated before Clinton went in with the reactor substitute plans:
At the least, North Korea admits to having separated 100 grams of plutonium. At the most, the most believable worst-case estimate is that in 1989 North Korea removed irradiated fuel from its first reactor that contained 7-14 kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium. If fuel was unloaded in 1989 and processed during 1989-91, the North could have a total of 6-13 kilograms of separated plutonium.
A first nuclear weapon can require up to 10 kilograms of separated weapon-grade plutonium. This quantity is about twice the amount needed for the actual device, but plutonium is lost during each step in the weapon-manufacturing process. Most of the plutonium lost in these steps can be recovered and used in later weapons. The North might therefore have enough separated plutonium for one, or perhaps two, nuclear weapons.
How much more? In any case, the spent fuel unloaded this year contains an estimated 25 kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium. Using the same assumptions as above, North Korea’s spent fuel contains enough plutonium for four or five nuclear weapons. However, it remains in the irradiated fuel and must be separated before it can be used. As of late July, no separation had taken place.
http://www.thebulletin.org/art.....94albright
Albright was on the IAEA’s “Action Team” at the time he wrote the article for the Bulletin. BTW, the Bulletin hasn’t moved the clock hand today.
MayDaze @ 23
I’m not so sure about any of the developments since then, but I absolutely believe that the reason the Bushies scuttled the NK diplomacy when they came into office was that they wanted to be able to point to an enemy with missiles to justify their missile-defense boondoggle. I thought that at the time, and I’m not generally inclined to tinfoil.
I do think they were stupid enough not believe that NK was a real threat (given their general disdain for counter-proliferation), and just thought they’d be good for scaring the rubes.
Redshift @ 33
Exactly. Thank you. So I can take off my tinfoil hat?
OT, but increasingly important - has congress ever taken the issue of presidential signing statements to the courts? If so, what was the result?
“Why should I care about North Korea?”
In State of Denial, Bob Woodward recounts a conversation between then-Gov. George W. Bush and then-Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Prince Bandar, in which Bush wonders why he should care about North Korea. “I get these briefings on all parts of the world,” Bush said, “and everybody is talking to me about North Korea.”
via thinkprogress- http://roxanne.typepad.com/ran.....ed_to.html
Dan Balz at WaPo live online Q&A today has a pithy reply to a related reader query:
Need a chuckle?
Funny Animated Shamansky (OH-12) Ad
Ed*ard Teller @ 35
Not that I’ve ever heard of.
With anybody but these idiots, this would be a no-brainer: Congress makes the laws, the executive enforces the laws, so the legitimate Constitutional scope of a signing statement must be limited to clarification and implementation relevant to enforcement.
rat bastahd @ 12
Everything you just said but the key word is “Dangerous” and it’s a word that Dems should be using.
Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Katrina, Torture, Warrantless NSA spying, Foley etc etc. These are not harmless Republican failures. These are Dangerous Republican failures and and we need to drive the point home.
Redshift @ 8:48 am (#33)
I’m not a tinfoil wearer, either, but this idea does seem to track with how the Bush Admin. think about such things. Whether it’s actually true only time and memoirs will tell, but I wouldn’t be shocked if this were true. At least, I wouldn’t be shocked now.
Nukular NoKo = why we must attack Iran.
Ed*ard Teller @ 35
Are you kidding? The Republicans in the House or Senate trying to hold the White House accountable? LMAO . . .
I agree it’s important, but no challenge will ever emerge as long as the Republicans in the House and Senate are unwilling to stand up to the executive branch. Warner and McCain made noises in that direction, but nothing substantial ever came of it. The executive branch out-and-out lied to the legislative branch when the prescription drug plan was hammered out by forcing the career actuaries to fudge the numbers, and what was Congress’ reaction once they found out?
*crickets*
Look at it this way. It’s a helluva lot easier for Congress to hold hearings about lack of cooperation from the Executive branch than it is for them to take it to the courts for adjudication. They’ve got powers of their own in this matter, that they haven’t even tried to exercise. Don’t start looking for any court cases until Congress tries to issue at least one subpoena and then tries to make it stick.
relevant obsevation from the Late Nite thread:
punaise @ 44
The problems, that is, not the Republicans.
EvilDrPuma @ 45
these days one could read it either way…
Dan Balz is a doofus…
Why, oh why, is Preznit Bush still calling out Iran and Syria when talking about North Korea this morning?
Pakistan’s AQ Khan transferred technology to North Korea. He’s under a rather luxurious house arrest in Pakistan, protected by our buddy, Taliban supporter, dictator friend Musharraf. Does the Preznit think we are in a com(m)a?
Ed*ard Teller @ 35
No, and that’s important to remember whenever we’re being appalled about the signing statements — they have never been upheld by any court as having any force whatsoever. One of the SC justices (Scalia, I think) made a vague reference to one in one of the cases this past term, but that’s about it.
They’re obnoxious, but since they have absolutely no basis in the Constitution, once there’s an actual opposition party, they’ll collapse like a house of cards.
Cujo359 @
41
Actually, in this the Bushista regime has been very consistent. Their actions have pushed Iran and Hezbollah to the right, have rewarded the biggest idiots in Israeli politics while frustrating sane Israeli politicians, have demonized elected administrations in Palestine, Venezuela and elsewhere. Their sense of demonizing the other side in any situation which presents itself goes back to the forced landing of our reconnaissance plane by the Chinese in early 2001.
Want tinfoil? Go to Wayne Madsen’s take on the mini-me flukie nuke:
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
So, the upcoming UN SecGen is a Moonie? This puts us right back into “you can’t make this sh*t up territory,” doesn’t it?
A brief timeline:
October 5, 2002: North Korea admits to US a secret uranium program not covered by other agreements; reported October 16, 2002
December 22, 2002: North Korea begins removing IAEA monitoring equipment
from Yongbyon nuclear plant
February 10, 2005: North Korea declares it has nuclear weapons
October 9, 2006: North Korea claims first nuclear test
There are two unanswered questions here. Was the event in North Korea, because of its subkiloton size, a non-nuclear or a “failed” nuclear test? Was the bomb configuration used one which could be easily transferred to existing launch vehicles?
While this is a major escalation, it is not clear that North Korea is yet a nuclear weapons state.
Other thoughts:
North Korea has always had a serious non-nuclear deterrent. It has many thousands of artillery pieces within range of Seoul. This has been and remains its main deterrent.
The US military in South Korea was never meant to repel an invasion from North Korea’s million man army. Instead they are a “trip wire”. Any invasion from the North would lead to an immediate and direct military confrontation with us. It is a non-nuclear version of MAD. Much of South Korea could be destroyed in such a conflict but the North surely would. Since regime survival was Kim Il Sung’s and is Kim Jung Il’s first priority, the reasoning goes that North Korea will do everything except initiate a conflict that will lead to the destruction of its leadership.
Strategically, what is most feared in Northeast Asia is a nuclear armed Japan. This region is already one of the most nuclear on the planet. Currently there are 3 nuclear powers there: China, Russia, and us. North Korea would be the 4th. Japan has been taking a more assertive stance in the area and this has already led to tensions with both China and South Korea based on previous history. Japan is an advanced technological power and could develop a large nuclear arsenal relatively quickly. If Japan went this route, it would be hard to see South Korea not following. It would not want to be the only non-nuclear player in the area.
Despite the trauma of being the only country which has been bombed by nuclear weapons, Japan has some real reasons mostly involving us to consider them. First, North Korea has been acting increasingly aggressive and it has a history of irrational behavior. As said above, Kim Jung Il will do nothing to place his regime’s survival at risk but irrationality increases the possibility of catastrophic miscalculation (see Iraq). Second, the US under Bush has become an unreliable actor on the world stage. Would we be there for Japan if they needed us? Third, with our resources tied down in the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan, could we be there for them the way they needed us? How comfortable would you be if your national survival was at stake and you had to depend on us? Me either. And if the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty isn’t already dead, a nuclear armed Japan would be the last nail in its coffin.
Korea doesn’t have any muslims or oil. Clusterfuck only included it in the axis of evil cause he didn’t want an all moolim axis. He doesn’t give a shit about North Korea- doesn’t even eat Kim Chee.
Condi’s body language in that picture speaks volumes. Maybe she does have a shred of consciense left in there, pressed somewhere into a forgotten cobwebbed corner of her mortgaged soul.
Or, maybe she’s just embarrassed at what a shitty job of lying Dumya is doing.
Balrog @
30
As much fun as saying liberry?
Redshift @ 48
I have searched in vain for a Bush signing statement pertaining to his torture indemnity bill (”The Military Commissions Act of 2006“). You know damn well they issued one. But, his signing of this POS (and any signing statement) was kept way off the radar. Anyone seen it?
_
I need to leave this place and get to work! I’m supposed to be finishing up a powerpoint presentation on Don Young’s ties to Jack Abramoff and other discredited politicians or lobbyists.
wow,
noticed by the inimitable punaise.
I am indeed honored. (but a bit embarrassed that the subject of my verb was unclear — I agree it works both ways, though)
Peterr at 43 says:
Puts me in mind of the legislative branch lies to the Supreme Court in the Hamden case. It appears our whole federal government is based on each branch lying to the other about matters for which they are responsible for oversight. Is it the Supreme Court’s turn soon?
Puts me in mind of the legislative branch lies to the Supreme Court in the Hamden case. It appears our whole federal government is based on each branch lying to the other about matters for which they are responsible for oversight. Is it the Supreme Court’s turn soon?
That’s funny. Funny-true.
Ed*ard Teller @ 55
Go, ET - run like the wind!
Hope you get to use a big screen to show your presentation!
BQ @ 56
a little ambiguity can be a good thing. besides, it keeps the goopers guessing: “huh?”
Peterr,
I think they (SCt) started the party with Bush v. Gore. They lied about having to decide the case at all, about the damage “prevented” by deciding it, about whether the lower court had abused its discretion in ruling the way it did (their oversight purview), and pretty much about the entire basis and legal history of ‘equal protection under the law.’
Peterr @
59
I’ll need friggin’ Cinerama or Imax to do it justice! I’m up to over 30 contacts with Abramoff and his firm.
Bye, doggies…..
I am just testing to see if this message will go through on FDL. I have a new Internet provider and can still post on most sites, but Americablog says I’ve been banned by webmaster. Just checking to see if I’m o.k. on FDL, thanks!
Bobby @ 54
It may be because Bush has not signed S3930 into law yet. I have seen no report of a signing yet at the White House site.
Hugh @ 64
Well, me either, but surely he signed it immediately. No?
_
ah, punaise,
I believe many of the goopers spend a lot of time saying “Huh?” with or without our help ;-)
Tip of the mug to ambiguity, as I set forth into the world to try to get a better pic of truly the oddest bird I’ve ever seen. It’s such a mashup of things with wings I can’t even figure out what contributed, but I think it would make a great mascot for HoJo (since we’re not sure what he is, either).
naschkatze @ 63
you’re in!
Bobby @ 65
I thought this was going to be held off for a fabulous ceremony at the right time to bring out the base for elections….
Agreed that they blew it again, and somewhat in agreement with the idea that they perhaps wanted this enemy, so they could point to it and say, “be afraid, be very afraid.” I did a diary on this subject on kos a couple of hours ago (my first at kos). I’m not yet egotistic enough to link to it, and it’s gone off the front page now, but it did engender a fairly lively discussion.
The gist of it was that a test is not a weapon, and even a weapon is more useful to a small nation as a deterrent than as an instrument of aggression. So there is plenty of time for a diplomatic solution; it’s not as though the North Koreans are going to nuke LA next week.
Bobby @ 65
Not necessarily, if a ceremony were planned, it might take a few days to arrange.
BQ @ 66
“Huh?” as world-view…
maybe the “bird” is a terrored-act-ill; that would makes it’s bahavior consistent with Lieberliar. good luck in your quest.
JackieBlue @ 68
I am having a difficult time believing he would not have signed it immediately. It’s not “law” until he does so, right?
_
Hugh at 9:13 am
Wow!
Great, great comment, thanks.
Bobby @ 72
(trimming the looming ziggurat)
somewhere in the back of my memeory from a long-ago civics class, I recall that the president has ten days to sign or veto a bill that is passed up from the Congess; otherwise it becomes law by default.
“Senators predicted that their chamber will approve the legislation today, which would enable Bush to hold a signing ceremony on a high-profile and intensely debated bill about a month before the Nov. 7 elections.”
here
Bush drops the ball everywhere. I have never seen so much GIVEN to one man, with so little return in the investment. This man is a bellegerent, stubborn, dangerous, and an incompetent waste of space.
The “Solidarity with Israel” and “Free Lebanon” rallies have quieted, and a combustible mixture of grief, fear, and anger hangs like an ugly cloud over the rubble and ruin.
David Grossman, the acclaimed Israeli novelist and peace advocate, grieves for his son, who was killed in Lebanon two days before the cease-fire. Across the border, the people of Qana mourn their dead, the families crushed during an Israeli airstrike.
President Bush, blinded by ideology, abdicates any attempt at statesmanship. He contends that Israel “won,” equating Hamas with Hezbollah with Al Qaeda with Syria and Iran. Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah looks like a hero in the Arab world, as the shaky Lebanese democracy staggers under the chaos wrought by massive Israeli destruction.
As Israelis emerge from their bomb shelters and their shattered sense of security, they count 154 dead, 422 wounded, and a military embroiled in controversy. As the Lebanese survey their crumpled bridges, airports, and apartment blocks, they too grieve for thousands dead and injured and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes.
In Gaza, 228 Palestinians were killed, 720 injured. The main power station was bombed; homes and businesses have no electricity or water; the medical system has collapsed; children are starving.
Are we any closer to the release of the captured Israeli soldiers or the disarming of resistance groups? To add to this tragedy, the United Nations now reports that up to 1 million cluster bomblets failed to explode and lie buried on Lebanese soil, most fired by Israel during the final 72 hours of fighting.
This brings the controversy painfully home. Not only did the United States manufacture many of these cluster bombs and supply them in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, but there is increasing evidence that the Bush administration was forewarned and enthusiastic about the conflict, provided weaponry and political support to Israel while ignoring diplomatic options, and showed little interest in a cease-fire.
Ultimately, this was our war, waged for US interests; a proxy war fought by Israel, testing US weaponry and strategy in the Bush buildup to a confrontation with Syria and Iran, supported not only by the usual neoconservatives but the entire Congress. Tragically, this was also a conflict in which Jewish organizations with powerful political influence presented a voice of unqualified support despite a growing Jewish dissent.
Remember the invasion of Lebanon by Israel, which led to years of occupation and the growth of Hezbollah, or the crushing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which gave birth to Hamas in the 1980s?
What kind of strategy destroys the infrastructure of a fragile democracy in Lebanon in the name of strengthening it, or humiliates and starves an entire people in Gaza and imprisons much of its leadership in the hopes that the people will resist their own democratically elected government?
While Hamas and Hezbollah clearly engage in provocative and inhumane behavior, have we lost all sense of causality or proportionality? Has “shock and awe” been so successful in Iraq that this foreign policy is now going to be applied throughout the region?
With serious questions being raised about the all-powerful Israeli military, with an enormous humanitarian and political catastrophe facing Gaza, with Lebanon struggling over a massively damaged infrastructure and an environmental calamity along its oil-soaked shores, the diplomats are starting to talk.
Ultimately, these tortured conflicts demand negotiated solutions that attend to all the bloody historical and political details. This includes resolving the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which undermines Israel’s international legitimacy and maintains Israel’s enemy status in much of the Arab world.
Resolving the conflict with the Palestinians as well as with Syria would be a critical strategic move for Israel and open the possibility for isolating fundamentalist Islamic regimes that challenge Israel’s existence.
It is too dangerous to lump the Middle East conflicts into a war on terrorism, it is too costly and self-defeating to continue to ignore the varied injustices that fuel these clashes. This latest conflagration has only shaken Israeli confidence, alienated international support for Israel, and created a new generation of wounded, angry Arabs, proving once again the bankruptcy of US-Israeli foreign policy and the pressing need for active, balanced diplomacy.
Alice Rothchild is cochairwoman of Jewish Voice for Peace in Boston.
Copyright 2006 Boston Globe
###
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punaise @ 74
Yeah, but a “signing statement” would accompany a “signing”, no? Or, could he just allow it to become law (I’m havin’ a hard time buyin’ that), and then issue an equivalent “interpretation” statement saying what he will and will not observe?
How do we find out whether he’s signed S.3930?
_
Punaise at 74 says:
Isn’t it that then it becomes a “pocket veto;” if not, what is a “pocket veto.” Guess I have some research to do.
Once the two houses of Congress pass a bill, it has to be written up in proper form and sent up to the President for signature or veto. It seems, according to Marty Lederman, that Bush has asked the House and Senate to take their time getting the bill up the street, to keep the “ten day clock” from starting. According to Tony Snow’s deputy, they’re looking at a signing ceremony around the 17th.
Help Defeat The Last Goper!
New York City has one remaining Republican Congressman. His name is Vito Fossella. He says he’s an “independant fighting for us” which in Goperspeak means he’s a rubber stamp for Bush. I went to his website and he conveniently fails to even mention that he’s a Republican.
Fossella is being challenged by Steve Harrison, an underfunded underdog that many folks think has no chance against the Fossella money machine. Staten Island/Bay Ridge is percieved to be a Goper stronghold when in fact the district is registered 3:2 Democrat, and it seems to me that the only thing keeping Fossella afloat is the name recognition that comes with huge amounts of Goperbucks ™.
Steve Harrison has alot going in his favor that could tip this seat to the blue column. First, Elliot Spitzer is at the top of the ticket and is expected to win big against a little known Goper opponent. Second, everyone in Staten Island who follows politics is talking about the Foley scandal, and Fossella has recieved money from Foley. Third, two years ago, without putting up much of a fight, the Democrat in the race for this seat, Frank Barbaro garnered 41% of the vote.
Bottom line: This district can be flipped. So if you live in NYC, or even if you don’t, see if you can lend a hand. If we can just be a little creative, we can eliminate NYC’s only Republican Congressman.
http://www.harrison06.com
Bobby @ 77
can’t imagine he would miss the opportunity to trumpet this “great achievement” and rub the Dems collective nose in it….
The only foreign policy Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld has is to wage war and demand unconditional surrender. They won’t talk to NK or Iran (like they couldn’t talk to Iraq).
Since they couldn’t attack NK and Kim won’t surrender, they just stood around holding their dicks while NK made bombs.
Now the War Party is happy because the world is a more dangerous place, which can be used to justify more war.
I would compare them to Hitler, but they are too incompetent and deluded. Even Hitler knew if you want to start a World War, you have to build up your military first. The War Party nitwits just up and decided to start WW3 with the army we happened to have, guaranteeing failure and disgrace.
Bobby @ 65
I had heard he was scheduled to sign it into law on the day after its passage.
Wasn’t clear at 79 - that’s the Military Commissions act that I’m referring to, tentatively scheduled for signing on the 17th.
LindyH @ 83
Thanks to various FDL’rs for digging, it looks like the White House has maneuvered to hold off via a procedural technicality signing S.3930 until next week, sometime around the 17th.
Obviously, to use it as an election prop for max effect. That’s why I’ve not been able to find anything on his signing it — notwithstanding his belligerent podium-pounding during the final week of session about how they needed to get it on his desk for signing pronto.
EvilDrPuma @ 39
The Supreme Court usually needs broken bones from sticks and stones before it will hear a case. It doesn’t give advisories on hurtful words.
The problem is that Bush stamps secret on his sticks and stones and victims. So how does it get review when he goes too far?
I’ve seen Tribe and others go off on some complex analysis of why signing statements do or do not violate this, that and the other, but to me it is a basic administrative law question and matter.
The President is the chief Executive, but other than that is in no different position for administering the laws promulgated by Congress than any other ranking administrator. The issue is always how much rulemaking and discretion is inherent in the legislation and exceeding that is an abuse which will not be supported at law.
Huge deference is given, but in the end, it’s a matter of whether the act is a exercise within the discretionary bounds of the legislation. IMO fwiw.
The bigger issue is those who function in secret, claiming clearly abusive interpretations as their authorizations. OTOH, it’s hard, after the torture legislation and amnesty, to clearly isolate an abuse of discretion standard, where Congress does not enforce or seek to apply any standards.
so there you go
Mad Dogs @ 17:
“Cammie jammies” made me smile one smile that ran around my face 2 times! Tell me, do they have a trap door and feeties, as I suspect they do???
OT - today is Columbus Day,. but Berkeley has a different spin:
“City of Berkeley offices will be closed Monday, October 09, 2006 in observance of Indigenous People’s Day.”
Scandal #9,853: bwahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
By Jeff McDonald
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 8, 2006
http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....uncan.html
Back in the winter of 1994, after reapportionment reshaped California’s congressional districts, Rep. Duncan Hunter (me: Republican) went shopping for a new home.
Tax rolls listed the property as a two-bedroom, 2-bath house with 2,946 square feet of living space. The property records were wrong.
According to Hunter’s insurance carrier, the house was more than twice that size – about 6,200 square feet. The property also featured a 2,000-square-foot guest house, a swimming pool and tennis court.
and from a diary at Kos, this: http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....1846/80425
Hunter’s Alpine property was owned by the federal government months before he bought it, something he says he did not know at the time.
…
The house went into foreclosure in 1993, by which time the lender had been seized by the Resolution Trust Corp., the agency formed by Congress in 1989 to bail out hundreds of failed thrifts.
Hunter was among those who voted to create the Resolution Trust Corp., a bill that passed the House 201-175 and was signed by President George H.W. Bush.
The resulting sell-off of more than 700 savings-and-loan institutions and their assets was estimated by the government to cost taxpayers at least $325 billion.
According to county records, the Resolution Trust Corp. sold the 2.7 acres on Vista Viejas Road at public auction Dec. 15, 1993. State Street Bank and Trust paid $175,000 for the parcel and took title Jan. 4, 1994.
1298 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Firepups and Citizen Harden Smith:
Let’s wake up and take a look at what the corporate fascists have had on their agenda and what they’ve accomplished since the coup of 2000. First and foremost we begin with the commitment to a missile defense system in tandem with the abrogation of the existing nuclear non-proliferation treaties. Simultaneously we get the injection of steroids into a new nuclear arms race in the developing world (read Pakistan and India). Then w