He's got the power: the president's "signing statement" trumps Congress, oversight and legislative intent

bush is essentially saying he can do whatever he goddam well pleases and nothing and nobody is going to stop him...

When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.

[...]

Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.

In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would "impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

Bush wrote: "The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information . . . "

although it's hardly the first time it's been said, congress might just as well pack up and go home... the power they haven't ceded to the executive branch by being a white house doormat has been effectively neutered by the unitary executive theory... if the u.s. ever sees another general election, you can bet it won't be one in which the current coup d'etat victors will be stepping down...

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