According to the NY Times -- the building of the much-touted border fence with Mexico requires breaking as many as 30 laws that may impede the process of construction. Congress also stepped in to forbid courts to second-guess the secretary of homeland security's waivers of these laws.
NOW this stupid idea makes sense -- it sets precedent for the further consolidation of power, eradicates checks and balances, and shows that the power of law can be superseded at will by the government. It also is a very generous ceding of powers of congress to a new position, the secretary of the office of homeland security. Can't have a new and wasteful bureaucracy without some extra POWER now can we boys?
For a more thorough stroll down constitution-wrecking-lane, do read the linked article it's a doozy.
effing great
Bp
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4 comments:
(your second link is broken)
I don't know the backstory of the Congressional legislation but the willingness of the Congress to back up the establishment of such powers demonstrates several things: fist, the total disrespect on the part of our government -- not merely the current administration, not merely Republicans or neoconservatives -- for the brilliant and delicate balance of our constitutional system.
Second, it shows the gutlessness of elected officials more concerned with prolonging their personal power than in serving the electorate. Time and again Congress has been unwilling to challenge actions taken in the name of the "war on terror" for fear of political fallout.
Third, it illustrates once again the insidious nature of the boundless-by-definition "war on terror", which can be stretched to cover almost any abuse of governmental power.
Finally, it illustrates that our government is deeply, deeply broken. The bipartisan nature of support for this action says to me that merely changing political parties will not effect fundamental change in the things that are wrong with the government.
One way or another, the people must rise up an reverse the ongoing shift to fascism. I hope, perhaps naively, that this can be accomplished within the political system by refusing to accept the candidates put forward by the two parties, by rejecting the myth of electability, and by insisting on people and policies that support the true, long-term well -being of the electorate rather than the cynical concentration of power and wealth.
"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. " -- Abraham Lincoln
Wow, fantastic comment sir. You may get the most eloquent comment of the year award.
here here
Of course I agree, which doesn't hurt my assessment LOL
Link fixed -- just re-iterates the first, thanks for the heads up
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