2008 Woodie Awards
Bush likened to king threatening civil liberties
Stephen Yellin
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Opinion
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If the Constitution and its Bill of Rights were human beings, George W. Bush would be in jail for assault and battery-possibly attempted murder, if there was a U.S. attorney willing to prosecute the case far enough. From the beginning of his first term in office, our president and his radically authoritarian administration have followed a political theory called the "unitary executive" theory-this states that the President alone is capable of governing a democracy in times of crisis, and that he should exercise absolute authority during the crisis period.
For the Bush administration, every day since Sept. 11, 2001, has been a crisis scenario, and they have used their new theory of government to steadily strip Congress, the judiciary and we the people of our rights and perogatives as Americans and as parts of the government.
Habeus corpus has been abolished, the president can declare and fund the war himself, neutral lawyers and justices are being removed for brazenly political reasons and the president can ignore congressional laws at his own discretion. What is at stake is nothing less than a constitutional takeover by the "Mad Cowboy of Texas."
First, let's talk about what King George's new concept of power means to us, the average citizens. Under the Patriot Act-rammed through Congress at the peak of patriotism in 2001-Congress gave the executive branch the ability to imprison Americans considered to be "enemies of the state" without trial for an indefinite length of time, to access your library, phone and mail records, to ignore the international Geneva Accords in torturing prisoners, to expand government spying powers without congressional oversight and to send American troops overseas for unlimited periods of time without a declaration of war from Congress.
This means that you can be arrested, sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to be tortured and hauled before a military tribunal, not a regular civilian court, on charges of treason if you are considered to be a terrorist. As for the definition of terrorist, it was deliberately left vague by the administration-meaning that anyone can technically be arrested and jailed on any charge the government sees fit.
For the Bush administration, every day since Sept. 11, 2001, has been a crisis scenario, and they have used their new theory of government to steadily strip Congress, the judiciary and we the people of our rights and perogatives as Americans and as parts of the government.
Habeus corpus has been abolished, the president can declare and fund the war himself, neutral lawyers and justices are being removed for brazenly political reasons and the president can ignore congressional laws at his own discretion. What is at stake is nothing less than a constitutional takeover by the "Mad Cowboy of Texas."
First, let's talk about what King George's new concept of power means to us, the average citizens. Under the Patriot Act-rammed through Congress at the peak of patriotism in 2001-Congress gave the executive branch the ability to imprison Americans considered to be "enemies of the state" without trial for an indefinite length of time, to access your library, phone and mail records, to ignore the international Geneva Accords in torturing prisoners, to expand government spying powers without congressional oversight and to send American troops overseas for unlimited periods of time without a declaration of war from Congress.
This means that you can be arrested, sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to be tortured and hauled before a military tribunal, not a regular civilian court, on charges of treason if you are considered to be a terrorist. As for the definition of terrorist, it was deliberately left vague by the administration-meaning that anyone can technically be arrested and jailed on any charge the government sees fit.
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