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Tuesday, January 3, 2006 |
Balkinization: "The President signed the Defense Appropriations bill on Friday. In his signing statement he did at least two notable things.
First, with respect to several provisions of the bill, the President signaled his intention to reserve his authority, as Commander in Chief, to ignore statutory mandates. These include provisions that require advance notice of congressional committees before the use of funds to initiate a special access program, a new overseas installation, or a new start program; and a 'report and wait' provision that requires the President to wait 15 days after notifying six congressional committees before using certain appropriations to transfer defense articles or services to another nation or an international organization for international peacekeeping, peace enforcement, or humanitarian assistance operations.
Most importantly, as to the McCain Amendment, which would categorically prohibit cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees by all U.S. personnel, anywhere in the world, the President wrote:
The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks.
Second, the President unsurprisingly signals that the Administration reads the Graham Amendments to cut off currently pending habeas cases."
The above will make Bush personally liable for breaching the Constitution, breaching national and international law and civil rights.
Bush has just nullified the American Constitutional Democracy and is now acting as a self-appointed dictator.
4:56:53 PM 
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Ukraine is stealing gas that is destined for Europe. Ukraine's leadership has chosen for a market economy and told Russia they have new friends now and please get lost; nevertheless they want to continue the 'friendly' gas prices from their Russian suppliers and refuse to pay prices that are closer to European market prices. Mr. Yushenko is a bit confused.
But this whole affair shows that the new world order with its privatization and international deregulation of energy will only result in more international conflicts and higher energy prices.
Dependency on foreign, privatized energy is a bad thing. It can severely damage the economies of several countries. The energy corporations will profit from this and what do they care about national sovereignty, economy or welfare? Energy should be nationalised, as it is of crucial importance to state and citizen.
Scotsman: "The Department of Trade and Industry was warned at least four years ago that relying on imported gas would render the British economy vulnerable to disruption from Russia."
The Scotsman would, of course, blame Russia, but this problem is just the result of the new market economy and Russia is completely in line with this market trend.
Again we were lied to when they told us privatization and deregulation would bring lower prices; they didn't. Energy prices are bound to rise and rise. Our national governments have relinquished practically all control over energy. What do we need governments for?
2:36:12 PM
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VenezuelaAnalysis: "The Chicago Transit Authority is refusing an opportunity to alleviate commuting costs for hundreds of thousands in the Windy City's low-income neighborhoods. Instead of accepting deeply discounted fuel from the Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum Corporation, the city is instead raising fares to solve budget shortfalls."
12:10:48 PM
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AmericaBlog: "Well, isn't this growing curiouser and curiouser. Now Bush is saying that some of the calls he's illegally tapping are being made FROM the US and that the people making them are Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda affiliates.
So now there are Al Qaeda members and Al Qaeda affiliates inside the United States making phone calls, we know who they are, and:
1) Bush is letting known terrorists and known terrorist affiliates roam around our country free, which begs the question: Why aren't they under arrest?
2) Bush is saying that the courts would never grant a warrant to listen to the phone calls of Al Qaeda members or Al Qaeda affiliates inside the United States. That's just a lie."
12:07:55 PM
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