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Once again, constitutional scholar John Yoo is making headlines, thanks to his recently declassified memo. I think this is a good opportunity to take time to revisit a classic example of Yoo’s legal argumentation.
This is what it takes to get onto the faculty of the #6 law school in the country.
Geoff posted this at 6:02 PM HKT on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 as Amer-I-Can!, Conservatism, George Bush Sucks!, Global War on Terror, We don't need no stinkin' Constitution
Vice President Dick Cheney, 2008:
RADDATZ:Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.
CHENEY: So?
President Abraham Lincoln, 1858:
In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.
The greatest failing of the Bush Administration isn’t its inability to communicate; it’s its abject refusal to even make an effort at it. I don’t want an administration whose policies are set by today’s polls, but I also don’t want one who treats us with such foolish — such unnecessary! — contempt.
As Jonah Goldberg argued last year, Cheney’s stoicism would be a lot more admirable if only it wasn’t so stupid.
Tom posted this at 9:12 PM HKT on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 as George Bush Sucks!, Politics and the English Language
A brilliant post by Lee at RTLC. I really have nothing further to add.
Jamie posted this at 10:47 AM HKT on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 as George Bush Sucks!, Global War on Terror
All this McCain bashing is really starting to piss me off. All you “conservatives” who stood by Bush as he created huge increases in entitlement spending, passed protectionist trade tariffs, further federalized education and advocated a war plan that made our military look like a joke can just go to hell.
I’m looking at you Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Malkin and Fox News.
You others, well you know who you are.
Jamie posted this at 6:25 PM HKT on Friday, February 8th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, Conservatism, George Bush Sucks!
George Bush has decided that he’ll only follow the law if he likes it.
President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill.
Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008. In the signing statement, Bush asserted that four sections of the bill unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, and so the executive branch is not bound to obey them.
Ahem, Mr. President, if you believe a law to be unconstitutional you have a very constitutional way of defeating that law. Its called a Veto. Now I know this may be hard for you to understand so I’ll get you a pop-up book, or maybe a copy of the School House Rocks video “I’m Just a Bill”. Remember that, Mr. President? You’ll like it – it has lots of pretty colors with singing and dancing legislation.
I’ve decided that the next time I get a speeding ticket and the cop asks me to sign the ticket I am going to issue a signing statement. “This ticket infringes on my constitutional rights. I will not pay it.”
(H/T)
Jamie posted this at 10:56 AM HKT on Friday, February 1st, 2008 as George Bush Sucks!, Uncategorized
I cannot think of a better description of this column. He espouses endless government, and believes Jesus was a tax-and-spend liberal. He believes those who do not enjoy being forced to give money to save the lives of people half a world away are “shriveled souls” who ought not be considered for the presidency.
So here’s the key graph that shows Gerson’s unseriousness:
What of the more than 1.4 million men, women and children who have received treatment with the help of Bush’s AIDS initiative? According to Thompson, they are not a priority. The 800,000 HIV-positive pregnant women who have gotten treatment to prevent transmission to their children? Not a priority. The care of nearly 3 million orphans? Not a priority.
Of course those aren’t priorities! If these things are priorities, what isn’t? When everything’s a priority, nothing is a priority. This is the hodgepodgery of compassionate conservatism; if you feel like it’s a good thing to do, do it. Gerson, though, frames it as a moral imperative.
I’ve been really quite hesitant to embrace the whole Republican-party-is-no-longer-conservative theme, but with the way the primaries are shaping up, and with mounting evidence that George Bush employed a socialist as his chief speech writer, I’m becoming more and more sympathetic to that point of view.
Apollo posted this at 2:35 PM HKT on Friday, January 18th, 2008 as Conservatism, George Bush Sucks!
Peter Hitchens summarizes what’s wrong with America’s pro-democracy policies:
Voting is not a sacrament, conferring automatic goodness wherever it happens. The conditions under which it takes place, and the system of government in which it is to be found, are decisive. Elections can be rigged or improperly influenced by money or intimidation. And many votes are rigged or improperly influenced — yet still get approved by powerless, easily fooled international observers who see little and are powerless to intervene. Such votes prove nothing and help nobody. If only one party has any serious hope of victory, then the vote merely serves to confirm that party in power. If the votes are on purely clan, tribal or ethnic lines, then the election confirms that division and often worsens it. If you look carefully at the reservations above, you will find that they apply to some votes that take place within the British Isles or North America especially (in Britain) since the introduction of easy postal voting.
Yet, if there is freedom of speech and of the press, if there is an independent judiciary with the power to defy the government, if law is respected and observed, a society which has no ‘democracy’ can be remarkably free and rulers remarkably accountable. Take the example of Hong Kong, which has never been particularly democratic. Despite the showy fuss made by Christopher Patten in his term as governor there, “democracy” was never really the issue in the handover of Hong Kong to China. The things that needed to be preserved were freedom of speech and the press, and the rule of law. And it is these that will presumably disappear under slow pressure from Peking, long before Hong Kong is finally absorbed in the People’s Republic of China.
Democracy can often be — and often is — the enemy of freedom under the law. I have little doubt that the votes for Vladimir Putin and his puppet party in Russia are genuine. But they are disastrous for any hopes that Russia could become a law-governed free country. The Saarland plebiscite on return to the German Reich in 1935 (90% voted to be ruled by the Nazis when it was quite clear what they were, when they could have chosen to stay under League of Nations rule ) suggests that Hitler’s many successful referendums confirming his power and decisions were also largely genuine. I am baffled by the way so many commentators act as if democracy by itself offers much hope to any country. Britain was free long before it was democratic, and it can be argued that it has become less free since it became more democratic — and that it has survived democracy better than most because of the strength of its freedoms and its laws.
I think we need a word to describe the obsession with democracy that both the left and right have. I propose “democrazy.”
Hubbard posted this at 1:49 PM HKT on Monday, December 31st, 2007 as George Bush Sucks!, Philosophy
I guess that’s what I’m to take from this tidbit of legislative wizardry. Those compact florescent bulbs give me headaches. Yet the federal government is going to force me to use them within 12 years. Why else would they legislate that I get headaches, unless they hate me?
The solution to me is clear. Hopefully by 2020 this whole law school thing will have paid off sufficiently that I will have the resources to hoard years worth of incandescent bulbs. Enough to last until technology helps me out. But one thing’s for sure: Can you think of any better way to dissuade technological progress than to tell light bulb companies, “The light bulbs you’re making now are good enough to meet our standards for the next dozen years, and we’re going to outlaw competing types of bulbs”? Thanks, government.
Here’s perhaps the best bit.
Proponents of government intervention into the light bulb market argue the change will save consumers money – Davidson reported it will save $40 billion in energy and other costs in the next 22 years.
Let’s see. $40 billion/22years = $1.818 billion/year in savings. Let’s be absolutely ridiculous and say that the population stays at 303,000,000 for the next 22 years. That would be a savings of…6 FRICKIN’ DOLLARS A YEAR. Wow. That’s like 50 cents per month. I can’t buy a can of Coke from a soda machine for less than 75 cents. If I used my savings to buy a stamp, envelope, and piece of paper, I could write the president a thank you note. And then the next month, I could use my savings to send one to Congress.
I guess it’s okay that the government hates me, though. Because I hate them.
Apollo posted this at 7:48 PM HKT on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 as George Bush Sucks!, Science!, The Democratic Congress
W has decided to use the power of government so save people from themselves:
The Bush administration unveiled a foreclosure relief plan Thursday that the White House said could help 1.2 million distressed homeowners.
In separate announcements, President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the plan will streamline the mortgage modification process for many distressed borrowers. It will offer “more relief to more homeowners, more quickly,” the president said. And it will include a five-year freeze on interest rates for borrowers current with their monthly payments.
GWB has become a modern day LBJ. Welcome to the new conservatism – government will take care of you, just give them the power.
Jamie posted this at 6:10 PM HKT on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 as Conservatism, George Bush Sucks!, It's Economics - Stupid!
One thing I remember about David Frum’s The Right Man was his loathing of Karen Hughes. He still doesn’t much like her:
My column for this weekend’s National Post will try to explain why Karen Hughes so signally failed as US Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. Hint: It’s not because she is a shallow and ill-informed person with scant experience of the world outside America’s borders but dangerously unlimited confidence in her own abilities. Although of course that didn’t help.
A certain breed of DC literature is the memoir that could be subtitled, “If only they listened to me!” It looks like the upcoming National Post column will be a subspecies of that dour genus.
Hubbard posted this at 10:33 AM HKT on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 as Amer-I-Can!, George Bush Sucks!
So FEMA just did a fake press conference:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s No. 2 official apologized yesterday for leading a staged news conference Tuesday in which FEMA employees posed as reporters while real reporters listened on a telephone conference line and were barred from asking questions.
“We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent,” Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson Jr., FEMA’s deputy administrator, said in a four-paragraph statement.
“We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment,” Johnson said, a view repeated yesterday by press officers at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, who criticized the event.
FEMA announced the news conference at its Southwest Washington headquarters about 15 minutes before it was to begin Tuesday afternoon, making it unlikely that reporters could attend. Instead, FEMA set up a telephone conference line so reporters could listen.
In the briefing, parts of which were televised live by cable news channels, Johnson stood behind a lectern, called on questioners who did not disclose that they were FEMA employees, and gave replies emphasizing that his agency’s response to this week’s California wildfires was far better than its response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
“It was absolutely a bad decision. I regret it happened. Certainly . . . I should have stopped it,” said John P. “Pat” Philbin, FEMA’s director of external affairs. “I hope readers understand we’re working very hard to establish credibility and integrity, and I would hope this does not undermine it.”
Wait, this story gets better. What’s next for John P. “Pat” Philbin?
Philbin’s last scheduled day at FEMA was Thursday. He has been named as the new head of public affairs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI spokeswoman Vanee Vines said.
If the DNI wants to have any credibility, it needs to fire Philbin now.
How did these nincompoops get hired in the first place?
Hubbard posted this at 10:53 AM HKT on Saturday, October 27th, 2007 as Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, George Bush Sucks!, Journalism
Read this – describes my exact thoughts and feelings on the Iraq War.
(H/T)
Jamie posted this at 11:21 AM HKT on Friday, October 19th, 2007 as George Bush Sucks!, Iraq
Lee over at Right Thinking links to this post over at Drumwaster’s Rants. I really have no dog in the bitch fest between Lee and Drum, but Drum’s comments here are so inanely stupid they deserve special mention.
I’m so tired of hearing about the Constitution being infringed in some way or another, and about it being a “living” and “breathing” thing. It’s not. It’s a piece of paper with words written on it. Some of it is good, and some of it is bad. Frankly, I don’t care about much of it, because when push comes to shove and lives are at stake, I’m going to do the right thing and worry about what “Constitutional violations” I’ve made at a later date. Believe me, you’ll thank me when you and your family aren’t buried six feet under ground.
This is what modern conservatism has become? This is what 6 years of Bush have given us? The very foundation of conservatism is a respect for, and adherence to, the Constitution. Without the framework it provides we would find ourselves in the sort of creeping socialism that now grips much of Europe. Without the limits it places on our various elected leaders unscrupulous men could use times of national tragedy to gain personal power. These events are not unprecedented in history.
The Founding Fathers, in their infinite wisdom, gave us the means to adapt The Constitution to the modern world. They are called amendments. It seems that this is no longer good enough for Bush loving “conservatives” like Drumwaster. For them the Constitution is a speed bump on the road to their preferred America. In the end this makes them no better, and perhaps worse, then the liberals who have been changing the meaning of The Constitution by judicial fiat for decades. Their vision for America is not the one the Founders intended. It is not an America great men like Ronald Regan strove to build. It is not an America that I would choose to live in.
As Tom has eloquently said previously, I would rather slightly increase my chance of death at the hands of terrorists than accept large curbs on my personal freedom.
Jamie posted this at 11:07 AM HKT on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 as Conservatism, George Bush Sucks!, Liberty and/or Security
Osama’s new tape is out. Apparently if we all convert to Islam the attacks will stop. Well, golly Mr. Bin Landen, sir, why didn’t we think of that before!
My favorite bits:
the reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes…
I invite you to embrace Islam…There are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms] totaling 2.5 percent.
Apparently Bin Laden is now attempting to appeal to Supply Siders – this strategy is not without merit since many Supply Siders are also very religiously conservative – I keed, I keed.
Also – what the hell do real estate mortgages and global warming have to do with Islam? I mean if we really want to get down to the basics global warming is allegedly fueled by oil usage, which comes from where? That’s right, the Islamic World. And the recent sub-prime mess? What Allah would have stepped in and given 30 pieces of silver to each borrower to stave off foreclosure? Give me a break.
He goes on to call Noam Chomsky “among one of the most capable of those from your own side,”
Not that anyone really questioned whether or not Chomsky was an America hating ignoramus – but being praised by the biggest America hating ignoramus of all time must give him more street cred no?
“It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interests of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations.”
There it is folks – the Bin Laden doctrine spelled out in black and white. What strikes me right off is – it is the exact opposite of the Bush Doctrine. Spread fascism and religion in order to destroy secular democracy. As much as I fault George Bush for his screw-ups, and there have been many, he did seem to understand the fundamental struggle of our time. If only he had the ability to execute his vision with any sort of competence.
It is further striking that the Jihadi’s are parroting the exact language of the America hating left – blame everything on corporations. I’m not saying that the left wants us to slouch into Islamo-Fascism – but the similarities are too striking to dismiss.
Jamie posted this at 6:13 PM HKT on Friday, September 7th, 2007 as Another Great Victory For Jihad, George Bush Rules!, George Bush Sucks!, Global War on Terror
K-Lo, more plugged into the rumor mill than I am, discusses a few possible replacements. Since a recess appointment will last until the current congress is over, Bush could theoretically put anyone he chooses in DOJ with one. He should renominate Robert Bork.
Hubbard posted this at 9:15 AM HKT on Monday, August 27th, 2007 as George Bush Sucks!