Issue #51
Last Update May 5, 2007
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Commentary December 1, 2006 The right-wing putsch has been stalled. Whether it has been halted depends on the courage of Congressional members to take on the atmosphere of fear that has encouraged the Bush administration to undermine the Constitution. While a swift launch of a Democratic economic and foreign policy program is desirable, creating a coalition of Democrats, Libertarians and true conservative Republicans to pull our nation back from the cliff of unchecked Presidential power is absolutely mandatory.
The following actions need to be taken immediately:
1. Congress must declare that Presidential signing statements, while interesting from a historical perspective, carry no legal weight. The President is expected to obey, enforce and carry out the law, under pain of impeachment.
2. Congress must declare that international treaties that have been ratified by the Senate carry the force of law, and must be obeyed, on pain of impeachment.
3. Torture must be forbidden, with those techniques exposed at Guantanimo and Abu Ghraib specifically defined as torture.
4. The Senate must take back its sole power to declare war, and require the President to come before the Senate and ask for a declaration of war before committing troops unless the United States is attacked by a national armed force or is acting under an existing treaty.
5. Congress must pass legislation stating that no Executive action is unreviewable by the Courts in their role as guardian of Constitutional rights.
6. The right of habeas corpus must be restored for citizens and non-citizens alike.
7. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 must be repealed.
8. The provisions of the Defense Appropriations Act of 2007 giving the President unchecked power to use the military domestically, in effect nullifying the Posse Comitatus Act, must be repealed.
9. The requirement that domestic spying (wiretaps, etc.) be approved by court order must be restored.
10. The CIA gulag must be disbanded, and “extraordinary rendition” must be forbidden.
11. Congress must declare that a state of war allowing extraordinary Presidential powers does not exist, and that, despite the Presidential commitment of our troops overseas, no extraordinary powers are warranted.
Without these minimal actions, Presidential power will have passed the tipping point, and our tripartite form of government will become a Presidential dictatorship with vestigial legislative and judicial bodies.
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