Arlen Specter's announcement that the White House has agreed to a limited judicial review of the secret NSA eavesdropping program (after tough "negotiations", of course) is fraudulent on its face, and glaring proof that regardless of all his tough talk, he is actually marching in lockstep with the most corrupt presidential administration in the history of our country, pledging his undying loyalty.
Arlen Specter, purely and simply, is a co-conspirator in the Bush administration's systematic destruction of our democracy, and should be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors right alongside the entire Bush administration cabal.
For irrefutable proof, one need look no further than the headline in yesterday's New York Times:
In a real constitutional republic, where a legitimate Congress would recognize that its duty is to serve the people and not the administration, upon the revelation of such a secret surveillance program as was revealed in December 2005, existing law would be reviewed to determine the question of legality. In this case the law is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), which clearly and unequivocally states that a warrant must be issued, either prior to the surveillance, or, in cases of immediate need, within 72 hours of the occurrence of the surveillance. The Bush administration has repeatedly and consistently violated this condition.
In a real constitutional republic, the president would not have the unchallenged authority to ignore the law as he sees fit. But this president has actually claimed this very authority, some 750 times, by adding signing statements after signing bills into law, which say that the law will be interpreted according to his hopelessly flawed interpretation of the Constitution.
Apparently according to Specter, however, the signing statement conundrum has been miraculously solved by this new agreement, which he says proves that "the president does not have a blank check."
But then Specter also says the following:
"There could be some changes, but if there are any changes from the bill which has been negotiated, they would have to be satisfactory to the president in order for the president to fulfill his agreement to submit the program to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."
So you see, it's really quite simple. Thanks to our hero Arlen Specter, the president doesn't have a blank check, but he still gets to decide whether or not a court can review his secret surveillance program to determine whether or not it's legal. And if he does decide to sign this new bill into law, he can still add a signing statement that says he will interpret it consistent with his non-existent "inherent constitutional authority", as the head of the non-existent "Unitary Executive Branch" of government, and ignore it at his discretion.
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to George W. Bush's New America, where black is white, day is night, wrong is right, up is down and democracy is fascism.
