President or King?

Tucked away in the depths of the many presidential powers that come with the oval office is a power that allows the President to write his own interpretation of any bill that he signs into law. Signing Statements as they are called allows the President to influence the future success of the legislation by giving it either a positive or negative spin. A recent article published in TIME magazine by Andrew Sullivan titled "We Don't Need a New King George" sited concerns regarding this "power" of the President that seems to have been over looked. He says that in eight years in office each former Presidents Clinton and Reagan issued a total of only 176 signing statements. Our current President George W. Bush has already surpassed the 500 mark! Now you'd think since it's technically a time of war that this isn't all that unusual but Reagan only did it 71 times and that was during the Cold War!

Sullivan sites the McCain anti-torture law recently passed by Congress via a 90-9 vote as an example of the President's careful tip toeing around the law. As you may recall Bush and Cheney attempted to block this law from being passed. A Republican President blocking a fellow Republican Senator! But let's face it McCain's approval ratings are twice as good as the President. After months of fighting over to keep the bill from becoming law suddenly the President signed the bill. But the President wrote this signing statement at the end of the bill: "The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act relating to detainees, in a matter 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 judicial power." In English this means that the President has given himself the authority to ignore certain parts of the McCain law whenever he deems it necessary. Sullivan said it best in the article: "Translation: If the President believes torture is warranted to protect the country, he'll violate the law and authorize torture. If the courts try to stop him, he'll ignore them too."

Let's be honest. There have been only forty two lucky people who have been the leader of the free world and we are only beginning to understand the fight we've gotten ourselves into in the Middle East. If you were Bush and the clock was ticking on a nuclear bomb somewhere in the country what would you do? Is one man's right not to be tortured worth millions of American lives? The answer will always be the same; it depends on who's the President. This President has decided to exercise the full weight of his office. But has he gone too far? Judging from the polls most Americans think he has.

Now you ask who was the idiot who came up with the idea that the President should be allowed to create loopholes in the bills he signs into law? Prepare yourselves. It was none other than recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito!! Yes the rabbit that Bush pulled out of a hat and put on the high court is the man who first suggested this concept. Did we elect and then re-elect a President, or a King? America was created under a flag of democracy not a monarchy. Yet look what America has become today. We do not have a solid health care system, taxes are way too high, the economy somewhat sucks, oil and gas prices are ridiculous. We're in a war that perhaps we cannot win. We are trillions of dollars in debt. All of this happened under Bush but oh wait a minute there is hope. The American people took action last November and voted the Democrats back into control of the Congress. Will this change make things better? It's too soon to tell. Meanwhile Mr. Bush is sending 21,500 additional troops to Iraq despite the disapproval of the majority of Congress and the American people. Does this sound like Democracy to you?