Oops. Bush made a signing statement to the Defense Appropriations Bill.

[atommom]

Part of the President's Signing Statement:
"Sections 8007, 8084, and 9005 of the Act prohibit the use of funds to initiate a special access program or a new start program, unless the congressional defense committees receive advance notice. The Supreme Court of the United States has stated that the President's authority to classify and control access to information bearing on the national security flows from the Constitution and does not depend upon a legislative grant of authority. Although the advance notice contemplated by sections 8007, 8084, and 9005 can be provided in most situations as a matter of comity, situations may arise, especially in wartime, in which the President must act promptly under his constitutional grants of executive power and authority as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces while protecting certain extraordinarily sensitive national security information. The executive branch shall construe these sections in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President."

This appears to me to claim extraordinary powers for the President and to lay the grounds for a claim by the President to be able to:
1) initiate classified actions without notifying Congress or getting Congressional authorization or funding
2) to initiate new military appropriations or purchases within the authorized budget without Congressional authorization and
3) to ignore any explicit restrictions Congress tries to retroactively apply to the Defence appropriations budget to prevent redirection of funds, and for the President to be able to use current authorized appropriations to finance activities not explicitly funded by Congress.

(snip)
9005 is "None of the funds provided in this title may be used to finance programs or activities denied by Congress in fiscal years 2006 or 2007 appropriations to the Department of Defense or to initiate a procurement or research, development, test and evaluation new start program without prior written notification to the congressional defense committees. "
- this claims to head off a "Boland amendment" - Bush basically claims he can ignore any funding restriction that Congress tries to ban by act of Congress related to this year's defence appropriations!
This is important and a potential Constitutional Crisis point.

Section 8007 "Funds appropriated by this Act may not be used to initiate a special access program without prior notification 30 calendar days in advance to the congressional defense committees. "
- Anyone know what "special access" refers to? I presume this is classified activity.
Bush's signing statement basically says he can initiate classified military actions and bypass any Congressional oversight or authorization.

Ok, this is shit scary.

http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2007/01/defensive_signing_statement.php

The signing statement itself:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2006_presidential_documents&docid=pd10oc06_txt-3

[halobeam]

1. Signing statements are unconstitutional.

He broke his oath.

Simple as that.

Hey, I know... lets just give him the money he's asking for too!... cuz otherwise, we'd be called names. Uh oh, can't have that... I wanna be liked (says maj. of Dems):sarcasm:

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. Then when do the IMPEACHMENT hearings begin? I'm still waiting.

:smoke:

[helderheid]

11. ditto!

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. He's just going to ignore the verdict. That man isn't leaving that

House unless we pry his fingers off the door jams.

[Connonym]

27. My bad, I misread that as "Impeachment hangings" n/t

[atommom]

9. I'm wondering what happens if Congress denies him funding, and

he "chooses to ignore" that, per his signing statement. Would that be enough to bring him down? He obviously doesn't think so.

[indepat]

14. W's gonna do what W wants to do until the Congress does their duty to stop the delusional madness

[Supersedeas]

20. CONGRESS NEEDS TO ACT!!

[Richard Steele]

2. Face it, folks: B*sh is a Dictator & his word is above ANY law.

[BayCityProgressive]

3. he is a dictator

the Right has been securing their power in BOTH parties for decades...it is now coming to fruition.

[rock]

5. Chimpeachment now!

[porphyrian]

6. Can we impeach his ass now? - n/t

[bluewave]

7. Agreed, if he continues, simply impeach

[halobeam]

8. What chance do we have for this, when maj. of Dems are afraid to

cut funding for this war? Non binding resolution. OMG.

Impeachment? I'm afraid our Dems won't stand up. How would the Republican Senators? LOL.. I thought eventually, this impeachment MIGHT happen. But not after they can't even stop funding because of what trouble it would stir up, FOR THEM, in the beginning... they'd have to explain themselves.. oh gees, that's too much for them to deal with.. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[bdamomma]

10. this congress has to reign him in, he is clearly going above and

beyond in bush's quest of abuse of power. I wish we had a Parliamentary sort of government, where they throw their asses out.

[atommom]

12. Yes, if there's not a mechanism for getting Bush out (or those in power

are too afraid to USE the mechanisms they do have), that points out a real weakness in our system.

[me b zola]

13. k&r

[atommom]

15. k

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. What if we citizens added signing statements to our next tax returns?

"No taxation without representation"

Bush clearly doesn't think the people need to be represented through their elected representatives anymore.

[atommom]

23. If he had his way, I doubt we'd have any elected representatives.

A dictatorship would be a lot simpler...

[Solly Mack]

17. Bush to Congress: Fuck you! I do what I want!

Bush to Americans: You just don't matter

[annabanana]

18. As long as we let him define "WAR" we will fall into this trap. .

There is not, and can never be such a thing as a "War on Terror". We have to attack this shibboleth at the very source. He trots out the old "in time of war" language and hangs his every justification for every illegal act on it.

This isn't a "war". It is an occupation. And our conflict against Islamic Fundamentalism is a conflict of ideas... also not a "war".

When no one jumped on the "War on Drugs" back in Rayguns day... the path was laid.

[tbyg52]

19. Those signing statements mean nothing, NOTHING,

except in *'s brain. They have no effect on the law. They do not exonerate him nor say he can do things the laws say he can't. He made this @#$% up and he's been getting away with it. Strip all of them off and shred them. Just because it got under the radar for so long doesn't mean it can't be thrown out NOW.

[atommom]

21. I absolutely agree, but everyone in power seems to be afraid to do that.

:shrug:

[jmowreader]

22. Special Access Program: REALLY classified information

Sergeant Mowreader's Five Minute Block of Instruction on Classified Information:

Many of the things the government uses cannot be released to or viewed by the general public as they will damage the nation if it happens.

We place things into one of three classes depending on how much damage it can cause to the security of the United States.

Things which can cause DAMAGE to the national security are classified CONFIDENTIAL.
Things which can cause GREAT DAMAGE to the national security are classified SECRET.
Things which can cause EXCEPTIONALLY GRAVE DAMAGE to the national security are classified TOP SECRET.

(I say THINGS instead of INFORMATION because physical objects can be classified. As an example, Stinger antiaircraft missiles are classified because shooting down a commercial airliner will damage our national security.)

Because fewer people have access to SECRET information than to CONFIDENTIAL information, and so on up the line, placing a higher classification on an item restricts the number of people who can see it. (Given that, which is true, be aware that you can't actually get a CONFIDENTIAL clearance anymore. The investigation and issuance limitations for a CONFIDENTIAL and a SECRET are identical, so everyone who's cleared and doesn't have a TS clearance has a SECRET.)

Now let's say we have a really juicy program here. Oh...just for the fuck of it, let's say we decided to start injecting GPS transponders into wharf rats then slipping them onto Iranian cargo ships so we can track the ships' movements. We'll call it Operation Brown Gold. And let's further say we only want a couple hundred specific people to know we're trying to use rats to track Iranian cargo ships, mainly because it's a dumbass idea. We throw it into a special-access "compartment" and only people who are indoctrinated into Brown Gold can access its secrets.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. How much longer before Gonzalez and Bush claim that they're

above any impeachment proceedings?

[Kablooie]

26. Forget Impeachment. Let's just get those Iraqi Hangmen over here.