Attorney Controversy is About Politics, Not Law [Archive] - Debate Policy

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red states rule

07-27-2007, 06:25 AM

Dems continue to waste time, and money, over this made up scandal

It is all about politics - not a violation of the law

Attorney Controversy is About Politics, Not Law
By Kimberley Strassel

A president removes a U.S. attorney, and Congress demands to see privileged files related to the firing. The president refuses, noting that "these suspensions are my executive acts," and "based upon considerations addressed to me alone." The Senate has a meltdown, arguing it has oversight authority over the removal of administration officials and threatens to censure the attorney general.

If this sounds familiar, it shouldn't, since it's the story of a long-forgotten battle that President Grover Cleveland fought with Congress in 1885. One reason it is long-forgotten is because nothing happened. The Senate was steamed that Cleveland wouldn't cough up the docs, but it also recognized there were limits on its power. It never did hold any officials in contempt, never did take any judicial action. Instead, it confirmed Cleveland's new choice for the U.S. attorney position.

What a difference 122 years makes. Democrats are conducting an insincere probe into President Bush's firing of U.S. attorneys, but these days they see no constitutional reason why the White House shouldn't cooperate in their partisan attack. In response to the administration's refusal to respond to subpoenas, the House Judiciary Committee this week voted to issue criminal contempt citations against Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers.

Chairman John Conyers is spinning the line that his party had no choice, but was forced into this by a recalcitrant president who is eviscerating Congress's oversight authority. If you believe that, Mr. Conyers also has a Capitol building to sell you. The contempt citations are, rather, an audacious break with history and Mr. Conyers has far more honorable options. The reason Democrats haven't pursued those more dignified routes is because this is about smearing the president, not proving a principle.

Let's remember how we got here. Democrats latched on to the firings in hopes of building some case that the White House had engaged in cronyism and cover-up. The Justice Department, in the spirit of cooperation, turned over 8,500 documents and made available a parade of officials for public testimony. Mr. Conyers and his counterpart at Senate Judiciary, Patrick Leahy, found nothing. So they then demanded the White House turn over privileged communications and submit high-ranking officials to public questioning. Mr. Bush invoked executive privilege, and Mr. Conyers went to Defcon contempt.

This is a constitutional issue, but you don't have to be Robert Bork to get your head around it. The Founders created three separate (but equal) branches of government. The Constitution gave each their own powers, while also supplying checks to prevent the branches from encroaching on each other.

Congress gave itself the right to issue criminal contempt citations long ago, and bully for it, but there's nothing in legal history to suggest that in this case it has the right to apply that power to the president or his subordinates. It'd be one thing if Mr. Conyers had proved beyond doubt that a crime had been committed. He hasn't. Instead, this is a straightforward battle between Mr. Bush's claim of executive privilege and Congress's claim of oversight. Both sides, in theory, have a legitimate case.

So the idea that Congress now gets to win this battle by simply declaring the other side criminal is bizarre. Under that twisted logic, Mr. Bush has just as much right to grant himself a similar power and hold Mr. Conyers in criminal contempt for interfering in executive-branch business. This is not, obviously, a very grown-up way of settling constitutional disputes.

for the complete article
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/07/attorney_controversy_is_about.html

Gaffer

07-29-2007, 05:36 PM

It's a total waste of time and money. It's the only thing the dems know how to do.

Spyder Jerusalem

07-29-2007, 06:04 PM

Angel Heart

07-29-2007, 06:20 PM

Why was it OK for Clinton to lay off all of the Federal Attorneys but it wasn't OK for Bush to let go of 8?

The broadcast network evening newscasts, which didn't care in 1993 about the Clinton administration's decision to ask for the resignation of all 93 U.S. attorneys, went apoplectic Tuesday night in leading with the "controversy," fed by the media, over the Bush administration for replacing eight U.S. attorneys in late 2006 -- nearly two years after rejecting the idea of following the Clinton policy of replacing all the attorneys. Anchor Charles Gibson promised that ABC would "look at all the angles tonight," but he skipped the Clinton comparison. Gibson teased: "New controversy at the White House after a string of U.S. attorneys is fired under questionable circumstances. There are calls for the Attorney General to resign."

CBS's Katie Couric declared that "the uproar is growing tonight over the firing of eight federal prosecutors by the Justice Department" and fill-in NBC anchor Campbell Brown teased: "The Attorney General and the firestorm tonight over the controversial dismissal of several federal prosecutors. Was it political punishment?" Brown soon asserted that "it's a story that has been brewing for weeks and it exploded today" -- an explosion fueled by the news media.

Continued... (http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2007/cyb20070314.asp#1)

OCA

07-29-2007, 06:23 PM

red states rule

07-29-2007, 07:01 PM

It's a total waste of time and money. It's the only thing the dems know how to do.

The libs and liberal media yawned when Clinton fired 96 US attorneys

Now they all have their shorts in a knot over the 8 Pres Bush fired

red states rule

07-29-2007, 07:02 PM

red states rule

07-29-2007, 07:03 PM

Why was it OK for Clinton to lay off all of the Federal Attorneys but it wasn't OK for Bush to let go of 8?

He was a Dem

The liberal media looked the other way

Besides, like Pres Bush, the President can fire them at any time - and for any reason

red states rule

07-29-2007, 07:04 PM

ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a goon!:laugh2::laugh2::laugh2:

The new board tool! Everyone look at the monkey as it shits on itself and then plays in it.

Not a goon - just a troll

Spyder Jerusalem

07-29-2007, 08:13 PM

The laws against domestic espionage, the laws against human rights violations, and the Geneva Convention.
For starters.
Not to mention countless international laws governing the conduct of warfare.

This whole admin is criminal, and has been since 2000.

The new board tool! Everyone look at the monkey as it shits on itself and then plays in it.
Is that yer new trick, sandwich boy?
No wonder you smell so bad.

Please remember to wash yer hands, or does dada do that for you when he comes to change yer shitty nappy?

avatar4321

07-29-2007, 09:40 PM

so basically you got nothing to back yourself up.

nevadamedic

07-29-2007, 09:42 PM

so basically you got nothing to back yourself up.

Becareful he will start talking about your family then call you Babe.

Spyder Jerusalem

07-29-2007, 10:08 PM

so basically you got nothing to back yourself up.

Do you actually want to discuss, or did you come to get some from the Spyder?

If you'd like to debate the issue, by all means.
If yer just lookin fer an asswhuppin, I've kinda got my plate full right now.
Check back tomorrow.

Becareful he will start talking about your family then call you Babe.
Are you pissed because I referred to you as a woman, or as a cinematic pig?

avatar4321

07-29-2007, 11:02 PM

Do you actually want to discuss, or did you come to get some from the Spyder?

If you'd like to debate the issue, by all means.
If yer just lookin fer an asswhuppin, I've kinda got my plate full right now.
Check back tomorrow.

Are you pissed because I referred to you as a woman, or as a cinematic pig?

There is nothing to debate. The President acted within his clearly mandated Constitutional power to dismiss whomever he wants and Democrats, having nothing else on him, are trying to turn it into a non-existant scandal. What is there to debate on the subject? The Democrats arent even claiming that there was anything illegal about it.

Anyone who thinks the President is somehow going to fall or get impeached by doing his job is just a moron.

nevadamedic

07-29-2007, 11:05 PM

It's a total waste of time and money. It's the only thing the dems know how to do.

And they are good at both, wasting time and money, except they arn't happy unless they are wasting a shitload of money.

Spyder Jerusalem

07-29-2007, 11:42 PM

http://www.motherearth.org/bushwanted/wanted_m.jpg

Spyder Jerusalem

07-29-2007, 11:46 PM

An Open Letter to John Conyers
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney and Co.
By TOM STEPHENS and JOHN PHILO

Dear Congressman Conyers:

We write to ask that you take the lead in efforts to appoint special counsel to investigate the top officials of the current US Government executive branch and their leading co-conspirators. The targets of this proposed investigation include, but are not limited to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Stephen Cambone, Douglas Feith, Lewis Libbey, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey, Newt Gingrich, and John Ashcroft.

The subject matter of this proposed investigation is the conduct of the so-called "war on terrorism," and the illegal and catastrophic US war of aggression against Iraq. Specifically, we believe that these individuals and others conspired to commit war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and to cover up their wrongdoing in connection with these crimes. These crimes include systematic violations of fundamental human rights guaranteed by the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on Torture, the Alien Tort Claims Act, lying to Congress and to other federal officials, and violations of other laws, treaties and obligations, including internal regulations of the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice. The end result of this pattern of flagrant, wanton, systematic and intentional wrongdoing, by the highest executive and civilian military officials in the US Government, is the disastrous military, diplomatic and political situation facing the United States, and the men and women on active duty in US military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere today.

First these officials conspired to start an unlawful war of aggression, justified by lies. Then they carried out their illegal conspiracy. It included unlawful killing of thousands of Iraqi civilians, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and use of weapons of mass destruction like cluster bombs and depleted uranium against the civilian population of Iraq. Throughout this conspiracy, they have implemented policies and practices for unlawful arrests, detention, interrogation, beatings, abuse, humiliation and torture, in violation of fundamental human rights protected by law. As a result of their misconduct, the dangers of international terrorism have been severely inflamed, international friends and allies turned away, and the security of our people imperiled. The true aims of the administration are revealed in its legally required policy statement to Congress of September 20, 2002, when it stated that the awful crimes against humanity of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington, DC "opened vast, new opportunities." (The National Security Strategy of the United States," Section VIII, Development Agendas for Cooperative Action with the Other Main Centers of Global Power) In seizing these "opportunities" to enrich their corporate supporters and increase their own power through aggression, the top officials of this administration have committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" that justify their removal from office and their criminal punishment under law.

Everywhere today we hear the question: "How will America regain its credibility?" In the wake of the Bush administration's reckless, dishonest, and profligate expenditures of blood and treasure, for the benefit of their multinational corporate patrons, the answer is clear: Investigate their crimes pursuant to law, indict them based on the massive record of facts supporting such an indictment, and put the top architects of this illegal and deadly policy of permanent, "pre-emptive" war on public trial. Accountability for the massive crimes of the Bush/Cheney administration should not be limited to a handful of low-level scapegoats who implemented their policies at Abu Ghraib prison. It should lie with those at the very top in Washington, who bear ultimate responsibility for the profound and multi-dimensional crisis to which they have brought our nation and our world. If we do this in full view of the world, then our fellow citizens, friends and allies may be able (after our great poet Langston Hughes) to say "Let America be America again." Only then can we get on with the serious business of repairing the severe, long-term damage done by these crimes, and restoring our security, freedom, and system of fairness and equal justice for all.

Thank you for your consideration of this request. If there are any questions or concerns, if you require backup documentation from reliable sources for this analysis, or if there is anything else we may be able to do to assist your office in this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.

In struggle,

Tom Stephens
John Philo

National Lawyers Guild
Detroit Chapter

gabosaurus

07-30-2007, 12:48 AM

And Bill Clinton wasn't?
Who reads all these things to you?

nevadamedic

07-30-2007, 12:58 AM

And Bill Clinton wasn't?
Who reads all these things to you?

Bill Clinton is right along with JFK and Jimmy Carter as the worst President's in history. Slick Willy's mahor accomplishment's were having a ton of women sit on his Presidential Staff, Let Osama Bin Laden and his AQ pussies kill innocent American's and Soldiers and let them get away with it, oh yea and crashed the Stockmarket............

gabosaurus

07-30-2007, 01:01 AM

nevadamedic

07-30-2007, 01:10 AM

Clinton lied and had blow jobs in the Oval Office. He didn't start a war and he did not allow 3,000 Americans to die in a preventable attack.
Not to mention the fact that Clinton could get it up. Bush is impotent.

Nope, he just let our Embassies get blown up and is the only President in history after one of our Naval Vessels got attacked didn't do anything about it because he was a coward. Slick Willy didn't have the gut's to goto War, he is a bitch just like his wife.

red states rule

07-30-2007, 03:49 AM

so basically you got nothing to back yourself up.

Situation normal

red states rule

07-30-2007, 03:49 AM

And they are good at both, wasting time and money, except they arn't happy unless they are wasting a shitload of money.

and it is our money

red states rule

07-30-2007, 03:51 AM

Clinton lied and had blow jobs in the Oval Office. He didn't start a war and he did not allow 3,000 Americans to die in a preventable attack.
Not to mention the fact that Clinton could get it up. Bush is impotent.

The US was attacked 5 times - and Clinton did nothing

Clinton turned down taking OPL on several occasions and then lied about it

To libs, terrorism is a crime and not an act of war

Spyder Jerusalem

07-30-2007, 10:03 AM

A JOB WELL DONE

For the past seven years, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have been guided by three core values : building a community of all Americans; creating opportunity for all Americans; and demanding responsibility from all Americans. Pursuing policies based on these values has resulted in tremendous progress for our nation, and a strong America at the dawn of the 21st Century. The President and Vice President are committed to a "New Opportunity Agenda" to build on our progress and expand our prosperity until it reaches every corner of the nation.

http://pearlyabraham.tripod.com/bill/billal-legacy.jpg

Economy

The Strongest Economy in a Generation Longest Economic Expansion in U.S. History. In February 2000, the United States entered the 107th consecutive month of economic expansion -- the longest economic expansion in history.

Moving From Record Deficits to Record Surplus. In 1992, the deficit was $290 billion, a record dollar high. In 2000, we have a projected budget surplus of $167 billion -- the largest dollar surplus on record (even after adjusting for inflation) and the largest as a share of our economy since 1951. This is the first time we have had three surpluses in a row in more than a half century.

Paying Off the National Debt. We are on track to pay down $297 billion of debt over three years. In 1998 and 1999, we paid down $140 billion in debt. This year, we are on track to pay down $157 billion of debt - bringing the three-year total to $297 billion. Public debt is $2.4 trillion lower in 2000 than was projected in 1993. Debt reduction brings real benefits for the American people -- a family with a home mortgage of $100,000 might expect to save roughly $2,000 per year in mortgage payments. Reduced debt also means lower interest rates and reduced payments on car loans and student loans. With the President's plan, we are now on track to eliminate the nation's publicly held debt by 2013.

Over 21 Million New Jobs. 21.2 million new jobs have been created since 1993, the most jobs ever created under a single Administration -- and more new jobs than Presidents Reagan and Bush created during their three terms. 92 percent (19.4 million) of the new jobs have been created in the private sector, the highest percentage in 50 years. Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, the economy has added an average of 248,000 jobs per month, the highest under any President. This compares to 52,000 per month under President Bush and 167,000 per month under President Reagan.

Fastest and Longest Real Wage Growth in Over Three Decades. In the last 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased 3.7 percent -- faster than the rate of inflation. The United States has had five consecutive years of real wage growth -- the longest consecutive increase since the 1960s. Since 1993, real wages are up 6.8 percent, after declining 4.3 percent during the Reagan and Bush years.

Unemployment Is Nearly the Lowest in Three Decades. Unemployment is down from 7.5 percent in 1992 to 4.1 percent in March 2000 -- nearly the lowest unemployment rate in thirty years. The unemployment rate has fallen for seven years in a row, and has remained below 5 percent for 33 months in a row. African-American unemployment has fallen from 14.2 percent in 1992 to 7.3 percent in March 2000 -- the lowest rate on record. The unemployment rate for Hispanics has fallen from 11.6 percent in 1992 to 6.3 percent in March 2000 -- and in the last year has been at the lowest rate on record. For women the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in March -- nearly the lowest since 1953.

Highest Homeownership Rate in History. In 1999, the homeownership rate was 66.8 percent -- the highest ever recorded. Minority homeownership rates were also the highest ever recorded.

Lowest Poverty Rate in Two Decades. The poverty rate has fallen from 15.1 percent in 1993 to 12.7 percent in 1998. That's the lowest poverty rate since 1979 and the largest five-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years (1965-1970). The African-American poverty rate has dropped from 33.1 percent in 1993 to 26.1 percent in 1998 -- the lowest level ever recorded and the largest five-year drop in African-American poverty in more than a quarter century (1967-1972). The poverty rate for Hispanics is at the lowest level since 1979, and dropped to 25.6 percent in 1998.

Largest Five-Year Drop in Child Poverty Rate Since the ‘60s. Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, child poverty has declined from 22.7 percent in 1993 to 18.9 percent in 1998 -- the biggest five-year drop in nearly 30 years. The poverty rate for African-American children has fallen from 46.1 percent in 1993 to 36.7 percent in 1998 -- a level that is still too high, but is the lowest level in 20 years and the biggest five-year drop on record. The rate also fell for Hispanic children, from 36.8 percent to 34.4 percent - and is now 6.5 percentage points lower than it was in 1993.

Families and Communities

Strengthening America’s Working Families.Tax Cuts for Working Families. 15 million additional working families received additional tax relief because of the President’s expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. In 1998, the EITC lifted 4.3 million people out of poverty - double the number lifted out of poverty by the EITC in 1993. This year, the President proposed expanding the EITC to provide tax relief to an additional 6.8 million hard-pressed working families.

Helping Parents Balance Work and Family. The Family and Medical Leave Act allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for seriously ill family members, new born or adoptive children, or their own serious health problems without fear of losing their jobs. Nearly 91 million workers (71% of the labor force) are covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act and millions of workers have benefited from FMLA since its enactment. President Clinton has proposed expanding FMLA to allow workers to take up to 24 unpaid hours off each year for school and early childhood education activities, routine family medical care, and caring for an elderly relative.

Improved Access to Affordable, Quality Child Care and Early Childhood Programs. Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, federal funding for child care has more than doubled, helping parents pay for the care of about 1.5 million children in 1998, and the1996 welfare reform law increased child care funding by $4 billion over six years to provide child care assistance to families moving from welfare to work. Since 1993, the Clinton-Gore Administration has increased funding for the Head Start program by 90 percent, and in FY 2000, the program will serve approximately 880,000 children - over 160,000 more children than in 1993.

Increased the Minimum Wage. The minimum wage has risen from $4.25 to $5.15 per hour, increasing wages for 10 million workers. The President and Vice President have called for an additional increase to $6.15. Enacted the Workforce Investment Act. The Workforce Investment Act reformed the nation’s employment and training system so that it works better for today's workers. The WIA empowered individuals by giving adults more control and choice over their training or retraining and providing universal access to core labor market services; streamlined job training services by consolidating a tangle of individual programs into a simple system and creating a nationwide network of One-Stop Career Centers; enhanced accountability through tough performance standards for states, localities, and training providers; and increased flexibility so that states can innovate and experiment with new ways to train America's workers better.

Signed the Landmark Work Incentives Improvement Act. Americans with disabilities often become ineligible for Medicaid or Medicare if they work, forcing a choice between health care and employment. The Work Incentives Improvement Act keeps people with disabilities from losing their Medicare or Medicaid health coverage when they go to work. It also includes a $250 million demonstration, which the President insisted on fully funding, that allows people with disabilities who are still working and are not yet sufficiently disabled to qualify for Medicaid to buy into the program.

Signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act. The Adoption and Safe Families Act, which was based in large part on the recommendations of the Clinton-Gore Administration's Adoption 2002 report, made sweeping changes in adoption law so that thousands of children in foster care move more quickly into safe and permanent homes. In 1998, 36,000 children in foster care were adopted, up from 28,000 in 1996. This is the first significant increase in adoption since the national foster care program was established nearly 20 years ago.

Enacted the Foster Care Independence Act. Nearly 20,000 young people leave foster care each year when they reach age 18 without an adoptive family or other guardian. The Foster Care Independence Act will ensure that those young people will get the tools they need to make the most of their lives by providing them better educational opportunities, access to health care, training, housing assistance, counseling, and other services. Putting Families First. The President and Vice President developed and implemented first-ever plan to protect our children from tobacco and end tobacco marketing targeted to young people. They also required the installation of V-chips in all new televisions, and encouraged schools to adopt school uniform policies to deter school violence and promote discipline.

Supporting Community Service. In just five years, AmeriCorps has allowed 150,000 young people to serve in their communities while earning money for college or skills training. President's One America Initiative. President Clinton has led the nation in an effort to become One America : a place where we respect others’ differences and embrace the common values that unite us. The President has been actively involved in public outreach efforts to engage Americans in this historic effort, and followed up on the work of the Initiative on Race by appointing Robert B. (Ben) Johnson as Assistant to the President and Director of the new White House Office on the President’s Initiative for One America. The office is working to ensure that we have a coordinated strategy to close the opportunity gaps that exist for minorities and the underserved in this country, and build the One America we want for all of our nation’s children.

The President’s FY 2001 budget includes $5 million for One America dialogues to promote and facilitate discussions on racial diversity and understanding. President Clinton has appointed the most diverse Cabinet and White House staff in history, presiding over an Administration that looks like America. Welcoming New Americans. Since 1993, the United States has welcomed 4.4 million new American citizens. Faced with this unprecedented number of applications, the Administration undertook an initiative that has significantly reduced the backlog of citizenship applications and is restoring timely processing. Furthermore, the Administration’s English as a Second Language/Civics Education Initiative will provide limited English speaking adults with instruction in both English literacy and critical life skills necessary for effective citizenship and civic participation. Providing Fairness for Legal Immigrants. The President believes that legal immigrants should have the same economic opportunity and bear the same responsibility as other members of society. In 1997 and 1998, the President fought for and succeeded in restoring disability, health and nutritional benefits for certain legal immigrants, and he will continue to press for additional restorations.

Education

Largest Investment in Education in 30 Years Opening the Doors of College to All Americans. In 1997, President Clinton proposed and passed the HOPE Scholarships and Lifetime Learning tax credits to provide tax relief to nearly 13 million Americans each year who are struggling to pay for college. The Hope Scholarship helps make the first two years of college universally available to about 5.6 million students annually by providing a tax credit of up to $1,500 for tuition and fees for the first two years of college. The Lifetime Learning tax credit provides a 20 percent tax credit on the first $5,000 of tuition and fees for students beyond the first two years of college, or those taking classes part-time (in 2003, this increases to $10,000 of tuition and fees). In his FY01 budget, the President has proposed to expand the Lifetime Learning tax credit with a 10-year, $30 billion College Opportunity tax cut, which will give families the option of taking a tax deduction or claiming a 28 percent credit for the first $5,000 of college tuition and fees until 2002, and $10,000 thereafter.

Expanding Work Study and Pell Grants. One million students will be able to work their way through college because of the President's expansion of the Work Study Program, and nearly four million students will receive a Pell Grant of up to $3,300, the largest maximum award ever. The maximum award has increased 43 percent under the Clinton-Gore Administration. This year President Clinton proposed a $77 million increase in Work Study to continue to support one million awards, and a $200 increase in the Pell Grant maximum award, to raise it to $3,500.

Making College More Affordable. The Clinton-Gore Administration has cut student fees and interest rates on all loans, expanded repayment options including income contingent repayment, and improved service through the Direct Loan Program. Students have saved $8.7 billion since 1993 through the reduction in loan fees and interest rates.

More High-Quality Teachers with Smaller Class Sizes. The Clinton-Gore Administration won a second installment of $1.3 billion for the President’s plan to hire an additional 100,000 well-prepared teachers to reduce class size in the early grades, when children learn to read and master the basic skills. Already, 29,000 teachers have been hired through this initiative. This year's budget provides $1.75 billion, a $450 million increase -- enough to fund nearly 49,000 teachers.

Turning Around Failing Schools. 11 million low-income students in 13,000 school districts now benefit from higher expectations and a challenging curriculum geared to higher standards through Title I-Aid to Disadvantaged Students. The FY 2000 budget provides a $134 million accountability fund to help turn around the worst performing schools and hold them accountable for results through such measures as overhauling curriculum, improving staffing, or even closing schools and reopening them as charter schools. This year, the President is proposing to double funding for this fund to turn around the nation's failing schools to ensure all children receive a quality education. Providing Safe After-School Opportunities for 850,000 Students Each Year. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program will provide enriching after-school and summer school opportunities for 850,000 school-age children in rural and urban communities in FY 2000. Extended learning time has not only been shown to increase achievement in reading and math, but to decrease youth violence and drug use. Funding for this program more than doubled from FY 1999 to FY 2000. For FY 2001, the President's budget calls on Congress to invest $1 billion in the 21st Century Program and to ensure that all children in failing schools have access to quality after-school and summer school opportunities. This proposal will double funding and triple the number of students served to 2.5 million.

Expanding Choice and Accountability in Public Schools. The Clinton-Gore Administration has worked to expand public school choice and support the growth of public charter schools, which have increased from one public charter school in the nation when the President was first elected to more than 1,700. More than 250,000 students nationwide are now enrolled in charter schools in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The President won $145 million in FY 2000 -- and has proposed $175 million in his FY 2001 budget -- to continue working toward his goal of establishing 3,000 quality charter schools by 2002.

Teaching Every Child to Read by the 3rd Grade. The President challenged Americans to unite to be sure that every child can read well and independently by the third grade -- 1,400 colleges and universities took up his challenge, and 26,700 college work-study students now serve as reading tutors to help every child to read well and independently by the third grade.

Expanding Access to Technology. With the Vice President's leadership, the Clinton-Gore Administration has made increasing access to technology a top priority. The President and Vice President created the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund to help connect every school to the Internet, increase the number of multimedia computers in the classroom and provide technology training for teachers. They increased overall investments in educational technology from $23 million in 1993 to $769 million in FY 2000, and tripled funding for Community Technology Centers to reach at least 120 low-income communities. Through the E-rate program, they secured low-cost connections to the Internet for schools, libraries, rural health clinics and hospitals, benefiting more than 80 percent of America's public schools. They also increased investment in education research to ensure all children benefit from educational technology. In 1999, 95 percent of public schools were connected to the Internet -- up from just 35 percent in 1994.

Supporting Local Education Reform Efforts. The President signed the Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999 (Ed-Flex) into law in April 1999, giving all states greater flexibility in the use of federal education funds in exchange for greater accountability for helping all students reach high academic standards.

Establishing the GEAR-UP Mentoring Program for Middle School Children. President Clinton and Vice President Gore created and expanded GEAR-UP, a nationwide mentoring initiative, to help over 750,000 low-income middle school children finish school and prepare for college. The President's FY 2001 budget would expand services to 1.4 million students.

Providing Early Education to Nearly 900,000 Children with Head Start. The President and Vice President have expanded Head Start funding by 90 percent since 1993. Head Start will reach approximately 880,000 low-income children in FY 2000 and, with the President's proposed increase for the program, will be on the way to reaching the President's goal of serving 1 million children and their families by the year 2002. The Administration also created Early Head Start, bringing Head Start's successful comprehensive services to families with children ages zero to three, and set high quality standards for both programs.

Crime and Drugs

Lowest Crime Rates in 25 Years Lowest Overall Crime Rate in 25 Years. Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. Violent crime rate fell 7 percent in 1998 and 27 percent since 1993. The murder rate is down more than 25 percent since 1993, its lowest point since 1967. The overall crime rate is the lowest in 25 years.

Putting 100,000 More Police on the Streets. In 1999, ahead of schedule and under budget, the Clinton-Gore Administration met its commitment to fund an additional 100,000 police officers for our communities. As a part of the COPS Program, the President announced new grants to increase community policing in high-crime and underserved neighborhoods. To help keep crime at record lows, the President won funding for the first installment toward his goal to hire up to 50,000 more officers by 2005.

This year, the Clinton-Gore budget includes over $1 billion to continue the successful COPS initiative to hire more officers, hire new community prosecutors, give police the tools they need to fight crime, and to fund community-wide crime fighting efforts.

More Than Half a Million Felons, Fugitives and Domestic Abusers Denied Guns. Since the President signed the Brady Bill into law, more than 500,000 felons, fugitives and domestic abusers have been prevented from purchasing guns. And the historic 1994 Crime Bill banned 19 of the deadliest assault weapons and their copies, keeping assault weapons off our streets. The homicide rate dropped 7 percent in 1998 - almost entirely due to a decrease in homicides committed with guns. Since 1993, there has been a more than 35 percent drop in gun-related crime and a 57 percent decrease in juvenile gun homicide offenders. Giving Police the Tools They Need to Fight Crime.

President Clinton won $230 million in FY 2000 to provide law enforcement with the latest crime-fighting and crime-solving technology. This funding will help make crime mapping technology -- which enables police agencies to track crime hot spots and target their resources to where they are most needed -- more widely available, to improve compatibility among law enforcement communications systems, and aid development and expansion of innovative tools to help law enforcement fight crime.

Developed Comprehensive Anti-Drug Strategy Including a $195 Million National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The President appointed Barry McCaffrey, a four-star general, to lead the Clinton-Gore Administration's anti-drug strategy as the nation’s Drug Czar. Illicit drug use among young people age 12-17 declined from 1997 to 1998, and the average age of first-time use went up. Overall drug use is down since its peak in the 1970's, drug-related murders have fallen by 40 percent since 1992, and youth drug use is on the decline for the third straight year.

National Campaign Against Youth Violence. In August 1999, President Clinton announced the formation of an independent, national campaign to address the problem of youth violence. The Campaign plans to launch anti-violence activities including a major media campaign, concerts, town hall meetings, in- and after-school programs. The Campaign will also highlight effective youth violence initiatives in cities across the country.

Fighting Hate Crimes. The President enacted the Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act in 1994. He held the historic White House Conference on Hate Crimes, where he called for passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act -- bipartisan legislation which would strengthen hate crimes laws and make it clear that America will not tolerate acts of violence based on race, color, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability. Protecting Children from Sex Offenders. President Clinton signed Megan’s Law and the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, requiring states to set up sex offender registration systems and require community notification when sex offenders are released from prison.

Welfare Reform and Community Empowerment

Moving Millions of Americans from Welfare to Work.

Lowest Number of People on Welfare Since 1969 as More Recipients Go to Work. President Clinton has kept his promise to reform the welfare system and move more Americans from welfare to work. The number of Americans on welfare is at its lowest level since 1969 as record numbers of people move from welfare to work. Since January 1993, the welfare rolls have fallen by more than half, from 14.1 million to 6.9 million. More than 1.3 million welfare recipients went to work in 1998 alone, and the percentage of adults still on welfare who were working reached 27 percent in 1998, compared to just 7 percent in 1992 -- nearly a fourfold increase. Through the Welfare to Work Partnership launched by the President, 12,000 businesses have hired 650,000 former welfare recipients since 1997.

Creating New Tools to Help Families Move from Welfare to Work. The 1997 Balanced Budget Act signed by President Clinton included $3 billion to move long-term welfare recipients and low-income non-custodial fathers into jobs. The President’s Access to Jobs initiative helps communities design innovative transportation solutions, such as van services, to help former welfare recipients and other low-income workers get to work.

President Clinton has secured 110,000 new housing vouchers in the last two years to help welfare recipients and hard-pressed working families move closer to job opportunities, and this year he is proposing $690 million for 120,000 new housing vouchers. And the Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit provides tax incentives to encourage businesses to hire long-term welfare recipients.

Nearly Doubled Child Support Collections. President Clinton signed into law the toughest child support crackdown in history. Federal and state child support programs broke new records in 1999, collecting $15.5 billion -- nearly double the amount collected in 1992. The number of paternities established rose to nearly 1.5 million in 1998 - more than triple the number from 516,000 in 1992. The number of child support cases with collections rose 59 percent, from 2.8 million 1992 to 4.5 million in 1998.

Breaking the Cycle of Dependency. The teen birth rate has fallen seven years in a row, by 18 percent from 1991 to 1998. The teen pregnancy rate is now the lowest rate on record.

Child Abuse Declines for Five Years in a Row. In a trend which began five years ago, the number of children abused and neglected has decreased approximately 11 percent from a record 1,018,692 in 1993. While this represents progress, President Clinton and Vice President Gore continue to work to protect the health and well-being of America's children, and ending child abuse.

Expanded Investment in Urban and Rural Areas. The Clinton-Gore Administration created 31 rural and urban Empowerment Zones and more than 100 Enterprise Communities that have created new jobs, new opportunities and stronger communities.

Encouraging Investment in Underserved Communities with the New Markets Initiative. President Clinton's New Markets Initiative is helping to bring economic development and renewal to communities that have not benefited from the soaring economy. The President's New Markets Tour of underserved communities generated nearly $1 billion in private sector investment commitments. On his second New Markets trip, the President highlighted the role that universities, professional sports franchises, and agricultural cooperatives can play in bringing jobs and economic development to underserved communities. During the trip the President announced partnerships worth a total of nearly $200 million of dollars to underserved communities.

Providing Incentives to Save. President Clinton signed legislation creating Individual Development Accounts, providing incentives for low-income families to save for a first home, higher education, or to start a new business, a key part of his 1992 community empowerment agenda. In FY 1999, $10 million was awarded to establish savings accounts for over 10,000 low-income workers in 40 communities, and an additional $10 million will be awarded in FY 2000. The President’s budget provides $25 million for IDAs in FY 2001 and proposes to allow low-income working families to use IDAs to save for a car that will allow them to get or keep a job.

Health Care

Increasing Access and Improving the Nation's Health Enacted Most Comprehensive Medicare Reforms in History. In the 1997 Balanced Budget, the Clinton-Gore Administration protected, modernized and extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund while offering new options for patient choice and preventive care. New preventive benefits passed include coverage of annual mammograms, coverage of screening tests for both colorectal and cervical cancer, and a diabetes self-management benefit. The President proposed a plan to reform and modernize Medicare’s benefits, including an optional prescription drug benefit that is affordable and available to all beneficiaries. The President has also proposed a reserve fund to help Medicare beneficiaries with extremely high prescription drug costs. Extending the Life of the Medicare Trust Fund. When President Clinton and Vice President Gore took office, Medicare was expected to run out of money in 1999. Now, the life of the Trust Fund has been extended until 2023. Medicare is now in the soundest shape it has been since 1975.

Enacted Single Largest Investment in Health Care for Children since 1965. The five year, $24 billion State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) will provide health care coverage for up to five million children. Two million children have already been enrolled, and in October 1999 President Clinton announced new outreach initiatives to enroll millions more uninsured, eligible children. Last year, the President launched a nationwide “Insure Kids Now” campaign that will bring together major TV and radio networks, healthcare organizations, religious groups and other community-based organizations to help enroll more children in the Children's Health Insurance Program, with the goal of enrolling 5 million of the estimated 10 million children eligible for health insurance under CHIP within 5 years. This year, the budget includes several of Vice President Gore's proposals to accelerate enrollment of children in CHIP.

The President is also proposing a new FamilyCare program, which would give States the option to cover parents in the same plan as their children. Passed Meaningful Health Insurance Reform. The President signed into law the Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which helps individuals keep health insurance when they change jobs, guarantees renewability of coverage, and ensures access to health insurance for small businesses. As many as 25 million people will benefit from this law. The bill also eliminated the discriminatory tax treatment the of the approximately 10 million Americans who are self-employed; strengthened efforts to combat health care fraud, waste and abuse by creating a stable source of funding; and provided consumer protections and tax incentives for private long-term care insurance.

Enacted Historic Comprehensive FDA Reform that Expedited the Review and Approval of New Drug Products. The President signed into law the 1997 FDA Modernization Act that includes important measures to modernize and streamline the regulation of biological products; increase patient access to experimental drugs and medical devices; and accelerate review of important new medications. This reform builds on the administrative initiatives implemented under the Vice President’s reinventing government effort which have led U.S. drug approvals to be as fast or faster than any other industrialized nation. Average drug approval times have dropped since the beginning of the Administration from almost three years to just over one year.

Signed Mental Health Parity Provisions into Law. To help eliminate discrimination against individuals with mental illnesses, the President signed into law mental health parity provisions to prohibit health plans from establishing separate lifetime and annual limits for mental health coverage. In 1999, the White House held the landmark, first-ever Conference on Mental Health and released the Surgeon General’s first Report on Mental Health. This year, the President's budget includes an investment of $100 million for mental health services, an increase of 16 percent over last year’s funding level and a 90 percent increase since 1993. Signed Legislation to End Drive-Through Deliveries. President Clinton signed into law common sense legislation that requires health plans to allow new mothers to remain in the hospital for at least 48 hours following most normal deliveries and 96 hours after a Cesarean section.

Extended Strong, Enforceable Patient Protections for Millions of Americans. Leading by example, the President directed all federal agencies to ensure that their employees and beneficiaries have the benefits and rights guaranteed under the proposed Patients’ Bill of Rights. 85 million Americans covered by federal health plans have the security of knowing they will have fair access to health care thanks to the President's work. The President and Vice President have called for passage of the bipartisan Patients Bill of Rights Act, to ensure that all Americans have essential protections, such as guaranteed access to needed health care specialists; access to emergency room services when and where the need arises; continuity of care protections to assure patient care if a patient’s health care provider is dropped; access to a timely internal and independent external appeals process with a medical necessity standard; assurance that doctors and patients can openly discuss treatment options; and an enforcement mechanism that ensures recourse for patients who have been harmed as a result of health plan actions.

Fighting Medicare Fraud and Waste. Since 1993, the Clinton-Gore Administration has assigned more federal prosecutors and FBI agents to fight health care fraud than ever before. As a result, convictions have gone up a full 410 percent, saving more than $50 billion in health care claims. The Balanced Budget Act gave an array of new weapons in our fight to keep scam artists and fly-by-night health care out of Medicare and Medicaid.

Released Strong New Protections for the Privacy of Electronic Medical Records. The Clinton-Gore Administration released a new regulation to protect the privacy of electronic medical records held by health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers. This rule would limit the use and release of private health information without consent; restrict the disclosure of protected health information to the minimum amount of information necessary; establish new requirements for disclosure of information to researchers and others seeking access to health records; and establish new administrative and criminal sanctions for the improper use or disclosure of private information.

Implementing Comprehensive Nursing Home Quality Initiative. The Clinton-Gore Administration has issued the toughest nursing home regulations in the history of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, including increased monitoring of nursing homes to ensure that they are in compliance; requiring states to crack down on nursing homes that repeatedly violate health and safety requirements; and changing the inspection process to increase the focus on preventing bedsores, malnutrition and resident abuse. Won $43.5 million increase in FY 2000 to fund more rigorous inspections of nursing facilities and improved federal oversight and enforcement of nursing home quality.

Ensuring Safe Food for America’s Families. President Clinton created the President’s Council on Food Safety to develop a comprehensive food safety strategic plan for federal agencies. The Clinton-Gore Administration has implemented a new science-based inspection system -- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points -- and reduced the prevalence of salmonella in raw meat and poultry by as much as 50 percent. The Administration formed national computer network of public health laboratories, called PulseNet, to help rapidly identify and stop outbreaks of foodborne illness by performing DNA "fingerprinting" on foodborne pathogens. The President signed the Food Quality Protection Act, which included special safeguards for kids and strengthened laws governing pesticides and food safety. The Administration also issued new rules to prevent foodborne illness caused by pathogens such as E. coli.

Raised Child Immunization Rates to All Time High. Childhood immunization coverage rates in 1998 were the highest ever recorded. 90 percent of toddlers in 1996, 1997 and 1998 received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines, surpassing the President’s 1993 goal. Because childhood vaccination levels in the United States are at an all-time high, disease and death from diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella and Hib are at or near record lows. There was only one reported case of diphtheria, 100 reported cases of measles, and no reported cases of wild poliovirus for 1998.

Issued Regulation that Drug Companies Provide Adequate Testing for Children. President Clinton directed an important Food and Drug Administration regulation requiring manufacturers to do studies on pediatric populations for new prescription drugs -- and those currently on the market -- to ensure that prescription drugs have been adequately tested for the unique needs of children. New Efforts to Help Consumers Understand Important Information on Over the Counter Drug Labels.

The President unveiled a historic new FDA regulation that, for the first time, requires over-the-counter drug products to use a new product label with larger print and clearer language, making it easier for consumers to understand product warnings and comply with dosage guidance. The new regulation provides Americans with essential information about their medications in a user friendly way and takes a critical first step towards preventing the tens of thousands of unnecessary hospitalizations caused by misuse of over-the-counter medications each year. Promoting Reproductive Health.

The Clinton-Gore Administration has taken strong steps to protect a woman’s right to choose and to promote safe reproductive health services for women. The President has provided contraceptive coverage to more than a million women covered by federal health plans; provided family planning services to low income women through the Medicaid program; stood up against attempts to prohibit the FDA from approving RU-486; and continues to fight restrictions on international family planning.

Environment

Growing the Economy And Improving the Environment Preserving Our National Treasures. The Clinton-Gore Administration has protected tens of millions of acres, from the red rock canyons of Utah to the Florida Everglades. The Administration reached agreements to protect Yellowstone from mining and save the ancient redwoods of California’s Headwaters Forest. In the FY 2000 budget, the President and Vice President won $651 million (a 42 percent increase) for Lands Legacy, a historic initiative to strengthen federal efforts to preserve national treasures and provides communities with new resources to protect local green spaces. This year, the President's budget includes a record $1.4 billion for Lands Legacy -- a 93 percent increase and the largest one-year investment ever requested for conserving America’s lands.

Created Four New National Monuments. The Clinton-Gore Administration has created four new national monuments: Grand Staircase-Escalante, protecting spectacular red rock canyonlands in Utah; Grand Canyon-Parashant, protecting deep canyons, mountains and buttes on the north rim of the Grand Canyon; Agua Fria, protecting extensive prehistoric ruins in Arizona; the California Coastal monument, protecting thousands of islands, rocks and reefs along the California coast. The Administration also expanded Pinnacles National Monument in California to better protect the area's unusual rock formations.

Preserving Our National Forests. The President directed the National Forest Service to develop and propose regulations to provide long-term protection for 40 million acres of “roadless” areas within national forests and ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the pristine wilderness. The proposed regulations would ban road building in these areas and could also prohibit logging or other activities that harm their unique ecological value.

Accelerating Toxic Cleanups and Brownfields Redevelopment. The Clinton-Gore Administration has completed clean up at 525 Superfund sites, more than three times as many as completed in the previous twelve years. Clean up of more than 91 percent of all sites is either completed or in progress. The Administration has leveraged nearly $1 billion in private sector investment for brownfields redevelopment.

Keeping Our Drinking Water Safe. The President proposed and signed legislation to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure that our families have healthy, clean tap water. The Clinton-Gore Administration has required America’s 55,000 water utilities to provide regular reports to their customers on the quality of their drinking water. The Administration also proposed new rule to reduce dirty runoff and strengthen protections for 20,000 rivers, lakes and other waterways too polluted for swimming and fishing. Ninety-one percent of America’s tap water from community drinking water systems now meets all federal standards.

Clearing the Air of Unhealthy Pollution. The President and Vice President have adopted the toughest standards ever on soot and smog. They proposed significant reductions in tailpipe emissions from cars, light trucks and SUVs, and launched long-term effort to restore pristine skies over our national parks and wilderness areas. Since 1993, the number of Americans living in communities that meet federal air quality standards has grown by 43 million.

Reducing the Threat of Global Warming. The Clinton-Gore Administration negotiated an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an environmentally strong and economically sound way. The President and Vice President secured $1.1 billion in FY 2000 for research and development of energy efficiency and clean energy technologies, and set a goal of tripling U.S. use of bio-energy and bio-products by 2010. The President issued an Executive Order directing agencies to dramatically improve energy efficiency in federal buildings, saving taxpayers over $750 million a year when fully implemented.

Science and Technology

A Strong Research and Development Agenda Unprecedented Investment in Biomedical Research. Two years ago, the President called for an increase of almost 50 percent over 5 years in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget as part of his Research for America Fund. Since that time, the NIH budget has increased by over $4.3 billion and with the funding proposed by the President this year, the Administration will be one year ahead of schedule in reaching the 50 percent goal. As a result, NIH now supports the highest levels of research ever on nearly all types of disease and health conditions, making new breakthroughs possible in vaccine development and use, the treatment of chronic disease, and prevention and treatment of diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, and neurological diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

Supporting University Research, Training the Next Generation of Scientists and Engineers. The FY00 budget contained a 6.6 percent increase in the National Science Foundation research budget to support science and engineering research across all fields and disciplines. This includes $126 million for the Administration's "Information Technology for the 21st Century" initiative.

Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space Science and Exploration. The Clinton-Gore Administration won increased investment of $13.65 billion for NASA in FY 2000. This investment offers the potential of new scientific breakthroughs through an aggressive robotic series of exploration missions into the solar system, as well as enhancing our ability to monitor important changes in the earth's climate systems, and strengthening aviation safety for the traveling public.

Strengthening the Economy and National Security with Information Technology. The Administration continued our investment to help ensure that America leads the world in information technologies that predict tornadoes, design life-saving drugs, and make air travel safer and more efficient, and maintain our nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing.

Changing the Way Government Does Business : Doing More for Less

Eliminating Red Tape. 16,000 pages of Federal regulations have been eliminated by President Clinton and Vice President Gore as part of the Vice President’s National Performance Review.

Smallest Government Workforce Since the 1960's. There are 375,000 fewer employees in the Federal government workforce than in 1993 -- giving us the smallest Federal workforce since the Kennedy Administration.

Lowest Government Spending Since 1974. At 18.7 percent, Federal Government spending as a share of the Gross Domestic Product is at its lowest level since 1974.

Increasing Participation in Our Democracy with the Motor Voter Law. President Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act during his first year in office -- making voting easier for millions more Americans, and leading to the registration of more than 28 million new voters.

Foreign Policy

World’s Strongest Force for Peace, Freedom and Prosperity Promoting Peace and Strengthening Democracy

Ended a decade of repression and reversed ethnic cleansing in Kosovo by leading the NATO alliance to victory in a 79-day air war against Serb forces, forcing their withdrawal and ushering in international peacekeepers.

Advancing the Middle East peace process by brokering peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors; negotiating the Wye River Accords; and supporting the launch of final settlement negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Restarted Israel-Syria track of Middle East peace process by holding first high-level meeting between the two former adversaries in Washington after months of behind-the-scenes Presidential diplomacy, and following that meeting with formal talks in January.

Brokered the Good Friday Peace Accord in Northern Ireland, ending decades of bloodshed.

Building a self-sustaining peace in Bosnia by leading diplomatic efforts to end civil war and foster multi-ethnic democracy.

Restored democracy in Haiti, ending military dictatorship and stopping refugee flows.

Supporting transition to democracy in Nigeria and mediating peace efforts in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia-Eritrea.

Ended violence and protected democracy in East Timor by leading diplomatic efforts and supporting international peacekeeping mission.

Helped settle Peru-Ecuador border dispute and end civil war in Guatemala.

Pressing for human rights and religious freedom worldwide, including in China, Burma, Sudan.

Pressing for human rights, core labor standards, religious freedom, and the elimination of child labor worldwide. Combating New Threats.

Protecting Americans from weapons of mass destruction by reducing Russian nuclear arsenals, easing nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan and ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Combating terrorism by developing a national counterterrorism strategy and striking terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Reducing North Korea threat through deterrence, diplomacy, and non-proliferation.

Containing Saddam Hussein through diplomacy, economic sanctions and military force.

Addressing new threats by protecting America’s critical infrastructure from cyber-terrorism and biological and chemical weapons.

Developing limited national missile defense to protect against attacks from rogue states while preserving nuclear stability with Russia.

Improving military readiness through increased defense spending, with the first long-term sustained increase in defense funding in 15 years. Strengthening Alliances and Building Partnerships. Fulfilling vision of an undivided, democratic and peaceful Europe by enlarging NATO, integrating Southeast Europe, and reaching out to Russia.

Building more constructive relationship with China through engagement and frank dialogue on human rights, security and trade.

Deepening security alliances with Japan and South Korea.

Secured landmark agreement to develop secure oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, strengthening ties in the region and ensuring Americans have access to vital resources.

Expanding trade and strengthening democracy in Asia and Latin America through APEC and the Summit of the Americas.

Building partnerships with Africa and pushing for passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Expanding Prosperity.

Opening markets for U.S. exports abroad and creating American jobs through NAFTA, GATT and more than 270 other free and fair trade agreements.

Integrating China into the world economy through landmark trade agreement that opens markets to U.S. exports, slashes Chinese tariffs, and protects American workers from dumping.

Established World Trade Organization to reduce tariffs, settle trade disputes, and enforce rules.

Prevented Asian financial crisis from undermining America’s prosperity by promoting sound monetary policies, urging banking reforms and fighting corruption.

Stimulating worldwide growth through support for the IMF and G-8 global economic strategy.

Saved Mexico from currency crisis by providing financial relief.
April 2000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional Accomplishments

Improving the Quality of Life for America's Working Families.
Supporting Women and Families.
Working on Behalf of African Americans.
A Record of Progress for Gay and Lesbian Americans.
Working on Behalf of Asian and Pacific Americans.
Labor Accomplishments.
Working on Behalf of the Hispanic Community.
Increasing Opportunities for Americans With Disabilities.
Supporting Native Americans.
Improving Mental Health.
Working to Protect Senior Citizens.

Spyder Jerusalem

07-30-2007, 10:07 AM

BUSH "ACCOMPLISHMENTS"

1) Reaching office of President of the United States without even being elected.

2) Taking the strongest economy in United States history and causing it to plummet to the largest deficit.

3) Giving huge tax breaks to corporations who continue to ship jobs overseas.

4) Spending the United States surplus and bankrupting the Treasury.

5) Lying to the country and the world about "weapons of mass destruction".

6) Attacking and occupying a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations.

7) Getting congress to pass the Patriot Act, threatening habeas corpus and the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendments.

8) Withdrawing from the World Court of Law.

9) Being the first president to have gone AWOL.

10) Changing United States policy allowing convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

11) Obtaining the most corporate campaign donations in United States history.

12) Lowering our clean air and water standards while allowing companies (who just happen to be contributors to the Bush campaign) to profit from the weakened regulations.

13) Being the first United States President to enter office with a criminal record.

14) Taking more vacation days than any other United States President in history.

15) Under-funding his so-called No Child Left Behind Act.

16) Cutting health benefits from veterans, and unemployment benefits from out-of-work Americans.

17) Causing genocide as a result of ignoring Hurricane Katrina.

18) Shoving "democracy" down other nation's throats, whether they like it or not.

19) Losing a good portion of America's allies, and becoming the greatest threat to world peace.

20) Turning the United States into a third world country by importing poverty with his Guest Worker Program.

21) Retaining office for a second term.

nevadamedic

07-30-2007, 10:08 AM

:laugh2::laugh2::laugh2: Bill Clinton has values? :laugh2::laugh2::laugh2: Holy shit that's funny.

nevadamedic

07-30-2007, 10:10 AM

Spyder Jerusalem

07-30-2007, 10:14 AM

Clinton wasn't in office in 2001, dumbass.

That was Bush's fault.

nevadamedic

07-30-2007, 10:14 AM

Clinton lied and had blow jobs in the Oval Office. He didn't start a war and he did not allow 3,000 Americans to die in a preventable attack.
Not to mention the fact that Clinton could get it up. Bush is impotent.

It's Slick Willy's fault 9/11 happened. We had Bin Laden in 1998. The CIA could have had him or killed him but Slick Willy was to much of a coward and had them hold off. He is a bitch that never did a damn thing for our country except helped put in motion the biggest terrorist attack ever on US Soil. Not to mention that ANY OTHER President would have gone to War when one of our Embassies got bombed or when one of our battleships got bombed killing several soldiers, but no Slick Willy showed his true colors, he was a coward.

nevadamedic

07-30-2007, 10:15 AM

Clinton wasn't in office in 2001, dumbass.

That was Bush's fault.

Actually moron it happened right before Slick Willy handed over the office moron.

Spyder Jerusalem

07-30-2007, 10:20 AM

It's Slick Willy's fault 9/11 happened.
Bullshit.

We had Bin Laden in 1998. The CIA could have had him or killed him but Slick Willy was to much of a coward and had them hold off.

More bullshit.

He is a bitch that never did a damn thing for our country except helped put in motion the biggest terrorist attack ever on US Soil.

Still more bullshit.

With as much bullshit as you spew, yer breath must STINK!

Spyder Jerusalem

07-30-2007, 10:21 AM

Actually moron it happened right before Slick Willy handed over the office moron.

Are you insane?
Is that yer problem?

Or just fuckin' stupid?

nevadamedic

07-30-2007, 10:27 AM

Bullshit.

More bullshit.

Still more bullshit.

With as much bullshit as you spew, yer breath must STINK!

Bullshit, when President Bush took office he signed an Executive Order telling our people to take out Bin Laden by ANY means necissary. Slick Willy was to much of a coward too. That should have been done when our first Embassy was hit, then after the second then after the USS Cole, are you to stupid to see a pattern here? We kept getting attacked by AQ and American's were dying and Slick Willy did nothing about it. He was letting them get away with this stupid shit because he was a coward. If we would have gone after him and taken the Taliban out of power in the 90's 9/11 would NEVER have happened period. You keep being blinded by your partisan bullshit and don't realize reality. That's the problem with you Liberals.

You better go and worship on your Slick Willy shrine and don't forget to put on your Monica wig as I know you wish it was you with your head between his legs.

nevadamedic

07-30-2007, 10:28 AM

Are you insane?
Is that yer problem?

Or just fuckin' stupid?

If that isn't calling the kettle black...............

red states rule

07-31-2007, 04:34 AM

Nets Ignored Clinton Firing 93 U.S. Attorneys,
Fret Over Bush's 8

The broadcast network evening newscasts, which didn't care in 1993 about the Clinton administration's decision to ask for the resignation of all 93 U.S. attorneys, went apoplectic Tuesday night in leading with the "controversy," fed by the media, over the Bush administration for replacing eight U.S. attorneys in late 2006 -- nearly two years after rejecting the idea of following the Clinton policy of replacing all the attorneys. Anchor Charles Gibson promised that ABC would "look at all the angles tonight," but he skipped the Clinton comparison. Gibson teased: "New controversy at the White House after a string of U.S. attorneys is fired under questionable circumstances. There are calls for the Attorney General to resign."

CBS's Katie Couric declared that "the uproar is growing tonight over the firing of eight federal prosecutors by the Justice Department" and fill-in NBC anchor Campbell Brown teased: "The Attorney General and the firestorm tonight over the controversial dismissal of several federal prosecutors. Was it political punishment?" Brown soon asserted that "it's a story that has been brewing for weeks and it exploded today" -- an explosion fueled by the news media.

ABC's World News, the CBS Evening News and the NBC Nightly News on March 13 led with and ran multiple stories on the controversy, which were clearly propelled, in part, by attacks by Senate Democrats who demanded the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. But Justice Department clumsiness, which provided hooks for those Democratic attacks, does not absolve the news media of the responsibility for putting the replacement of U.S. attorneys into greater context for viewers so they would understand how Bush's predecessor removed every one (actually all but one as Brit Hume explained, see #2 below) so that Clinton, as is being charged in the current case, could replace them with attorneys more favorable to the administration's agenda.

[This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

Unlike ABC, CBS and NBC watchers, cable viewers got a hint of context as Steve Centanni, on FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume, pointed out how "the White House acknowledged there were talks in 2005, just after the President won his second term, about terminating all 93 U.S. attorneys just as President Clinton unceremoniously did 1993 after he won the White House." The point made it onto CNN's The Situation Room -- barely -- thanks to guest Terry Jeffries who raised it during the 4pm EDT hour of the program.

(Tuesday's Good Morning America ran a full story from Pierre Thomas framed around the Democratic attacks on Bush and Gonzales, with analysis from George Stephanopoulos. For a details, including a transcript of the story by Thomas, check Scott Whitlock's NewsBusters posting: newsbusters.org )

Last week, on the same day as the Libby verdict, Katie Couric introduced a full March 6 CBS Evening News story by Sharyl Attkisson, who failed to remind viewers of Clinton's wholesale firings: "Another big story in Washington tonight also involves federal prosecutors, or at least former prosecutors. Eight U.S. attorneys were axed by the Bush administration last year, and some Democrats say the firings were politically motivated. Today some of those ex-prosecutors told Congress about the pressure they felt from top Republicans."

Back in 1993, the networks weren't so interested in Clinton's maneuver. The April 1993 edition of the MRC's MediaWatch newsletter recounted:

Attorney General Janet Reno fired all 93 U.S. attorneys, a very unusual practice. Republicans charged the Clintonites made the move to take U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens off the House Post Office investigation of Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski. The network response: ABC and CBS never mentioned it. CNN's World News and NBC Nightly News provided brief mentions, with only NBC noting the Rosty angle. Only NBC's Garrick Utley kept the old outrage, declaring in a March 27 "Final Thoughts" comment: "Every new President likes to say 'Under me, it's not going to be politics as usual.' At the Justice Department, it looks as if it still is."

http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2007/cyb20070314.asp#1

red states rule

07-31-2007, 04:51 AM

The laws of this once great Nation are being broken daily by this cadre of criminal thugs, and now Gonzales is gonna pay for it.
And Meiers.
And Rove.
And hopefully this fake-ass president that those of us who truly love America have loathed since he stole the presidency.

That's why George is pullin this "executive privilege" crap and refusing to answer to the people for whom he fuckin' works.
He knows he's fucked if we know the truth about his underhanded shit.

The day he is behind bars, and the rest of this criminal bunch, will be declared a national holiday on par with the 4th of July!

Today the New York Times filled in the blanks on Alberto Gonzales's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. As we discussed in detail here and here, Gonzales testified that he had visited John Ashcroft in the hospital to try to resolve a legal dispute that had developed over an intelligence program, but that the program in question was not the "terrorist surveillance program" that had been confirmed by President Bush, i.e., the interception of international communications where one participant is associated with al Qaeda. About that program, Gonzales said there had been no serious legal question.

This testimony was met with incredulity by the Senators. "Do you expect us to believe that?" Arlen Spector asked. Committee members Schumer and Leahy flatly accused Gonzales of lying, and called for a special prosecutor to carry out a perjury investigation. One thing I could never understand was why anyone cares: what difference would it make if Gonzales's hospital visit related to the "terrorist surveillance program," or to some other intelligence activity? And what reason would Gonzales have to lie about that fact?

Today the Times confirms that Gonzales told the truth. The legal dispute that broke out in 2004 was about the NSA's "data mining" project, in which databases of telephone records were reviewed for patterns suggestive of terrorist cells:

A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program.
It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate. But such databases contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans, and their examination by the government would raise privacy issues.

What's comical about the Times' reporting is that the paper can't bring itself to acknowledge that this means Gonzales has been vindicated:

If the dispute chiefly involved data mining, rather than eavesdropping, Mr. Gonzales’ defenders may maintain that his narrowly crafted answers, while legalistic, were technically correct.
First, this paragraph of "analysis" is contradicted by the reporting contained in the same article, which doesn't say that the dispute was "chiefly" about data mining. It says it was about data mining, period. Further, there is nothing "narrowly crafted," "legalistic" or "technically correct" about Gonzales's testimony. It was truthful and fully accurate. He said that the legal controversy did not involve the program that was confirmed by President Bush, in which international communications where one party was associated with al Qaeda were intercepted. That is exactly what the Times reported today. The controversy involved a completely different program, which has been rumored but which the administration has never publicly confirmed. Yet the Times cannot bring itself to admit that Gonzales has been vindicated, and the Senators who called for a perjury investigation have been made to look foolish.

The Times adds to the anti-Gonzales tone of its article by mixing in a little false reporting. The paper says:

Mr. Gonzales defended the surveillance in an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February 2006, saying there had been no internal dispute about its legality. He told the senators: “There has not been any serious disagreement about the program that the president has confirmed. There have been disagreements about other matters regarding operations, which I cannot get into.”
Mr. Gonzales’s 2006 testimony went unchallenged publicly until May of this year, when James B. Comey, the former deputy attorney general, described the March 2004 confrontation to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Comey had refused to sign a reauthorization for the N.S.A. program when he was standing in for Mr. Ashcroft, who was hospitalized for gall bladder surgery.

In fact, James Comey's testimony did not contradict Gonzales's. As we have pointed out repeatedly, Comey refused to identify the program over which there was a legal disagreement that led to the hospital visit. He did not, contrary to the Times's assertion, challenge or contradict Gonzales's testimony that "[t]here has not been any serious disagreement about the program that the president has confirmed. There have been disagreements about other matters regarding operations, which I cannot get into.”

The fact is that the Senators who ridiculed Gonzales, questioned his credibility and called for a perjury investigation were wrong. They owe the Attorney General an apology.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2007/07/018058.php

red states rule

07-31-2007, 05:40 AM

The liberal media no longer reports what happened - they report what they want to happen

ABC’s Cuomo Feverishly Speculates on Gonzales Firing by ‘End of Business Today’
By Scott Whitlock | July 30, 2007 - 17:03 ET
On Friday’s "Good Morning America," and again on Sunday, ABC anchors eagerly touted the idea that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales could be fired at any second. On July 27, GMA host Chris Cuomo discussed sworn Senate testimony given by Gonzales and wondered if the Attorney General had been "caught in a lie with the whole nation watching?" (An ABC graphic helpfully asked, "Is Atty General lying?")

Mentioning claims that Gonzales testimony has been contradicted by FBI Director Robert Mueller, Cuomo, whose brother is the Democratic Attorney General of New York, asked "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos, "...Bottom line, is Alberto Gonzales out of a job at end of business today?"

On Sunday’s GMA, the headhunting continued. Guest host Bill Weir also talked to Stephanopoulos, and while he showed more restraint than Cuomo, no questions about whether Gonzales would be fired by 11:59pm that day, he did continue the resignation drumbeat:

Bill Weir: "Let's switch gears and turn to a domestic issue of the week. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the hot seat yet again. Even more calls for his resignation. How, how much support has eroded in just the last few days?"

George Stephanopoulos: "It's hard to imagine it could get any worse for the Attorney General. He has precious little support, zero among Democrats on Capitol Hill, almost none among Republicans, but the President continues to stand by him even though he is now facing these questions of whether or not he lied to the Congress in his testimony last week about this domestic surveillance program. His testimony appeared to be contradicted by the FBI Director, Robert Mueller, certainly no partisan there, but right now the White House is holding on. Attorney General Gonzales is holding on. They're not going to back down."

Curiously not mentioned on Sunday’s GMA was a July 29 report by the New York Times that supports Gonzales’s claims of truthfulness in regard to his Senate testimony on the Terrorist Surveillance Program: [Emphasis added]

The confrontation in 2004 led to a showdown in the hospital room of then Attorney General John Ashcroft, where Mr. Gonzales, the White House counsel at the time, and Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff, tried to get the ailing Mr. Ashcroft to reauthorize the N.S.A. program.

Mr. Gonzales insisted before the Senate this week that the 2004 dispute did not involve the Terrorist Surveillance Program "confirmed" by President Bush, who has acknowledged eavesdropping without warrants but has never acknowledged the data mining.

If the dispute chiefly involved data mining, rather than eavesdropping, Mr. Gonzales’ defenders may maintain that his narrowly crafted answers, while legalistic, were technically correct.

Unlike "Good Morning America" anchor Bill Weir, Stephanopoulos actually managed to mention this fact while interviewing Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer on his own program, ABC's "This Week":

Stephanopoulos: "On this question of the Attorney General, there is a story in "The New York Times" this morning that says that this dispute over whether or not there was dissent and whether or not the Attorney General lied there may be an answer for it. They say the controversy could be about a separate data mining program that was also being discussed at the time and discontinued. So is it possible, do you accept that it's possible that the Attorney General gave technically correct testimony?"

Senator Charles Schumer: "No, I don't believe so, and here's why, first, I'm not on the intelligence committee, so I don't have access to the documents. But many on the intelligence committee, the three who called for the special prosecutor with me, Senators Feingold and Whitehouse and Feinstein are all on the intelligence committee, and it is regarded as one in the same program, and furthermore, at his hearing, this week, I asked Attorney General Gonzales was there just one program that the president confirmed in December which is what one of the issues about him and there are many is all about and he said just one. I said not two. No, he said, just one. So it's just one program. They have other separate parts."

A transcript of the July 27 "Good Morning America" segment follows:

7:12am

Chris Cuomo: "Now, we turn to the nation's top attorney, Alberto Gonzales, under fire this morning by none other than the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, who is challenging Gonzales' sworn testimony to Congress and raising the question, has the Attorney General been caught in a lie with the whole nation watching? For the bottom line on this, we're joined by Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos. George, thank you very much for joining us."

George Stephanopoulos: "Hey, Chris."

Cuomo: "So, politicians avoiding answering a question. That’s not unusual, but giving false testimony under oath, that’s something different. So with the heads of the FBI, The CIA, the National Intelligence Director all lined up against him, bottom line, is Alberto Gonzales out of a job at end of business today?"

Stephanopoulos: "No, because the most important person in Washington still supports him and that's the President. I just spoke to a White House official who says the President continues to stand behind Alberto Gonzales despite these contradictions that have turned up in the last couple of days. And, you know, most of the Senate Judiciary Committee believes that Alberto Gonzales has not been straight with them in his testimony. The White House hopes he goes farther to clear it up, but, bottom line, right now President Bush still supports him, he's not going anywhere."

Cuomo: "Okay, so President Bush backing his man. But the Democrats now have even more ammunition. They're going to the Solicitor General. They’re asking for a perjury investigation. So, bottom line, can, politically, the administration afford to keep Gonzales in there?"

Stephanopoulos: "I think they've already taken a hit for this. Also, there’s another problem, Chris, if they decide to let Attorney General Gonzales go. Then there would have to be confirmation hearings for a new Attorney General, and the price that Democrats would demand for confirming a new Attorney General would be very, very high. They would say that the White House would have to cave on whether or not people like Karl Rove, the President’s political advisor, will come and testify on the firings. They would have to cave on sending over documents on this domestic surveillance program that has been highly secret and controversial in the Congress. So I think that there is a real risk if Attorney General Gonzales goes from the White House that the confirmation hearings for his successor would be problematic for the White House."

Cuomo: "Strong point. Strong point, so let's look at it just from this political perspective. If Karl Rove, the advisor, is in the same boat, being subpoenaed to testify before Congress on the issue of the U.S. attorney firings and you have the chief of staff also being summoned, how worried is the administration that its legacy gets clouded by these legalities?"

Stephanopoulos: "Right now, they're saying it's just politics, they're saying, the Congress is simply pursuing all these investigations and not doing the business of the people. And they may feel that's their best political ground right now, because the Congress is even more unpopular than the President right now, so they're going to continue to resist. They are not going to back down on this executive privilege fight. They are not going to send the White House Chief of staff and Karl Rove up to testify."

Stephanopoulos: "George, appreciate the bottom line, as always. Look forward to more about this on your show on Sunday. Thank you very much."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2007/07/30/abc-s-cuomo-salivates-gonzales-firing-end-day

nevadamedic

07-31-2007, 05:59 AM

Oh well............

red states rule

07-31-2007, 06:02 AM

Oh well............

Dont you love the libs double standards?

red states rule

07-31-2007, 08:15 AM

July 30, 2007
FISA and the Power to Defend from Terror
By Al Johnson

Uncovering terror cells is going to require us to maximize our technological advantages. One obstacle is FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The New York Times recently revealed that a data mining program was the subject of the legal dispute that led to Albert Gonzales' famous hospital visit to then-AG John Ashcroft. It was not the Terrorist Surveillance Program; rather, it had to do with the Able Danger data mining operation being conducted by the NSA. It may have run afoul of FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and thus led to a dispute between DoJ and NSA (which comes under DoD) over which of the two entities of the Executive Branch should have jurisdiction over it.

Of course, this jurisdictional dispute would also have serious legal repercussions affecting what information could be collected, by what means, to whom it could be disseminated and for what purposes it could be used. Captain's Quarters had a fascinating post yesterday, "Able Danger, Alberto Gonzales, and the Senate," that echoed in the blogosphere.

We need to tread carefully here; no one except the actual participants in the hospital discussion can be sure of what the issues were. However, Orin Kerr and Marty Lederman make educated guesses that are probably not far off the mark.

First Kerr:

(3) Presumably the authorization that Card & Gonzales wanted Ashcroft to sign was a 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(a)(ii)(b) certification that the phone companies would have demanded before proceeding, which is "a certification in writing by . . . the Attorney General of the United States that no warrant or court order is required by law, that all statutory requirements have been met, and that the specified assistance is required." But we still don't know exactly what the legal issues were that were in dispute. I can come up with about 10 different theories, but I just don't know which one is particularly likely to be right.

(4) I'm puzzled by the newspaper's claim that searching a database of non-content call records disclosed by the phone companies requires a court order. It doesn't in the criminal law context: the Wiretap Act only applies for contemporaneous acquisition, and once there is a proper disclosure under the Stored Communications Act the data can be searched without any legal restrictions. But I wonder, does FISA require a court order in that setting? Or maybe the government wasn't relying on a voluntary disclosure theory? Or is the Times just getting this detail wrong? I'm not sure.
Toward the end of a lengthy analysis Lederman writes:

I think what happened is that the data mining revealed something that the NSA, with DOJ's blessing, followed up on, perhaps using quite long and attenuated "connections" (e.g., phone calls and e-mails three degrees of separation removed) -- what Risen and Lichtblau's original story referred to as "an expanding chain" -- and this follow-up surveillance involved purely domestic communications, as well as communications of persons for whom there was no probable cause to believe they were Al Qaeda agents. Further speculation, with links to plenty of other bloggers, here.) If this is correct, then it was the follow-up surveillance, not the data mining, that was the legal problem -- it didn't satisfy FISA because whatever it was NSA learned from the data mining, it was something far short of probable cause that all the subsequent targets were agents of Al Qaeda. And OLC concluded that Article II did not justify disregarding FISA.

Goldsmith reportedly insisted that the surveillance be justified based on the AUMF, which imposed two limitations:

a. First, on the view of the Court in Hamdi (later explained in much greater detail by Jack Goldmsith and Curt Bradley in their Harvard Law Review article on the AUMF), the AUMF only authorizes conduct that had historically been undertaken by the President in wartime. Roosevelt and other Presidents had intercepted overseas telegrams and other international communications; but there was no precedent for interception of wholly domestic communications without court approval.

b. Second, the AUMF itself requires a nexus to those responsible for 9/11 -- which is where the OLC [DoJ's Office of Legal Counsel, headed by Goldsmith] requirement came from that the communications involve at least one person in, or associated with, Al Qaede or related groups.

So OLC insisted these two criteria be satisfied in order to avoid FISA's strictures.
Please note: when all is said and done, we are once again dealing with restrictions placed by Congress, through its enactment of FISA, on the President's authorities and responsibilities as Commander in Chief. Note, too, that no court that has considered this issue has been willing to rule that Congress can statutorily limit the President's Constitutional powers and duties.

Finally, however, note that the Supreme Court does enter into this picture via the Hamdi decision and that, in Goldsmith's view, Hamdi limits the president's constitutional powers through by its interpretation of congress' Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF). Nevertheless, none of these issues with regard to the AUMF would probably have been in play at all but for the enactment of FISA. This entire imbroglio ultimately comes back to FISA and resulted in the inter-agency jurisdictional squabbles that appear to have been behind the hospital visit.

Without minimizing the need to safeguard civil liberties, I doubt that I'm alone in questioning whether these behind the scenes constitutional and legal disputes have done any good as far as protecting the United States and its inhabitants from the terrorist threats that we face. Restricting the President's actions in defense of this republic to those actions undertaken by previous presidents would appear to be a grossly wrongheaded and unreasonable approach. By some accounts the NSA is collecting only a third of the information that it should ideally be collecting, due to legal issues.

It seems that the Democrats are, belatedly, becoming concerned with their image: they are concerned that they may be portrayed as unreasonably hampering legitimate requirements of the national defense and are seeking a face-saving, cover-their-behind patch of FISA, while at the same time continuing to bluster and threaten and obstruct almost all the President's national security initiatives.

Isn't it time that this nation had an open and freewheeling debate on FISA and Congressional and Judicial attempts to micromanage even the tactical aspects of the President's national security powers and duties? Isn't the defense and security of this nation too important to be left to the lawyers?

If FISA is unconstitutional as it restricts the President's Constitutional powers and duties, let's have it out. And if Congress, through FISA or an AUMF, can constitutionally restrict the President's powers and duties, we'll at least know who is to blame if we suffer another 9/11 type of attack. It will be the Party of Defeat, which has consistently politicized national security.

Update: This morning David Rivkin and Lee Casey offer an important analysis of this entire situation, stressing, as I have, the centrality of FISA to the continuing problem of providing an adequate defense against terror attacks on the United States. One point they make is worth elucidating:

The TSP was not implemented pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which permits a special federal court to issue surveillance orders when Americans and others are targeted for intelligence gathering inside the U.S. Rather than utilizing FISA's cumbersome and restrictive procedures, the administration relied on the president's inherent constitutional authority as commander in chief to monitor enemy communications in wartime, as presidents have done since Lincoln's day.

In addition, the administration correctly relied on Congress's Sept. 18, 2001, authorization for the use of military force against al Qaeda. In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that this statute authorized the president to employ all the "fundamental incident\[s\] of waging war." This, by any reasonable standard, would include secretly listening in on the enemy's phone calls, and reading their faxes, emails and text messages.

Based on Rivkin and Casey's analysis it would appear that Professor Goldsmith and Acting AG James Comey were maintaining precisely that, in a time of war, FISA trumps the President's war powers when it comes to intelligence gathering within the US that is aimed at identifying enemy activity--even when that enemy is headquartered outside the US. Significantly, Goldsmith and Comey maintained this position even though 1) the bi-partisan Congressional "Gang of Eight" Senators and Representatives had urged continuation of all NSA programs and 2) several Federal courts had suggested that FISA could not be interpreted as trumping the President's "inherent constitutional authority as commander in chief." That Comey and Goldsmith should dig their heels in in face of the united Executive and Legislative branches as well as very pointed language in several Federal court opinions was quite extraordinary--and with barely a day's notice provided!. It was especially so given that the technology in question--by which enemy communications that are are intended to occur outside the US are now often routed through the US--was one that the 1978 FISA framework could not possibly have envisioned.

In the face of such unreasonable legal dogmatism, Rivkin and Casey's closing paragraphs are a breath of fresh air. Read the whole thing. Their conclusion:

The question Judiciary Committee members should have been asking Mr. Gonzales was not whether he had misled them--he clearly did not--but whether the TSP is still functioning well. The question the public should be asking those senators--and with not much more civility than the senators showed Mr. Gonzales--is what are they going to do about it if the answer is no.
Al Johnson is a retired attorney.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/fisa_and_the_power_to_defend_f.html

bluestatesrule

07-31-2007, 09:34 AM

nevadamedic

07-31-2007, 09:59 AM

I think I understand why the Bush administration has long protected the stooge of an attorney general! Bushes refusel to fire the incompetent, prevaricating Alberto Gonzales serves him by drawing attention away from his own short commings! At least Gonzales has successfully redefined the role of the U.S attorney general: No longer is it a postion of the nations highest law enforcement officer....but rather...a position where a political flunky is only concerned with shielding his patron! I don't think this guy is capable of telling the truth! Did someone say purjury???

I guess your conviently forgetting that Slick Willy's appointed Attorney General was a lot worse and did many more horrible things, including helping stop an investigation of the suspicious death of Hillary's long term lover, suspected by many law enforcement officers as suspicious circumstances, several seasoned investigatiors said it could never be suicide. Then who would have guessed, they senior law enforcement agent for our country (the AG appointed by Slick Willy) stepped in and all investigations into the death stopped immediatly.

Not to mention that her first course of action was to fire every Republican she could, making our current firings look like nothing............

Spyder Jerusalem

07-31-2007, 10:02 AM

So, do you often quote republifascist blogs and act like its news?

The biased meanderings of conservatard opinionists is not news, nor should it be treated as such.
Therefore, your commentary is meaningless.

Here's some REAL news:

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/archives/2007/07/inslee_to_push_impeach_of_ag_gonzales.html

Inslee to push impeach of AG Gonzales

Posted by David Postman at 04:25 PM

Congressman Jay Inslee will introduce tomorrow a resolution calling for impeachment of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, according to a statement from his office. Inslee, a former prosecutor in Selah, has lined up other former prosecutors in Congress to join as co-sponsors. As of this afternoon he had five co-sponsors.

The resolution is brief. It says in full:

Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States, should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary shall
investigate fully whether sufficient grounds exist for the
House of Representatives to impeach Alberto R. Gonzales,
Attorney General of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

ThinkProgress has MSNBC's "breaking news" report.

The New York Times editorial page this weekend raised the possibility of impeaching Gonzales.

Democratic lawmakers are asking for a special prosecutor to look into Mr. Gonzales's words and deeds. Solicitor General Paul Clement has a last chance to show that the Justice Department is still minimally functional by fulfilling that request.
If that does not happen, Congress should impeach Mr. Gonzales.

Some local liberals have been unhappy with Inslee for not supporting impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney and President George Bush. But as soon as the news broke today of Inslee's move against Gonzales, he was hailed by the director of Washington For Impeachment. Linda Boyd wrote to supporters:

Dear Friends of Democracy,

Great news today, Rep. Jay Inslee will sponsor legislation that would require the House Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment investigation of Atty. General Alberto Gonzales!

.... Thank you to all who have worked so hard to educate Jay Inslee!

We will impeach to restore the rule of law!

nevadamedic

07-31-2007, 10:08 AM

Spyder Jerusalem

07-31-2007, 10:10 AM

This AG has done more to fuck over our country in the time he's been in this position then the past AG's...............

There.
Fixed that for ya...

Spyder Jerusalem

07-31-2007, 10:12 AM

The process is to long by then President Bush will be out of office and a new Attorney General appointed.

Not if Bush gets impeached too.

That's whats really needed.

Eject this cadre of criminals and put'em in a cell where they belong.

Nobody is beyond the law in America.

nevadamedic

07-31-2007, 10:17 AM

Not if Bush gets impeached too.

That's whats really needed.

Eject this cadre of criminals and put'em in a cell where they belong.

Nobody is beyond the law in America.

Do you understand how long it will take to impeach President Bush if they get the courage to actually try it? He will be long out of office and the next President will already be in office long before he can be impeached. It would be a waste of time and money. They have more important issues to deal with. People just need o suck it up there is only a little over a year left anyways.

red states rule

07-31-2007, 07:33 PM

nevadamedic

07-31-2007, 07:41 PM

Please do not hold back and tell us how you really feel. This is not the Daily Kos or the Dem Underground where you can let it rip

Libs do not have a single shred of evidence of a crime was committed - they have nothing but talking points to a manufactured scandel

They will make it up if they don't have any solid evidence.

red states rule

07-31-2007, 07:46 PM

They will make it up if they don't have any solid evidence.

You can't expect the left to rely on facts can you? If that happened they would have nothing to say

:clap: :lol:

red states rule

08-01-2007, 04:54 AM

and the liberal media is doing all they can to pour gasoline on the fire set by the kook left

Bozell Column: Chuck Schumer's Media
By Brent Bozell | July 31, 2007 - 21:34 ET
Senator Charles Schumer is a legendary pursuer of television cameras. But look at the way the national media are covering Schumer’s heavy-breathing pursuit to make Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cry uncle and resign. It makes you wonder just how hard Schumer has to work to get press attention. The media look Schumer-owned and operated.

One interview really captures how the press looks more like a Democratic goon squad than a nonpartisan observers of the national scene. On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” news anchor Christopher Cuomo, son of Mario Cuomo, asked this pushy question on July 27: “Is Alberto Gonzales out of a job at end of business today?” Cuomo wanted the Attorney General whacked, and he wanted it now. He was asking the question to George Stephanopoulos, the former Clinton lie-spinner. At least George bluntly explained the game: the Democrats’ price for confirming a new Attorney General would be “very, very high.”

The Democrats are trying to set up a game of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t, and most of the liberal media are playing along with them, refusing to cover the naked politics of it. If our political press were truly nonpartisan, they might be pushing Schumer back about his record: a partisan double standard for truth-bending politicians and cabinet officers, and a sudden hunger for a special prosecutor after years of opposing the same under a Democratic regime.

Start at the top. How many Senate Democrats voted to remove Bill Clinton from office for lying under oath in a sexual-harassment investigation? Did they favor special prosecutors then, or treat them like unelected tyrants? Charles Schumer, for example, had the unique historical distinction of voting against Clinton’s impeachment in both houses of Congress: first as a lame-duck House member in December of 1998, and then later as a freshman Senator in 1999.

How many Democrats would suggest that Hillary Clinton should resign, or should have never run for office, for hiding Rose Law Firm documents from the special prosecutor in the Whitewater investigation for several years (until they were discovered near her private office in the White House quarters)? Special prosecutor Robert Ray found Hillary Clinton provided factually false statements to the special prosecutor in the Travel Office case. Neither Rep. Schumer nor Sen. Schumer cared.

And no one in the “news” media cares, either.

This controversy is supposedly about the dismissal of seven U.S. Attorneys. So where was Chuck Schumer when the Clinton administration dismissed all 93 U.S. Attorneys in 1993? Back then, it was perfectly fine. Now he’s outraged. No one in the “news” media cares about the hypocrisy.

How many Democrats suggested that Attorney General Janet Reno should resign after she took responsibility for the fiery deaths of cult members in the fiasco at Waco months later? They didn’t need to, as long as the national media was doing their bidding and hailing her as a hero. Time put her on the cover with the word “Reno: The Real Thing,” like she was as appealing as Coca-Cola, noting she was “cheered on both sides of the aisle in Congress.” They dismissed her Republican predecessors in the office as “25 watt” dim bulbs by comparison. CNN called her a “rock star celebrity.”

Journalists also cheered Reno when she lied to the family members of Elian Gonzales in order to conduct a surprise raid on their Florida home in the middle of the night to send the six-year-old boy back to Fidel Castro. Tom Friedman of the New York Times raved on PBS about how she would be the toast of lawless towns: “What people in Bogota, Colombia would give for five minutes of Janet Reno!”

Nine summers ago, Reno adamantly refused to name a special prosecutor in the Asian-foreign-contributions scandal, despite it being urged by her own appointed investigator, Charles LaBella, a recommendation endorsed by FBI Director Louis Freeh. Neither Schumer nor the Schumer-sympathetic media found any reason to ask her to resign.

Chuck Schumer and Co. aren’t really sticklers for honest testimony, but they are partisans seeking to win more Senate seats and the White House by any means necessary. They pose now as the avatars of accountability, after spending the Clinton years raging against prosecutors and congressional oversight probes. Sadly, you would never know that if you relied on TV news as the only source of your political information. They’re doing the very same poses.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-bozell/2007/07/31/bozell-column-chuck-schumers-media

JohnDoe

08-01-2007, 05:40 AM

Nope, he just let our Embassies get blown up and is the only President in history after one of our Naval Vessels got attacked didn't do anything about it because he was a coward. Slick Willy didn't have the gut's to goto War, he is a bitch just like his wife.

Nevada, The USS Cole was attacked in October of 2000, The CIA finished their analysis on "who done it?" in January of 2001???

President Bush was inaugerated as President, the third week of January 2001.

"Bitch" Bush, (playing on your bitch clinton ;) ), didn't have the insight to respond against the perpetraitors of the USS Cole attack, he and his Deputy of Defense and National Security Advisors, sat on their rear ends and twiddled their fingers, or were actually messing around with planning a way they could get the usa to attack Saddam, until we were attacked on September 11th.

The Bush Administration is who "sat back" and did nothing regarding the USS Cole.

Let's NOT rewrite History here.

The Embassy thing, I agree with you!

red states rule

08-01-2007, 05:45 AM

Nevada, The USS Cole was attacked in October of 2000, The CIA finished their analysis on "who done it?" in January of 2001???

President Bush was inaugerated as President, the third week of January 2001.

"Bitch" Bush, (playing on your bitch clinton ;) ), didn't have the insight to respond against the perpetraitors of the USS Cole attack, he and his Deputy of Defense and National Security Advisors, sat on their rear ends and twiddled their fingers, or were actually messing around with planning a way they could get the usa to attack Saddam, until we were attacked on September 11th.

The Bush Administration is who "sat back" and did nothing regarding the USS Cole.

Let's NOT rewrite History here.

The Embassy thing, I agree with you!

Libs have been rewriting history about the Clinton years even when he was in office. Clinton did nothing in repsonse to the 5 attacks that killed Americans, and gave OBL the idea Amercia was a paper tiger

The USS Cole happened while Bill was Pres. he bit the lower lip and issued threats - nothing else

We got 9-11 because of Bill's inaction

Of course Bill was to busy with other affairs to pay attention to terrorism.

JohnDoe

08-01-2007, 05:54 AM

Libs have been rewriting history about the Clinton years even when he was in office. Clinton did nothing in repsonse to the 5 attacks that killed Americans, and gave OBL the idea Amercia was a paper tiger

The USS Cole happened while Bill was Pres. he bit the lower lip and issued threats - nothing else

We got 9-11 because of Bill's inaction

Of course Bill was to busy with other affairs to pay attention to terrorism.

good morning rsr,

So tell me WHY Bush and Cheney did NOTHING about the USS Cole attack EITHER? Why, after they got the assessment from the CIA in january of 2001, they DID NOTHING, just as you say Clinton did nothing?

If, the Bush administration had retalliated for the USS Cole, once the perps were identified that Jan of 2001, would 9/11 still have happened? Who really knows?

red states rule

08-01-2007, 05:58 AM

good morning rsr,

So tell me WHY Bush and Cheney did NOTHING about the USS Cole attack EITHER? Why, after they got the assessment from the CIA in january of 2001, they DID NOTHING, just as you say Clinton did nothing?

If, the Bush administration had retalliated for the USS Cole, once the perps were identified that Jan of 2001, would 9/11 still have happened? Who really knows?

Good Morning

I do rememebr those first months of the Bush administration. Pres Bush was trying to get his administration set up and running - and Dems were blocking all his nominees for the jobs

Dems were blocking what he wanted to do. No matter what Pres Buhs wanted top do or who he wanted to hire - Dems blocked it. Clinton had more time to respond to the 5 attacks and he did nothing

Libs love to give Bill a pass and prefer to bash Bush instead