Highly Recommended
Lawrence Velvel, Dean of the Massachussetts School of Law, writes a very interesting blog dealing with legal issues and politics. Here's an excerpt from a recent post addressing the Feb. 19 New York Times editorial condemning the John Yoo/Jay Bybee/Alberto Gonzales torture memo that I found eminently sound and very readable.* The contention in that memo that the president is somehow above the law seems to have slipped by most members of the mainstream media; Velvel discusses just how dangerous a precedent that policy would set:
"But to my mind the two most striking things it said, two things which bear the deepest on this nation, are these: First, The Times’ editorial said that the administration is claiming 'that the president has an imperial right to sweep aside the law and authorize whatever he wants,' and that some proposed statutes risk endorsing the idea that he can 'declare himself above the law.' It just cannot be overemphasized that the Yoo/Bybee/administration theory that the President, as commander in chief, can override the law is a nearly sure fire recipe for tyranny. It was one of the reasons for the Declaration of Independence, is as dangerous now as it was then, is put forth almost whenever there is a national crisis, and if not smacked down hard now, as before, and if instead allowed to become the prevailing view, can prove one day to be a one way road to tyranny in the United States. It can easily lead one day to the end of democracy as we know it, especially since it was the theory of tyrants like George III and Adolf Hitler, and it truly is not too much to say that it puts our democracy at serious risk. It is the single worst part of the whole torture business, even worse than the torture itself, as horrible as that was.
"The other critical point in the editorial was its reason for saying there must be an independent commission. Let me quote again: 'But that task [of fully learning what happened] is now way beyond the purview of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which held important hearings on prisoner abuse. Republican Congressional leaders have made it painfully clear that they will not hold a real investigation. And no probe by the executive branch can be credible because the stain of prisoner abuse spreads so far. The Justice Department can’t do it; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was part of the problem.' The Times’ lack of confidence in the Republican Congress and administration is all too well taken. The Republicans will not do the job because, due to the torture, leading members of the administration right up to and including George Bush are involved in serious crimes, crimes far worse than those Nixon ever committed. If the truth were to come out they probably would (and should) all be impeached -- or would have to resign -- they might (and should) go to jail, and the vast victories of the Republican Party in 2000 and 2004 would almost surely be erased in the next election. There simply can be no legitimate question about the complicity in serious crimes of the top echelons of the present administration (and one can be reasonably confident that history is unlikely to find any legitimate question about the matter since history will be written, after investigation, by people with no current political axe to grind).
"So there is no way that investigations controlled by Republicans will yield anything even approximating the real truth..."
I urge you to read the piece in its entirety, and read the responses to it as well. This is exactly the slippery slope we're talking about when we refer to America embracing fascism.
*Update: It was the post concerning the memo, not the memo itself, that I found sound and readable. The Generik Brand regrets any possible confusion.
"But to my mind the two most striking things it said, two things which bear the deepest on this nation, are these: First, The Times’ editorial said that the administration is claiming 'that the president has an imperial right to sweep aside the law and authorize whatever he wants,' and that some proposed statutes risk endorsing the idea that he can 'declare himself above the law.' It just cannot be overemphasized that the Yoo/Bybee/administration theory that the President, as commander in chief, can override the law is a nearly sure fire recipe for tyranny. It was one of the reasons for the Declaration of Independence, is as dangerous now as it was then, is put forth almost whenever there is a national crisis, and if not smacked down hard now, as before, and if instead allowed to become the prevailing view, can prove one day to be a one way road to tyranny in the United States. It can easily lead one day to the end of democracy as we know it, especially since it was the theory of tyrants like George III and Adolf Hitler, and it truly is not too much to say that it puts our democracy at serious risk. It is the single worst part of the whole torture business, even worse than the torture itself, as horrible as that was.
"The other critical point in the editorial was its reason for saying there must be an independent commission. Let me quote again: 'But that task [of fully learning what happened] is now way beyond the purview of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which held important hearings on prisoner abuse. Republican Congressional leaders have made it painfully clear that they will not hold a real investigation. And no probe by the executive branch can be credible because the stain of prisoner abuse spreads so far. The Justice Department can’t do it; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was part of the problem.' The Times’ lack of confidence in the Republican Congress and administration is all too well taken. The Republicans will not do the job because, due to the torture, leading members of the administration right up to and including George Bush are involved in serious crimes, crimes far worse than those Nixon ever committed. If the truth were to come out they probably would (and should) all be impeached -- or would have to resign -- they might (and should) go to jail, and the vast victories of the Republican Party in 2000 and 2004 would almost surely be erased in the next election. There simply can be no legitimate question about the complicity in serious crimes of the top echelons of the present administration (and one can be reasonably confident that history is unlikely to find any legitimate question about the matter since history will be written, after investigation, by people with no current political axe to grind).
"So there is no way that investigations controlled by Republicans will yield anything even approximating the real truth..."
I urge you to read the piece in its entirety, and read the responses to it as well. This is exactly the slippery slope we're talking about when we refer to America embracing fascism.
*Update: It was the post concerning the memo, not the memo itself, that I found sound and readable. The Generik Brand regrets any possible confusion.
posted by Generik at 7:47 AM
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