I'm so tierd of Bush's Nazi stance. The public must awke to this threat to true Democracy.

And pray tell, just what did the senior White House official say the President would do, when the ostensibly unexpected occasion does come up, and George Bush actually must choose whether to protect the country OR obey the law?
The oath of office requires the President to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" as part of Chief Executive's duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed......" The Constitution is totally silent about some parallel, general Presidential responsibility to protect us all perpetually from enemy evildoers, whoever and wherever they may be.
It is a tragic absurdity that we are staging a 21st Century debate over the legality of an assumed power of the President to ignore the Bill of Rights and violate federal statutes and treaties that explicitly outlaw torture, indefinite incarceration without trial, and warrantless eavesdropping.

Folks, please, look at what this Mafia like administration has already gotten away with. You think a little thing like some law that is up-holding the laws we already have that they have broken is going to stop these insane shit-brains? What continually amasses me is the audacity and balls these heartless, brainless sociopaths have. All this will only end when this house of cards falls. For nothing that is build on deceit ever lasts. Unfortunately when it does fall there will be so many untold millions of people that will be destroyed along with it. For believe this, like Hitler used his scorched Earth policy and killed himself and all those around him before they would be held accountable, bush and company are of the same ilk.

Forget not that the witness to the world of evil cannot speak except for what has seen a need for evil in the world.

how convenient that he approves the bill and at the same time pretty much sets the stage for how he's going to throw it out the window but its all okay because he knows its all bullshit. perhaps he is getting more bold, realizing no one is going to do anything about his actions because he has convinced the masses that his decisions prevail for the safety of americans.

Wouldn't a signing statement that declares he's Infallible make him god?

I am an Englishman, and Americans amaze me. There is so much to admire in America (and I spent several years there, off and on) but your politicians seem much like ours in the UK - devious, with giant egos, and out for themselves. They seem to love making laws, but in a biased way which suits them and ignores the basic rights of the populace. Detention without charge, legal representation or trial? Certainly not, unless Guantanamo Bay is where you are boxed up (and you are not American - the rules are different then!). Nuclear weapons? Certainly, for the US and its friends, but not for you if you are not a US friend, however clever you may be at making them. The USA is a very great country, with much to admire about it, but it does tarnish its image by operating outside US and International norms when it suits it to do so. Too easily, it can be seen as a great big bully country, rather than a leader in international affairs. There is a whole world outside America, even larger than the USA, watching what America does, and forming their own opinions about what they see. Please, America, look outside yourself, listen to others, and play by open rules and not secret or semi-hidden ways. You can be admired in full if you show you lead, but are despised when you muddy the water and make things the way you want them to be irrespective of international (or even, when it suits you, US law). You are great, and you can be even greater, but not by ignoring human rights unless they are purely American rights. Guantanamo Bay is a disgrace to you as a nation, and the world at large sees it and knows it. Extraordinary rendition, as seemingly practised by the USA (but not spoken out loud, please)does you even more international harm. Are your diplomats deaf, or are their reports to home base ignored? Iraq is a disaster from any point of view. You, and I am afraid we in the UK, spent millions of dollars to break the place up, more in abortive attempts to restore it, and thousands of US and other military lives to get to the present state of unpopularity of the occupying forces whose deaths are played down. No photos of US bodies returning home are allowed by the US ruling authorities. What does that tell one about their position?

However unpopular it may be, I believe that open, honest, government will eventually win the day. We do not now have it in England, which I think is the reason for our international decline in status, and it is not shining out from America. What worries me is that your American authorities seem to be even more devious and suppressive of the truth and basic rights than those of the United Kingdom, and they are bad enough.

As a private individual, I don't know what to do next. I know, however, that governments are not to be trusted to safeguard what is right, open, honest, and straightforward.

This is just another example of the white, wealthy, religious right acting out of greed and ignorance to once again destroy the hope of a peaceful global community.

This Bush administration is so far from what we as a global community needs at this point in time of history. As a fellow North American, north of the 49th parallel, I am embarrassed to be associated with W.

I am so discusted by these actions I figure I will give an assignment in the grade 9 social studies class that I teach tomorrow dealing with this issue. We will compare the lies of Napoleon to his people to further the interests of himself and his family to what Bush is doing by signing the "torture bill" and lying to the people and protecting his own interests yet again.

Both leaders lied to their people, lead with a authoritative dictatorship that isn't/wasn't challenged, and both leaders lead corrupt and inefficient governments. Both governments hid/hide their inequities on their own front with a falsified notion that their governments were doing a decent job. Napoleon lead himself to his own defeat and many a million across the world hopes Bush is doing the same in the near future. Why do Americans not see this blantant act of ignorance, hate, anger, and greed?

I do not see how this man is still in office. Are the American people asleep to what is happening to human beings all over the world because of what this capitalistic, ignorant, consumeristic, and corrupt government is doing on so many stages?

A blog from concerned Canadian, North American, and believer in a peaceful global community that supports loving kindness of the human being and mother nature.

Namaste.

J. McTavish

J., I think the American people were asleep to what is happening all over the world long before Bush came into power. I am still in total shock over the horrors of the Reagan administration, and he was recently voted the "Greatest American."

Any president (or, in Bush's case, ersatz president) who stokes the fires of racism, homophobia, misogyny, and poor-bashing has a good shot a obtaining a lot of power. In Bush's case, the incidents of September 11 gave him a ticket to do anything he wanted. When both the far-right religious and the wealthy corporate interests are on the same page, the rest of us don't stand much chance.

It's a little late, but I am still angry with John Kerry's rantings. It just sounded like, in the debates and on the campaign trail, that John Kerry was creating mythical realities about what Bush and other Republicans stand for, just to win an election. He didn't come across as forthright.

Mark C

I'm sorry to say this, but,for some reason, the American public has a predilection for the worst kind of politicians (look at their high opinion of Ronald Reagan, Kennedy or George Bush Jr.). However, whenever an honest type came around (Jimmy Carter), they were ready to throw him out of office.

I agree with you, Jaime. (Though, as an American woman, I do not have totally warm feelings toward Jimmy Carter. As Gloria Steinem said, "he seems really benign, but he wasn't so benign then." Carter turned his back on us, committed an especially spiteful act toward a major feminist leader, and sold out the women's movement and the ERA for what he thought would be a chance for re-election. Our only compensation was that the tactic didn't work--he lost, anyway.)

Honesty is not awarded the same value as saying the right things about God, patriotism, and "the others."