To the barricades!

Many times in the past few years members of the Bush administration have said or done outrageous things. As a consequence, White House credibility has steadily declined. Unfortunately, while the majority of U.S. citizens are no longer inclined to trust this administration, they are also not very keen on paying close attention to its doings. And who can blame them? Why suffer the agony of observing crooks and liars with far too much power, when you can watch the Red Sox? Well, now is a moment where our very survival as a representative republic demands that large numbers of us suddenly become far more alert, assertive, and articulate. Why?



The simple answer is that the pressures put on Bush/Cheney and their accomplices following the 2006 elections has revealed their eagerness to completely cast off traditional, constitutionally based, restraints on their exercise of power. How? Well, beyond the evasion of checks and balances so evident in the attorney firings scandal, the administration has now asserted vast new powers-- to suppress dissent-- that go beyond anything seen in this country since the Civil War.



Here's what I'm talking about:

I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, it is in the interests of the United States to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, and expanded in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004. I hereby order:
Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)(1), (3), and (4) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the date of this order, all property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense,
(i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:
(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or
(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people; …


Sec. 3. For purposes of this order:
(a) the term "person" means an individual or entity;
(b) the term "entity" means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization; and
(c) the term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States….
Sec. 5. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order.

White House, 7/17/2007


The rest of the order, as posted on the White House website, can be read here.

So what does this mean? It means that you or I, without notice, due process, or even any sort of review from the other branches of government, can have our property seized. Not because of any hard evidence that we are conspiring to commit illegal acts of violence, or even that we have knowledge of such acts that we refuse to share with authorities. No, it is sufficient that this omnipotent unitary executive "determine" that we pose "a significant risk" of "undermining" administration efforts in Iraq. In other words, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, and former secretaries of State Colin Powell and James Baker could all easily fall under this category of risky individuals. Cheney and others have already accused the vast majority of Americans-- who firmly oppose his Iraq policies and strategies-- as "giving aid and comfort to the enemy." We need to beseech our elected representatives in Congress to free us from the clutches of this tyrannical bully. The American people are patient and peaceful. We would all prefer that this lame-duck administration would fade quietly away and leave a horrific mess to be cleaned up after 2008. Yet this administration seems intent on sweeping away our Bill of Rights and Constitution in a cyclone of power grabbing excess. Impeachment, not appeasement, is the only patriotic response!