Bush Agrees to Torture Ban? No, Not Really.

If you read just one article over the weekend, I encourage you to read this one from Salon.com, posted on RR’s web site.

The article itself sheds light on the Bush Administration’s ability to take laws from Congress and add what are called “signing statements” to his actual signature, or approval of the bill.

A signing statement is a little discussed Presidential privilege that allows the executive branch to add a little waiver – a disclaimer, if you will – which allows said branch to circumvent the law that was just signed. The legal author of this particular tactic? One Samuel Alito, in 1986 working for the Reagan administration.

What’s the most recent execution of this particular provision? I’ll give you an example from the article.

Recently, Bush and McCain both made headlines after the latter was able to get Bush/Cheney to accept the torture ban the former was originally against. Here’s the article to refresh your memory.

Since those headlines have disappeared, Bush has issued a signing statement regarding the law he signed only days before. Salon has more:

Last week, when Bush signed the military appropriations bill containing the
amendment forbidding torture that he and Vice President Cheney had fought against, he added his own "signing statement" to it. It amounted to a waiver,
authorized by him alone, that he could and would disobey this law whenever he chose.

He wrote: "The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks."

In short, the president, in the name of national security, claiming to protect the country from terrorism, under war powers granted to him by himself, would follow the law to the extent that he decided he would. (read the full article here)

So, while people were applauding Bush and Cheney who wanted torture, coincidentally avoiding it in Vietnam – and their ability to compromise with McCain who wants to ban the practice and actually was tortured – Bush turned around and instituted his own Presidential pardon of the law, excusing himself of following it before his original signature was even dry.

More on this particular move here and here and here, and finally here.

According to Salon, President Bush issued an unprecedented 108 statements during his first term, upon signing bills of legislation that expressed his own version of their content.

This is an amazing breech that was probably bleeding all over most front page newspapers this week, right?

Nope…coalminers families getting notepads and mics shoved in their faces. Damn liberal media!