George Bush Memos Would Have Made Him King

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Bush Memos Would Have Made Him King I'm sure everyone has caught the story about John Yoo, the White House lawyer who wrote shameful opinions used to justify wrongdoing in the last administration. What we didn't know, until now, was how far the Bush cabal tried to reach- from the NY Times; “The law has recognized that force (including deadly force) may be legitimately used in self-defense,” Mr. Yoo and Mr. Delahunty wrote to Mr. Gonzales. Therefore any objections based on the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches are swept away, they said, since any possible privacy offense resulting from such a search is a lesser matter than any injury from deadly force. The Oct. 23 memorandum also said that “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” It added that “the current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically.” Mr. Yoo and Mr. Delahunty said that in addition, the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars the military from domestic law enforcement operations, would pose no obstacle to the use of troops in a domestic fight against terrorism suspects. They reasoned that the troops would be acting in a national security function, not as law enforcers. In another of the opinions, Mr. Yoo argued in a memorandum dated Sept. 25, 2001, that judicial precedents approving deadly force in self-defense could be extended to allow for eavesdropping without warrants. Still another memo, issued in March 2002, suggested that Congress lacked any power to limit a president’s authority to transfer detainees to other countries, a practice known as rendition that was widely used by Mr. Bush. What I think is astounding is instead of simply concentrating on what they needed to do to protect our country, the Bush administration seemed to worry more about how 9/11 could be exploited to deprive Americans of their Constitutional rights. Shameful. If you are a Republican or voted for George W. Bush, and you are reading these words, these acts are on your head too. Especially if you voted for him twice.