Monkey-brained Musings
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
The President is Always Right
That was the chilling testimony given today by Steve Bradbury, an Acting Deputy Attorney General, gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Seriously? Any lawyer should know that this hasn't been true since the Magna Carta. The New Yorker explored the background of this undemocratic and un-American line of thinking and its prevelance in this administration in its recent profile of David Addington, the Vice-President's chief of staff and longtime legal advisor. The article describes Addington and Cheney's lengthy efforts to undue "the mistakes of Watergate" and restore power to the Presidency.
It is time for us to remember the words of one of our founding documents:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.
That was the chilling testimony given today by Steve Bradbury, an Acting Deputy Attorney General, gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Seriously? Any lawyer should know that this hasn't been true since the Magna Carta. The New Yorker explored the background of this undemocratic and un-American line of thinking and its prevelance in this administration in its recent profile of David Addington, the Vice-President's chief of staff and longtime legal advisor. The article describes Addington and Cheney's lengthy efforts to undue "the mistakes of Watergate" and restore power to the Presidency.
It is time for us to remember the words of one of our founding documents:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.
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