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Ear to the Ground

Bush to FEMA Law: Drop Dead!

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Posted on Oct 6, 2006
Bush: Up Yours!
From murkyview.com

He’s done it again: After signing into law a bill that would mandate minimum requirements for the new FEMA director, Bush added a “signing statement” in which he declared those requirements null and invalid. (more…)

You’d think that after the Mike “Heckuva Job” Brown debacle, Bush would actually take FEMA seriously—not to mention the democratic process of vetoing laws he doesn’t approve of, rather than pretending to support them in public and then cowardly gutting them with signing statements.

  • Update: ThinkProgress has the statement

  • Boston Globe:

    President Bush this week asserted that he has the executive authority to disobey a new law in which Congress has set minimum qualifications for future heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    Congress passed the law last week as a response to FEMA’s poor handling of Hurricane Katrina. The agency’s slow response to flood victims exposed the fact that Michael Brown, Bush’s choice to lead the agency, had been a politically connected hire with no prior experience in emergency management.

    To shield FEMA from cronyism, Congress established new job qualifications for the agency’s director in last week’s homeland security bill. The law says the president must nominate a candidate who has ``a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management” and ``not less than five years of executive leadership.”

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    By diamondp, October 8, 2006 at 9:49 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    And just why hasn’t this President been impeached yet? We can impeach Clinton for lying to us about having sex with other women, but Bush can sign away our liberties and force us into war on lies and he is still in office. I just don’t get it.

    Report this

    By Richard, October 7, 2006 at 3:21 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    I’m surprised that Manny’s is the only comment so far on this subject. These signing statements are a grave infringement on separation of powers, and are turning the presidency into a dictatorship.

    While Senate Majority Leader Arlen Specter acquiesced on Bush’s torture program, the last time I checked Specter was engaged in a turf war with Bush et al. over which branch of government gets to take away our rights. Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe has been covering this issue in depth.

    And forget the Supreme Court, I’m afraid. Unless an issue involves an infringement on the authority of the judicial branch, we can’t expect our right-wing Supremes to side with Congress on the signing-statement issue.

    Report this

    By kevin99999, October 7, 2006 at 2:01 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    To avoid other man like the current president, may be there should be an IQ test for the presidency.

    Report this

    By EoS, October 7, 2006 at 12:06 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    Well he is of course right. After eliminating all those candidates who can’t be shown to have consumed the far right neo-con cool-aide, there won’t be any qualified candidates left.

    Report this

    By C Quil, October 6, 2006 at 10:26 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    What a crass, ugly little man Dubya is.

    The guy ain’t got no couth, no matter what expensive university he went to.

    Report this

    By kevin99999, October 6, 2006 at 9:18 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    This man continues to make mockery of the law. He needs to be impeached and removed from the office, and if possible, put in jail.

    Report this

    By Manny, October 6, 2006 at 7:16 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    The gravity of these Signing Statements are acute danger to this country. When will the Supreme Court stop this Unconstitutional action ?
    Congress no longer represents Constitutional law.
    When we ignore the very foundations that govern our country then we are inviting a dismantling
    of our goverment. The impunity of Mr G. Bush"s unconcern for the foundations of our Constitution is just a long list of what his Presidency has cost the nation. As our brave service men and women are dying in Iraq for the very foundations of law, our goverment is mocking their deaths by failing to preserve our
    living and breathing Constitution.

    Report this

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