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By Varlam Shalamov; John Glad (Translator)
By Sheerly Avni
$26.37
$23
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rommy ghaly (CC-BY)
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A press statement attributed to Osama bin Laden’s fourth son, who, the BBC reports, “has repeatedly distanced himself from his father’s ideology,” demands to know “why our father was not arrested and tried but summarily executed without a court of law,” unlike Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic. (Full statement after the jump).
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One-hundred-and-four retired admirals and generals have signed a statement calling on the military to allow gay soldiers to serve openly. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” has lost support since the Clinton administration originally negotiated the compromise, but Barack Obama will likely avoid resurrecting one of his predecessor’s biggest headaches.
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Flickr / scott92007
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Is Jerry Brown just doing his job, or is he trying to be all things to all Californians? The attorney general said in a statement that the state’s high court should review the recently passed gay marriage ban, but until then, “... The public interest would be better served by allowing Proposition 8 to remain in effect ... .”
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Flickr / Nrbelex
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If Hillary Clinton becomes the next president, her administration will have a hell of a time improving relations with Iran, a country that has a few cards to play when it comes to stability in Iraq and the price of oil. That’s because Clinton recently threatened Iran’s annihilation and it turns out that the Iranian government pays attention to these things.
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Hillary Clinton says she would have left her church, were she in Barack Obama’s position, because “We have a choice when it comes to our pastors.”
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From murkyview.com
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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” that declared those requirements null and invalid. (more…)
Update: ThinkProgress has the statement
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From InTouch
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Celebrity scandals aren’t our bag. But considering that some Jewish groups felt Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” did more to further anti-Semitism than any other piece of pop culture in recent memory, we figure that Gibson’s apology for his anti-Semitic remarks over the weekend is fair game.
The photo above was taken at a bar a few hours before his arrest.
The N.Y. Times marvels at “the speed at which the scandal unfolded, doing serious damage to one of Hollywood?s most valuable careers along the way.”
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Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the Senate Judiciary chairman, will introduce a bill that will allow Congress to sue Bush in federal court with the aim of having Bush’s signing statements (“interpretations” used to skirt a law’s provisions) declared unconstitutional. (h/t: Huff Po)
Way to go, Arlen.
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The American Bar Association said the president’s signing statements amount to a “line item veto” that Congress is powerless to override, and constitute a ?threat to the Constitution and to the rule of law.?
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The space agency’s mission statement has been quietly altered to omit mention of the phrase ?...to understand and protect our home planet.?
Why does George Bush hate Earth?
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It would be the first time the president has used his override power; but that’s only because he has made unprecedented use of so-called signing statements to ignore the parts of new laws that he doesn’t feel like obeying.
Posted on Jul 18, 2006
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From Tinselwing
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A blogger surfaced The Boston Globe’s list of President Bush’s most egregious use of signing statements (the “interpretations” Bush makes of about-to-be-signed bills to avoid following the laws’ intent). Worst one: Bush asserts a right to waive the torture ban if doing so will prevent terrorist attacks.
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Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington, routinely reviews legislation bound for the president’s desk, searching for ways that the bills may limit presidential power.
More than a quick-hit news item, this article masterly describes Bush’s use of signing statements—interpretations of a law that can be used to subvert a law’s intended purpose.
Earlier: Addington—“The Most Powerful Person You’ve Never Heard Of”
Posted on May 28, 2006
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The Republican senator announced the move in the wake of news that Bush used “signing statements” to assert his supposed right to circumvent more than 750 laws passed over the last five years.
Legal scholars say the breadth of Bush’s use of “signing statements” is unprecedented.
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Too Soon to Tell: The Case for Hope, Continued
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