Democracy Awry

My friends, democracy in this country continues to go seriously awry, and if you don't believe it, please read this story from Reuters as posted on Yahoo News.

At first glance, it perhaps seems positive, we might actually have some of the oversight that I've been begging for since I started this blog.

But let's look a little bit closer. The whole article is about how the White House is considering submitting the program for oversight. Ladies and Gentlemen, that isn't oversight. That's trying to appease the masses with slight of hand and a bit of misdirection.

The whole question involved, with both NSA wiretapping programs of which we are aware, as well as with the recently revealed financial "wiretapping" scandal and a number of others, is twofolds: A) whether the whole kit and kaboodle is Constitutionally legal, and B) whether the Administration has the power to declare it so without anyone else being able to ensure it.

The problem runs very deep, in that the attitude of everyone seems to be that it's a good thing that the White House has decided to allow oversight. Apparently most people have bitten so hard on the White House official line that they believe that it's perfectly legitimate for the overseen to decide what they will and will not deign to be overseen on.

It's absurd and insane. Congress needs to stand up to this non-stop power grab by this Administration. The time for diplomacy and politics is over, the time for negotiating between the branches is done. It is time for Congress to step up and assert it's Constitutionally mandated power, not merely sit back like some hungry pet pooch, sitting on hind legs begging the master for some scrap of food.

Right now, I don't merely want the Congress to look into what the Administration says it can, I want the Congress to tell this President that he is not a monarch, not a dictator, and not above the law. I want Presidential power reigned back in so that the Executive branch returns to being merely one of three equal branches of government. I want the Executive branch to go back to doing the only thing the Constitution gives it power to do: executing the laws.

Wake up and smell the power consolidation, folks. This Administration has been more activist than any "activist judge" could ever be in terms of legislating without Constitutional power to do so. Signing statements have to go. Circumventing the process when it doesn't suit their fancy has to go. Refusing to allow oversight of their activities has to go.

And it has to start with all of us, from the Congress and the media on down to the ordinary citizen, rejecting the implicit assumption in the article I linked to, that it's OK for the President to decide what he will and will not stand for oversight on. He's not a king, it's damn well time we remembered that.

Liam.