Dianne Feinstein. Senator. Judiciary Committee Proposal to Restore Constitutional Provisions taken away by Patriot Act.
US Senator Feinstein realizes that the Bush administration is end-running the Constitution’s appointment process, which requires Senate confirmation for officers of the United States (including U.S. attorneys). The president is now bypassing the Constitution’s appointments process by firing U.S. attorney, then having the attorney general name an interim appointee, and then simply refraining from submitting a nominee to the senate for confirmation
Do you get the scam? The law use to require the Senate to approve nominees (to everything), Now Bush can just do it himself.
“Enshrined in the Constitution, the confirmations process is a significant source of senatorial power no matter who the president is. Practically speaking, confirmation is what compels a president of either party to consult senators rather than just peremptorily installing the president’s own people.”
As US Senator Feinstein correctly points out, the Patriot Act reauthorization did change prior law. Previously, under the federal code (Title 28, Section 546), if the position of district U.S. attorney became vacant, it could be filled for up to 120 days by an interim appointee selected by the attorney general. What would happen at the end of that 120-day period, if a new appointee (who would likely also be the interim appointee) had not yet been appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate? The old law said the power to appoint an interim U.S. attorney would then shift to the federal district court, whose appointee would serve until the president finally got his own nominee confirmed.
US Senator Feinstein has proposed a substitute amendment to USC TITLE 28 > PART II > CHAPTER 35 > § 541 to fix the problem, stop the Bush abuse, and restore the proper procedure that use to be in our Constitution.
She’s our hero of the week.
It seems we need more and more of them every day to end this White House’s madness, greed, corruption, violence and lies.
The problems and now even the solutions are beyond words.
ARLIEN SPECTER CHALLENGES THE PATRIOT ACT
U.S. Senator Arlien Specter, who is the ranking members for the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary committee has added his powerful voice to the need to revise the Patriot Act. Now having such a prestigious force behind the critical need to chang, if not delete, this so-called “Patriot Act,” makes a huge impact.
Details of two/three of the provisions that are now realized as actually be UNPATRIOTIC, below:
citizenbfk
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More options Mar 9, 10:25 am
One item reported today — not the most important item — but
exposing more and more, like peeling away the skins of an onion, how
devious, intrustive, ill-motivated and ill-used so-called “Patriot
Act,” is.
Justice Dept.: FBI misused Patriot Act
“The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot
Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United
States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.
And for three years the FBI has underreported to Congress how often it
forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.
FBI agents sometimes demanded the data without proper authorization,
according to the 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector
General Glenn A. Fine. At other times, the audit found, the FBI
improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.”
By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press
MORE SIGNIFICANTLY
Senators weigh PATRIOT Act
attorney provision
Senate Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Tuesday said he
would support a bid to reverse a provision in the USA PATRIOT Act that
helped facilitate what Democrats charge was the improper dismissal of
seven U.S. attorneys.
Denying an accusation by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that the
provision was “slipped into the PATRIOT Act in the dead of night” on
his watch, Specter said he discovered it recently and agreed “We ought
to change it back to what it was.”
The provision authorizes the attorney general to appoint interim U.S.
attorneys for indefinite periods.
By Basil Talbott, CongressDaily
IT’S THE LAST SENTENCE OF THE STORY, ABOVE, THAT IS CAUSING THIS MAJOR
SHOCK AND REALIZATION FOR A NEED TO CHANGE THE ACT.
Why? — The 50 State US Attorneys are the single most important people
to decide who gets charged with a crime. They say, for example, “This
is important, let’s do it.”
They say, “This is not important, forget it.”
They say, “This is important but we can’t prove it. Let’s watdh it
more (or let’s forget it)
SO -SURPRISE! #1) NINE OF OUR USA STATE ATTORNEYS HAVE BEEN FIRED!
#2) THOSE FIRED WERE ALL INVESTIGATING REPUBLICANS.
#3) THEY WERE REPLACED WITH REPUBLICAN SUPPORTERS.
#4) BECAUSE OF THAT LAST LINE, THAT ONE SINGLE LAST LINE MENTIONED
ABOVE AND WHICH LOOKS VERY NOW CLEARLY VERY MALICIOUS, BECAUSE OF THAT
ONE LINE THE HEAD US ATTORNEY GENERAL, ANTHONY GONZALES, CAN APPOINT
REPLACEMENTS WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF CONGRESS!
Nice scam. Normally Congress has to vote on and approve these state
Attorney General candidates; that’s routine. But now Bush and Gonzales
can just pick who they want all by themselves and they call it an
INTERIM appointment and avoid the need for Congressional approval. And
it’s “interim,” untilk Bush leaves office.
Nice scam. Actually: serious manipulation, serious prejudice of
justice, all under the name of so-called “patriotism.”
Why is this pretty sure to change? Because now even leading Republican
politicans are demanding it be changed and will introduce legislation
to do so, most significantly, Senate Judiciary ranking memeber Arlen
Specter, R-Pa.
The White House of Cards is beginning to crumble.
The new reality of Oversight and Investigations now possible with the
new Democratic control of the House and Senate is paying off.
…maybe, soon, even our children can go to the library and take out
books and not have their library-borrowing records subject to FBI
investiagtion
