Yesterday’s interview with Brian Wilson is now available as a podcast here. (Scroll down to the 12/3 interview)
Tim King, the author of The Conscience of Abe’s Turn blog, kindly posted a partial transcript of the interview on his website. Here’s an outtake of my comments :
It’s possible that the deployment of troops could be tied to a presidential declaration of emergency. And people would think, Well, that’s like Hurricane Katrina, for instance. But no, it could be anything the president says was an emergency. Bill Clinton pioneered the art of making snow storms in northern states national emergencies. Clinton averaged, I think, about 1 emergency declaration per week in some years of his presidency. And—fundamental problem here—there is nothing to limit the president’s power in how he deploys these troops…
Part of the frustration that I have is similar to what I felt during the Clinton years. There are a lot of liberals who seem to understand, when George W. Bush was ordering torture or suspending habeas corpus or whatever, that power is a very dangerous thing. But now that there’s someone who claims to liberal who’s going to be president, it’s almost as if all the old dangers have vanished.
Google Lost Horizons or “TruthAttack” for an update on Your government at work, Stealing with license.
Yes, I’ve noticed too that liberals are developing a taste for the “unitary executive”. It probably won’t be long before they’re dishing out a “Dixie Chicks” treatment to somebody who dares to criticize their god-king.
Not a one of the Bozo’s on either side of the aisle will voluntarily reduce their reach because they think that they are somehow wiser than the accumulated wisdom exhibited by the Founders and that they will know how to flex the accumulated powers prudently. None of them seem to exhibit any comprehension that the Separation of Powers was not created to impede good government but to insure that bad government would not gain a foothold. Throwing this essential check out has meant that bad government comes more frequently and will, naturally, become a constant. The Sunbeams for the Unitary Executive will drive the joint right into the ditch and we shall have the lovely centrist thing of a bi-partisan pooching.
I congradulate Dirk for his wonderful use of the English language. But, just proves Jim’s point always, power has no way of knowing what the D’s and R’s will do. Both of them embrace it, and pass off to each in their adminstrations, more power, and it just accumlates like a blizzard.
Unfortunetly, the summer never comes to get rid of this snowpack. On a lighter note, Jim, sending you my Christmas greetings. I’m not for this Happy Holidays bull crap. And I speak as a retired Catholic!
Jean – thanks – and I hope you have a hearty, happy Christmas up in Maine without too many moose (s?) poking their nose into your kitchen window.
Dirk – centrist pooching is always the worst kind.
Thanks Jean but my abuse of the English Language is largely a replacement for fondling enough bottles of Laphroaig Single Malt to earn one annual Birthday cards from the Isle o Islay. It is, therefore, therapeutic for me, punishing for all others, like most abusive tendencies should always be.
Jim, you are , as always, correct because everyone knows that “centrist pooching” has all the charms of an oil derrick on auto pilot.