Jane, you ignorant slut!
With apologies to Dan Akroyd for my failure to resist the temptation of stealing his line for a post title, US Congressional Representative Jane Harman (D-CA.36) has just demonstrated her appalling ignorance of the US Constitution. As an anarchist, I don’t have any special reverence for the incorporating document of a government because I don’t accept its legitimacy. Jane Harman is supposed to, however. The least she could do is read the damned thing once in a while.
After a DailyKos diarist’s post analyzing painfully apparent Democratic Congressional complicity in Bush regime FISA crimes, Representative Harman herself, as confirmed by her Congressional office staff according to DKos admin KagroX, posted a response. In that response, Harman basically hid behind the inadequate fig leaf of a supposed need to craft a surveillance bill which would pass with a veto proof majority.
What rubbish! For those like me who insist that the President’s domestic surveillance program must comply fully with the Constitution and the 4th Amendment, the only way for Congress to get there is with a veto-proof majority. That’s why I’m working with Republicans. Got a better idea?
I opposed the FISA-gutting Protect America Act last August and supported the much-improved H.R. 3773, which did not include retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. I call on the White House to do more than share selected documents with a handful of Senators – how do we know what the White House is not providing? In my view, the question of retroactive immunity cannot even be considered until Congress is fully informed about what happened and under what authority.
The thing is, even grassroots members of the left wing of the right wing, which is to say the Democratic Party, can see through the chaff she’s throwing out up.
As one commenter noted:
And regarding the “substance” of your response, if it can be called that, get a clue and peddle your “veto-proof majority” line to a less sophistocated audience. I recommend Chris Matthews or Tim Russert.
We all know around here that all you have to do is NOTHING. The FISA update contained a sunset provision and will thus revert back to the original FISA early next year. Either the Republicans pass a good bill (with no immunity) or they accept the fact that they will have to operate under the old FISA. Period.
And another:
How does it take a “veto-proof” majority to just not write and vote on or for legislation that violates the 4th amendment or provides immunity?
It’s the President who is in the bind - he cannot write legislation. Well, obviously the MCA shows he can - as long as the Dems in Congress are amoral monsters.
Still, what you have is a thankfully expiring statute and a very narrow way to give the NSA and President what they “say” they need (if they do, indeed, even “need” such a thing, seeing that they have, over and over, lied even on the record and under oath - with no recourse to date from Congress).
And, finally:
It’s not the first time… a member of Congress or their staff has displayed appalling ignorance of the Constitution on these pages.
Indeed.
What I suggest has occurred here is best understood by grasping why impeachment has not yet happened. Certainly there’s a large element of the Democrats in Congress salivating at the prospect of grasping the executive power Bush has so kindly accumulated for them. But not to be overlooked is what could be regarded as a glaring structural flaw in the US Constitution or a drawback of written constitutions for governments with divided powers generally…
If the executive branch succeeds in making it politically untenable for legislative branch leaders to avoid sharing guilt for criminal policies, the legislative branch becomes incapable of exercising oversight (to include impeachment) of the executive branch. Both sides recognizing that they are in a standoff choose to accomodate each other — the better to plunder and exploit the rest of us.
Written constitutions inevitably fail to restrict government power to a purportedly sensible level. Even if they did, such powers as they did exercise would still be morally wrong, unnecessary and inimical to the interests of the lower class. It’s time to move on. Yes, anarchism.
UPDATE: Additional followup on the Harman incident here. And, BTW, Harman was the one who introduced the atrocious Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.
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