About that addition to the Patriot Act allowing the Bush Justice department to name US Attorneys without Senate approval? The change to the act that has led to the firing of at least 7 US Attorney including Carol Lam who was responsible for the corruption investigations around the Duke Cunningham affair? The change that allows the Bush adminstration to find great patronage jobs for the up and coming true believers who will be ready to be the next Alberto Gonzales or the next Samuel Alito?
Seems that this provision was snuck in behind Senator Arlen Specter's back by one of his staff. I can't imagine a better example of why we need to pass the Read The Bill bill. And I wonder if Senator Spector is going to fire anyone for this travesty?
We will definitely need a thorough disinfecting on how our laws are passed so that the "reconciliation" committees can't add crap that was explicitly rejected in public arguments and nothing can get inserted by a sneaky Senator or Representative (or staff member) without people knowing what they voted for.
And then there are those signing statements.
Let's make it explicit. If the President doesn't like the law, he has to veto it. He doesn't get to amend it in secret. We really have to figure out what is recoverable in our current Constitution from our disasterous Bush encounter and what we need to revise to make our Democracy actually work again.
x-posted at The Left Coaster