Bush Claims Mail Can Be Opened Without Warrant

don_combatant writes to note that President Bush claimed new powers to search US mail without a warrant. He made this claim in a "signing statement" at the time he signed a postal overhaul bill into law on December 20. The signing statement directly contradicts part of the bill he signed, which explicitly reinforces protections of first-class mail from searches without a court's approval. According to the article, "A top Senate Intelligence Committee aide promised a review of Bush's move."

Wait, Bush can read?

[Junior J. Junior III]

I'm not so surprised that Bush is claiming he can read mail without a warrant as I am that he can read at all.

Re:New Congress

[SetupWeasel]

Yes, but they have only been in power... today. Can we give them 24 hours or so?

Turns out

[antifoidulus]

Bush just wants to maximize his chances of winning Ed McMahon's $10 million.

He's like Superman!

[Malakusen]

Bush keeps pulling BS powers out of his ass based solely on letting him do whatever he wants to do at any given time.

"Hmm... I want to eavesdrop on phone calls, but as the law is written now, I can't. Fortunately, I can use my Presidential Wiretapping Power to authorize warrantless wiretapping!"
"Hmm... I want to torture prisoners to get information that, while not accurate, will support my foreign policy goals. But it's against US and international law. Aha! Super Secret Presidential Rendition Powers!"

And so on. Somebody really needs to tell Bush he can't go to Superdickery.com anymore.

Re:OH NOES!!!

[dyslexicbunny]

Breaking news at the White House

Tommorow, Bush will claim the sky is in fact - purple. Rumors also suggest he may claim 'nuclear' is correctly spelled as 'nucular.' Further reports as they are made available.

Ah... signing statements.

Re:New Congress

[eln]

Yes, the new Congress will immediately pass a bill making signing statements illegal. Unfortunately, President Bush will attach a signing statement to that law invalidating it.

Re:Canada looks better and better

[geoffspear]

Thomas Jefferson badly paraphrased Ben Franklin just like everyone on Slashdot does? Neat. But I bet Alexander Hamilton modded him -1 Redundant, the bastard.

Re:Obligatory quote

[wbren]

...The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause...

There-fixed the emphasis for YOU.

Wait... oops

Re:OH NOES!!!

[somersault]

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

George w Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

Nice try - we all know that Bush is incapable of forming a coherent sentence like that.

Re:OH NOES!!!

[HTH NE1]

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heckuva lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

I've changed it for you to reflect his usage of the language. (It's scarier that way.)

Tell you what, George...

[markbt73]

You can read our mail... if we can read yours.

Deal?

Re:Gerald Ford condemned domestic surveillance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh... you haven't heard? This is awkward...

Re:Gerald Ford condemned domestic surveillance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is Gerald Ford when our nation needs him to rescue us from a cowboy?

He's dead.

Presidential Memo For Slashdot: +1, Patriotistic

[Anonymous Coward]

Call Your Senator [huffingtonpost.com] now and demand the arrest,
trial, conviction, and sentencing of AL-QAEDA's CHIEF OF [whitehouse.org]
OPERATIONS.

Thanks again for your support,
Kilgore Trout, ACTIVIST

Re:OH NOES!!!

[Captain Splendid]

Y'know, looking at all thes posts modded flamebait or troll, it occurs to me I'm going to bitchslap the next right-wing pussy who complains of the heavy liberal bias on Slashdot.

As for moderation on this comment, knock yourselves out, fuckers. Karma to burn, etc.

Sure, Why not?

[Lost Penguin]

Hmmm,
Almost daily murders by police
Torture of civilians by police
Phone tapping by Feds
Water boarding by Military and Feds
Guantanamo
Lobotomies of civilians by police (since 1985)

Why NOT open the mail?

Re:Wait, Bush can read?

[amRadioHed]

I believe the word you meant is misunderestimate.

Re:OH NOES!!!

[SpaceLifeForm]

Obviously he is not writing these signing statements.

The proof is the use of the word 'exigent'.

He has no idea what that means, and he certainly
would have misspelled it.

I, for one...

[Guppy06]

... look forward to the pending constitutional crisis triggered when a Postal Inspector places an FBI agent under arrest.

Re:OH NOES!!!

[Jehosephat2k]

In Soviet Russia, statement signs YOU!

Re:This bullshit has gone on much too long...

[avatar4d]

YES! Finally Cheney is in charge! Now we can shoot the terrorists in the face...

Re:OH NOES!!!

[soft_guy]

But he's using the Constitution to wipe his ass.

The trip down to the national archives every day must be quite a shlep.

Re:OH NOES!!!

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Well then I considerify myself a dictation only in a hypertheatrical situification.

Love, George.

Re:Gerald Ford condemned domestic surveillance.

[HaloZero]

...Jim.

Re:OH NOES!!!

[kfg]

I'm not too sure we have some huge problem with bombs being sent in the mail.

I was helping a friend mow his lawn the awhile ago, but he didn't have a week whacker, so we went over to Dave's house to borrow his. Forgive me if I have a different perspective on this issue. At the very least it certainly happens.

Not that it really has anything to do with the issue at hand.

KFG

Re:This bullshit has gone on much too long...

[advocate_one]

Hold on to the other copy of the letter until Jan. 15th, after the new congress, when we're having everyone send them in. (next wave will go to a different, more impeachment friendly, congress person in March. Stay tuned.)

That's right -- to make a big impact, we're having everyone send it in on the same date (Over 350,000 downloads so far representing over 1.2 million mailings). We hope to flood the congress with sacks of mail and cause a newsworthy event to further pressure them to act on the memorials. Although, it's important to keep in mind that in the 1830 precedent, impeachment resulted as a result of a single memorial. Yours might be the one.

No wonder he wants to open mail without a warrant... he wants to stop these "memorials for impeachment" getting through...

Re:OH NOES!!!

[dangitman]

Of course, this is a catch-22 because if you don't fight back then you look like a pussy. If you fight back with logic, you come off as a boring dweeb, not a gung-ho action man. If you fight back with emotion, you are a hate-filled wingnut.

This is why we need to fight them with Chuck Norris.

Re:OH NOES!!!

[dangitman]

Remember the Unibomber?

Isn't he the guy that kept flunking University over and over? I don't think he's much of a threat to anybody. He can get good weed, too.

execute? KH

[Anonymous Coward]

"I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States"

I would say he has given this a good try. The office is nearly dead till '08.

"...he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"

  Yup, one by one.

Lame. Duck.

KH

Re:IMPEACH - the only tag needed.

[Steavis]

At least she makes no bones about using the think-of-the-children excuse to do whatever she wants:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/on-t he-hill-for-the-children-and-the-grandchildren [nytimes.com]

What that means to you I guess depends on your particular leanings... [Raise taxes|Shred constitution|trample rights|etc.]

Wrong

[einhverfr]

What you spell "Nucular" the president actually spells "newkiller" as in "we don't want Iran to get newkiller weapons" and "We need newkiller weapons to be more useful." This is so that we avoid the fears of nuclear disasters while emphasizing that these are new killer weapons...

IANAL, but I dont think it is strictly correct to say that signing statements are not considered law. The question usually surrounds the intent of congress and whether what the President has said is within his authority (i.e. Jackson's test).

Re:OH NOES!!!

[TWX]

Stop misunderestimating him!