Sir Moses' Kotel Stones Crumbling and Muslim Cleric Rebelling
In a somewhat confusing statement, Kosel Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch on Monday announced some of the Kosel stones, the 19th century stones funded by Sir Moses Montefiore, are loose.
The rabbi’s statements came a short time after maintenance work was done on the Kosel ahead of Pesach, at which time the ‘all clear’ signal was given regarding the integrity of the stones.
Nevertheless, it now appears some of the stones are in danger of crumbling, falling out of place, but engineers report the danger is not imminent and there is no fear regarding the upcoming yom tov.
While the stones may not be removed to make repairs, scaffolding will be built and according to Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Jews only will work on the repairs and only workers who have gone to mikve prior to beginning their day’s work.
Repair work is expected to begin after Pesach, in the hope it will be completed well ahead of the next rain season.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel April 15, 2008)
From comments:
The Jpost is reporting that the top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, Mohammed Hussein, says the wall is a part of the attached Al Aqsa mosque. He warned that any Israel action there would be seen as aggression.
* * * * *
Well, maybe we should just let "nature" (Hashem) take its course and maybe the Beit Shlishi will rise up!
PLEASE USE A NAME WHEN COMMENTING
16 April 2008
11 April 2008
WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER OFF!
WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER OFF!
It's only TV and the media
That make people think
That the end of our world is coming.
Only 68+ years ago,
They were leading Jews to their death
Like sheep to the slaughter!
No Country, No Army. 60 years ago!
Seven Arab countries declared war
On the small Jewish State,
Only a few hours old!
We were then 650,000 Jews!
Against the rest of the Arab world!
No IDF [Israel Defense Force].
No mighty Air Force,
Just tough people
With nowhere to go.
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, attacked all at once.
The country the UN "gave us"
Was 65% desert.
The country started from scratch!
41 years ago! We fought
The three strongest armies in the Middle East,
And wiped them out in six days
We fought against
Different coalitions of Arab countries,
With modern armies,
And masses of Soviet Russian weapons,
And we still won!
We have today
A country,
An army,
A strong Air Force,
A Hi-Tech Economy, exporting millions.
Intel - Microsoft - IBM develop their stuff here.
Our doctors win world prizes for medical developments.
We made the desert flourish,
Selling oranges and vegetables to the world.
Israel has sent its own satellite into Space!
Three satellites all together!
We sit proudly,
With the US, with 250 million people,
With Russia, with 200 million people,
With China, with 1.1 billion people,
With the Europeans -- France, England, Germany, with
350 million people,
The only countries in the world
To shoot something into space!
Israel is today in the world nuclear power family
With the US, Russia, China, India, France, and England.
[We don't admit it, but every one knows...]
To think that only 68+ years ago,
We were led,
Shameful,
With no hope,
To our death!
We crawled out of the burning ashes of Europe,
We won our wars here with less than nothing
We built an "empire" out of nothing.
We celebrate Passover
Let's not forget what the story is all about.
We overcame Pharaoh,
We overcame the Greeks,
We overcame the Romans,
We overcame the Inquisition in Spain,
We overcame the Pogroms in Russia,
We overcame Hitler,
We overcame the Germans,
We overcame the Holocaust,
We overcame the armies of the seven Arab countries,
We overcame Saddam.
Take it easy, folks,
We will overcome
The present enemies too.
No matter which part of human history you try!
Think of it,
For us,
The Jewish people,
Our situation has never been better!
So,
Let's Lift our Heads High,
Let's Remember:
Any nation or culture
That tried to mess around with us
Was destroyed -- while we kept going!
Egypt?
Anyone know where their empire disappeared to?
Greeks?
Alexander of Macedonia?
The Romans?
Does anyone today speak Latin?
The Third Reich?
Anyone heard any news about it lately?
And look at us,
The Nation from the Bible,
From Slavery in Egypt,
We are still here,
Speaking the same language!
Right here, right now.
The Arabs don't know it yet,
But, they will learn that there is [only] one G.d.
As long as we keep our identity,
We are eternal.
So, sorry for not worrying,
Not bitching,
Not crying,
Not being scared.
Things are OK here.
They surely could be better,
But still:
They won't tell you
That there are festivals going on,
That people keep on living,
That people are going out,
That people are seeing friends.
Yes, our morale is low,
So what?
It's only because we weep for our dead
While they worship death.
This is the same reason why,
We will win, after all.
It's only TV and the media
That make people think
That the end of our world is coming.
Only 68+ years ago,
They were leading Jews to their death
Like sheep to the slaughter!
No Country, No Army. 60 years ago!
Seven Arab countries declared war
On the small Jewish State,
Only a few hours old!
We were then 650,000 Jews!
Against the rest of the Arab world!
No IDF [Israel Defense Force].
No mighty Air Force,
Just tough people
With nowhere to go.
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, attacked all at once.
The country the UN "gave us"
Was 65% desert.
The country started from scratch!
41 years ago! We fought
The three strongest armies in the Middle East,
And wiped them out in six days
We fought against
Different coalitions of Arab countries,
With modern armies,
And masses of Soviet Russian weapons,
And we still won!
We have today
A country,
An army,
A strong Air Force,
A Hi-Tech Economy, exporting millions.
Intel - Microsoft - IBM develop their stuff here.
Our doctors win world prizes for medical developments.
We made the desert flourish,
Selling oranges and vegetables to the world.
Israel has sent its own satellite into Space!
Three satellites all together!
We sit proudly,
With the US, with 250 million people,
With Russia, with 200 million people,
With China, with 1.1 billion people,
With the Europeans -- France, England, Germany, with
350 million people,
The only countries in the world
To shoot something into space!
Israel is today in the world nuclear power family
With the US, Russia, China, India, France, and England.
[We don't admit it, but every one knows...]
To think that only 68+ years ago,
We were led,
Shameful,
With no hope,
To our death!
We crawled out of the burning ashes of Europe,
We won our wars here with less than nothing
We built an "empire" out of nothing.
We celebrate Passover
Let's not forget what the story is all about.
We overcame Pharaoh,
We overcame the Greeks,
We overcame the Romans,
We overcame the Inquisition in Spain,
We overcame the Pogroms in Russia,
We overcame Hitler,
We overcame the Germans,
We overcame the Holocaust,
We overcame the armies of the seven Arab countries,
We overcame Saddam.
Take it easy, folks,
We will overcome
The present enemies too.
No matter which part of human history you try!
Think of it,
For us,
The Jewish people,
Our situation has never been better!
So,
Let's Lift our Heads High,
Let's Remember:
Any nation or culture
That tried to mess around with us
Was destroyed -- while we kept going!
Egypt?
Anyone know where their empire disappeared to?
Greeks?
Alexander of Macedonia?
The Romans?
Does anyone today speak Latin?
The Third Reich?
Anyone heard any news about it lately?
And look at us,
The Nation from the Bible,
From Slavery in Egypt,
We are still here,
Speaking the same language!
Right here, right now.
The Arabs don't know it yet,
But, they will learn that there is [only] one G.d.
As long as we keep our identity,
We are eternal.
So, sorry for not worrying,
Not bitching,
Not crying,
Not being scared.
Things are OK here.
They surely could be better,
But still:
They won't tell you
That there are festivals going on,
That people keep on living,
That people are going out,
That people are seeing friends.
Yes, our morale is low,
So what?
It's only because we weep for our dead
While they worship death.
This is the same reason why,
We will win, after all.
03 April 2008
The New World Order Revisited
The following is taken straight from Wikipedia:
Please take notice that some of these items we have read about,
witnessed, and appear in our daily news reports.
* * * * *
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_(conspiracy)
Inthe new world order, many significant occurrences are caused by a powerful … "New World Order" and its opposition to Orthodox Judaism ...
These are events that some conspiracy theorists claim are pivotal in and related to the establishment of the New World Order.
* In 1903 the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were published in Russia.Scholars generally agree that the Okhrana, the secret police of the RussianEmpire, fabricated the text in the late 1890s or early 1900s.
* In the July 17, 1926 Saturday Evening Post, the term "New World Order"was used for the first time in a popular magazine article to describe thework of Edward M. House in helping to create the League of Nations and helpingto found the Council on Foreign Relations.
* From 1940 until herdeath in 1949, Alice Bailey published various books in which she called Zionisma "triangle of terror" and called for a New World Order in which OrthodoxJudaism no longer existed.
* On January 20, 2005, the currentPresident of the United States, George W. Bush in his inaugural speech said,"When our Founders declared a new order of the ages - they were acting onan ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled."
* On 17th January2007 during a trip to India and prior to taking office as British Prime Minister,Gordon Brown talked of a New World Order.
"The Open Conspiracy"
H.G.Wells said in his 1940 non-fiction book entitled "The New World Order": "...when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world socialdemocracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments beforeit becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ...will hate the new world order ... and will die protesting against it. Whenwe attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distressof a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-lookingpeople." H.G. Wells called his effort to organize prominent intellectualsbehind the idea of establishing a World Government "The Open Conspiracy"(a benevolent one) in his 1928 book of that name.
Council of Foreign Relations theory
Paleo-conservativePatrick J. Buchanan asserts the Council on Foreign Relations (itself allegedto be a front for international bankers, as well as, it is claimed, the inspirationfor the founding of the Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, and WorldTrade Organization) is behind the conspiracy. He claims that the internationalbanking interests are planning to eventually subvert the independence ofthe United States of America by subordinating national sovereignty to theUnited Nations.
Monopolist Planned Economy
This thesis agreeswith the right-wing libertarian opinion who sees a future socialist WorldState as the only way to achieve an Orwellian collectivist oligarchy freedfrom the need to subordinate the world's production to the consumers of afree market economy. The conspiracy would replace it with a monopolist plannedeconomy capable of rationing the resources, converting populations into publicproperty. Their usual image is an egalitarian slavery under a global scientificdictatorship.
Annuit Cœptis Novus Ordo Seclorum
The phrasemeans "New Order of the Ages". Some of those who believe that the Freemasonsare involved in the conspiracy to create a New World Order claim that themotto is inspired by Freemasonry, and is one of the clues to the True Mastersof the World. By circumscribing the 6 pointed hexagram, or Star of David,over the pyramid, 5 of the 6 apices (the 6th being the 'All-seeing eye'),point near letters spelling S-M-O-N-A, which can be rearranged to spell Mason(also monas and moans, as well as the phenome "omans", which possibly couldportend to "omens"). (In Hebrew the word "oman" (plural "omanim") means artisanor skilled labourer, hence the possible reference in the word mason)
The 13 Steps
Advocatesof the theory also cite the 13 steps to ascend the pyramid, and the 72 visibleblocks on the front. The Great US seal is also ascribed as employing heavilymasonic imagery, with many believing the eagle to represent the masonic phoenix.The eagle holds an olive branch with 13 olives and 13 leaves in one claw,and 13 arrows in the other. The recurrence and significance of the number13 is often attributed to its importance in numerology, and also to therebeing 13 degrees in York Rite Freemasonry. The Great Seal's eagle also has32 feathers on the right wing and 33 on left wing (32 and 33 being the twohighest degrees in Scottish Rite Freemasonry).
More conventional thinkersregard the thirteen steps as referring to the thirteen colonies. If the blocksare correctly counted and their number intended, 72 has other mystical meanings:it was sacred to the Egyptians, as Plutarch says; and Persians, Jews andChristians use it as the number of nations on the Earth.
Theories about instances of historical manipulations
*The Federal Reserve Act, designed to regulate bankers, was written on a privateisland off the coast of Georgia in 1910 by bankers representing the JP Morgan,Rockefeller, and Rothschild interests. This allegedly gave the top internationalbankers the power to control and manipulate the United States economy.
* The use of the Patriot Act in the United States (9/11)
*The United States government knew in advance of the attacks on the WorldTrade Center and The Pentagon (9/11), the Bush administration created theattacks as a "legitimate" reason to enter Afghanistan, and later Iraq. Itis also thought that the US may use similar reasoning to invade Iran, Lebanonand other countries in the Middle East as a foothold for the new world order.
George Bush
Thisconspiracy theory alleges that George W Bush will take dictatorship of USand needs four things to be true, assuming 9/11 was a false flag operation:
1. Reinvent martial law to remove Habeas corpus - Military Commissions Act
2. Continuity of government during emergencies, even after term ends, andmake 'executive orders' absolute law - National Security and Homeland SecurityPresidential Directive
3. Another false flag operation to happen so that martial law can be declared
4. An enemy to blame and declare war - Iran or North Korea
If implemented Bush can even disband Congress (legislative branch).
Alleged socio-political changes
Literaturepromoting such conspiracies often contain or presuppose a rich mythologyof occurrences including the following examples of potential fundamentalchanges, typically with a USA-bias :
* "Black helicopters", militiasorganized from a combination of UN troops, paramilitary police forces andthe National Guard; the imposition of martial law; FEMA operated dissidentcamps.
* National and local elections monitored by the UN, with an implication of election rigging.
* The UN assuming the sovereignty and responsibilities of the US government.
* Foreign military troops on US soil for alleged "peacekeeping" or "humanitarian" missions.
* The US constitution replaced by the UN Charter (requiring a redraftingof the charter, since the current form is not sufficiently robust, nor intended,to serve as a document of national basic law).
* UN control of a unified, global economy - Often correlated with Globalization.
* All cash money eliminated; currency or "credit" exchanges made usingmicrochips, implanted or otherwise; See Smart card, VeriChip, the more recentReal ID Act.
* Ubiquitous surveillance of civilians, via cameras and implants.
* The execution, imprisonment, institutionalization, or marginalizationof critics, artists, dissidents, religious figures, etc. as a means of censorshipand control.
Caveat: But the Muslims seem to be disrupting this whole scenario!
They are anti-America and thus anti-New World Order.
If this is not enough, keep your eyes on China.
Please take notice that some of these items we have read about,
witnessed, and appear in our daily news reports.
* * * * *
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_(conspiracy)
Inthe new world order, many significant occurrences are caused by a powerful … "New World Order" and its opposition to Orthodox Judaism ...
These are events that some conspiracy theorists claim are pivotal in and related to the establishment of the New World Order.
* In 1903 the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were published in Russia.Scholars generally agree that the Okhrana, the secret police of the RussianEmpire, fabricated the text in the late 1890s or early 1900s.
* In the July 17, 1926 Saturday Evening Post, the term "New World Order"was used for the first time in a popular magazine article to describe thework of Edward M. House in helping to create the League of Nations and helpingto found the Council on Foreign Relations.
* From 1940 until herdeath in 1949, Alice Bailey published various books in which she called Zionisma "triangle of terror" and called for a New World Order in which OrthodoxJudaism no longer existed.
* On January 20, 2005, the currentPresident of the United States, George W. Bush in his inaugural speech said,"When our Founders declared a new order of the ages - they were acting onan ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled."
* On 17th January2007 during a trip to India and prior to taking office as British Prime Minister,Gordon Brown talked of a New World Order.
"The Open Conspiracy"
H.G.Wells said in his 1940 non-fiction book entitled "The New World Order": "...when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world socialdemocracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments beforeit becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ...will hate the new world order ... and will die protesting against it. Whenwe attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distressof a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-lookingpeople." H.G. Wells called his effort to organize prominent intellectualsbehind the idea of establishing a World Government "The Open Conspiracy"(a benevolent one) in his 1928 book of that name.
Council of Foreign Relations theory
Paleo-conservativePatrick J. Buchanan asserts the Council on Foreign Relations (itself allegedto be a front for international bankers, as well as, it is claimed, the inspirationfor the founding of the Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, and WorldTrade Organization) is behind the conspiracy. He claims that the internationalbanking interests are planning to eventually subvert the independence ofthe United States of America by subordinating national sovereignty to theUnited Nations.
Monopolist Planned Economy
This thesis agreeswith the right-wing libertarian opinion who sees a future socialist WorldState as the only way to achieve an Orwellian collectivist oligarchy freedfrom the need to subordinate the world's production to the consumers of afree market economy. The conspiracy would replace it with a monopolist plannedeconomy capable of rationing the resources, converting populations into publicproperty. Their usual image is an egalitarian slavery under a global scientificdictatorship.
Annuit Cœptis Novus Ordo Seclorum
The phrasemeans "New Order of the Ages". Some of those who believe that the Freemasonsare involved in the conspiracy to create a New World Order claim that themotto is inspired by Freemasonry, and is one of the clues to the True Mastersof the World. By circumscribing the 6 pointed hexagram, or Star of David,over the pyramid, 5 of the 6 apices (the 6th being the 'All-seeing eye'),point near letters spelling S-M-O-N-A, which can be rearranged to spell Mason(also monas and moans, as well as the phenome "omans", which possibly couldportend to "omens"). (In Hebrew the word "oman" (plural "omanim") means artisanor skilled labourer, hence the possible reference in the word mason)
The 13 Steps
Advocatesof the theory also cite the 13 steps to ascend the pyramid, and the 72 visibleblocks on the front. The Great US seal is also ascribed as employing heavilymasonic imagery, with many believing the eagle to represent the masonic phoenix.The eagle holds an olive branch with 13 olives and 13 leaves in one claw,and 13 arrows in the other. The recurrence and significance of the number13 is often attributed to its importance in numerology, and also to therebeing 13 degrees in York Rite Freemasonry. The Great Seal's eagle also has32 feathers on the right wing and 33 on left wing (32 and 33 being the twohighest degrees in Scottish Rite Freemasonry).
More conventional thinkersregard the thirteen steps as referring to the thirteen colonies. If the blocksare correctly counted and their number intended, 72 has other mystical meanings:it was sacred to the Egyptians, as Plutarch says; and Persians, Jews andChristians use it as the number of nations on the Earth.
Theories about instances of historical manipulations
*The Federal Reserve Act, designed to regulate bankers, was written on a privateisland off the coast of Georgia in 1910 by bankers representing the JP Morgan,Rockefeller, and Rothschild interests. This allegedly gave the top internationalbankers the power to control and manipulate the United States economy.
* The use of the Patriot Act in the United States (9/11)
*The United States government knew in advance of the attacks on the WorldTrade Center and The Pentagon (9/11), the Bush administration created theattacks as a "legitimate" reason to enter Afghanistan, and later Iraq. Itis also thought that the US may use similar reasoning to invade Iran, Lebanonand other countries in the Middle East as a foothold for the new world order.
George Bush
Thisconspiracy theory alleges that George W Bush will take dictatorship of USand needs four things to be true, assuming 9/11 was a false flag operation:
1. Reinvent martial law to remove Habeas corpus - Military Commissions Act
2. Continuity of government during emergencies, even after term ends, andmake 'executive orders' absolute law - National Security and Homeland SecurityPresidential Directive
3. Another false flag operation to happen so that martial law can be declared
4. An enemy to blame and declare war - Iran or North Korea
If implemented Bush can even disband Congress (legislative branch).
Alleged socio-political changes
Literaturepromoting such conspiracies often contain or presuppose a rich mythologyof occurrences including the following examples of potential fundamentalchanges, typically with a USA-bias :
* "Black helicopters", militiasorganized from a combination of UN troops, paramilitary police forces andthe National Guard; the imposition of martial law; FEMA operated dissidentcamps.
* National and local elections monitored by the UN, with an implication of election rigging.
* The UN assuming the sovereignty and responsibilities of the US government.
* Foreign military troops on US soil for alleged "peacekeeping" or "humanitarian" missions.
* The US constitution replaced by the UN Charter (requiring a redraftingof the charter, since the current form is not sufficiently robust, nor intended,to serve as a document of national basic law).
* UN control of a unified, global economy - Often correlated with Globalization.
* All cash money eliminated; currency or "credit" exchanges made usingmicrochips, implanted or otherwise; See Smart card, VeriChip, the more recentReal ID Act.
* Ubiquitous surveillance of civilians, via cameras and implants.
* The execution, imprisonment, institutionalization, or marginalizationof critics, artists, dissidents, religious figures, etc. as a means of censorshipand control.
Caveat: But the Muslims seem to be disrupting this whole scenario!
They are anti-America and thus anti-New World Order.
If this is not enough, keep your eyes on China.
01 April 2008
Scoop of the Century: Bush pre-Historic Third Term
***
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the office of the White House Counsel are preparing a draft document laying out the President's wartime authority to remain in office past 2008.
The scheme is described as an emergency "continuity presidency," made necessary by the extraordinary circumstances and unique challenges of protecting the United States from the threat of international terrorism.
"The world changed on 9/11 and no Administration in US history is better suited to adapt productively to those changes than this one.
"The Attorney General supports the basic framework in the White House Counsel's draft proposal for a future Executive Order establishing a Continuity Presidency, with two provisos: 1. There must be at least the appearance of a time limit, which the AG believes might be satisfied by tying the duration of the Continuity Presidency to the duration of the GWOT [global war on terrorism]; and 2. The House and Senate Majority Leaders and the Chairpersons of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees must issue a written certification that they have approved the plan.
"AG does not believe that the plan will succeed unless those conditions can be met. Suggest you liase with [the White House office of] Legislative Affairs and get their sense of the liklihood that the key Members will work with us."
The memo is signed Special Assistant to the United States Attorney General and is addressed to the Special Assistant to White House Counsel.
A second memo leaked to The Register, this time from DoJ Assistant McIntyre to Jock Mahoney, Special Assistant to US Solicitor General Paul Clement, and to Philip Van Zandt at the White House, anticipates an immediate Supreme Court challenge to the scheme, and offers a few suggestions for defending the Administration's action.
"We will be attacked on the basis of Article II Section 1, and on Amendment XXII. Thus it is absolutely crucial that the anticipated Executive Order for a Continuity Presidency make no mention whatsoever of a 'Third Term.' This will eliminate appeals to Amendment XXII, and leave us free to focus our attack on Article II Section 1 alone. Thus, the Executive Order has got to be framed as a necessary - and Congressionally authorized - extension of the President's Second Term, so that we can base our arguments on the Joint Resolution and Article II Section 2.
"Above all, we must emphasize that the 2001 Joint Resolution, in which Congress empowered the President to 'use all necessary and appropriate force ... to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States,' and Article II Section 2 of the United States Constitution, give the President ample authority to issue an Executive Order for a Continuity Presidency for the duration of the GWOT, to exercise fully his mandate to protect the American people from harm.
"We must also press the national security angle hard and emphasize that the United States would be endangered severely by a change of government at this time. America cannot afford to give the terrorists such an opportunity."
Now, this might not seem like much for the Bushies to pin their imperial hopes on, but the White House has already succeeded in expanding the 2001 Joint Resolution, and Article II Section 2 of the Constitution, to include virtually any step, legal and illegal, that the Administration wishes to take in prosecuting the war on terror.
For a recent example we might recall repeated White House and DoJ assertions that the Joint Resolution and Article II Section 2 authorize the President to eavesdrop on US citizens in clear violation of federal law. And neither Congress nor the Supremes have shown any inclination to rein him in.
So, as sketchy as the justification is, if the Congressional leadership and the US Supreme Court should capitulate to Bush, as they have tended to do in the past, it seems possible that he might remain in the White House past the expiration of his second term, as he obviously intends.
The Register contacted the offices of the US Attorney General and the White House Counsel, and both declined to comment. Neither denied the memos, however.
Are they a hoax? We consulted renowned constitutional scholar Bud Jamison, of the prestigious Washington legal firm Horwitz Feinberg & Horwitz, for insight.
"I don't think they're a hoax, but I also don't think that there's anything here for the public to worry about, except the sad comment it makes on the current Administration.
"I think we can assume - even for the sake of argument alone - that there is a draft proposal along these lines circulating. Obviously, we can only speculate about the full content and wording of the proposal, but based on the comments in these memos, I think we can do that fairly productively," Jamison said.
"First, the fact that this proposal is in the works so far in advance of the 2008 elections suggests that real care is being taken, which in turn suggests that President Bush is, for the moment, anyway, quite serious about attempting this coup d'état.
"If it ever becomes public, I suspect we'll find that the proposed executive order will postpone the 2008 elections - citing the exigencies of war - rather than attempt to do battle with Article II Section 1 and the 22nd Amendment.
"But, Constitutionally speaking, Bush hasn't got a leg to stand on. Article II Section 1 states plainly that the president is elected to a four-year term, and the 22nd Amendment states plainly that he can serve only two terms. He's looking for weasel room, and he thinks that merely extending his second term, rather than declaring a third term, will give it to him. He's mistaken.
"I can't imagine even a sympathetic Supreme Court going along with this - although I'll admit that I was surprised when they handed him the Florida election in 2000. Still, what's being proposed here is literally a coup d'état; the Court is not going to sanction it, even if key members of Congress do.
"If you think about what would happen, it quickly becomes a reductio ad absurdum.
"Consider the practical problems: the election might well go on in defiance of the executive order. That might leave Bush no alternative but to declare martial law. He would need support from the military in that case, and I doubt he would get it. Remember, military personnel swear an oath to the Constitution first, and to the President second. Where the two are in conflict, most will consider the Constitution paramount.
"But suppose he were to let the election go on, and merely declare its results invalid, say with another executive order. Even a Republican House is going to impeach him, and even a Republican Senate is going to convict him. He'll be the ex-President in a heartbeat.”
"And suppose he still refuses to leave? The Secret Service might forcibly eject him from the White House when the Senate conviction is handed down. What a gross public humiliation that would be, to be seen kicking and screaming as he's carried from the building. Bush can't risk it, especially with his grandiose personality.
"The best he could hope for is a military faction that would support him and defend the White House third-world-style, but there will certainly be a larger faction that will oppose him. Bush would become a prisoner in the White House, with his little Praetorian Guard. He'd be irrelevant. Congress would take over all of the day-to-day business of running the federal bureaucracy, and cut off money and other supplies to the White House. They'd probably cut the electricity, too.
"So you can see how quickly this becomes absurd. Bush will either finish his second term on schedule, or he'll be out of the White House before his second term expires."
"Bush is so accustomed to having his way, and he exists in such a weird bubble of manufactured reality, that I can picture him believing that his second term could be extended. Still, I'm confident that someone among the gaggle of boot-licking toadies he's surrounded himself with will muster the nerve to sit him down and explain the facts of life.
"This proposal (Loof LIRPA) will never see the light of day. It may take a while for reality to sink in, but once Bush appreciates the potential for grotesque public humiliation that he's courting, he'll kill it.
As for the inevitable political fallout from the leaked memos alone, there is little for Bush to worry about.
"It shows incredibly poor judgment and galling arrogance on the Administration's part, but that's nothing new. And you can be sure that Bush and Cheney have got complete deniability in this little caper," he said.
The five or six people involved will be sacked, and the press will be told that the affair was merely the unauthorized creation of a handful of over-zealous underlings acting on their own. The Republican-controlled Congress will decline to investigate, and the issue will soon be forgotten.
By Thomas C Greene in Washington DC
Published 1 April 2006 in The Register as an April Fool’s Prank
www.theregister.co.uk
OR is it not a prank and really possible for 2008?
Read Wednesday’s post to find out.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the office of the White House Counsel are preparing a draft document laying out the President's wartime authority to remain in office past 2008.
The scheme is described as an emergency "continuity presidency," made necessary by the extraordinary circumstances and unique challenges of protecting the United States from the threat of international terrorism.
"The world changed on 9/11 and no Administration in US history is better suited to adapt productively to those changes than this one.
"The Attorney General supports the basic framework in the White House Counsel's draft proposal for a future Executive Order establishing a Continuity Presidency, with two provisos: 1. There must be at least the appearance of a time limit, which the AG believes might be satisfied by tying the duration of the Continuity Presidency to the duration of the GWOT [global war on terrorism]; and 2. The House and Senate Majority Leaders and the Chairpersons of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees must issue a written certification that they have approved the plan.
"AG does not believe that the plan will succeed unless those conditions can be met. Suggest you liase with [the White House office of] Legislative Affairs and get their sense of the liklihood that the key Members will work with us."
The memo is signed Special Assistant to the United States Attorney General and is addressed to the Special Assistant to White House Counsel.
A second memo leaked to The Register, this time from DoJ Assistant McIntyre to Jock Mahoney, Special Assistant to US Solicitor General Paul Clement, and to Philip Van Zandt at the White House, anticipates an immediate Supreme Court challenge to the scheme, and offers a few suggestions for defending the Administration's action.
"We will be attacked on the basis of Article II Section 1, and on Amendment XXII. Thus it is absolutely crucial that the anticipated Executive Order for a Continuity Presidency make no mention whatsoever of a 'Third Term.' This will eliminate appeals to Amendment XXII, and leave us free to focus our attack on Article II Section 1 alone. Thus, the Executive Order has got to be framed as a necessary - and Congressionally authorized - extension of the President's Second Term, so that we can base our arguments on the Joint Resolution and Article II Section 2.
"Above all, we must emphasize that the 2001 Joint Resolution, in which Congress empowered the President to 'use all necessary and appropriate force ... to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States,' and Article II Section 2 of the United States Constitution, give the President ample authority to issue an Executive Order for a Continuity Presidency for the duration of the GWOT, to exercise fully his mandate to protect the American people from harm.
"We must also press the national security angle hard and emphasize that the United States would be endangered severely by a change of government at this time. America cannot afford to give the terrorists such an opportunity."
Now, this might not seem like much for the Bushies to pin their imperial hopes on, but the White House has already succeeded in expanding the 2001 Joint Resolution, and Article II Section 2 of the Constitution, to include virtually any step, legal and illegal, that the Administration wishes to take in prosecuting the war on terror.
For a recent example we might recall repeated White House and DoJ assertions that the Joint Resolution and Article II Section 2 authorize the President to eavesdrop on US citizens in clear violation of federal law. And neither Congress nor the Supremes have shown any inclination to rein him in.
So, as sketchy as the justification is, if the Congressional leadership and the US Supreme Court should capitulate to Bush, as they have tended to do in the past, it seems possible that he might remain in the White House past the expiration of his second term, as he obviously intends.
The Register contacted the offices of the US Attorney General and the White House Counsel, and both declined to comment. Neither denied the memos, however.
Are they a hoax? We consulted renowned constitutional scholar Bud Jamison, of the prestigious Washington legal firm Horwitz Feinberg & Horwitz, for insight.
"I don't think they're a hoax, but I also don't think that there's anything here for the public to worry about, except the sad comment it makes on the current Administration.
"I think we can assume - even for the sake of argument alone - that there is a draft proposal along these lines circulating. Obviously, we can only speculate about the full content and wording of the proposal, but based on the comments in these memos, I think we can do that fairly productively," Jamison said.
"First, the fact that this proposal is in the works so far in advance of the 2008 elections suggests that real care is being taken, which in turn suggests that President Bush is, for the moment, anyway, quite serious about attempting this coup d'état.
"If it ever becomes public, I suspect we'll find that the proposed executive order will postpone the 2008 elections - citing the exigencies of war - rather than attempt to do battle with Article II Section 1 and the 22nd Amendment.
"But, Constitutionally speaking, Bush hasn't got a leg to stand on. Article II Section 1 states plainly that the president is elected to a four-year term, and the 22nd Amendment states plainly that he can serve only two terms. He's looking for weasel room, and he thinks that merely extending his second term, rather than declaring a third term, will give it to him. He's mistaken.
"I can't imagine even a sympathetic Supreme Court going along with this - although I'll admit that I was surprised when they handed him the Florida election in 2000. Still, what's being proposed here is literally a coup d'état; the Court is not going to sanction it, even if key members of Congress do.
"If you think about what would happen, it quickly becomes a reductio ad absurdum.
"Consider the practical problems: the election might well go on in defiance of the executive order. That might leave Bush no alternative but to declare martial law. He would need support from the military in that case, and I doubt he would get it. Remember, military personnel swear an oath to the Constitution first, and to the President second. Where the two are in conflict, most will consider the Constitution paramount.
"But suppose he were to let the election go on, and merely declare its results invalid, say with another executive order. Even a Republican House is going to impeach him, and even a Republican Senate is going to convict him. He'll be the ex-President in a heartbeat.”
"And suppose he still refuses to leave? The Secret Service might forcibly eject him from the White House when the Senate conviction is handed down. What a gross public humiliation that would be, to be seen kicking and screaming as he's carried from the building. Bush can't risk it, especially with his grandiose personality.
"The best he could hope for is a military faction that would support him and defend the White House third-world-style, but there will certainly be a larger faction that will oppose him. Bush would become a prisoner in the White House, with his little Praetorian Guard. He'd be irrelevant. Congress would take over all of the day-to-day business of running the federal bureaucracy, and cut off money and other supplies to the White House. They'd probably cut the electricity, too.
"So you can see how quickly this becomes absurd. Bush will either finish his second term on schedule, or he'll be out of the White House before his second term expires."
"Bush is so accustomed to having his way, and he exists in such a weird bubble of manufactured reality, that I can picture him believing that his second term could be extended. Still, I'm confident that someone among the gaggle of boot-licking toadies he's surrounded himself with will muster the nerve to sit him down and explain the facts of life.
"This proposal (Loof LIRPA) will never see the light of day. It may take a while for reality to sink in, but once Bush appreciates the potential for grotesque public humiliation that he's courting, he'll kill it.
As for the inevitable political fallout from the leaked memos alone, there is little for Bush to worry about.
"It shows incredibly poor judgment and galling arrogance on the Administration's part, but that's nothing new. And you can be sure that Bush and Cheney have got complete deniability in this little caper," he said.
The five or six people involved will be sacked, and the press will be told that the affair was merely the unauthorized creation of a handful of over-zealous underlings acting on their own. The Republican-controlled Congress will decline to investigate, and the issue will soon be forgotten.
By Thomas C Greene in Washington DC
Published 1 April 2006 in The Register as an April Fool’s Prank
www.theregister.co.uk
OR is it not a prank and really possible for 2008?
Read Wednesday’s post to find out.
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