meta-roj

it’s a different world indeed.

Press Conference of the President [2006.01.26]

THE PRESIDENT: May I — if I might, you said that I have to circumvent it. There — wait a minute. That’s a — there’s something — it’s like saying, you know, you’re breaking the law. I’m not. See, that’s what you’ve got to understand. I am upholding my duty, and at the same time, doing so under the law and with the Constitution behind me. That’s just very important for you to understand.

Secondly, the FISA law was written in 1978. We’re having this discussion in 2006. It’s a different world. And FISA is still an important tool. It’s an important tool. And we still use that tool. But also — and we — look — I said, look, is it possible to conduct this program under the old law? And people said, it doesn’t work in order to be able to do the job we expect us to do.

And so that’s why I made the decision I made. And you know, “circumventing” is a loaded word, and I refuse to accept it, because I believe what I’m doing is legally right.

two things i want to bring up about this statement from the president.

1) “it doesn’t work” “under the old law” – by which he is apparently referring to the 1978 fisa. if it doesn’t work, then maybe it’s not supposed to work.

2) the us constitution was written in 1787 (well, maybe some of it a little before that. we’ll be safe and say it was ratified in 1787). so if the president is willing to ignore a 1978 law when it becomes inconvenient, what are his chances of respecting a 1787 law?

the thing is that the president doesn’t get to make these “decisions” – there are other branches of government that get to decide what laws are laws and how they apply.

and, we set an important example for our children. once upon a time there was an outcry in washington about how the children would say that oral sex isn’t sex because the president said so… so now they can say that laws don’t matter because the president said so, right?