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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

"Authorized by the President" isn't the Definition of Legal

During a visit to Stanford a while back Condi Rice gave us a great peek into the thinking of the Bush admin. and their ideas about who should be subject to the law. In this clip of her answering questions posed to her about waterboarding by a Stanford student, she states that "the president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our legal obligations under the conventions against torture," and then concludes with "and so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the conventions against torture." This, of course, is essentially a fancy way of saying that if the president says something is legal it is, regardless of what the actual laws (or Constitution in many cases) say. That's not quite the way it works though.




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6 comments:

Kelly W. Patterson said...

It's getting hard to see in here from all the smoke.

Recent blog:=- CommentLuv

Kelly W. Patterson said...

That's the problem with giving one human power over everyone else. They inevitably end up acting human. Some presidents have been more egregious than others (such as Bush, Nixon, and Lincoln to name a few), but every president has tried to make some sort of power grab. And even those that aren't blatant about it are in no hurry to hand that power back. This is evident by Obama's administration arguing in court to preserve those policies Bush put in place. Most of which he campaigned against hen seeking election

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Bring Back pluto said...

I never understood how any citizen, including the president, is above the law. But hey, what do I know? I'm just A GUY.

Bring Back Pluto

Recent blog:=- The Guy's Horizon: The Future of Being PC(Politically Correct)

Kelly W. Patterson said...

BBP, in spite of what they would like us to believe, they (including the president) are all just GUYs, too.

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annabelt said...

"I didn't authorise anything... I just conveyed the authorisation of the administration to the agency"
Right
She's been well educated and given a position of authority, but can't think for herself?

Recent blog:=- Back to your Desks, Peasants!

Kelly W. Patterson said...

That's actually the funny thing. She insists it was legal, but knows enough to give herself the out of saying she wasn't the one who authorized it.

Recent blog:=- Ticketed for Parking in their Own Driveways in Toledo

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