Quotes of the Morning: The Slippery Slope
”If this was a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 18, 2000
“Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men of all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
-Daniel Webster
“President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ‘whistle-blower’ protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.
Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ‘to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ‘execute’ a law he believes is unconstitutional.”
-Boston Globe, April 30, 2006
“A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, until the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities but for sin and suffering.”
-President Thomas Jefferson
“The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”
-James Madison
"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
-Hermann Goering, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
“There ought to be limits to freedom!”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, May 21, 1999
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 18, 2000
“Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men of all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
-Daniel Webster
“President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ‘whistle-blower’ protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.
Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ‘to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ‘execute’ a law he believes is unconstitutional.”
-Boston Globe, April 30, 2006
“A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, until the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities but for sin and suffering.”
-President Thomas Jefferson
“The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”
-James Madison
"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
-Hermann Goering, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
“There ought to be limits to freedom!”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, May 21, 1999
posted by Pope Impious XXIII | 4:04 AM
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