Bush Signs Patriot Act Extension at Ranch

[Kadie]

Bush Signs Patriot Act Extension at Ranch
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

Friday, December 30, 2005


(12-30) 12:57 PST Crawford, Texas (AP) --


President Bush, unhappy with Congress for not permanently extending the Patriot Act, on Friday signed a bill that renews the anti-terrorism law for a few weeks and pushes lawmakers to take up the debate over its measures.

The president signed about a dozen other bills, including one funding government agencies and a defense measure that funnels extra money to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf Coast.

snip...
The appropriations bill provides funds for the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. A provision would help ice dancer Tanith Belbin gain American citizenship in time to represent the United States in the Turin Olympics.

snip...
The defense bill Bush signed keeps the Pentagon running, provides $50 billion more to military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and gives $29 billion in hurricane aid to the Gulf Coast. The Gulf Coast aid includes $11.5 billion for community grants to spur economic development, along with money for schools and to start shoring up New Orleans' levees.

The bill provides $3.8 billion to prepare for a possible outbreak of bird flu and liability protections for flu drug manufacturers.


more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/30/national/w125726S69.DTL

[sabra]

1. you see, he's doing hard werk over @ the ranch

[Maggie_May]

2. Is somebody holding the pen for him?

[Gregorian]

18. I thought the same thing!

If I had more time and energy, I would do a photoshop of Condi holding the pen for him.

Bush is a fascist. Please let us see him behind bars.

[joeunderdog]

19. Don't you just picture the scene out of Blazing Saddles

when the cross-eyed mayor is asking what he just signed into law?

Can't get the thought out of my head.

[xultar]

3. I bet he used a twig dipped in ink.

[sasha031]

4. it's hard work

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. so, that means it is only applicable to the "ranch"

right?

[izzie]

6. Well I am sure he will come out of their with some thing new,

He always does. One thing we can be sure of is this President will always try to hold all the power. That is his base belief.

[ixion]

7. who the hell cares if he's unhappy with Congress?

man, I really get tired of hearing how chimpy feels about things.

[0007]

13. I'd like to know how he feels after he's been arrested for war crimes

and is he sitting in the Hague.

[ixion]

14. fair enough

I'd like to know how he'll feel at that point, too. :hi:

[0007]

15. And in the meanwhile he can catch a dummy, eh?

:hi:
Happy New Years

[stevedeshazer]

8. I thought he had to fly back to Warshington in dramatic fashion,

like when he signed the Terri Schiavo bill? :shrug:

[CoffeeCat]

9. Did he land on the ranch in a fighter jet....

...sign the bills and then say "Mission Accomplished!" and then fly away into the sunset with a sock monkey stuffed into his cowboy pants?

Just curious. Just thinkin out loud.

We're turning a corner, folks!

[AzDar]

10. I'm sure Jack Daniels was standing by to witness.....lol

[alarcojon]

16. Jack, Jim Beam, even Old Granddad!

[...of J.Temperance]

11. $50 billion for Afghanistan and Iraq...$29 billion for the Gulf Coast...

That says it all really doesn't it? I mean, it's not like the folks on the Gulf Coast are American citizens who've paid their taxes for years now is it? :sarcasm:

Shit, whatever happened to the $200 billion that Junior promised Louisiana when he stood in the middle of a deserted Jackson Square, babbling and looking like a deer caught in the headlights...

[SpiralHawk]

12. I'm willing to bet a sack of doughnuts that Bush

never read the so-called Patriot Act himself, and knows only that it contains what HIS MASTERS want.

[CJCRANE]

23. No time to read it -

he's too busy reading everyone's email.

[Marnieworld]

17. I wonder if there is a requirement as tothe location where he can sign it

Something is unsettling about him doing the business of our country at his personal home. Shouldn't something that big be done in the WHite House or Camp David?

[alfredo]

20. Now I see why congress is not coming back before jan 31! The

repugs want it to expired. That will put pressure on the pro democracy people to sign on or be painted as against homeland security.

[zann725]

21. Once again, he thumbs his nose at the Congress, and Constitution...

in Monarch "fashion."

[ngGale]

22. Dirty word, dirty word, cuss, cuss, cuss! ....eom

:nuke:

[Thom Little]

24. Bush signs law banning torture

President George W Bush signed today a law explicitly prohibiting torture of prisoners in US hands outside of the US, after months of fighting the legislation, the White House said.

The anti-torture statute was an amendment to a broader defence appropriations bill signed by Mr Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was taking a year-end holiday.

.......

"US law and policy already prohibit torture. Our policy has also been not to use cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, at home or abroad. This legislation now makes that a matter of statute for practices abroad," he said.

.......

The administration is committed to treating all detainees held by the US in a manner consistent with our Constitution, laws, and treaty obligations, which reflect the values we hold dear," he said.

At the same time, he noted, "The detention and interrogation of captured terrorists are critical tools in the war on terror. It is vital that our government gather intelligence to protect the American people from terrorist attacks, including critical information that may be obtained from those terrorists we have captured."


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17700219%255E2703,00.html

[orleans]

25. what a joke!

"Our policy has also been not to use cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, at home or abroad"

yeah, sure.

[Vinca]

28. OMG - you'd think we hadn't seen the photos! nt

[Hekate]

26. Yet another instance of having to back down -- flippity flop?

And yet another law he's on signed on to defend, having broken it already.

Why doesn't his head explode?

Hekate

[951-Riverside]

27. What f'img good is this law going to do....

Its not like they have ever admitted to tourturing prisoners anyway!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

30. Doesn't mean a thing.

Even after they've been busted (and have subsequently admitted to) circumventing the law RE wiretapping and domestic spying, and having subsequently proclaimed they will continue doing so, does anybody believe they will now cease torturing innocents just because he's signed a law proscribing it?

All will continue as it has been. Nothing will change. The renditions and torture will continue unabated, as will the peeking and sneaking and keyhole listening.

I want that man arrested, Officer. See to it, eh?

[Hyernel]

29. Did he use his blue crayon?

[SomewhereOutThere424]

31. He doesn't even have the right to do that does he?

Maybe things have changed since I was in school, but I remember reading that the president only has the power to veto bills, but congress can re-enstate them behind his back? And the president doesn't have the power to bypass congress?

Or did congress give him a dummied version to pacify him for a few weeks? I certainly know "The bill fairy" doesn't pop by and just deliver him things to sign...