Public Record reports today:
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers issued a 500-page report Tuesday documenting what he says are extraordinary claims of executive power during President George W. Bush’s eight years in office saying evidence his committee has gathered demands independent criminal investigations into issues such as torture, domestic surveillance, and the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys.Nothing on the teeveenuz about it so far. I doubt they'll mention it.
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"Even after scores of hearings, investigations, and reports, we still do not have answers to some of the most fundamental questions left in the wake of Bush’s Imperial Presidency," Conyers said, using allegations of torture, extraordinary rendition, warrantless domestic surveillance, the Valerie Plame Wilson-leak, and the U.S. attorney scandal as examples. "Investigations are not a matter of payback or political revenge – it is our responsibility to examine what has occurred and to set an appropriate baseline of conduct for future administrations.
“The Bush Administration’s approach to power is, at its core, little more than a restatement of Mr. Nixon’s famous rationalization of presidential misdeeds: “When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal,” Conyers said in a foreword included in the report. “Under this view, laws that forbid torturing or degrading prisoners cannot constrain the president because, if the president ordered such acts as Commander in Chief, “that means it’s not illegal.” Under this view, it is not the courts that decide the reach of the law – it is the president – and neither the judiciary nor Congress can constrain him."
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