Bush's Third Term? You're Living It

This article is almost too depressing to read. But Peacenik read it. Peacenik just wants to go away for the long weekend and look in campfires and forget about Bush's third term. Peacenik hopes you can enjoy the long weekend as well. Have a good one.

by David Swanson

It sounds like the plot for the latest summer horror movie. Imagine, for a moment, that George W. Bush had been allowed a third term as president, had run and had won or stolen it, and that we were all now living (and dying) through it. With the Democrats in control of Congress but Bush still in the Oval Office, the media would certainly be talking endlessly about a mandate for bipartisanship and the importance of taking into account the concerns of Republicans. Can't you just picture it?

There's Dubya now, still rewriting laws via signing statements. Still creating and destroying laws with executive orders. And still violating laws at his whim. Imagine Bush continuing his policy of extraordinary rendition, sending prisoners off to other countries with grim interrogation reputations to be held and tortured. I can even picture him formalizing his policy of preventive detention, sprucing it up with some "due process" even as he permanently removes habeas corpus from our culture.

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Obama Administration Backs Bush White House on Cheney Interview

Obama's justice department recently drew up a justification for indefinite detention. Obama's justice department has delayed the release of the CIA's torture report. And now Obama's justice department is continuing to use Bush rationales to further secrecy in the Obama administration. Peacenik guesses that Obama is discovering openness and transparency is a little messy. Peacenik guesses that Obama is becoming very comfortable in an imperial presidency. And Peacenik guesses that Obama is looking at his own, and his administration's behaviour in the various financial bailouts, and is thinking a little bit of secrecy might help in case there is any criminal liability. But Peacenik doesn't know why Obama is bothering. The U.S. stopped being a country governed by the rule of law long ago.

by David Corn

WASHINGTON - When it comes to the Bush White House's decision to withhold from the public Dick Cheney's interview with FBI agents investigating the CIA leak case, the Obama administration says its predecessor did the right thing. And it's fighting hard to do the same.

On Wednesday night, in another move that puts the administration on the side of secrecy over openness, Obama's Justice Department filed a memo supporting its ongoing opposition to a lawsuit requesting the release of the Cheney interview. This memo included a declaration from Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who said that if the Cheney interview is made public it could cause public officials in the future to not cooperate with criminal investigations.

Breuer, who heads the department's criminal division, noted:

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