BUSH IGNORES THE LAW WHEN IT COMES TO IRAQ WAR

President Bush has decided he is above the law---even laws he approved---when it comes to the war in Iraq.

As this editorial from The Roanoke Times http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/149001 so clearly points out, President Bush is acting more like a dictator of a third world state than the President of the United States of America.

Bush, Vice President Cheney and their right-wing constituency continued to lie to the American public---a total of 935 times according to a recent survey---prior to invading and occupying Iraq.

The American public heard about weapons of mass destruction, stockpiles of nuclear weapons, plans to build a nuclear bomb and even Cheney continuing to assert Saddam Hussein's people were meeting with Usama bin Laden's people to plot the 9/11 attack.

All of it proved to be lies and now after five years of war and 160,000 American troops in Iraq nothing has been found to suggest what Bush, Cheney and the evil cabal of right wingers was saying were true.

However, as The Roanoke Times editorial so adroitly points out, the past does not stop President Bush. He has learned nothing from his mistakes. He is bound and determined to do it his way even though his way has led to nothing but chaos and death.

Bill Corcoran, editor of the blog CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, devoted entirely to telling the truth about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Editorial: A war without end or oversight

President Bush places himself above the law -- even ones he signed.

An honorable president would have the gumption to veto bills he found objectionable.

But as Americans have learned by now, there is no room for honor in President Bush's Oval Office.

He prefers chicanery in the form of "signing statements."

Prior to delivering the State of the Union Address on Monday, Bush eviscerated four key provisions of the new defense bill by saying he will ignore parts of the law he doesn't like.

Bush finds objectionable provisions that:

n Forbid the United States from building a permanent military base in Iraq and controlling Iraq's oil reserves.

n Create a wartime commission to investigate waste, fraud and abuse by military contractors and finally hold them accountable.

n Offer protection for employees of government contractors who expose wrongdoing.

n Require intelligence officers within 45 days to either respond or state why they will not produce documents requested by the Armed Services committees of Congress.

The Bush administration repeatedly has denied concerns that it seeks to create a permanent base in Iraq.

But this signing statement and the president's reluctance to bring before Congress a pact it is negotiating with Iraq regarding the presence of U.S. troops beyond 2008 indicate otherwise.

Bush must be stopped before he commits this country to obligations that endure long after he vacates Washington.

Congress must do what it can to hold Bush accountable. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb said he intends to move forward with the wartime commission that he sponsored. It is akin to one created by President Truman during World War II to bring oversight and accountability to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.

"We don't quite know what the administration intends with this sort of language," Webb said Wednesday on the Senate floor.

"But I want all my colleagues to be aware of it and to be aware that it potentially is an impingement on the rights of this legislative body -- in effect saying the president has the authority to ignore a law that is now passed, a law that he has now signed."

No American should be able to ignore the law without consequence.

Not even a president.