Added 4/2/10: Memo to U.S. Congress: prima facie evidence that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld committed treason on 9/11, April 2, 2010

Since this was written, Bush and Republicans have gone even further:

Bush Declares Exceptions to Sections of Two Bills He Signed Into Law By CHARLIE SAVAGE, 10/14/08

WASHINGTON — President Bush asserted on Tuesday that he had the executive power to bypass several parts of two bills: a military authorization act and a measure giving inspectors general greater independence from White House control.

Mr. Bush signed the two measures into law. But he then issued a so-called signing statement in which he instructed the executive branch to view parts of each as unconstitutional constraints on presidential power.

In the authorization bill, Mr. Bush challenged four sections. One forbid the money from being used “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq”; another required negotiations for an agreement by which Iraq would share some of the costs of the American military operations there.

The sections “purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the president’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations,” including as commander in chief, Mr. Bush wrote.

In the other bill, he raised concerns about two sections that strengthen legal protections against political interference with the internal watchdog officials at each executive agency.

One section gives the inspectors general a right to counsels who report directly to them. But Mr. Bush wrote in his signing statement that such lawyers would be bound to follow the legal interpretations of the politically appointed counsels at each agency.

The other section requires the White House to tell Congress what each inspector general said about the administration’s budget proposal for their offices. Such a requirement, Mr. Bush wrote, would infringe on “the president’s constitutional authority” to decide what to recommend to Congress.

Mr. Bush will not submit another budget request before his administration ends in January, so his objections are unlikely to face a test on his watch. Still, the bill’s sponsor, Representative Jim Cooper, Democrat of Tennessee, said he hoped that the next president would overturn Mr. Bush’s signing statements.

“These things create uncertainty in the law that should not be there,” Mr. Cooper said.

The White House has defended Mr. Bush’s use of signing statements as lawful and appropriate. But in 2006, the American Bar Association called the device “contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers.”

Mr. Bush has used the signing statements to assert a right to bypass more than 1,100 sections of laws. By comparison, all previous presidents combined challenged about 600 sections of bills.

The article below describes Bush's "National Security Presidential Directive" that prepares for the crash he knows "free market" and "free trade" policies will cause (see The Trade Deficit and the Fallacy of Composition, Jobs & 'Trade' Data Update Jun08 and, even more chilling, John Williams' HYPERINFLATION SPECIAL REPORT). These "directives" are major examples of what you don't hear about in the so-called "liberal media", which is more appropriately called the "corporate media":

Bush Anoints Himself as the Ensurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, Friday 18 May 2007

In a new National Security Presidential Directive, Bush lays out his plans for dealing with a "catastrophic emergency."

With scarcely a mention in the mainstream media, President Bush has ordered up a plan for responding to a catastrophic attack. 

Under that plan, he entrusts himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive Branch. And he gives himself the responsibility "for ensuring constitutional government." 

He laid this all out in a document entitled "National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51" and "Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20." ...

Also see NSPD Directive #51: More Nazi Magic From White House

Even a some right-wing extremists, like "swift-boater" Corsi, are objecting:

WorldNetDaily Exclusive Commentary
Bush makes power grab by Jerome Corsi
Posted: May 23, 2007, 1:00 a.m. Eastern

President Bush, without so much as issuing a press statement, on May 9 signed a directive that granted near dictatorial powers to the office of the president in the event of a national emergency declared by the president.

The "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive," with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive, establishes under the office of president a new National Continuity Coordinator.

That job, as the document describes, is to make plans for "National Essential Functions" of all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president's directives in the event of a national emergency.

The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions." ...

Here's the Liberal Moment (SM) Handout on

Bush and Republican Party Crimes 
in many cases with the complicity of the Democratic Party

• Bush has admitted Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act violations. Penalty: up to $10,000 fine, 5 years imprisonment, or both.
   
• Bush's violations of Common Article 3 the Geneva Conventions on torture: Treaties are at a Constitutional level of law.
  • Bush won't hold talk with Syria because he says it's a "terrorist nation", but he has sent people there to be tortured.
    
• Bush has eliminated the right of habeas corpus: The Military Commission's Act of 2006 kills the writ of habeas corpus. Attorney General Gonzales says there's no such right in the Constitution, only that "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." (Senator Salazar voted for this abomination.)
  See Keith Olbermann on "The death of habeas corpus": http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15220450/
   
• Bush has overturned Posse Comitatus: In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which ... will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law. It ... revis[es] the Insurrection Act, ... laws that limit the President's ability to deploy troops within the U.S. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement.   http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/911/
   
• Bush's illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq: based on false and misleading statements about the threat
  • Bush doesn't support the troops: He has not supplied them with needed vehicle and body armor.
  • Bush doesn't support U.S. veterans: Walter Reed scandal and submitting budgets that do not increase sufficiently to meet the increased need and even cut Veteran's Administration funding. Beyond the 23,000 cited as wounded: mental disorders 73,000, diseases of nervous system 61,000, symptoms signs and ill-defined conditions 67,000, diseases of muscular-skeletal system 87,000.
    Total 311,000 wounded & impaired.  http://www.vawatchdog.org/
  • Bush's "Long War": Bush pursues a "long war" "war on terror," but a war against a "tactic of war" is an absurdity.
  • Crimes against humanity: Bush has inflicted over 650,000 deaths over the norm on Iraqi civilians.
     
• Bush prepares to attack Iran: Bush is now using the same kind of misleading statements in apparent preparation for an attack against Iran, while moving carrier groups to the region to make it possible.
   
• When Bush says, "I'm the decider," he means, "I'm the dictator."
   
• Bush's "signing statements": They declare he'll interpret legislative provisions his way and feels free to ignore some terms. Bush has essentially given himself a line item veto power by declaring portions of new laws unconstitutional and offering his own revisions.
   
  • What Bush has done: claimed that his executive powers allow him to bypass more than 1,100 laws enacted since he took office. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-03.htm
     
  • Ignoring Congress: Bush's statements declare "that he would interpret many sections of the new law 'in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch.' In plain English, this means that many of the limits that Congress imposed on Bush's power — and that he accepted when he took the money Congress appropriated — are null and void. Why? Because the president says so." http://www.fff.org/comment/com0610c.asp
     
  • Governing in Secrecy: Relative to the Homeland Security appropriations act and USA PATRIOT Act Bush has declared that he would interpret the law "in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to ... withhold information." Bush believes he is entitled to govern in secrecy, and any provision of a law to the contrary violates his imperial prerogatives. http://www.fff.org/comment/com0610c.asp
     
  • RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association opposes, as contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers, the issuance of presidential signing statements that claim the authority or state the intention to disregard or decline to enforce all or part of a law the President has signed, or to interpret such a law in a manner inconsistent with the clear intent of Congress; http://www.abanet.org/op/signingstatements/aba_final_signing_statements_recommendation-report_7-24-06.pdf
     
  • Bush violates the Constitutional separation of powers and his oath of office: He proclaims his right to ignore Congress and the courts, which violates the Constitutional separation of powers and his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
     
  • Example - March 9, 2007: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/examples_of_the_presidents_signing_statements/
     
    The law: Justice Department officials must give reports to Congress by certain dates on how the FBI is using the USA Patriot Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.
     
    Bush's signing statement: The president can order Justice Department officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides it could impair national security or executive branch operations.
     
• The Military Industrial Complex now rules the nation.