{"id":188,"date":"2009-03-09T23:48:34","date_gmt":"2009-03-09T23:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/03\/obama-returns-us-to-the-rule-of-law.html"},"modified":"2009-03-09T23:48:34","modified_gmt":"2009-03-09T23:48:34","slug":"obama-returns-us-to-the-rule-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/03\/obama-returns-us-to-the-rule-of-law.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama Returns us to the Rule of Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Because I was very critical of President Obama&#8217;s&nbsp; trying to defend some of the twisted logic and even more twisted morals of the Bush administration regarding the fate of innocent people tortured under American authority, I want to praise, <i>praise<\/i>. <b><i>PRAISE <\/i><\/b>Obama&#8217;s recent <a href=\"http:\/\/digbysblog.blogspot.com\/2009\/03\/and-signing-statements-by-dday-as-ive.html\">eliminating <\/a>one of the most <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2009\/3\/9\/21113\/56675\/260\/706557\">constitutionally destructive<\/a>&nbsp; actions of the Bush presidency: so-called &#8220;signing statements.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bush issued over 100 &#8216;signing statements&#8217; indicating what parts of a law he signed he actually regarded as binding, and what parts he felt in his imperial majesty he could ignore.&nbsp; President Obama has nullified the whole lot of them through an executive order. <\/p>\n<p>Signing statements are not in the constitution.&nbsp; We are a government of laws, not of men.&nbsp; The president&#8217;s influence on legislation is reserved to his either signing or vetoing a bill.&nbsp; If a veto will not work, he can allow it to become law without his signature.&nbsp; But Congress not the President has primary law making power under our Constitution.&nbsp; The President&#8217;s oath of office pledges him to uphold the Constitution, not become an elected Caesar.&nbsp; Nothing so indicates the subversive influence of the Republican Party and so-called &#8216;conservatives&#8217; as their endorsement of this imperial measure and contempt for the constitution.<\/p>\n<p>President Obama&#8217;s repudiation of this lawlessness gives me hope that we may be headed back to being a nation governed more by law than by imperial edict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because I was very critical of President Obama&#8217;s&nbsp; trying to defend some of the twisted logic and even more twisted morals of the Bush administration regarding the fate of innocent people tortured under American authority, I want to praise, praise. PRAISE Obama&#8217;s recent eliminating one of the most constitutionally destructive&nbsp; actions of the Bush presidency:&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-social-and-political-theory"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Obama Returns us to the Rule of Law - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/03\/obama-returns-us-to-the-rule-of-law.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama Returns us to the Rule of Law - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Because I was very critical of President Obama&#8217;s&nbsp; trying to defend some of the twisted logic and even more twisted morals of the Bush administration regarding the fate of innocent people tortured under American authority, I want to praise, praise. PRAISE Obama&#8217;s recent eliminating one of the most constitutionally destructive&nbsp; actions of the Bush presidency:&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/03\/obama-returns-us-to-the-rule-of-law.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-09T23:48:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obama Returns us to the Rule of Law - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/03\/obama-returns-us-to-the-rule-of-law.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Obama Returns us to the Rule of Law - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","og_description":"Because I was very critical of President Obama&#8217;s&nbsp; trying to defend some of the twisted logic and even more twisted morals of the Bush administration regarding the fate of innocent people tortured under American authority, I want to praise, praise. 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