BUSH & CHENEY BOTH CLAIM EXEMPTION FROM EXECUTIVE-BRANCH OVERSIGHT AGENCY
Yes folks, it's true, we now have five branches of government -- Legislative, Executive, Judicial, Cheney, and Bush.
And you thought Democrats were a buncha big-government liberals. Bush and Cheney just increased government size by 66% in under two weeks! The Gipper is spinning in his grave. (tongue firmly in cheek, btw)
The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick
Cheney’s office, President Bush’s office is not allowing an independent
federal watchdog to oversee its handling of classified national
security information.
An executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 — amending an
existing order — requires all government agencies that are part of the
executive branch to submit to oversight. Although it doesn’t
specifically say so, Bush’s order was not meant to apply to the vice
president’s office or the president’s office, a White House spokesman
said.
But seriously folks -- shouldn't this be making serious spashes in the ponds of democracy and American life. For America's sake folks -- the executive branch is claiming exemption from oversight because they don't think they're actually the executive branch! Can anyone please explain this lunacy??
Especially any readers that do support this administration -- why should we agree with President Bush when he tries to legally claim he is not the executive branch? Moreover, why should we be okay with any leader wanting so much secrecy?
If Saddam Hussein or Hugo Chavez behaved that way, we'd beat our chests in agony over the spread of tyranny in the world. But when our own President does it, we don't even find out about it until page A9, printed in the corner below the lingerie ad and after the Paris-in-jail story. Shouldn't we give a flip about this, friends?
Check this out -- something horrible happened. There was a seven-alarm fire in Philly this week that destroyed much of the Simple Way, a neomonastic community of international renown, chronicled most prominently on NPR lately, and in founder Shane Claiborne's book, "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical". These are amazing folks doing amazing things for God's last, lost, and least. And sadly, a fire burned down their Community Center and a half-dozen neighboring houses in a very very downtrodden neighborhood of row-houses.
But check this out -- things are gonna be okay. Rumor has it the Simple Way had fire insurance, and they'll be able to rebuild a building they always dreamed of.
And check this out -- and this is why I said upfront that God is good -- Amalia and I booked plane tickets a few weeks ago to fly out to the east coast to see her sister's wedding in Raleigh, then spend six days up in Philly lending hands at the Simple Way. We figured they'd need help with dishes, repair, gardening, sidewalk chalk, dumpster diving, prayer, somersaults, and other acts of Jesus-lovin' kingdom-seeking. But now, it looks like we'll be helping out with the rebuilding.
We've not contacted them since the fire, but will later on. I'm sure they'll be happy to recieve a couple helping hands.
We thought we were coming just to help out with (anti-)business as usual. But it looks like God had other plans. Looks like we get to very literally rebuild the broken, burned, and abandoned parts of this empire we call America. My beloved Amalia and I are, suffice to say, stoked.
As many of you know, Amalia and I are fond of dumpster diving for a decent chunk of our food. She's been doing it for years. I've been doing it for about four months now. We usually only go once a week, and that gets us a TON of food to share with our respective communities. I'm not gonna say where we dumpster dive, though many of you know (please don't name it!). However, I wanted to share with you some of the treasures we've come upon in the past few months.
9 half-liter bottles of organic extra-virgin olive oil
a bottle of delicious wine
a bottle of grade-B maple syrup
dozens of baby roma tomatoes
several dozen bouquets of flowers (hundreds of dollar's worth)
organic chocolate bars
tangerines
bags and bags of cashews
three garbage-bags full of day-old gourmet breads
lots of yogurt
dozens of eggs (if one egg breaks, they toss the whole dozen, even if those eggs are perfectly good!)
avacados
onions
guacamole
chocolate gelato
In fact, we've even had a prayer request answered in a dumpster! My sister prayed that we'd find toilet paper the other day, and lo-and-behold, we found half a roll! Amalia says in all her years she's never found usable TP. Isn't that grotesquely glorious of the Lord?! *grins*
(in case you're wondering, we really do discriminate in terms of whether a food is spoiled, safe to eat, etc., and we land very much on the side of safety)
So get to it. Find a dumpster near you and start snooping! :)
