Presque vu XXXXVIII

According to This Is London:
Under anti-terrorism measures due to come into force within two years, the US authorities insist they need to do background checks on all UK air passengers travelling to Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America.
Direct flights to popular holiday destinations such as the Bahamas, Barbados, Toronto and Mexico City would all [...]



Presque vu XXXXI

Tony Blair made a 35 minute speech to 400 millionaire bankers in Las Vegas last week. The ex-prime minister’s fee for the event was £125,000. He urged his audience to support the policies of George Bush’s republican world view. Allegedly the Clinton’s were not too chuffed.
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The Tom Cruise indoctrination video that scientology tried to suppress [...]



Evil? I Don’t Think So.

During the last years our politicians, playing to the lowest common denominator, have stressed the existence of evil in the world and the need to combat it. George Bush gave us the axis of evil; before him Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as the evil empire; and over images of British soldiers being killed [...]



In the wake of Bush letting his old mate, “Scooter” Libby, out of prison Yahoo hosted a discussion on whether the president could pardon himself:

Let’s say it was a Capital crime. And let’s say the whole cabinet was in on it. Could the president pardon his whole cabinet, resign, and then the Vice-President (now president) pardon him?

No one really knows the answer because it has never happened and been litigated. However, the majority view is that a president can pardon himself (assuming he does so prior to impeachment). Art. II Sec. 2 of the Constitution states, in part, that the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” The purpose of this clause was to insure the separation of powers by preventing the courts from using the law as a legal blackmail against the president. . . There is a minority view that the president cannot pardon himself.

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