Law Day For The Lawful

Mr. Bush, who occupies the office of the President, has just set May 1st as "Law Day".

In related news, the DOJ's John P. Elwood, of their Office of Legal Counsel to the President, has just revealed that they have a secret belief that executive orders of this and prior presidents - orders which are published and which determine legal outcomes - can be secretly ignored or modified:

"Mr. Elwood acknowledged that the administration believed that the president could ignore or modify existing executive orders that he or other presidents have issued without disclosing the new interpretation." (tip of the hat to TPM)

So the Bush Administration believes an executive order can be secretly modified to contradict itself, with no one the wiser?

Bush has given himself total freedom from law. He thinks. So he has told himself.

Now on Law Day we celebrate that ours is a nation of laws. And that no man or position is above the law. So we tell ourselves.

But how can one follow the law, unless the laws are known? And how can one trust the legal system unless the laws are made by constitutional process?

Law Day... when we learn that our President thinks he's beyond the law.

We also call this May Day. It is a people's holiday. Workers march all over the world. On this May Day, 2008, in America, over 25,000 ILWU dockworkers stayed off the job and closed for the day all 29 west coast ports to protest the war and what it has done to this country.

From Indymedia's Dogspot:

“Longshore workers are standing down on the job and standing up for America,” Bob McEllrath, the union’s president, said in a statement. “We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq.”

So on this day, organized workers, what remains of them, have joined together against the war.

The times, they are a-changing.

Legal outcomes. We want legal outcomes.