"... deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

White House challenges release of visitor logs
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
21 Apr 2008
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court sought compromise Monday between a liberal group demanding the names of White House visitors and the Bush administration, which says releasing the names would erode the president's power.

"... releasing the names would erode the president's power."???

Yes, indeed - and that's the point!

The Framers, G-d bless 'em, feared Executive Power! That's why the U.S. Constitution grants the Executive very few real powers! THEY WERE RIGHT!

How can "We the people of the United States" give our consent to actions of which we are ignorant?

National Security, State Secrets??? These are cloaks behind which our Government hides.

No - the current Administration is not unique.

"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Origin

This arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

Another English politician with no shortage of names - William Pitt the Younger, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778, is sometimes wrongly attributed as the source. He did say something similar, in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770:

"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it"

We the people own OUR government. Let us assert our ownership rights!

Stop the madness!