December 19, 2005
From the Bush administration's [legal brief][1] "The President's Constitutional Authority to Conduct Military Operations Against Terrorists and Nations Supporting Them":_The President has broad constitutional power to take military action in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Congress has acknowledged this inherent executive power in both the War Powers Resolution and the Joint Resolution passed by Congress on September 14, 2001."The President has constitutional power not only to retaliate against any person, organization, or State suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks on the United States, but also against foreign States suspected of harboring or supporting such organizations."The President may deploy military force preemptively against terrorist organizations or the States that harbor or support them, whether or not they can be linked to the specific terrorist incidents of September 11. "_Abraham Lincoln on the topic, in a [letter to William H. Herndon][2], February 15, 1848:_Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose and you allow him to make war at pleasure:. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after you have given him so much as you propose. If, to-day, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see no probability of the British invading us" but he will say to you "be silent; I see it, if you don't."__The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress, was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood._ [1]: http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/warpowers925.htm [2]: http://www.bartleby.com/73/1495.html
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citizenx (anonymous) says...
Yeah, and the state of emergency didn't go away either. It was particularly interesting that there was a category 5 hurricane about to hit Texas when this was signed. To me it seemed like skewed priorities.
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/24...
December 19, 2005 at 12:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
cvillehawk (anonymous) says...
I never know what to write any more. I am just so deeply disheartened and disgusted by the current state of affairs. I have a deep weariness that descended on me Nov. 2 of last year and has never let up since.
December 19, 2005 at 12:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says...
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarc...
Stolen from the above...
Fight the depression with a two step tonic: 1. Get out the vote. 2. Get out the vote. Don't know how to do that or otherwise get involved? Call the Democrat Chair for the county. She'll help you find ways.....
December 19, 2005 at 1:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
greyhawk (anonymous) says...
D.R., yet another fine blog. Lincoln is justly revered for the wisdom he shows. Would that even a modicum of such wisdom reside in Washington D.C. today.
December 19, 2005 at 11:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )