Imperial Presidency

Oppose War with Syria

"The war-making power belongs solely to Congress. It cannot be delegated to the Executive Branch, in any blanket way, through any kind of war powers act. If you fail to restrain the President, then you will be complicit in the President’s crimes. His planned actions violate the Constitution. They also break other written laws. This makes them inherently criminal. The President is trying to fix something that cannot be solved by outsiders dropping bombs. This will not protect innocent people. It will kill innocents. Their blood will be on the President’s hands, and on your hands, unless you use your powers to resist. I am doing what I can to resist. I do not want these criminal acts committed in my name." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOppose War with Syria

Obama executive order to kill 110-year-old Civilian Marksmanship Program

"The Civilian Marksmanship Program was administered by the United States Army from 1916 through 1996 when it was changed to the Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice & Firearms Safety, a 501(c) (3) organization federally chartered by the U.S. Congress. There are no data indicating any of the weapons involved in homicide were imported surplus military rifles. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s homicide crime statistics, rifles accounted for only 323 deaths out of 12,664 homicides in 2011, the most recent data set provided by the FBI. The rifles that the Executive Order would affect are typically from U.S. allies and are pre-Vietnam era." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama executive order to kill 110-year-old Civilian Marksmanship Program

Glenn Greenwald: David Frum, the Iraq war and oil

"Wars rarely have one clear and singular purpose, and the Iraq War in particular was driven by different agendas prioritized by different factions. To say it was fought exclusively due to oil is an oversimplification. But the fact that oil is a major factor in every Western military action in the Middle East is so self-evident that it's astonishing that it's even considered debatable, let alone some fringe and edgy idea. Yet few claims were more stigmatized in the run-up to the Iraq War, and after, than the view that oil was a substantial factor. In 2006, George Bush instructed us that there was a 'responsible' way to criticize the US war effort in Iraq, and an 'irresponsible' way to do so, and he helpfully defined the boundaries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: David Frum, the Iraq war and oil

Joe Biden’s Case That Waging War Without Congress Is an Impeachable Offense

"He reflected deeply on the law for almost two decades, through numerous presidencies, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; consulted a whole group of constitutional scholars; taught constitutional law classes on the separation of powers; and went on national TV while running for president to declare unilateral executive-branch war-making a high crime! But now that he's part of an administration openly pondering strikes on Syria without Congressional approval -- even as dozens of legislators demand to be consulted -- Biden doesn't have any public objections, and the position he and his constitutional experts once asserted is treated as a naive curiosity in the press." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJoe Biden’s Case That Waging War Without Congress Is an Impeachable Offense

Rand Paul: ‘I can’t see sending my son to fight on the same side as al Qaeda’

"Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., sharply opposed American military action in Syria on Fox News Thursday night, demanding that President Obama get congressional approval should he choose to act. Paul said that Obama would probably decide against a Congressional vote to avoid a similar defeat as David Cameron did in British Parliamant. Paul also explained that he had difficulty seeing any American interests in the Syrian conflict. Under Sharia law, Paul noted, Christians would be persecuted for blasphemy, citing a woman in Pakistan who was jailed for blasphemy after she drank from a cup shared by Muslim workers. 'That is not something I want to send our boys and girls to die for,' Paul added." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRand Paul: ‘I can’t see sending my son to fight on the same side as al Qaeda’

President Obama: ‘I Have Not Made a Decision’ on Syria

"And if, in fact, we can take limited, tailored approaches, not getting drawn into a long conflict, not a repetition of, you know, Iraq, which I know a lot of people are worried about – but if we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, stop doing this, that can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term, and may have a positive impact on our national security over the long term and may have a positive impact in the sense that chemical weapons are not used again on innocent civilians." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPresident Obama: ‘I Have Not Made a Decision’ on Syria