Bush Is Not Entitled to War Powers. The Iraq War Ended on May 1, 2003 >>>

[Stephanie]

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
May 1, 2003

A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies.

***

War changes everything. Mr. Bush says Congress gave him the authority to do anything he wanted when it authorized the invasion of Afghanistan. There is simply nothing in the record to support this ridiculous argument.

The administration also says that the vote was the start of a war against terrorism and that the spying operation is what Mr. Cheney calls a "wartime measure." That just doesn't hold up. The Constitution does suggest expanded presidential powers in a time of war. But the men who wrote it had in mind wars with a beginning and an end. The war Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney keep trying to sell to Americans goes on forever and excuses everything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/opinion/29sun1.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

[bigtree]

1. I think it makes more sense to insist that the authorization only gave him

authority to 'pursue the perpetrators of 9-11' (loose quote from the authorization), not an open-ended war.

[Morning Dew]

6. exactly

and I don't understand why it's not being shouted from the rooftops.

[henslee]

2. Yes he is. Everything he does has an asterik* next to it. He is the

FULL OF SHIT president.

[derby378]

3. I'll go the NYT article one further

Hold on to your butts...

There never was a war, as in an official, declared war. Congress, and only Congress, has the power to declare war. What happened in the autumn of 2002 was that Congress granted Nero authority to enforce the UN resolution with military force only as a last resort, but it never gave him its Constitutional ability to declare war.

Your move.

[eShirl]

5. zactly.

The "War on Terra" is as much of a war as the "War on Poverty" or "War on Drugs." Did those confer wartime powers on the president?

[Stephanie]

8. What about the Cold War?

You can't just declare endless war and then grant yourself extraordinary powers for the duration.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Bush is a legend

in his own mind.

Unfortunately, according to that voice in his head that he calls god, the war has just begun.

[im10ashus]

7. Only Congress can declare war.

And they never did.

[Stephanie]

9. Can you believe the HUBRIS of this shit?

Looking back on it it is truly shocking.

[im10ashus]

11. Given the current administrations record?

Yes. Yes I can. Sad isn't it?

[leesa]

10. It was never a declared war, remeber? When they tried to wriggle out of

Geneva Convetion requirements, it wasn't a war.

[SoCalDem]

12. He's "fighting" THREE wars at once..

Afghanistan---over (not really, but he said it was)
Iraq-----over (not really , but he said it was)
TERRRRRRRAAAAHHH----WILL NEVER BE OVER..

[Stephanie]

13. Congress never declared war on TERRRAAAAAHHHH

Not to my recollection.

[ComerPerro]

14. Exactly. The Iraq war is over. Bush has mismanaged the cleanup