“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas


Friday, May 20, 2011

Begun, the Constitutional crisis has


We're about to see just how adherent to the Constitution this administration is....

From FoxNation -- By Jake Tapper

From the beginning of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, the Obama administration has cited the 1973 War Powers Act as the legal basis of its ability to conduct military activities for 60 days without first seeking a declaration of war from Congress.

The military intervention started on March 19; Congress was notified on March 21.

Those 60 days expire tomorrow.

There is a 30-day Constitutional provision for withdrawal so the deadline for being out of Libya without congressional approval is still a month away, but the 60-day limit compels Obama to either ask congress for permission to stay or announce that we're getting out.

One thing to consider for Obama is that if he operates extra-Constitutionally regarding Libya, how can the US then expect other countries to obey their own Constitutions when crises happen? Short answer: we can't.

7 comments:

Bill said...

They will ignore it and nothing will happen. The Act is not constitutional and no president as recognized it as being so, but Obama should have the guts to admit he's a hypocrite. He won't.

Ed said...

Like Rush says, liberals spend half their time trying to figure out ways to skirt the troublesome Constitution.

Bill Lockhart said...

In a rare moment of extreme regret I must say I DO agree with Rush on this issue

Bill Lockhart said...

Strangely enough I haven't seen it reported what happened after the expiration date. Can you enlighten me? Or did they move it to Monday?

Bill said...

According to Fox News, Obama sent a letter to Congress basically saying this was the notice and he would welcome a resolution of support, but it wasn't a real war. I paraphrase, obviously.

Ed said...

Bill, I'm glad you qualified your report as being paraphrased because I thought it sounded alarmingly casual the way you wrote it, at least for official communication between the executive and legislative branches.

Bill said...

Always glad to be of service, but wouldn't it be refreshing if that was the literal letter?