Read Louis Fisher's excellent testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 28, 2011. Fisher was the senior analyst on separation of powers for the Congressional Reference Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress for forty years and is now Scholar in Residence at The Constitution Project.
"It is legally and constitutionally impermissible to transfer the powers of Congress to an international (U.N.) or regional (NATO) body." (p.3) But that is what Obama claims in saying the war against Libya is authorized by the U.N. Security Council or by NATO. "Nothing in these...communications from the administration can identify a source of authorization from NATO for military operations." (p.4)
The idea that this is not a war because there are not a lot of U.S. casualties is absurd. "If another nation bombed the U.S. without suffering significant casualties, would we call it war? Obviously we would. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, the United States immediately knew it was at war regardless of the extent of military losses by Japan." (p.4)
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Thursday, June 02, 2011
US Rep. Lamar Smith's Statements attacking the news media
U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-21st TX) is the chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, with jurisdiction over the criminal and civil justice systems (all the federal courts, prosecutors, the nation's largest prison system of more than 215,000 prisoners, the rules of procedure and evidence), and critically important areas of substantive law: criminal law, copyright, trademark, antitrust, bankruptcy, administrative law.
This is the link to his floor and committee statements on his congressional webpage. In the last year, almost all of these statements are attacks on a few leading news organizations for alleged bias. What a curious set of priorities.
Whenever I think of Members of Congress attacking the news media, I reflect that the First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press (limited by the libel and slander laws) do not go as far as the explicit constitutional power for Members of Congress to tell lies set forth in Article I, Article 6: "for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place."
This is the link to his floor and committee statements on his congressional webpage. In the last year, almost all of these statements are attacks on a few leading news organizations for alleged bias. What a curious set of priorities.
Whenever I think of Members of Congress attacking the news media, I reflect that the First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press (limited by the libel and slander laws) do not go as far as the explicit constitutional power for Members of Congress to tell lies set forth in Article I, Article 6: "for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place."
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