Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 2149 Editor's Choice: 7
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Education....
[Read the article: Weekly Standard: Bush has "near dictatorial power"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I suspect that the reason for this apparent ignorance of elementary civics in our pundit overclass is much simpler and much more dangerous. They know what America's civic values are supposed to be. They just don't care.
That statement is indeed true of our "pundit overclass" If however most Americans had the grounding in Constitutional Civics that I got out of high school in the early 70's then they'd never be able to get away with it.
I've said before, that I wasn't paying attention and was unaware of when civics was removed from the mandatory cirruculum in schools but it's now blindingly obvious that it happened and our country is poorer for it.
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Of course not.....
[Read the article: Weekly Standard: Bush has "near dictatorial power"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but I'm certainly not going to go live in imaginary la-la land and pretend that it isn't an accurate description of actual history.
This is of course where shooter got his talking points and where someone (WT?) noted that this is just the next step in the long process of our Constitution dissolving into meaninglessness. But just as Imus has been engaging in race-baiting for years but suddenly got called out, we may also hope that the Exectutive overreach that's been grownig for years may also get suddenly called out for going too far.
If noting that a particular pundit is crumpling the Federalist papers into an unrecognizable ball of mush is a step in the right direction, then we should by all means proceed.
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What the post proves more than anything...
[Read the article: The Bush administration's terrible luck with finding documents]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is that none of this is in any way new
Nevertheless hopefully we will soon get a lesson on the etymology of the phrase "the last straw"!
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Relying on willful ignorance
[Read the article: Weekly Standard: Bush has "near dictatorial power"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The troll is willfully ignoring the fact that the topic in question is whether the President has the right to ignore the will of Congress and the people and wage war of his own accord. The Contstitution states clearly that he does not. A RW shill asserts that he does. The particular phrase the RW shill used to make the point is irrelevant. As is the troll's opinion. We will leave the namecalling and general defects of character displayed by the troll for another thread.
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Off Topic but oh so predicatable...
[Read the article: The Bush administration's terrible luck with finding documents]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wolfowitz caught in conflict of interest....
http://news.google.com/?ncl=1115102767&hl=en
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sigh.....
[Read the article: Weekly Standard: Bush has "near dictatorial power"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To steal a phrase from another context....
The army serves at the pleasure of the Congress
From article 1:
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
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Teaching is easy. How do you make people want to learn?
[Read the article: Weekly Standard: Bush has "near dictatorial power"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In the era of the draft, The Vietnam war, anti-war protests, cops busting heads in Chicago, and liberation movements of various stripes, civics WAS downright fascinating....
Perhaps there will be a revival of interest soon.
That is if things get bad enough....
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Funny how we end up agreeing
[Read the article: Weekly Standard: Bush has "near dictatorial power"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the President was waging war "of his own accord", which is clearly not the case in the Iraq situation as the use of military force was clearly authorized by Congress.
The debate wasn't whether Congress authorized the current action. It clearly did. The debate is whether Congress is within its rights to end the current action. It clearly is. That happens to be the topic of the post. To quote in full:
Pam Hess, the UPI reporter who gave us this extremely moving and persuasive glimpse of the liberal case for the war in Iraq, asked if timetables for withdrawal "somehow infringe on the president's powers as commander in chief?" Mitchell's less than persuasive answer: "Congress is a coequal branch of government...the framers did not want to have one branch in charge of the government."
True enough, but they sought an energetic executive with near dictatorial power in pursuing foreign policy and war. So no, the Constitution does not put Congress on an equal footing with the executive in matters of national security.
Goldfarb is clearly trying to imply that Congress would be overstepping its bounds by mandating a withdrawal. That position is not only wrong but requires a twisting of original intent to such a degree that several of us have been inspired to quote article 1 at length.
This is an exceedingly important issue and throwing sand isn't going to help obscure the clear meaning of our nations founding documents on the issue.
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Someone's got WAY too much time on their hands.
[Read the article: The Bush administration's terrible luck with finding documents]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've been known to worry that I spend too much time reading and commenting on blogs and that it takes up time that could be better spent. But counting words?! Get a life!
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damn preview button....
[Read the article: The Bush administration's terrible luck with finding documents]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's it...They forgot to preview them. And rather than risk anyone seeing their spelling errors they simplly deleted the whole lot (all 5 million!)
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The last time I checked...
[Read the article: Say it loud: I'm elite and proud!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]this shit may or may not be true but all I can think of is whether Maher expects anyone to take him seriously as a journalist
Bill Maher was a comedian
This, by definition, means that he needn't be taken seriously as a journalist.
That he happens to uninhibited, insightful and correct of course makes him significantly more valuable than these journalists of which you speak.
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Just for clarity...
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Shall we define "hate" in such a way that advocating death qualifies and calling someone a liar does not?