60 DAYS IN LIBYA: GOP senators press Obama on war powers

cnn.com ^ | May 18th, 2011 06:57 PM ET | CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

Republican senators press president on War Powers deadline

Washington (CNN) – As the U.S. military campaign in Libya approaches the 60-day mark this Friday, six Republican senators wrote President Obama asking if he will comply with the War Powers Act, which says Congress must authorize action that lasts more than 60 days.

"Friday is the final day of the statutory sixty-day period for you to terminate the use of the United States Armed Forces in Libya under the War Powers Resolution. Last week some in your Administration indicated use of the United States Armed Forces will continue indefinitely, while others said you would act in a manner consistent with the War Powers Resolution. Therefore, we are writing to ask whether you intend to comply with the requirements of the War Powers Resolution. We await your response," wrote the GOP senators Wednesday.

[OldArmy52]

Be interesting if the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Obaba.

[tsowellfan]

If only we had a majority in the senate. We could impeach this Ohole.

I DOUBT that would happen. By the way, who controls the budget to fund this Libyan War?

[TMA62]

It is time for the GOP senators to filibust EVERYTHING and halt the vast majority of Hussien’s agenda.

[Cheerio]

The RAT party is made up of hypocrites and the American voters are just to dumb to understand.

Barack Obama's Q&A (covers War Powers Act)
By Charlie Savage
Globe Staff / December 20, 2007

[Enterprise]

War Powers Act? War Powers Act? I dun NEED no steenkin' War Powers Act!!!

[1010RD]

The War Powers Act is a distraction. It exists simply to “clarify” the role of Congress in declaring war.

The Constitution makes clear only Congress can declare war. The President makes war, but only after Congress declares it. The purpose being to avoid all these petty foreign entanglements that sapped and broke the British, French and other foreign “super” powers throughout history.

If Congress doesn’t put its foot down here we’re done.

[rawcatslyentist]

0 doesn't give a fig about Libya.

It was a war of distraction away from GUNRUNNER.

Look for Dumb0 to be magnanimous in compromising with the GOP.

[af_vet_rr]

If Congress doesn’t put its foot down here we’re done.

Congress should have put it's foot down long before now, even before 2002/2003 and Iraq, and we should get away from this nation-building/regime-change nonsense.

It's one thing when you have Afghanistan harboring the people who attacked us in 2001, but Bush set the stage for Nobama when he laid out freeing the Iraqi people as one of the three main reasons to invade Iraq, and going back to Clinton, the elder Bush, and Reagan before him, we've now got three decades where the US has constantly been involved in serious regime change/nation building through the use of our military and without a declaration of war.

We basically have two generations of people who are used to Presidents getting us into regime change/nation building and think it's normal, and we've got to stop that.

If we are going to go to war, then it should be serious enough to declare war.

[Redbob]

"We await your response," wrote the GOP senators"

Hope they're not holding their breaths...

[The Theophilus]

If Congress doesn’t put its foot down here we’re done.

That statement has been made in so many contexts recently that it has become necessary to make a rubber stamp to spare the writing cramps.

[1010RD]

As I was writing it I thought the same thing. Hyperbole can only be effective in isolation.

What I should have said is we’re done with the War Powers Act. It’s specificity and time limit are necessary, but if Congress won’t enforce it then it’s a garbage law.

Actually, I am optimistic that we can work our way back from the Imperial Presidency and Executive. Conservatives and Liberals have many points of agreement on the Bill of Rights and Constitution despite the glaring differences. Much of that can be used to nudge our country away from socialism and back toward Federalism and the Constitutional limitations on government.

The biggest challenge is the money. There are beneficiaries of all that government largesse and some bring votes and the others sophisticated and powerful political connections. It is a tough battle. If we retake Congress it will be a start.

[1010RD]

The WPA is a symptom. Our Founders expected Congress to run things. They have the purse strings and write the laws. That’s almost the entire power of government.

Starting with Teddy R. and accelerating to an incredible rate under FDR the Legislature transferred their right and privilege to the Executive. That’s completely unConstitutional. It doesn’t make any sense under our Constitution.

That power needs to be clawed back, but I don’t see the stomach for it in Congress. It will have to be the people. Kelo, became a victory for property rights because state legislatures stepped in. People get it in general, they need a trigger and a leader to complete the circle.

We’re doing it with the 2nd Amendment and on the abortion issue. We need to do it on the rest of the Constitution. Sadly, AP government classes reinforce the false ideas that the Constitution is simply a “framework for governance” and a living document. They also constantly claim we are a democracy, when we are really a republic. Our challenge is overcoming the academy. For that we need vouchers.

[af_vet_rr]

We need to start booting people out of Congress, and we need to stop listening to the people who say we have to support incumbent Republicans, even if they are RINOs. This whole idea that we have to choose the lesser of two evils has gotten us in this mess, because not only are we still choosing evil, we are enabling that evil.

We've got to start punishing Congress by booting them out of office every so often. Once they get in there and get bribed by the lobbyists, they stop representing us and start representing lobbyists and the federal government.

At this point I'm sold on a third party because we've got too many RINO enablers floating around who keep telling us that we have to support the RINOs over the Democrats when in fact those RINOs are just liberals in disguise and are doing a lot of harm to this nation.

We should have booted out every Republican who supported the PATRIOT Act and the expansion of the federal government's powers in the wake of 9/11, because those Republicans have screwed us. They've given the liberals the tools to oppress us and it's only a matter of time before things get much, much worse.

[1010RD]

Though we agree, you’ll have to point to any race on the Federal level where a 3rd party candidate has a feather’s chance of winning.

[af_vet_rr]

Though we agree, you’ll have to point to any race on the Federal level where a 3rd party candidate has a feather’s chance of winning.

3rd party candidates don't have a chance on the federal/national level because the moderates of both parties have done a good job of convincing people that you have to vote for a "D" or "R" no matter how distasteful you may find them. Our ancestors had no problems with ditching a party that had ditched them, but we've been brainwashed into thinking that we have to pick one or the other.

Maybe your ideas of starting with our children or grandchildren are the right idea, and maybe getting them to look beyond party labels and look at what's actually being done by our politicians is the right way, but the two parties have done such a good job of indoctrinating the older folks, that I don't see that changing with the younger folks.

If anything, things are worse. Look at what passes for entertainment on the broadcast networks - crappy fluff that takes morons and puts them on pedestals, whether it's some crappy reality show on NBC with a bunch of airheads or Rupert Murdoch pushing pro-homosexual beliefs out to our nation's youth through Fox.

In this kind of environment, it's easy to see how the moderates/liberals/RINOs are able to keep selling themselves election after election. Hell, look at what passes for news on the morning shows - MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, they are all staffed by complete and utter airheads in the mornings who do nothing but regurgitate useless stories that should have no importance whatsoever to the majority of Americans.

Even we fall into this trap. Start a thread about some airhead celebrity bashing a Republican. Now start a thread about somebody doing something that affects this country's future or our the Constitution. Nine times out of ten, the thread with some airhead celebrity bashing a Republican will get many more replies.