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  #21  
Old 12-20-2005, 02:20 AM
andyfox andyfox is offline
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Default Re: Criminally incompetent behavior

My point is that Bush's responses to Jim Lehrer in the interveiw, which I have posted the transcript of in another post in this thread, was shocking (to me). If he's telling the truth, then we have a president who went to war without thinking about casualties or asking about them. If he's not telling the truth, one would have to ask why not. And the most obvious answer, as another poster suggested in this thread, is that they have been much higher than they thought they would be, which would be further evidence of a lack of planning for the occupation. The administration's attitude has been that we're getting rid of this guy (Hussein) and we don't give a [censored] what it costs or what happens afterwards.
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  #22  
Old 12-20-2005, 02:43 AM
andyfox andyfox is offline
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Default Gonzalez

Gonzales said Monday that a congressional act passed after September 11 not only authorized President Bush to use force in the war on terror, it gave the president the power to allow such wiretaps.

"There were many people, many lawyers within the administration who advised the president that he had an inherent authority as commander in chief under the Constitution to engage in these kind of signal intelligence of our enemy," he said.

"We also believe that the authorization to use force, which was passed by the Congress in the days following the attacks of September 11, constituted additional authorization for the president to engage in this kind of signal intelligence."

Signal intelligence refers to intercepted electronic communications, such as phone calls.

The measure meant the president doesn't need to get a court order to request such wiretaps, as called for in FISA, Gonzales said.

Here's what the authorization to use force said:

"The President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."

Here's what the Constitution says about the president as commmander in chief:

"The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States"

From these two things they get that he can wiretap at will? One wonders, indeed, why they need the Patriot Act. If Gonzalez defines the use of force as wiretaps, why couldn't he define it as kidnapping, or murder, or, ahem, torture, or genocide? Certainly those are closer to what most people consider "force" than wiretaps are. The authorization didn't say the president can use whatever force he wants, or whatever he defines as force, whether or not he adheres to the laws of the country.

These guys better hope that the gang that shoots even less straight than they do, the Democrats, don't take control of congress in 2006, or they may find themselves in an impeachment trial.
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  #23  
Old 12-20-2005, 02:45 AM
BluffTHIS! BluffTHIS! is offline
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Default Re: Criminally incompetent behavior

Well if the democrats and those republicans who disagree with the president's action are serious in their contention that those actions were illegal, then besides just investigating and debating it, they have the option to go to the federal courts with the matter. If they don't choose to do so, regardless of whether they claim they won't because they would unfairly be labeled obstructionist, then it can only be because they are on less firm legal ground than they think.
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